Gene Autry (File)
Good morning, it’s Saturday, Sept. 29, the 273rd day of 2012. There are 93 days left in the year. The temperature will be around 70 at the start of the day and it could be raining outside. Showers and thunderstorms are likely throughout the day and we’re expecting an afternoon high only in the lower 80s. Rain chances taper off tonight and we’re expecting lows overnight in the mid 60s.
Today’s Forecast And Conditions
September 29,1907—105 years ago today--Gene Autry, “The Singing Cowboy” of radio, records, film and TV, was born in Tioga, Texas. He gained fame on radio, in movies and on TV over more than three decades beginning in the early 1930s and was also the owner of a TV station, several radio stations and from 1961 to 1997 a major league baseball team. He appeared in more than 90 films and more than 90 episodes of “The Gene Autry Show” TV series. He’s credited with introducing country music to a broad national audience, but his biggest hit was a Christmas song, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer". He’s in the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and is the only performer awarded stars in all five categories on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died in October 1998 at the age of 91.
Autry advised his young Saturday matinee audiences to live by the Cowboy Code:
1. The Cowboy must never shoot first, hit a smaller man, or take unfair advantage.
2. He must never go back on his word, or a trust confided in him.
3. He must always tell the truth.
4. He must be gentle with children, the elderly, and animals.
5. He must not advocate or possess racially or religiously intolerant ideas.
6. He must help people in distress.
7. He must be a good worker.
8. He must keep himself clean in thought, speech, action, and personal habits.
9. He must respect women, parents, and his nation's laws.
10. The Cowboy is a patriot.
Today's Highlight in Local History:
On September 29, 1993, Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center and Providence Hospital announced they would provide some services on a cooperative basis.
On September 29, 2003, a ceremony marked the start of the process of raising the level of Lake Waco n a $28.5 million project that increased the water supply by 30 percent.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Sept. 29, 1862, Prussia's newly appointed minister-president, Otto von Bismarck, delivered a speech to the country's parliament in which he declared the issue of German unification would be decided "not through speeches and majority decisions" but by "iron and blood (Eisen und Blut)." (Some references give the date of this speech as Sept. 30, 1862.)
On This Date:
In 1789, the U.S. War Department established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.
In 1829, London's reorganized police force, which became known as Scotland Yard, went on duty.
In 1902, William Topaz McGonagall, affectionately remembered as one of Britain's worst poets (if not the worst), died in Edinburgh, Scotland.
In 1907, the foundation stone was laid for the Washington National Cathedral, which wasn't fully completed until this date in 1990.
In 1912, movie director Michelangelo Antonioni was born in Ferrara, Italy.
In 1938, British, French, German and Italian leaders concluded the Munich Agreement, which was aimed at appeasing Adolf Hitler by allowing Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland.
In 1957, the New York Giants played their last game at the Polo Grounds, losing to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 9-1. (The Giants moved to San Francisco.)
In 1962, Canada joined the space age as it launched the Alouette 1 satellite from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The musical "My Fair Lady" closed on Broadway after 2,717 performances.
In 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his Vatican apartment just over a month after becoming head of the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1982, Extra-Strength Tylenol capsules laced with cyanide claimed the first of seven victims in the Chicago area. (To date, the case remains unsolved.)
In 1987, Henry Ford II, longtime chairman of Ford Motor Co., died in Detroit at age 70.
In 2005, John G. Roberts Jr. was sworn in as the nation's 17th chief justice after winning Senate confirmation.
Ten years ago:
Israel bowed to U.N. demands and U.S. pressure, pulling troops and tanks out through the barbed wire encircling Yasser Arafat's West Bank headquarters. West Coast longshoremen were ordered off their jobs for a second time in a costly labor dispute with shipping lines. Europe beat the Americans to win the Ryder Cup, 15 1/2-12 1/2.
Five years ago:
President George W. Bush signed a bill to prevent a government shutdown, but lambasted Democrats controlling Congress for sending him the stopgap measure while they continued to work on more than a dozen spending bills. Actress Lois Maxwell, who'd starred as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, died in Fremantle, Australia, at age 80.
One year ago:
Germany kept alive hopes that the 17-nation euro currency could survive the debt crisis as lawmakers in Europe's largest economy voted overwhelmingly in favor of expanding the powers of the eurozone's bailout fund. Phillip Matthew Hannan, the former New Orleans archbishop who eulogized President John F. Kennedy and who served more than three decades as the popular leader of his Roman Catholic archdiocese, died on the 47th anniversary of his ordination.
Today's Birthdays:
Actress Lizabeth Scott is 90. Actor Steve Forrest is 87. Conductor Richard Bonynge is 82. Actress Anita Ekberg is 81. Writer-director Robert Benton is 80. Singer Jerry Lee Lewis is 77. Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is 76. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., is 70. Actor Ian McShane is 70. Jazz musician Jean-Luc Ponty is 70. Lech Walesa, the former president of Poland, is 69. Television-film composer Mike Post is 68. Actress Patricia Hodge is 66. TV personality Bryant Gumbel is 64. Rock singer-musician Mark Farner is 64. Rock singer-musician Mike Pinera is 64. Country singer Alvin Crow is 62. Actor Drake Hogestyn is 59. Broadcast journalist Gwen Ifill is 57. Former child actor Ken Weatherwax (TV: "The Addams Family") is 57. Olympic gold medal runner Sebastian Coe is 56. Singer Suzzy Roche (The Roches) is 56. Comedian-actor Andrew "Dice" Clay is 55. Rock singer John Payne (Asia) is 54. Actor Roger Bart is 50. Singer-musician Les Claypool is 49. Actress Jill Whelan is 46. Actor Luke Goss is 44. Rock musician Brad Smith (Blind Melon) is 44. Actress Erika Eleniak is 43. Rhythm-and-blues singer Devante Swing (Jodeci) is 43. Country singer Brad Cotter ("Nashville Star") is 42. Actress Emily Lloyd is 42. Actress Natasha Gregson Wagner is 42. Actress Rachel Cronin is 41. Country musician Danick Dupelle (Emerson Drive) is 39. Actor Alexis Cruz is 38. Actor Zachary Levi is 32. Country singer Katie McNeill (3 of Hearts) is 30. Rock musician Josh Farro is 25.
Thought for Today:
"Wars teach us not to love our enemies, but to hate our allies." - W.L. George, English writer (1882-1926).
