Family member Joshua Whitley

Events in 2011 and 9-1

Events in US in the birth year of Joshua Whitley

• Jan. 8: Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords is among 17 shot by a gunman who opened fire on the congresswoman's constituent meeting outside a local grocery store. Six people are fatally wounded, including United States District Court Judge John Roll, and a young girl. The gunman, who police identify as Jared Lee Loughner, is apprehended.
• Jan. 25: President Obama announces his intention to reduce the federal deficit by $400 billion over 10 years in his State of the Union Address. His plan for enacting this dramatic reduction includes budget cuts and freezes, including a spending freeze on many domestic programs.
• Feb. 14: President Obama's $3.8 trillion budget proposal runs into trouble in Congress among lawmakers who say that the plan doesn't go far enough to reduce the deficit, despite a $1.6 trillion savings over 10 years. March 2: Congress approves a two-week budget extension that keeps federal agencies open through March 18 while work continues to reach a budget agreement. March 17: The Senate passes a second measure to keep the government open while budget talks continue. April 1: With less than two hours to spare, an agreement on the federal budget is made, avoiding a government shutdown. Republicans demand a provision to restrict financing to Planned Parenthood and other groups that provide abortions. Obama and the Democrats refuse to budge on the abortion provision, but they do agree to tens of billions in spending cuts.
• Feb. 15: State employees and teachers stage protests in Madison, Wisconsin and Democratic senators flee the state in an effort to hault Governor Scott Walker's plan to cut bargaining rights and benefits of public workers. May 26: Judge Maryann Sumi of Dane County Circuit Court grants a permanent injunction that voids the new Wisconsin law curbing collective bargaining rights for many state and local employees. The ruling comes because Republicans in the state senate violated the state's open meetings law during their vote on March 9th, when they failed to give at least two hours' notice to the public.
• Feb. 23: The Obama Administration determines that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional. The Justice Department will stop defending the law in court. The Defense of Marriage Act is the 1996 law that bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
• March 1: The Interior Dept approves the first new deepwater drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since the BP explosion and spill last spring. The approval is a milestone after a period of industry uncertainty.
• April 27: In one of the worst U.S. tornado seasons, 137 reported tornadoes sweep through the south, killing nearly 300 people in six states. Most of the fatalities occur in Alabama. May 22: At least 140 people are killed and hundreds more injured as a three-quarter-mile-wide tornado hits Joplin, Missouri. The tornado is among the deadliest in the nation's history, destroying nearly a third of the city and damaging about 2,000 buildings, including water treatment and sewage plants.
• May 5: Heavy rains cause flooding in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys. People in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Arkansas are forced to leave their homes. May 14: Engineers open a portion of the Morganza Spillway to relieve pressure on levees along the Mississippi River and to protect New Orleans and other areas downriver from flooding. The decision to open the Morganza Spillway does have consequences; water pours into the Atchafalaya River basin, flooding marshes, bayous, farmland, and thousands of homes. May 15: According to the Army Corps of Engineers, the Mississippi River breaks the elevation record in Vicksburg, Miss., which was set by the 1927 flood. The river rises to 56.3 feet, 13 feet above flood stage, at a rate of nearly 17 million gallons per second.
• May 19: President Obama declares that the borders before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war should be the basis of a Mideast peace deal between Israel and Palestine. The Israeli government protests immediately, saying that a return to the pre-1967 borders would leave Israel "indefensible."
• June 22: Legendary Boston crime boss, James "Whitey" Bulger is found and arrested by federal authorities in Santa Monica, Calif. Bulger is on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list and has been indicted in 19 murders. The arrest ends a 16-year international search.
• June 24: New York passes a law to allow same-sex marriage, becoming the largest state that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry. The vote comes on the eve of the city's annual Gay Pride Parade and gives new momentum to the national gay-rights movement.
