A Brief History On November 19, 2004, the National Basketball Association reached perhaps its lowest point in its history when players and fans engaged in a rumble at The Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit, Michigan. Digging Deeper The Detroit Pistons, long known as “the bad boys” of the NBA had a history of being a rough and tumble team, with physical play and intimidating behavior.  These Pistons could obviously play basketball well, too, as evidenced by being reigning NBA champions.  The Pistons had beaten the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference finals the previous season, and the Pacers were…

A Brief History On November 18, 1963, Bell Telephone introduced a new way to dial a telephone, something referred to as “dual-tone multi-frequency” (DTMF) technology, or Touch-Tone (the trademarked name) dialing.  Also known as push button phones, these would go on to replace the old rotary dial type of telephone (also known as “pulse dialing”) so that today it is rare to even see an old fashioned dial type phone. Digging Deeper Making a lot of calls in the old days was tedious, and tired, sloppy fingers would often slip out of the little round fingertip receptacles causing the caller…

A Brief History On November 17, 2005, the puppy that came to be known as Giant George was born in Arizona, a puppy that would become the tallest living dog in the world and as far as we know, the tallest dog ever at that time. Digging Deeper A Great Dane, Giant George grew to a height of 43 inches (110 centimeters) which bested the previous record holder, Titan (another Great Dane) by ¾ of an inch, a clear margin.  Note: Dogs are measured at “the withers” to establish their height. (withers- the ridge between the shoulder bones, used to…

A Brief History On May 23, 1901, the Attorney General of Paris, France, received an anonymous note that a woman was being kept prisoner by her own mother.  Police were dispatched to investigate and found a skeletal Blanche Monnier locked up in a small, windowless room in appalling mental and physical condition. Digging Deeper Blanche had been locked up in the tiny room since 1876, when her mother disapproved of Blanche’s choice for a husband (a lawyer, so perhaps the mom had reasonable cause…) and prevented the marriage by keeping Blanche prisoner. Of course, the mother was arrested, but died…

A Brief History On November 15, 1914, the pre-National Football League professional football world was saddened by the death of a seasoned pro, Center Harry Turner of the Canton Professionals (now there is a catchy name) of the Ohio League.  Turner was playing in a game against Akron Indians when he suffered a broken back, completely severing his spinal cord. Digging Deeper When Turner died soon afterwards in the hospital, he became the first fatality caused by injury playing in a professional football game.  Appropriately, Turner was from Canton, Ohio, the birthplace of pro football.  A real home town guy,…