On TechWorldNews today:
Running May Have Been Key to Evolution
18 November 2004
Does This Mean That If We Don’t Run, We’re Devolving?
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1095 - The Council of Clermont began. The council was called by Pope Urban II to discuss sending the First Crusade to the Holy Land
1307 - According to legend, William Tell shoots an apple off his son’s head
1421 - A seawall at the Zuider Zee dike breaks, flooding 72 villages and killing about 10,000 people in the Netherlands
1477 - William Caxton produces Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres, the first English book printed on a printing press
1626 - St. Peter’s Basilica is consecrated
1865 - Mark Twain’s story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County is published in the New York Saturday Press
1883 - American and Canadian railroads institute five standard continental time zones, ending the confusion of thousands of local times
1926 - George Bernard Shaw refuses to accept the money for his Nobel Prize, saying, “I can forgive Alfred Nobel for inventing dynamite, but only a fiend in human form could have invented the Nobel Prize.”
1928 - Release of the animated short Steamboat Willie, the first fully synchronized sound cartoon, directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, featuring the second appearances of Cartoon stars Mickey and Minnie Mouse
1929 - 1929 Grand Banks earthquake: Off the south coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean, a Richter magnitude 7.2 submarine earthquake centered on Grand Banks, breaks 12 submarine transatlantic telegraph cables and triggers a tsunami that destroys many south coast communities in the Burin Peninsula area
1971 - Hard rock band Led Zeppelin release an untitled album, often dubbed “Led Zeppelin IV,” featuring “Rock & Roll,” “Stairway to Heaven” and other classic songs
1985 - Calvin and Hobbes, a comic strip by Bill Watterson, was first published
1991 - Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon set Anglican Church envoys Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland free
Births
1786 - Carl Maria von Weber, composer (d. 1826)
1787 - Louis-Jacques Daguerre, inventor, photographer (d. 1851)
1836 - Sir William S. Gilbert, dramatist (d. 1911)
1860 - Ignacy Paderewski, pianist, composer (d. 1941)
1874 - Clarence Day, American author (d. 1935)
1897 - Patrick Blackett, English physicist, 1948 Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1974)
1899 - Eugene Ormandy, conductor (d. 1985)
1901 - George Gallup, statistician, opinion pollster (d. 1984)
1906 - George Wald, American chemist, 1967 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (d. 1997)
1916 - Amelita Galli-Curci, opera soprano (d. 1963)
1923 - Alan Shepard, astronaut (d. 1998)
1946 - Alan Dean Foster, author
Deaths
1814 - William Jessop, canal and railway engineer
1886 - Chester A. Arthur, 21st President of the United States
1994 - Cab Calloway, band leader
Holidays & observances
In Catholicism, the feast of St. Odo of Cluny, St Romanus of Antioch, St Mawes, and St Rose Philippine Duchesne
17 November 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
The Leonids are visible each year around this day
1292 - (Julian calendar) John Balliol becomes King of Scotland
1558 - Elizabethan era begins: Queen Mary I of England dies and is succeeded by her half-sister Elizabeth I of England
1603 - English explorer, writer and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh went on trial for treason
1800 - The United States Capitol building in Washington, DC holds its first session of Congress
1820 - Captain Nathaniel Palmer becomes the first American to see Antarctica (the Palmer Peninsula was later named after him)
1839 - Giuseppe Verdi’s first opera, Oberto, conte di San Bonifacio opens in Milan
1856 - American Old West: On the Sonoita River in present-day southern Arizona, the United States Army establishes Fort Buchanan in order to help control new land acquired in the Gadsden Purchase
1869 - In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is inaugurated in an elaborate ceremony
1871 - The National Rifle Association is granted a charter by the state of New York
1962 - In Washington, DC, US President John F. Kennedy dedicates Dulles International Airport
1968 - NBC preempts the final 1:05 minutes of a very close NFL football match between the New York Jets and the Oakland Raiders with Heidi, prompting an outrage amongst sport fans
1970 - Luna program: The Soviet Union lands Lunokhod 1 on Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains) on the Moon. This is the first roving remote-controlled robot to land on another world and was released by the orbiting Luna 17 spacecraft
1970 - Douglas Engelbart receives the patent for the first computer mouse
2003 - Arnold Schwarzenegger is inaugurated Governor of California
Births
1717 - Jean le Rond d’Alembert, mathematician (d. 1783)
1790 - August Ferdinand Möbius, mathematician (d. 1868)
1906 - Soichiro Honda, automobile pioneer (d. 1992)
1925 - Charles Mackerras, conductor
1938 - Gordon Lightfoot, singer
1960 - RuPaul, actor
Deaths
1796 - Catherine the Great of Russia
1917 - Auguste Rodin, sculptor
1929 - Herman Hollerith, statistician
1940 - Eric Gill, sculptor, typographer and writer
16 November 2004
Not Quite Mach 10, but Awfully Darned Close!!
