Vine star TerRio Harshaw

Events in 2007 and 29-7

Events in US in the birth year of TerRio Harshaw

• California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman speaker of the House and will preside over the 100th Congress. Democrats take control of both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994 (Jan. 4).
• President Bush announces that a surge of an additional 20,000 troops will be deployed to Baghdad to try to stem the sectarian fighting (Jan. 10).
• The Senate confirms Mike McConnell as the director of National Intelligence (Feb. 6).
• U.S. Army Maj. Gen. George Weightman is removed from his post as head of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Army Secretary Francis Harvey steps down. Dismissals follow reports that patients have received inadequate care, have been caught in a maze of bureaucratic red tape, and have been treated in dilapidated facilities. (March 2). Bipartisan presidential commission, set up in response to the inadequate treatment of troops at the Walter Reed Medical Center, suggests overhauling the system that makes disability and compensation determinations and improving treatment for brain injuries and post traumatic stress (July 25).
• Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, is found guilty of lying to FBI agents and to a grand jury in the investigation of who leaked to the press the name of a covert CIA agent. The agent, Valerie Plame Wilson, is married to Joseph Wilson, who in 2003 questioned the Bush administration’s claim that Saddam Hussein was pursuing a nuclear weapons program by seeking to obtain uranium from Niger (March 6). Libby is sentenced to 30 months in jail (June 5). President Bush commutes his sentence (July 2).
• In hearings before the Senate and House, seven U.S. attorneys who were fired in late 2006 say they received inappropriate calls from Republican lawmakers or Justice Department officials regarding corruption cases they were investigating. They also say they felt pressured by the Justice Department to keep quiet about their dismissals (March 6). Attorney General Alberto Gonzales tells Senate Judiciary Committee that although the process in which U.S. attorneys were fired was flawed, the dismissals were justified. Gonzales cites a bad memory more than 50 times when he fails to answer questions about key parts of the dismissal process (April 19). Citing executive privilege, President Bush refuses to hand over any documents relating to the firing of U.S. prosecutors in 2006 and instructs Harriet Miers, Bush's former counsel, and Sara Taylor, the former deputy assistant to the president and White House director of political affairs, to also refuse to testify (July 9). The House Judiciary Committee votes, 22 to 17, to hold Harriet Miers and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten in contempt for refusing to testify about the dismissals (July 25). The White House announces that Alberto Gonzales has submitted his resignation (Aug. 27). Bush selects retired federal judge Michael Mukasey to replace Alberto Gonzales (Sep. 17). The Senate votes, 53 to 40, to confirm Mukasey as attorney general (Nov. 8).
• Supreme Court rules, 5–4, that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate automobile emissions of heat-trapping gases and that the agency cannot shirk its responsibility to do so unless it provides a scientific reason (April 2).
• President Bush vetoes the $124 billion spending bill passed by Congress for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill called on the Bush administration to establish benchmarks for the Iraqi government that, if met, set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. It was only the second time in Bush's presidency that he used the veto (May 1).
• President Bush vetoes legislation, passed by Congress, that eases restrictions on federal funding of embryonic stem cell research (June 7).
• The minimum wage increases to $5.85, up from $5.15. It's the first increase in 10 years. The wage will increase 70 cents each year through 2009, when it will be $7.25 an hour (July 24).
• President Bush signs law that legalizes government eavesdropping of telephone conversations and emails of American citizens and people overseas without a warrant as long as there is a "reasonable belief" that one party is not in the United States (Aug. 5).
• Karl Rove, highly influential and controversial advisor to President Bush, announces his resignation (Aug. 13).
• In highly anticipated testimony, Gen. David Petraeus tells members of the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees that the U.S. military needs more time to meet its goals in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker also testifies, saying that while Iraqi leaders and the people are capable of—and desire to—bridge the sectarian divide, "I frankly do not expect that we will see rapid progress" (Sep. 10).
• President Bush signs an energy bill that requires passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. to have fuel economy standards of 35 mpg by 2020, a 40% increase over the current standard. Measure also calls for an increase in the production of ethanol and other biofuels to 36 billion gallons a year by 2022, up from the current 5 billion (Dec. 19).

Birthday TerRio Harshaw (29-7) in history

• Day 29-7 year 1890: Artist Vincent van Gogh died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Auvers, France.
• Day 29-7 year 1958: President Eisenhower signed the congressional act that created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was authorized by Congress.
• Day 29-7 year 1968: In Humanae Vitae (of Human Life), Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Catholic Church's prohibition on artificial methods of birth control.
• Day 29-7 year 1981: Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, married Lady Diana Spencer.
• Day 29-7 year 2003: Red sox switch hitter Bill Mueller became the first baseball player to hit grand slam home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game.