A Brief History Of Rock And Roll

“ The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903) "Maxims for Revolutionists" Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 - 1950) ,[object Object],[object Object]

“ Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, That frets and struts his hour upon the stage, And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” William Shakespeare, from Macbeth , Act V, scene 5 English poet and playwright (1564-1614) “ Say goodbye to the oldies but goodies ‘ Cause the good old days weren’t always so good And tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.” Billy Joel, from Keeping the Faith, U.S. musician and composer (born 1949)

“ History is what happens between musical genres. History is what a great song like Billy Joel’s Captain Jack or Elton John’s Rocket Man evokes in you. History is a great story told by a great storyteller. If I want to place an event or person in historical perspective, I’ll think of the music of the time. That way, everything is associated with a specific piece of music. That’s how I think of history. Like a bunch of stuff that happened between one song and another on a Pink Floyd album.” Marc Morgenstern, artist, musician, actor, and educator (born 1963)

And the Earth was quiet, and without sound…

and there was silence throughout the universe.

And the voice of God thundered over the silence.

But let’s pick up the story a little more recently…

A Brief History of Rock and Roll

“ with a little help from my friends…” (in alphabetical order) Marc Morgenstern

“ Little Richard” Penniman

And, of course, the “King” of Rock and Roll… Elvis Presley

The date is April 12, 1954… the place is the Pythian Temple Studios, New York City… the time is 4:30 P.M… and Bill Haley and his Comets are about to make music history…

On that date, Bill Haley and his Comets record Rock Around The Clock for Decca records…

Bill Haley (rhythm guitar, vocals)

Billy Williamson (steel guitar)

Bill Haley Firsts First band leader to form a Rock 'n' Roll group. First Rock 'n' Roll star to write his own music. First Rock 'n' Roll star to reach the national charts with music he wrote and recorded. First Rock 'n' Roll star to own his own music publishing companies. First Rock 'n' Roll star to own his own record label and recording company. First white artist to be elected as the "Rhythm & Blues Personality of the Year." First Rock 'n' Roll star to sell a million records. First Rock 'n' Roll star to receive a gold record. First Rock 'n' Roll star to go on a world tour. First Rock 'n' Roll star to sell a million records in England. First Rock 'n' Roll star to star in a full length motion picture. First white Rock 'n' Roll star to tour with all-black supporting artists. First Rock 'n' Roll star to appear on a network television show.

President of the U.S. Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961

Vice President of the U.S. Richard M. Nixon (…watch out for this guy later…)

Prices: 1954 IBM electric typewriter: $395.00

World Series program: Indians vs. Giants 50¢

Public School 89 3 rd grade: Bronx, NY

hanging out with friends: priceless

Bill Haley: 1925-1981 Keep on rockin’, Bill…

What man best exemplifies the politics of the 1950’s? ?

Was it Joe McCarthy, manager of the Chicago Cubs and founder of the golden-age Yankees…

or Joe McCarthy, Executive Vice President and Treasurer for Urban Retail Properties Company…

n or maybe Celeste Fruhling, President of Hair Club for Men (and also a client)?

n No, it has to be Joseph Raymond McCarthy, Republican Senator from Wisconsin, 1947-1954. … the whole State Department… CRAWLING WITH COMMIES!!!

Joe McCarthy, a United States Senator from Wisconsin, was in many ways the most gifted demagogue ever bred on these shores.

No bolder seditionist ever moved among us--nor any politician with a surer, swifter access to the dark places of the American mind.

The major phase of McCarthy's career is mercifully short. It begins in 1950, three years after he takes his seat in the Senate, where he seems a dim and inconsiderable figure.

At the start of 1950, he is a nobody in Washington. Then he uncovers Communism--almost inadvertently, as Columbus discovered America, as James Marshall discovered California gold.

By the spring of the year, he is a towering figure, and from then on, no man is closer than he to the center of American consciousness or more central to the world's consciousness of America. Joe (The Brain) McCarthy Roy (Pinky) Cohn

He walks with a heavy tread over large parts of the Constitution of the United States, and he cloaks his own gross figure in the sovereignty it asserts and the powers it distributes.

He usurps executive and judicial authority whenever the fancy strikes him.

He holds two Presidents captive in their conduct of the nation's affairs: Harry S. Truman and Dwight D. Eisenhower, from early 1950 through late 1954.

He has enormous impact on American foreign policy at a time when that policy bears heavily on the course of world history, and American diplomacy might bear a different aspect today if McCarthy had never lived.

