Water Still Reigns
March 4, 2009 6:36 am > MAUI TODAY, > Maui Yesterdays |
|
Do Something Day
HAWAIIAN WORD OF THE DAY — Mano: Shark PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Sak: Shark HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY — “Where the sea is dark, sharks swim.” HAOLE SAYING OF THE DAY —“Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginiative.” (Oscar Wilde)
March 4, 2008: Maui County officials criminally negligent on failure to purchase West Maui watershed. A Wailuku Water Co. official says it has a watershed buyer ready. The private company’s offer would cut out the county, which was offered the entire 13,000-acre watershed but has not followed up with any proposal to purchase. Read more …
March 4, 1977: The Honolulu newspapers report that two protesters on the island of Kaho’olawe are finally arrested, their names lost in anonymity. Why the authorities waited for 35 days to arrest them is not explained. Why they were there is old news.
On these pages we have told some of the story of the bombing of the island, its use as a target range, and the now ongoing efforts to clean the land and shoreline of unexploded ordinance. Many Hawaiians hope that Kaho’olawe will be the first island given wholly back to Hawaiians, and that they may re-establish their country once again.
But the road to new statehood will be long and not without detractors, including many Hawaiians themselves. As one Hawaiian in Kahului recently told me, “I like dental care, and a pension and a democracy. I’m not interested in having royalty or ali’i.”
HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — March 4th
- 1675: John Flamsteed is appointed as the first Astronomer Royal of England
- 1789: The Constitution of the United States goes into effect as the first Federal Congress meets in New York City
- 1791: Vermont is admitted as the 14th state (the first addition to the 13 colonies)
- 1792: Oranges are introduced to Hawaii
- 1801: Thomas Jefferson becomes the first President to be inaugurated in Washington DC
- 1863: The Territory of Idaho is established
- 1902: The American Automobile Association (AAA) is founded
- 1917: First female member of Congress, Jeanette Rankin, is sworn in (R-Montana)
- 1929: Charles Curtis (R-Kansas) becomes the first Native American Vice President
- 1938: Toothbrush bristles are changed from badger hair to nylon
- 1952: Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis are married in North Hollywood California
- 1966: John Lennon publicly states “We (The Beatles) are more popular than Jesus”
- 1977: The first CRAY 1 supercomputer is shipped (to Los Alamos Laboratories)
- 1997: President Clinton bars spending federal money on human cloning
- 1999: Retired Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun died at age 90.
- 2005: Martha Stewart, imprisoned for five months for her role in a stock scandal, left federal prison to start five months of home confinement
- 2008 Republican John McCain clinched his party’s presidential nomination
BORN ON THIS DAY — March 4th
- 1394: Prince Henry the Navigator, sponsored Portuguese voyages of discovery
- 1741: Antonio Vivaldi, composer/violinist
- 1888: Knute Rockne, football player/coach
- 1904: George Gamow, nuclear physicist/cosmologist/writer
- 1939: Paula Prentiss, actress
- 1948: Billy Gibbons, rocker (ZZ Top)
- 1950: Emilio Estefan, rocker (Miami Sound Machine)
- 1951: Chris Rea, rock guitarist
- 1954: Catherine O’Hara, comedienne
- 1954: Ji-Tu Cumbuka, actor
- 1958: Patricia Heaton, actress (“Everybody Loves Raymond”)
- 1961: Steven Weber, actor
- 1961: Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, boxer
- 1968: Patsy Kensit, rocker/actress
- 1971: Jason Sellers, country singer
- 1976: Jason Marsalis, jazz musician
- 1990: Andrea Bowen, actress (“Desperate Housewives”)
DIED ON THIS DAY — March 4th
- 1238: Joan of England, Queen Consort of Scotland, wife of Alexander II (b. 1210)
- 1852: Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol, Russian writer (b. 1809)
- 1910: Knut Ångström, Swedish physicist (b. 1857)
- 1948: Antonin Artaud, French actor/director (b. 1896)
- 1963: William Carlos Williams, American poet (b. 1883)
- 1994: John Candy, Canadian comedian (b. 1950)
- 1996: Minnie Pearl, American comedian (b. 1912)
- 1999: Harry Blackmun, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (b. 1908)
- 1999: Del Close, American actor (b. 1934)
- 2001: Harold Stassen, American politician (b. 1907)
- 2007: Thomas Eagleton, American politician (b. 1929)