from the New York Times tomorrow morning:
NASA Jet Sets Record for Speed
Yes!!
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published
1384 - Hedwig is crowned King of Poland, although she is a woman
1532 - Francisco Pizarro and his men capture Incan Emperor Atahualpa and his nobles
1904 - John Ambrose Fleming invents the vacuum tube
1906 - Opera star Enrico Caruso is charged with an indecent act after allegedly pinching a woman's bottom in the monkey house of New York's Central Park Zoo
1907 - Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory become Oklahoma and are admitted as the 46th U.S. state
1914 - The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens for business
1940 - Holocaust: In Poland, Nazis close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world
1965 - Venera program: The Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet
1973 - Skylab program: NASA launches Skylab 4 with a crew of three astronauts from Cape Canaveral, Florida for an 84-day mission
1977 - Close Encounters of the Third Kind opens in theaters
1989 - A death squad composed of El Salvadoran army troops kill six Jesuit priests and two others at Jose Simeon Canas University
1996 - Mother Teresa receives honorary US citizenship
Births
1717 - Jean le Rond d’Alembert
1922 - Gene Amdahl, computer scientist
1924 - James Bond, fictional character
1958 - Marg Helgenberger, American actress
1964 - Diana Krall, singer
Ceaths
1960 - Clark Gable, actor
2003 - Bettina Goislard, UNHCR relief worker
15 November 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1777 - American Revolutionary War: After 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation
1806 - Pike expedition: Lieutenant Zebulon Pike sees a distant mountain peak while near the Colorado foothills of the Rocky Mountains (it was later named Pikes Peak)
1854 - In Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is given the needed royal concession by Said
1926 - The NBC radio network opens with 24 stations
1939 - In Washington, DC, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial
1940 - The Warsaw Ghetto, with a population of 400,000 Jews, is sealed off from the outside world by the Nazis
1941 - SS chief Heinrich Himmler orders the arrest and deportation to concentration camps of all homosexuals in Germany, with the exception of certain top Nazi officials
1943 - German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies were to be put “on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps.” (see Porajmos)
1960 - The Polaris missile is test launched
1966 - Gemini program: Gemini 12 splashes down safely in the Atlantic Ocean
1971 - Intel releases world’s first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004
1990 - Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Atlantis launches with flight STS-38
Births
1397 - Pope Nicholas V (d. 1455)
1738 - William Herschel, astronomer (d. 1822)
1887 - Georgia O’Keeffe, painter (d. 1986)
1889 - King Manuel II of Portugal (d. 1932)
1929 - Ed Asner, actor
1932 - Petula Clark, singer
1937 - Yaphet Kotto, actor (Homicide: Life on the Street)
1940 - Sam Waterston, actor (Law & Order)
1942 - Daniel Barenboim, pianist, conductor
1957 - Kevin Eubanks, musician
Deaths
1280 - Albertus Magnus, German philosopher
1630 - Johannes Kepler, astrologer, astronomer and mathematician
1787 - Christoph Willibald Gluck, composer
1954 - Lionel Barrymore, actor
Holidays & observances
Eastern Orthodoxy - Feast of Saint Philip the Apostle and the beginning of Winter Lent
14 November 2004
How a composer cowed McCarthy
From news.telegraph tomorrow morning:
How a composer cowed McCarthy
Got here from wikipedia’s article on Aaron Copland (whose birthday is today). Happy birthday!!
Go, Speed Racer, er, NASA!!