In the Senate, his headquarters and his hiding place, he assumes the functions of the Committee of the Whole; he lives in thoroughgoing contempt of the Congress of which he is a member, of the rules it has made for itself, and--whenever they run contrary to his purposes--of the laws it has enacted for the general welfare. Damn !#@**! Commie!

On February 9, 1950, he makes a speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, in the course of which he says that the Department of State is full of Communists and that he and the Secretary of State know their names.

Later there was some dispute as to whether he had stated that there were 205, 81, 57, or "a lot" of Communists, but the number was of slight importance alongside what he insists is the fact that Communists "known to the Secretary of State" are "still working and making policy."

A Senate committee is immediately appointed to look into his startling assertions.

He has been talking through his hat; if there are Communists in the State Department, he does not know who they are. Damn !#@**! Commie!

Within a matter of weeks, his name is known and heard everywhere, and his heavy, menacing countenance is familiar to newspaper readers, moviegoers, and television viewers everywhere. Damn !#@**! Commie! 

Barely a month after Wheeling, "McCarthyism" is coined by Herbert Block, the cartoonist who signs himself "Herblock" in the Washington Post.

"McCarthyism is Americanism with its sleeves rolled," he tells a Wisconsin audience in 1952. Hello, I’m Mr. Ed! Uh oh… Yipes!

“ Now mean and unregarded; but tomorrow The mightiest of the mighty, Lord of Athens.... The sovereign and ruler of them all, Of the assemblies and tribunals, fleets and armies; You shall trample down the Senate under foot, Confound and crush the generals and commanders.”* *Aristophanes, The Knights

McCarthy’s Fried Communists McCarthy’s Fried Communists 100 COMMUNISTS IN THE STATE DEPARTMENT M F C M F C

His decline was more difficult to account for than his ascent . Edward “Wellington” Murrow

He was in a long and sweaty rumble before television cameras in the spring of 1954; in the late summer, a Senate committee recommended that he be censured.

and in the winter he was censured--or, in the language of the resolution, "condemned" for conduct that "tended to bring the Senate into dishonor and disrepute." Oops! I think they’re on to us, Joe… Damn !@#*! Constitution!

Hostess “McCarthies?” “ McCarthys?” “ McCarthy’s?”

Nixon was elected to the United States House of Representatives from California in 1946 by beating Jerry Voorhis, in a campaign which some charge was a result of underhanded political skullduggery.

During a debate with Voorhis, he held up both a list of members of a Political Action Committee (PAC) from which Voorhis received substantial campaign donations, as well as a list from a Left-Wing PAC with Communist affiliations, and said that there were a few people who were in both committees. Nixon said "they're basically the same, if their members are the same..."

The term "McCarthyism" has since become synonymous with any government activity which seeks to suppress unfavorable political or social views, often by limiting or suspending civil rights under the pretext of protecting national security.

Joseph Raymond McCarthy: 1908-1957 Damn !#@**! Commies!!! Easy, Natasha … now that dumb Americans are distracted by this clown! But Boris… how we take over U.S. Government now? That’s all, folks!

Now that you’re warmed up, a little… CHUCK BERRY!

Born in St. Louis on October 18, 1926, Berry had many influences on his life that shaped his musical style.

He emulated the smooth vocal clarity of his idol, Nat King Cole, while playing blues songs from bands like Muddy Waters.

For his first stage performance, Berry chose to sing a Jay McShann song called Confessin' the Blues .

It was at his high school's student musical performance, when the blues was well-liked but not considered appropriate for such an event. He got thunderous applause for his daring choice, and from then on, Berry had to be onstage.

Later in 1955, Berry went on a road trip to Chicago, where he chanced upon a club where his idol, Muddy Waters, was performing .

He arrived late and only heard the last song, but when it was over he got the attention of Waters and asked him who to see about making a record.

Waters replied, "Yeah, Leonard Chess. Yeah, Chess Records over on Forty-seventh and Cottage."

Berry went there on Monday and discovered it was a blues label where greats like Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley recorded.

Berry was signed to Chess Records and in the summer of 1955, Maybellene reached #5 on the Pop Charts and #1 on the R&B Charts.

Johnny B. Goode is Berry's masterpiece, as it brought together all the elements of Berry's unique musical sound.

