The CNN Daily Mash-up is a roundup of some of the most interesting, surprising, curious, poignant or significant items to appear on CNN.com in the past 24 hours. We top it with a collection of the day's most striking photographs from around the world.
Viral Internet videos seem to keep upping the ante for men who want to make marriage proposals in unusual ways. Tony Boga of Boston recruited his girlfriend's sisters to help round up a flash mob for his proposal at the Boston Public Library, CNN affiliate WHDH reports.
Meanwhile in Salt Lake City, a firefighter took advantage of his high position:
Not to be left out of the fun, CNN iReporter Jenifer Brennan of Hackettstown, New Jersey, was swept off her feet atop a Vermont mountain for yet another surprise proposal. She said her fiancé, Phil Crowley, spent more than a year planning the trip and had invited two of her best friends to come along with their husbands. While on a hike to the top of Mount Mansfield, a proposal was the last thing on her mind, she says.
Phil Crowley proposes to Jenifer Brennan atop Mount Mansfield in Vermont.
"I was in shock because I was not expecting it," she says. "I think public proposals are wonderful. It takes courage for a person to get on one knee and ask someone to marry them in the presence of others. Personally, once he was on his knee I lost sight of everyone and everything around me."
In a piece written for CNN.com, Jake Bronstein explains why he decided to propose to his girlfriend in a creative and public way.
The spectacle I made, and the special moment that came of it, and ultimately our marriage, was for Kristina and me. The total view count on all of the various copies of the video that people posted, copied, re-hosted and posted again, topped a million. But I didn't do it for them. I did it for us.
The three members of the Russian feminist punk band Pussy Riot will learn their fate Friday when a judge in Moscow issues a verdict in their hooliganism case. They were charged five months ago after criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin in a song they sang at a Moscow cathedral. Prosecutors have asked for three-year prison terms, but supporters are expected to hold rallies all over the world Friday.
What was to have been Whitney Houston's comeback movie will open in theaters Friday. In "Sparkle," the late pop diva plays the mother of three singing daughters - including Sparkle, played by "American Idol" winner Jordin Sparks - who rise to fame in the Motown era but must deal with personal troubles.
August 17 anniversaries
1863 - Union forces bombard Fort Sumter in South Carolina, site of the first battle of the Civil War in 1861.
President Bill Clinton
1915 - A hurricane kills 275 people in Galveston, Texas.
1939 - "The Wizard of Oz" opens at Loew's Capitol Theater in New York.
1955 - Hurricane Diane, following hurricane Connie, floods the Connecticut River, killing 190 and doing $1.8 billion damage.
1969 - Hurricane Camille kills 248 people along the Gulf Coast.
1987 - Convicted Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess commits suicide in a Berlin prison.
1998 - President Bill Clinton admits having an inappropriate sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky before a grand jury and later in a televised national address.
1999 - A magnitude 7.4 earthquake hits Turkey, killing more than 15,000.
August 17 birthdays
- Actress Maureen O'Hara, 92
- Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, 86
Robert De Niro
- Author V.S. Naipaul, 80
- Baseball player John "Boog" Powell, 71
- Actor Robert De Niro, 69
- Tennis player Guillermo Vilas, 60
- Singer Belinda Carlisle, 54
- Author Jonathan Franzen, 53
- Actor Sean Penn, 52
- French soccer player Thierry Henry, 35
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don't listen t'him chrissy he's advocatin' sayin' no all the time to marriage...
That firefighter should be terminated for endangering the public. Tying up a ladder truck like that for personal business..... Had there been a fire and that truck was late arriving due to his little stunt, people may have died because of him.
Roflmao @ Rascal, so am i dear!
lol @ Rascal, you go girl! I did it once, was enough for me. Im quite happy by myself, and when im not i have my kids/grandkids.
I've been sitting here for five minutes looking at a blank comment box. I can't come up with a single sarcastic comment about Robert Deniro's birthday. Not one. I am seriously losing it.
The closest I can come is "it's baseball season." Not good enough.
South Pacific
Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk,
Talk about things you'd like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don't have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?
Talk about the moon floatin' in the sky
Lookin' at a lily on the lake;
Talk about a bird learnin' how to fly.
Makin' all the music he can make.
Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk,
Talk about things you'd like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don't have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?
Talk about a star lookin' like a toy
Peekin' through the branches of a tree;
Talk about the girl, talk about the boy
Countin' all the ripples on the sea.
Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk,
Talk about things you'd like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
Talk about the boy sayin' to the girl:
"Golly, baby, I'm a lucky cuss"
Talk about the girl sayin' to the boy:
"You an' me is lucky to be us!"
Happy talk, keep talkin' happy talk,
Talk about things you'd like to do.
You got to have a dream,
If you don't have a dream
How you gonna have a dream come true?
If you don't talk happy,
And you never have dream,
Then you'll never have a dream come true!
[Spoken]
It's good idea, you like?
banasy, you can dodah hands...lol
Sure, RR, imagine them now...lol!
Will you bury me?
@Jeff Frank:
Oh, definitely, Rascal RabbLe most certainly should be on it!
Omg lmfao @ Rascal, you do make me laugh! lol Now i gotta think what would be my dream? lol. That oughta keep me up the better part of the night i bet. Lol
and @ Jeff Frank, i 2nd banasys motion! Most definitely RR should be on it!
@ BOMBO, you cant even think of a comment bout *hooliganism?* i love that word. lmao
......and that's a legit charge, chrissy. LMAO!
lmao can you imagine, 3 YEARS! And they could get up to 7! Heck the prisons here would be overflowin, just with the POTUS bashing bloggers!
lol...
sooo chrissy, how much time yathink i would git fer callin' potus...drone daddy???
I love RR Singin' Likah Dork! Your a hit Rascal Rabble! Encore, please!!
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Perhaps before asking someone to marry you we need to ensure we know who we are marrying. Child abduction and ID theft has created a world where you cannot be sure of who is who. In Thailand they have gangs albeit run by British Domiciles who have identical look alaike girls, they run the girls like a cash business forcing them to use identical clothes and names then swapping the pair so the victim thinks she is the same girl. Makes robbery, fraud, and blackmail more easy some of us have to sleep.
If you have a serious problem in Thailand there is only one policeman with a 007 shoot to kill licence. Try The Royal Thai Police HQ Ploenchit to track him down he's one of the few really good guys in the RTP