On the Washington Times Web site this morning:
Ramjet aims at record Mach 10 speed
From VOA: US Space Agency Aims for New Air Speed Record
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1851 - Herman Melville’s novel Moby-Dick is published in the US by Harper & Brothers, New York - after it was first published on October 18, 1851 by Richard Bentley, London
1889 - Pioneer woman Journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to beat travel around the world in less than 80 days
1918 - Czechoslovakia becomes a republic
1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom
1969 - Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon
1971 - Mariner program: Mariner 9 reaches Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet
1972 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time
1982 - The leader of Poland’s outlawed Solidarity movement, Lech Walesa, is released from 11 months of internment near the Soviet border
2003 - Discovery of 90377 Sedna
Births
1719 - Leopold Mozart, Austrian musician, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1765 - Robert Fulton, American inventor (d. 1815)
1771 - Marie François Xavier Bichat, French anatomist and physiologist
1805 - Fanny Mendelssohn, composer and pianist (d. 1847)
1840 - Claude Monet, French impressionist painter (d. 1926)
1891 - Frederick Banting, Canadian physician, recipient of the Nobel Prize in medicine 1923 (d. 1941)
1896 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States (d. 1979)
1900 - Aaron Copland, American composer (d. 1990)
1907 - Astrid Lindgren, Swedish writer (d. 2002)
1929 - McLean Stevenson, actor (d. 1996)
1930 - Edward White, American astronaut (d. 1967)
1935 - King Hussein of Jordan (d. 1999)
1947 - P. J. O’Rourke, writer
Deaths
1832 - Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Declaration of Independence signer, US Senator (b. 1732)
1915 - Booker T. Washington, inventor
1916 - H.H. “Saki” Munro, British writer (b. 1870)
13 November 2004
So Why Didn’t You Say It??
From washingtonpost.com tomorrow morning:
Firefox Leaves No Reason to Endure Internet Explorer
Quoth the columnist: “Internet Explorer, you’re fired.
“That should have been said a long time ago…”
Ireland Rugby Team Rocks!
From sportal.com.au:
Ireland stuns Springboks
Further commentary:
The Guardian - O'Gara gives Ireland that little edge
The Independent - Ireland stand tall to end the Bok dream
First US Citizen to Be Canonized
Today’s Saint of the Day, St Frances Xavier Cabrini, from AmericanCathlic.org:
At her canonization on July 7, 1946, Pius XII said, “Although her constitution was very frail, her spirit was endowed with such singular strength that, knowing the will of God in her regard, she permitted nothing to impede her from accomplishing what seemed beyond the strength of a woman.”
I Don’t Think Relief Is the Emotion We’re Talking About Here
From washingtonpost.com tomorrow morning:
Microsoft’s Search Falls Far Short of Google’s. You’re not surprised, are you??
The Motley Fool has a better grip on the concept.
Your Tax Dollars at Work, Boys & Girls
From cnn.com this morning:
Two U.S. airports partly evacuated on false alarms
Excuse Me?? We’re Really Supposed To Believe…
…she didn’t know it was bogus?? And the store clerk missed it, too???
On ABC News Internation this morning:
Charges Dropped in Case of ‘W’ Dollars
Further info, from PittsburghLIVE.com
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1775 - American Revolutionary War: Patriot revolutionary forces under Col. Ethan Allen capture Montreal from British General Guy Carleton
1805 - Johann Georg Lehner invents the hot dog
1851 - The Denny Party lands at Alki Point, the first settlers of what will become Seattle, Washington
1940 - The animated feature-length film Fantasia is released
1954 - Great Britain defeated France to capture the first ever Rugby League World Cup in Paris in front of around 30,000 spectators
1960 - Sammy Davis, Jr. marries Swedish actress May Britt. Interracial marriage is still illegal in 31 US states out of 50
1974 - Nuclear activist Karen Silkwood’s car is forced off the road while she is travelling to an interview with New York Times reporter David Burnham. Her files are missing from the carwreck; an FBI investigation later concludes accident, but is not generally believed to have been impartial
1982 - The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is dedicated in Washington D.C. after a march to its site by thousands of Vietnam War veterans
1990 - The first known World Wide Web page is written
Births
354 - Saint Augustine of Hippo, theologian (d. 430)
1486 - Johann Eck, German theologian (d. 1543)
1826 - Charles Frederick Worth, couturier (d. 1895)
1848 - Albert I of Monaco (d. 1922)
1850 - Robert Louis Stevenson, writer (d. 1894)
1856 - Louis Brandeis, Justice of the United States Supreme Court (d. 1941)
Deaths
867 - St. Nicholas I, Pope
1460 - Henry the Navigator, Portuguese prince and patron of African exploration
1868 - Gioacchino Rossini, composer
1974 - Karen Silkwood, union activist
11 November 2004
From Whom Grandpa Hanrahan Got His Middle Name
Today’s Saint of the Day, St Martin of Tours, from AmericanCathlic.org:
A conscientious objector who wanted to be a monk; a monk who was maneuvered into being a bishop; a bishop who fought paganism as well as pleaded for mercy to heretics —such was Martin of Tours, one of the most popular of saints and one of the first not to be a martyr.