• July 19: With the Aug. 2 deadline to raise the $14.3 trillion debt ceiling quickly approaching, members of the House and the Senate as well as President Obama work to agree on a budget deal to lower the deficit. If a deal is not reached by the debt ceiling deadline, the U.S. would be forced to default, affecting its credit rating. July 31: With the debt ceiling deadline only 48 hours away, an agreement still has not been reached. Credit rating agencies, such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's, report that they will downgrade the country's current AAArating if the U.S. defaults and fails to pay its bills on August 2nd. Aug. 1: Congress makes an 11th-hour deal to prevent a national default. The deal raises the debt ceiling in two steps to $2.4 trillion and cuts an initial $1 trillion in spending over ten years. Also, a bipartisan committee will be formed to recommend $1.5 trillion in additional budget cuts. Aug. 5: For the first time in history, the U.S. has its credit rating lowered. Credit agency Standard & Poor's lowered the nation's credit rating from the top grade of AAA to AA+, removing the U.S. from its list of risk-free borrowers. Nov. 21: The Congressional Supercommittee in charge of finding $1.2 trillion in deficit reductions fails to agree on what programs to cut after more than 10 weeks of meeting. Because the group could not agree on a deficit reduction plan, automatic cuts to military and domestic programs will go into effect in 2013.
• Aug. 13: The race for the Republican Presidential Nomination heats up as Texas Gov. Rick Perry announces his candidacy in South Carolina while Michele Bachmann wins the Iowa straw poll. Sept. 25: Mitt Romney wins the Michigan Straw Poll with 51% of the vote. Herman Cain wins the Florida straw poll by nearly 40%. Dec. 3: Cain suspends his campaign for the U.S. presidency after five women come forward with accusations of sexual misconduct.
• Aug. 27: Beginning as a Category 3 with 115-mile-per hour winds, Hurricane Irene moves up the eastern seaboard. At least 44 people are killed in 13 states. Evacuations are ordered for about 2.3 million people. Damage is estimated at $7 billion.
• Oct. 17: Occupy Wall Street, an organized protest in New York's financial district, expands to other cities across the U.S., including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Occupy Wall Street defines itself as a group of activists who stand against corporate greed, social inequality, and the disproportion between the rich and poor. Nov. 3: The Occupy Wall Street movement turns violent in Oakland, Calif. when a small group of about 100 demonstrators break windows, burn garbage, and spray graffiti. Dozens of protesters are arrested. Nov. 15: During a sweep of Zuccotti Park in New York City, 140 protesters are arrested. A judge rules that the city has the right to enforce the rule against camping in the park. Nov. 21: A video showing two University of California, Davis police officers using pepper spray at close range on seated, passive protesters goes viral.
• Nov. 5: Former Penn State defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky, is arrested on charges of 40 counts of sexual abuse over a 15-year period. Nov. 9: Celebrated Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno is fired by the school's Board of Trustees because he failed to notify the police in 2002 after he was informed of a suspected assault by Sandusky. Dec. 7: Sandusky is arrested again after two more victims came forward. With the additional charges, Sandusky now faces more than 50 counts of child sexual abuse. Penn State is being investigated for its handling of the abuse allegations by the U.S. Department of Education.
• Nov. 8: In the general election, voters choose against conservative-backed measures across the nation. An anti-abortion measure in Mississippi, an anti-labor law in Ohio, and a measure to clampdown on voting rights in Maine are all rejected. Overall, voters show support for current officials on city and state levels. Mayors win re-election bids in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Baltimore. In Iowa, Republicans fail to take over the State Senate.

Birthday Joshua Whitley (9-1) in history

• Day 9-1 year 1788: Connecticut becomes the 5th state to ratify the US constitution.
• Day 9-1 year 1861: Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union.
• Day 9-1 year 1905: The Russian Revolution of 1905 was sparked by troops firing on petitioners to Czar Nicholas in St. Petersburg.
• Day 9-1 year 1964: Anti-American rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone.
• Day 9-1 year 1968: Surveyor 7, the last of America's unmanned lunar probes, landed on the Moon.