Just give me some more of that rock ‘n roll music, Chuck…

Chuck Berry: born April 18, 1926: St. Louis, MO

There were dozens of Buddy Holly songs to choose from, like Wake Up, A-Little Susie; All My Love, All My Kisses; Bye Bye Love,…

Not Fade Away, Party Doll, Everyday, That’ll Be The Day, Earth Angel, I Fought The Law, etc., …

But I picked Be Bop A Lu La because it’s so damn cool.

In early 1956, Buddy was recording demos and singles for the Decca label in Nashville under the name Buddy Holly and the Three Tunes. Back home, Holly opened a show at the Lubbock Youth Center for Elvis Presley, an event that hastened his conversion from country and western to rock and roll. ("We owe it all to Elvis," he later said).

By 1957, Buddy Holly and the Crickets are playing to sold out houses worldwide…

He could have been as big as Elvis…

In just 18 months of recording (1957-1959), Buddy Holly created 9 top-ten hits, or about one every two months.

Buddy Holly, John Perry “Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens died a little after 1 a.m. Tuesday, February 3, 1959…

in a plane crash near Mason City, Iowa.

Buddy Holly: 1936-1959 Feb. 3, 1959 “ the day the music died…”

In the summer of 1957… 16-year old John Lennon forms The Quarrymen… John

a few years later plays Hamburg, Germany with Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pete Best, and Stu Sutcliffe… Stu Paul George Pete

replaces Pete Best with Ringo Starr and eventually forms a rock and roll band that will change music forever. Ringo

On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launches the world’s first satellite, Sputnik, into orbit...

which begins the “space race” between the Soviet Union and the United States.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin of the U.S.S.R. becomes the first human being to be launched into space… I hate rockets!...

riding in a tiny capsule perched atop the Russian rocket Vostok 1.

Gagarin’s flight orbits the Earth for 90 minutes at a speed of 17,400 miles per hour…

and upon his return, he becomes an instant Hero of the Soviet Union.

Gagarin is a media celebrity…

His likeness appears on stamps, military medals…

even the cover of the April 31, 1961 issue of Time magazine!

Caucasus Mountains, U.S.S.R. Ukraine, U.S.S.R.

Gagarin dies during testing of a MIG-15 aircraft on March 27, 1968.

John Glenn who? Whew! Just made it!

President of the U.S.A.: John Fitzgerald Kennedy: 1961-1963

Vice President of the U.S.A.: Lyndon Baines Johnson: 1961-1963

On Oct. 22, 1962, President Kennedy announces that U-2 spy planes have discovered and photographed secret nuclear missile bases on the island of Cuba, only 90 miles from the United States.

Dealy Plaza: November 22, 1963 12:30 pm

The Soviet Union, way behind the U.S. in nuclear capacity, has made a deal with Fidel Castro to protect Cuba from U.S. aggression.

Kennedy orders a naval blockade of the island of Cuba, and for 14 days in October 1962, the world holds its breath and waits for World War III.

Communist Party Chairman of the U.S.S.R. : Nikita Khruschev: 1953-1964

“ Fat Man” 1 st atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan Aug. 6, 1945 “ Little Boy” 2nd atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan Aug. 9, 1945

On October 28, 1962, Khruschev agrees to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for the U.S. removing nuclear missiles from Turkey.

The following year, on November 22, 1963, President Kennedy is traveling in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas.

Kennedy is in Dallas that day to raise money and campaign for his reelection bid for the Presidency.

After his limousine turns onto Dealy Plaza, Kennedy is shot in the neck and head by a sniper.

Shortly after, a man named Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested and charged with the murder.

Two days later, on November 24, 1963, Oswald is shot dead by Jack Ruby as he is being transferred from the Dallas jail.

On September 24, 1964, the Warren Commission issues its findings: Oswald acted alone in assassinating President Kennedy.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1917-1963

At the hamlet of Ap Bac, the Vietcong 514th Battalion and local guerrilla forces ambush the South Vietnamese Army's 7th division. For the first time, the Vietcong stand their ground against American machinery and South Vietnamese soldiers. Almost 400 South Vietnamese are killed or wounded. Three American advisors are slain. January 2, 1963

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was an alleged attack on two American destroyers (the USS Maddox and the USS C. Turner Joy) on Aug. 2, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin by North Vietnamese gunboats. Later research indicates that the second attack did not actually occur.

On this night, South Vietnamese commandos attack two small North Vietnamese islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. The U.S. destroyer Maddox, an electronic spy ship, is 123 miles south with orders to electronically simulate an air attack to draw North Vietnamese boats away from the commandos.