08 November 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1519 - Hernán Cortés enters Tenochtitlán and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomes him with great pomp as would befit a returning god
1837 - Formation of Mount Holyoke Seminary, first US college founded for women
1861 - American Civil War: The "Trent Affair" – The USS San Jacinto stops the United Kingdom mailship Trent and arrests two Confederate envoys, sparking a diplomatic crisis between the UK and US
1864 - U.S. presidential election, 1864: Abraham Lincoln is reelected in an overwhelming victory over George McClellan
1889 - Montana is admitted as the 41st U.S. state
1892 - U.S. presidential election, 1892: Grover Cleveland is elected over Benjamin Harrison and James B. Weaver to win the second of his non-consecutive terms
1895 - While experimenting with electricity, Wilhelm Röntgen discovers x-rays
1932 - U.S. presidential election, 1932: Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Herbert Hoover in a landslide victory
1933 - Great Depression: New Deal - US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed
1960 - U.S. presidential election, 1960: John F. Kennedy is elected over Richard M. Nixon, becoming the youngest man elected to that office
1988 - U.S. presidential election, 1988: George H. W. Bush is elected over Michael Dukakis
Births
1656 - Edmond Halley, British astronomer, mathematician (birthday according to the Gregorian calendar)
1836 - Milton Bradley, manufacturer, lithographer, game maker (d. 1911)
1847 - Bram Stoker, Irish novelist (Dracula) (d. 1912)
1848 - Gottlob Frege, German mathematician and logician
1866 - Herbert Austin, automobile pioneer (Austin-Healey)
1868 - Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (d. 1942)
1884 - Hermann Rorschach, psychiatrist
1893 - Clarence Williams, American jazz pianist and composer (d. 1965)
1918 - Hermann Zapf, German designer
1922 - Christiaan Barnard, South African heart surgeon
1954 - Rickie Lee Jones, singer, composer
2003 - Lady Louise Windsor, daughter of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
Deaths
955 - Pope Agapetus II
1226 - Louis VIII of France
1308 - John Duns Scotus, Scottish philosopher
1674 - John Milton, English poet
1890 - César Franck, composer and organist
1978 - Norman Rockwell, American illustrator
07 November 2004
San Diego, California, is named for…
…AmericanCathlic.org’s Saint of the Day for today, St. Didacus???
Marisa’s Prayer
Composed(?) by Marisa in sophomore religion class…
O Lord, in all that I do and in all that happens, let me never lose hope. Let me never think that You have forsaken me; let me not turn away from You, as You do not turn away from me.
Although Your ways are mysterious, may I believe that Your ways will always lead me to the places I ought to be. Let me understand enough of the trail that I may follow You, wherever that trail may go. Amen.
