Jerry Voorhis (1901–1984) was a Democratic politician from California. He served five terms in the United States House of Representatives, representing the 12th Congressional district in Los Angeles County from 1937 to 1947. He was the first political opponent of Richard Nixon, who defeated him for reelection in 1946 in a campaign cited as an example of red-baiting in Nixon's political rise. Voorhis was born in Kansas, and moved around much in his childhood. He graduated from Yale University after being elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and secured a master's degree from Claremont Graduate School in education. He served in varying capacities as a young adult, becoming headmaster of newly-founded Voorhis School for Boys in 1928, a post he retained into his congressional career. In ten years in Congress, Voorhis compiled a liberal voting record and was a loyal supporter of the New Deal. His major legislative accomplishment was the Voorhis Act of 1940, requiring registration of certain organizations controlled by foreign powers. After four comfortable reelections, he faced Nixon in a bitter campaign in which Voorhis's supposed endorsement by groups linked to the Communist Party was a major issue.

Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Voorhis

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1521:

Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic Church after Luther refused to retract 41 of his 95 theses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Leo_X

1777:

American Revolutionary War: American forces under General George Washington defeated British troops in Princeton, New Jersey. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Princeton

1848:

Joseph Jenkins Roberts began his term as the first President of Liberia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Jenkins_Roberts

1888:

The 91-cm refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, California, USA, at the time the largest telescope in the world, was used for the first time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lick_Observatory

1958:

Ten former British colonies in the Caribbean joined to form a new self-governing West Indies Federation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indies_Federation

1990:

United States invasion of Panama: General Manuel Noriega, the deposed "strongman of Panama", surrendered to American forces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

judder (v): To spasm; to shake violently http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/judder

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

This is an ancient hallow, and ere the kings failed or the Tree withered in the court, a fruit must have been set here. For it is said that, though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness, yet the life within may then lie sleeping through many long years, and none can foretell the time in which it will awake. --w:Gandalf http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/w%3AGandalf