Immediately after the incident, President Lyndon Johnson calls upon Congress to approve the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which effectively authorizes the president to begin the American escalation of the Vietnam War, giving de facto war powers to the President of the United States.

Although the Constitutional power to declare war is vested solely by the U.S. Congress, the president has the power to send the army anywhere he chooses so long as he does not make a formal declaration of war.

Tensions between Buddhists and the Diem government are further strained as Diem, a Catholic, removes Buddhists from several key government positions and replaces them with Catholics.

Buddhist monks protest Diem's intolerance for other religions and the measures he takes to silence them. In a show of protest, the monks start setting themselves on fire in public places.

With tacit approval of the United States, operatives within the South Vietnamese military overthrow Diem. He and his brother Nhu are shot and killed in the aftermath.

Back in 1961, during a tour of Asian countries, Vice President Lyndon Johnson had visited Diem in Saigon. Johnson assured Diem that he was crucial to U.S. objectives in Vietnam and called him "the Churchill of Asia."

On Feb. 9, 1964, The Beatles perform Their No. 1 single, I Want To Hold Your Hand , on the Ed Sullivan Show. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a really big shew tonight…

The band had started back in 1957, when John Lennon forms a group called The Quarrymen at the Quarry Bank School in Liverpool, England.

Their sound is called skiffle, a highly animated, heavily rhythmic variant on American folk and country music.

By the fall of 1959, The Quarrymen have transformed themselves into a trio called Johnny and the Moondogs , who add Lennon's art school friend, Stu Sutcliffe, on bass.

By the spring of 1960, they are a quintet called The Silver Beetles (later The Silver Beatles ), with Tommy Moore on drums--he is succeeded by Norman Chapman, who, in turn, is succeeded in August of 1960 by Pete Best.

By then, the band is called The Beatles.

The group plays a succession of rather sleazy clubs in Hamburg, Germany, from 1960-1962, including The Indra, Kaiserkeller, and Star clubs.

On November 9, 1961, Brian Epstein, a record shop owner, sees a lunchtime performance of The Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, England.

The group hires Epstein, and on December 10, 1961, he becomes their manager.

On June 6, 1962, the Beatles audition for George Martin, a producer at EMI Records. He signs them, and becomes their producer throughout the Beatles' career.

On August 18, 1962, Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr) quits a band called Rory Storm and the Hurricanes and joins The Beatles as drummer, replacing Pete Best.

The Beatles ' first single, Love Me Do, is released in the United Kingdom on October 5, 1962. It rises to a respectable #17 on the British charts .

The Beatles ' second single, Please Please Me , is released in the U.K. on January 11, 1963. It goes to #1 on the British charts on February 22 and stays there for two weeks.

The Beatles ’ first album, Please Please Me, is released in the U.K. on March 22, 1963, and becomes a runaway hit. Once it hits #1, it remains there for 29 weeks.

The Beatles appear at the Royal Command Performance, performing for the Queen Mother, Princess Margaret, and Lord Snowdon on November 4, 1963 . John teases the crowd with his comment, "Will the people in the cheaper seats clap their hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry."

The single, I Want To Hold Your Hand, is released in the U.S. on December 26, 1963, and spends seven weeks at #1.

On February 7, 1964, The Beatles land at JFK Airport in New York, and Beatlemania begins in the United States.

The Beatles perform five songs: All My Loving , ‘ Til There Was You , She Loves You , I Saw Her Standing There , and I Want To Hold Your Hand .

The show is viewed by over 73 million people in the U.S., a record audience at the time, and still one of the top-rated non-sports programs in history.

Ed Sullivan receives over 5,000 requests for tickets - the theater only seats 728!

With their simple melodies, perky harmonies, clean-cut image, English charm, and cheeky good humor…

the four young lads from Liverpool are an instant success!

“ Ladies and gentlemen… THE BEATLES!”

John Winston Lennon (rythm guitar, vocals)

James Paul McCartney (bass, vocals)

GeorgeHarold Harrison (lead guitar)

President Of the U.S.: Lyndon Baines Johnson 1963-1969 $alarie$: 1964 $150,000.00

Vice President of the U.S.: Hubert Horatio Humphrey 1965-1969 $53,000.00

Major League Baseball’s Most Valuable Players, 1964: Brooks Robinson (American League) $64,000.00 Ken Boyer (National League) $55,000.00

first-class U.S. postage stamp: $.05 Prices: 1964

having the whole family over for dinner: priceless

Roy Kelton Orbison was born on April 23, 1936 at 3:30 pm, in Vernon, Texas.