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1665 - The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published
1783 - A man convicted of forgery is the last to be publicly hanged at London’s Tyburn site
1837 - In Alton, Illinois, abolitionist printer Elijah P. Lovejoy is shot to death by a mob while he was attempting to protect his printing shop from being destroyed a third time
1848 - U.S. presidential election, 1848: Zachary Taylor is elected president in the first US presidential election held in every state on the same day
1874 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party
1885 - In Craigellachie, British Columbia, construction ends on the Canadian Pacific Railway railway extending across Canada
1893 - Colorado women are granted the right to vote
1914 - The first issue of The New Republic magazine is published
1916 - Jeannette Rankin of Montana becomes the first woman elected to the United States House of Representatives
1918 - The 1918 influenza epidemic spreads to Western Samoa, killing 7542 (about twenty percent of the population) by the end of the year
1940 - In Washington, the middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapses in a windstorm, a mere four months after the bridge’s completion
1944 - U.S. presidential election, 1944: Franklin D. Roosevelt wins reelection over Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey to become the only U.S. president to be elected to a fourth term
1963 - The comedy It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World premieres
1963 - Wunder von Lengede: In Germany, 11 miners are rescued from a collapsed mine after 14 days
1965 - The Pillsbury Doughboy makes its first public appearance
1967 - US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting
1989 - In California, convicted murder Richard Ramirez (the “Night Stalker”) is sentenced to death
1991 - Basketball player Magic Johnson announces he tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, and that he was retiring
1996 - NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor
2000 - U.S. presidential election, 2000: Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush defeats Democrat Vice President Al Gore, but the final outcome is not known for over a month because of disputed votes in Florida
Births
1750 - Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg, German poet (d. 1819)
1832 - Andrew Dickson White, co-founder and first president of Cornell University (d. 1918)
1867 - Marie Curie, chemist, physicist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics 1903 and in chemistry 1911 (d. 1934)
1888 - Sir C. V. Raman, Indian Physicist. Recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the "Raman" effect (d. 1970)
1903 - Konrad Lorenz, zoologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973 (d. 1989)
1926 - Dame Joan Sutherland, opera singer
1937 - Mary Travers, singer (Peter, Paul and Mary)
Deaths
1837 - Elijah P. Lovejoy, American abolitionist (b. 1809)
1962 - Eleanor Roosevelt, human rights activist, First Lady of the United States
1980 - Steve McQueen, actor
On This Day
From the BBC:
1956: Eisenhower re-elected with record vote
1984: Four more years for Reagan
1998: Oldest astronaut back on Earth
06 November 2004
Now Here’s a Specimen of True Manhood
From washingtonpost.com tomorrow:
Man Sentenced in Theft of Patient's Identity
Pssst… NASA, It’s the Martians…
From LATimes.com today:
Mars Rover Experiences Mysterious Power Boost
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1528 - Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca becomes the first known European to set foot on Texas
1789 - Pope Pius VI appoints Father John Carroll as the first Roman Catholic bishop in the United States
1844 - The Dominican Republic gains its independence from Haiti
1860 - U.S. presidential election, 1860: Abraham Lincoln is elected as the 16th President of the United States, the first Republican to hold that office
1869 - In New Brunswick, New Jersey, the first official intercollegiate American football game is played
1888 - U.S. presidential election, 1888: Democrat incumbent Grover Cleveland wins the overall popular vote, but is voted out of office because he loses in the Electoral College to Republican challenger Benjamin Harrison
1900 - U.S. presidential election, 1900: Republican incumbent William McKinley is reëlected by defeating Democrat challenger William Jennings Bryan
1928 - Swedes start a tradition of eating Gustavus Adolphus pastries to commemorate the king
1928 - U.S. presidential election, 1928: Republican Herbert Hoover wins by a wide margin over Democrat Alfred E. Smith
1935 - Before the New York section of the Institute of Radio Engineers, Edwin Armstrong presents his paper “A Method of Reducing Disturbances in Radio Signaling by a System of Frequency Modulation” (see: FM radio)
1947 - Meet The Press makes its television debut (the show went to a weekly schedule on 12 September 1948)
1956 - U.S. presidential election, 1956: Republican incumbent Dwight D. Eisenhower is reelected by defeating Democrat challenger Adlai E. Stevenson in a rematch of their contest four years earlier
1999 - Australians vote to keep the British queen as their head of state
Births
1814 - Adolphe Sax, saxophone inventor (d.1894)
1854 - John Philip Sousa, composer (d. 1932)
