Saturday - October 09, 2004

Daily Dose

Quote Of The Day

“Well, if crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight? They never mention that part to us, do they?”
-- George Carlin

1936 - Hoover Dam Begins Transmitting Electricity To Los Angeles
On this day in 1936, harnessing the power of the mighty Colorado River, Hoover Dam begins sending electricity over transmission lines spanning 266 miles of mountains and deserts to run the lights, radios, and stoves of Los Angeles. Initially named Boulder Dam, work on the dam was begun under President Herbert Hoover’s administration but completed as a public works project during the Roosevelt administration (which renamed it for Hoover). When it was finished in 1935, the towering concrete and steel plug was the tallest dam in the world and a powerful symbol of the new federal dedication to large-scale reclamation projects designed to water the arid West. In fact, the electricity generated deep in the bowels of Hoover Dam was only a secondary benefit. The central reason for the dam was the collection, preservation, and rational distribution of that most precious of all western commodities, water. Under the guidance of the Federal Reclamation Bureau, Hoover Dam became one part of a much larger multipurpose water development project that tamed the wild Colorado River for the use of the growing number of western farmers, ranchers, and city dwellers. Water that had once flowed freely to the ocean now was impounded in the 115-mile-long Lake Mead. Massive aqueducts channeled millions of gallons of Colorado River water to California where it continues to this day to flow from Los Angeles faucets and irrigate vast stretches of fertile cropland. With Hoover Dam, the federal government set out to demonstrate that the aridity of a region once called the Great American Desert need be no serious obstacle to its full settlement and development. However, as rapidly growing western cities like Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Phoenix today face increasing difficulties in obtaining the water they need, it remains to be seen if the Great American Desert might still dictate its own limits to western growth.

1635 - Religious dissident and Rhode Island founder, Roger Williams, was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

1888 - For the first time the public was admitted to the Washington Monument.

1930 - Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the United States.

1967 - Che Guevara was executed in Bolivia.

1975 - Soviet scientist Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end the nuclear arms race.

John Lennon, (1940–1980), singer, guitarist, songwriter
Trent Lott, (Chester Trent Lott), (1941- ), American Senator (R-MS)

_{Thanks to The Quotations Page - The History Channel - InfoPlease.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/09/2004 at 12:18 AM   
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