For his sixth birthday, Roy asked for a harmonica, but fortunately, his daddy gave him a guitar.

Roy wrote his first song, A Vow of Love , in front of his grandmother’s house in 1944.

A few things contributed to Roy’s success.

The songs, the production, and the performance were key factors. The songs were completely original in structure, sound and style. Totally innovative compositions that didn’t exist until then.

Roy was so popular he toured with The Beatles and opened their shows. John Lennon even asked him to replace Brian Epstein as their manager.

Oh Pretty Woman was recorded on August 1, 1964. It became Roy’s biggest hit, and in fact, one of rock music’s most well-known songs of all time. By most estimates, the song sold about seven million copies that same year.

I think it’s one of the most incredible two minutes and 53 seconds of music ever recorded.

I decided to combine the song with pictures from my trip to Amsterdam this past summer. Hope you like watching it as much as I enjoyed taking the pictures.

The Pretty Women of Amsterdam!!! August 2005

1967… a few bands put out psychedelic inspired songs that year…

The Beatles record Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…

The Rolling Stones record Their Satanic Majesties Present…

but none made you want to go surfing more than The Beach Boys Good Vibrations.

Unfortunately, my neighborhood in upstate New York was about 100 miles from any suitable beach, so it just made me want to leaf through black and white M. C. Escher prints.

Thus the following creepy, Edward Goreyish, Tim Burtonesque tribute to a truly marvelous song that was really quite ahead of its time.

Their use of 64-track audio, synthesizer, digitally processed vocals, futuristic “theremin” effect, and swift rhythm changes…

demonstrate a unique group of musicians performing unique music at the height of their artistic capabilities.

It’s so far out it’s been used in everything from…

the dream sequence in Vanilla Sky .

Meanwhile, LBJ’s prosecution of the war in Vietnam is going badly…

On March 21, 1967, 70,000 Vietnam War protesters gather in Washington, D.C.

The biggest rally is held at the Lincoln Monument on the D.C. Mall.

Dr. Benjamin Spock, world famous for his book on baby and child care, tells the crowd that he feels betrayed by President Johnson.

He had campaigned for LBJ in 1964 because he promised not to escalate the conflict in Vietnam.

Four months after the election, the President sent massive numbers of American troops into battle.

The rally is also the final destination of the Peace Torch Marathon.

On August 6, a torch was lit in Hiroshima, Japan, where the first atomic bomb had been dropped in 1945.

After the speeches, about 50,000 people set off for the Pentagon.

The brainchild of Abbie Hoffman, the plan is for people to sing and chant until it levitates and turns orange, driving out the evil spirits and ending the war in Vietnam.

The Pentagon doesn’t move. Nor does it turn orange . Top Secret: satellite image The Pentagon March 21, 1967

Interestingly enough, Abbie Hoffman shares his name with the creator of LSD-25, Albert Hoffman, who had accidentally discovered the hallucinogenic compound back in 1938.

By 1967, LSD is both ubiquitous and popular, and still legal in the United States.

Which may go a long way in explaining why there is so much weird stuff happening in the late 1960’s.

Like the continued escalation of the Vietnam War, which by 1967 has claimed 16,250 American servicemen’s lives.

What is the LBJ-LSD connection???? Whole damn Oval Office is spinning…

Is American policy in the war being made by a bunch of pot smoking, acid dropping, fascist freaks? Where does Lyndon get this great weed? ?

The violence and carnage of the war is brought home on March 16, 1968, when Lt. William Calley sends two platoons off in search of Viet Cong soldiers in the hamlet of My Lai, in Vietnam. We had to … destroy the village to save it …

All the soldiers have fled, so the troops decide to massacre the civilian villagers instead. 109 innocent non-combatants, including women and children, are brutally murdered. Lt. Calley himself shoots over 60 people. The bodies are thrown in a ditch and set alight.

1969… In the last year of the decade, chance conspired to produce three unusual events juxtaposed; the lunar landing by Apollo 11; the rock music festival known as Woodstock; and the slayings by and arrest of Charles Manson and his “family.”

As well as Sugar, Sugar b y The Archies, a completely fictitious band headed by Ron Dante. No. 1 song of 1969!

The nation has been waiting 8 years and 2 billion dollars to land men on the moon, ever since President Kennedy had suggested it as a national goal in 1961.

Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin are chosen for the mission.

