February 24, 2023 Ridley's Believe It Or Not

 

Today marks the one year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, unleashing a flood of migrants trying to escape the violence, impacting worldwide food production, devastating Ukraine cities being bombed and missiled into rubble, over 8,000 civilians killed and over 13,000 wounded while the body count for soldiers on both sides is hard to calculated due to exaggeration and concealment but it is probably fair to say at least 1000 a month Ukrainian forces die and since Russians initially were attacking more than 1000 a month Russian were dying. While the American cat is preoccupied with the Russian rat the Chinese are flexing in force  towards Taiwan and in the South China Sea which does not bode well. MLB has started spring training with the net rules to speed the game on..8 seconds for a batter to get set and 15 seconds for a pitcher to hurl a pitch extended to 20 if a runner is on base. Time to get ready for March Madness and the NCAA Men and Women Tournament with Stanford Women looking at a number one seed for their regional which may be subject to their beating Utah on Saturday and  also winning the Pac-12 Championship Tournament starting in Las Vegas on March 1. I hope you find Ridley's Believe It Or Not worth your time reading and if not please respond with an “Unsubscribe” in the message.                              
 Ridley’s Believe It Or Not February 24, 2023
          Noted Holidays: International Stand Up to Bullying Day: created by Travis Price and David Shepard in 2007 and celebrated semiannually because with the damage including suicides done by physical bullying even more threatening bullying on social media is celebrated twice each year since 2008, on the third Friday in November and the last Friday in February.
           Word of the Day:  The word of the day is “ablescent” which means becoming white as a color not as a political belief leftists charge conservative blacks like Larry Elder with. 
           Number 1 Song: The number 1 song on this day in 1949 was “A Little Bird Told Me” by Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters  on a run of 7 weeks  to share with 8 other songs that achieved number one status. Here is Evelyn Knight and the Stardusters performing “A Little Bird Told Me”:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6J7LvSERRI 
           February 24 Famous Birthdays:  Two Famous Entrepreneurs Phil Knight and Steven Jobs:  Phil Knight born on this nay in 1938 in Portland, Oregon who ran track while at the University of Oregon and went to Stanford to obtain his MBA to co-found Nike and create the iconic brand Air Jordan. Nike became a dominant shoe company from which he retired as CEO of Nike on November 28, 2004 several months after his son’s funeral who had died from a heart attack while scuba diving in El Salvador. He has become beyond compare a very important philanthropist to Stanford, contributing in 206 $105 million to the Stanford Business School, the largest donation of an individual at that time to a business school and then topping that with a $400 million pledge to create the Knight-Hennessey Scholars patterned after Rhodes Scholars but targeted to attack global issues like poverty and climate change. In a sign that this remarkable man was not yet done, he and his wife donated  $75 million for the Phil and Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience to be housed at Stanford's Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute  to study the cognitive decline and degenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
Steven Jobs, co-founder of Apple born on this day in San Francisco in 1955 and like a fellow successful high-tech entrepreneur and founder of Oracle, Larry Ellison, was adopted soon after birth who attended a very liberal Reed College but quickly dropped out to with his co-founder revolutionize the person computer business with Apple Computer from which he was ousted in a power struggle with John Sculley in 1985 to then found NeXT which due to its involvement with Pixar which created Toy Story was acquired by Apple in 1987 with Jobs becoming CEO and revitalizing Apple. Sadly, Jobs contracted prostate cancer which after a long battle would claim him on October 5, 2011 at age 56.
           February 24 Notable Events
           1.     1917—In what would prove to be the last straw to cause after disclosure of unrestricted submarine warfare by the Germans on February, U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. was given the Zimmermann Telegram dated January 17, 1917, intercepted by the British, in which Germany pledged to ensure the return of New Mexico, Texas and Arizona to Mexico which it had not the military wherewithal to do so  if Mexico would be dumb enough to declare war on the United States.
           2.     1968—The Tet Offensive which surprised the American military but which was decimated militarily but politically at home destroyed American support for continuing the Vietnam War and forced LBJ not to run for reelection ended as South Vietnam forces replaced American Marines to mop up in the recapture of Hue.
           3.     1991—After heavy artillery and aerial bombardment, U.S. forces crossed the Saudi border to confront Iraqi forces to destroy them before the “battle of all battle” Hussein promised would occur and to avoid further slaughter of Iraqi forces trying to escape Kuwait President Bush proclaimed a cease fire after 100 hours of combat.
           4.     1996—Two unarmed Cessna airplanes operated by the Brothers to the Rescue were shot down by the Cuban Air Force in international waters killing all four aboard with the third plane managing to escape.
           5.     2008—Fidel Castro resigned as President of Cuba after ruling for 32 years to be succeeded by his brother Raul but still retains his position as head of the Communist Party.
           Famous Quote on Notable Events Or Persons: H.R. McMasters, retired Lieutenant General who fought in the Gulf War, Gulf War II and Afghanistan and former National Security Advisor to President Trump: “There are two ways to fight the United States military: asymmetrically and stupid. Asymmetrically means you're going to try to avoid our strengths. In the 1991 Gulf War, it's like we called Saddam's army out into the schoolyard and beat up that army.”
© 2/24/2024 Michael P. Ridley aka The Alaskanpoet
www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com
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