On July 16, 1969, at 9:32 am, Apollo 11 lifts off from Cape Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

We were finally going somewhere!!!!! Earth -> Moon ↓ Eagle ↓ But who cared about all that? “ Tranquility Base here…” “… the Eagle has landed.”

On Sunday, July 20, 1969, the Eagle lands at The Sea of Tranquility on the Moon. Armstrong is the first human being to set foot on another world. 18 That’s one small step for man … one giant leap for mankind! O.K., where’s my putter ?

Compare that with what is happening at New York State’s 3 rd largest city of 500,000 inhabitants !!!!! MEMORIAL PLAQUE COMMEMORATING WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL WHERE’S WOODSTOCK? WOODSTOCK New York

Promoters have promised everyone three amazing days of peace and music. SEX, DRUGS, ROCK AND ROLL & of

The event takes place on the farm of Max Yasgur, located in the neighboring town of Bethel. Max Yasgur ↓ official CIA photos…

By all accounts, EVERYONE shows up. Richard M. Nixon

The people assembled are treated to a soggy, rainy, wet three days of music and commentary. There is surprisingly little crime during the festival. J. Edgar Hoover

Meanwhile, in sunny Los Angeles, CA a lonely, psychotic con man and hustler is quietly building a power base…

He had started out life as simply “No Name” Maddox, illegitimate son of Kathleen Maddox, in 1934.

By August of 1969, Charles Manson has assembled a following of perhaps 40 members, who live at the Spahn Ranch, an abandoned movie set in Death Valley. Manson Family: Spahn Ranch, August 1969

Through the use of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, Charlie has complete control over his followers.

One of the things he convinces them to do is to brutally murder seven people, among them Sharon Tate, 26-year old actress wife of film director Roman Polanski. P I G

The shocking thing about the murder is that Sharon Tate is over 8 months pregnant when she is killed. Sharon Tate’s baby Sharon Tate

On March 20, 2003, at approximately 5:30 pm EST, explosions are heard in Baghdad, Iraq. President George W. Bush announces that he has ordered coalition forces to launch an "attack of opportunity" against specified targets in Iraq . March 20, 2003

The conflict had actually begun 12 years earlier, on January 12, 1991, when the U.S. Congress granted authority to President George H. W. Bush, George Bush’s father, to wage war.

The Bush administration, backed by a U.N. Security Council ultimatum, demands that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein immediately withdraw from neighboring Kuwait, which Iraq had invaded and annexed on Aug. 2, 1990.

On Feb. 24, President Bush announces the start of a ground operation. Allied Forces commander, General “Stormin’ ” Norman Schwarzkopf, says it is a "spectacular success.”

The first Kuwaiti troops enter Kuwait City, and President Bush announces the liberation of Kuwait on Feb. 27, 1991. The war is prosecuted, from beginning to end, in 40 days.

On September 11, 2001, operatives of al-Qaeda, a militant Islamic terrorist organization headed by Osama bin Laden, a wealthy Saudi Arabian national, commit simultaneous attacks on Manhattan and the Pentagon. Over 3,000 people perish.

On October 7, 2001, U.S. and British forces begin an aerial bombing campaign in Afghanistan, bin Laden’s adopted home and base of operations, targeting Taliban forces and al-Qaeda. Strikes are reported in the capital, Kabul.

In Bush's State of the Union speech, Jan. 29, 2002, he identifies Iraq , along with Iran and North Korea , as an “axis of evil.” He vows that the United States “will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons.”

On March 17, Great Britain's ambassador to the UN says the diplomatic process on Iraq has ended. Arms inspectors evacuate. Pres. George W. Bush gives Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war.

On July 22, 2003, Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay, are killed by U.S. forces in a gun battle at a private residence in the northern town of Mosul, Iraq. Uday was Saddam’s chief in charge of torture, and Qusay was head of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

On Dec. 13, 2003, U.S. soldiers find the disheveled former leader of Iraq hiding in a hole in the ground. Saddam is captured about nine miles from his hometown of Tikrit and on the other side of the Tigris River from one of his lavish palaces.

Back in 1983, Donald Rumsfeld, now U.S. Secretary of Defense, then special envoy of President Ronald Reagan, met with Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. Rumsfeld had assured Hussein that he was crucial to U.S. interests in the Gulf.

WMD As of the present day, No weapons of mass destruction have been found, Osama bin Laden is still at large, and over 2,300 U.S. soldiers have been killed in action…

A Brief History Of Rock And Roll

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