1860 - Ignace Paderewski, composer, politician (d.1941)
1861 - James Naismith, inventor of basketball (d. 1939)
1916 - Ray Conniff, composer, conductor (d.2002)
1946 - Sally Fields, actress
1948 - Glenn Frey, singer (“The Eagles”)
1955 - Maria Shriver, journalist and First Lady of California
1976 - Pat Tillman, American football player (d. 2004)
Deaths
1796 - Catherine the Great of Russia
1893 - Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, composer
1991 - Gene Tierney, actress
05 November 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1605 - Gunpowder Plot: A plot by Guy Fawkes to blow up the English Houses of Parliament is foiled when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, finds Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building
1872 - Women’s suffrage: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony votes for the first time (she was later fined $100)
1895 - George B. Selden is granted the first U.S. patent for an automobile
1912 - U.S. presidential election, 1912: Democratic challenger Woodrow Wilson wins a landslide victory over Republican incumbent William Howard Taft
1917 - St. Tikhon of Moscow was elected the Patriarch of Moscow and of the Russian Orthodox Church
1930 - Sinclair Lewis is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature
1935 - Parker Brothers releases the board game Monopoly
1940 - U.S. presidential election, 1940: Democrat incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt defeats Republican challenger Wendell Willkie and becomes the United States’ first third-term president
1968 - U.S. presidential election, 1968: Republican challenger Richard M. Nixon defeats Vice President Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party candidate George C. Wallace
1979 - The radio news program Morning Edition premieres on National Public Radio
1979 - Ayatollah Khomeini declares the USA to be “the great satan”
1994 - A letter by former US President Ronald Reagan is released that announces he has Alzheimer’s disease
1996 - U.S. presidential election, 1996: Democrat incumbent Bill Clinton defeats Republican challenger Bob Dole to win his second term
1998 - The journal Nature publishes a genetic study showing compelling evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered his slave Sally Hemings’ son Eston Hemings Jefferson
1999 - Microsoft antitrust case: US District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issues a preliminary ruling that softwaremaker Microsoft had “monopoly power”
Births
1742 - Richard Cosway, English artist (d. 1821)
1855 - Léon Teisserenc de Bort, meteorologist (d. 1913)
1863 - James Packard, automobile pioneer (d. 1928)
1912 - Roy Rogers, actor (d. 1998)
1941 - Art Garfunkel, musician
1949 - Armin Shimerman, actor (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
1952 - Bill Walton, basketball star, commentator
Deaths
1942 - George M. Cohan, musician, actor, writer, composer
1979 - Al Capp, cartoonist
1989 - Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
1991 - Fred MacMurray, actor
Annual festivals
United Kingdom and New Zealand - Guy Fawkes night (also called Bonfire night; or Fireworks night): Failure of the Gunpowder Plot to blow up Parliament in 1605 is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks
04 November 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1861 - The University of Washington opens in Seattle, Washington, as the Territorial University
1869 - The first issue of scientific journal Nature is published
1884 - U.S. presidential election, 1884: Democrat Grover Cleveland defeats Republican James G. Blaine in a very close contest to win the first of his non-consecutive terms
1922 - In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men find the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in the Valley of the Kings
1924 - Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming elected as the first woman governor in the United States
1948 - T.S. Eliot wins the Nobel Prize in Literature
1952 - U.S. presidential election, 1952: Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson
1956 - Soviet troops invade Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on 23 October. Thousands are killed, more are wounded and nearly a quarter million leave the country
1957 - The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with a dog named Laika on board, becoming the first country to launch a living creature into orbit. The capsule was not designed to be retrievable and she died a few hours later from stress and overheating
1966 - Two thirds of Florence, Italy are submerged as the Arno and Po rivers flood; 113 people die, 30,000 are rendered homeless, and countless rennaisance artworks and books are destroyed
1980 - U.S. presidential election, 1980: Republican challenger Ronald Reagan defeats incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter by a wide margin
1993 - A series of fires destroy 1000 homes in southern California, causing between 500 million and 1 billion USD of damage. Half of the fires turn out to be arson
2003 - The largest ever solar flare is recorded. (X28)
Births
1470 - King Edward V of England, one of the two Princes in the Tower
1874 - Aleksandr Vasilevich Kolchak, Russian military commander (d. 1920)
1879 - Will Rogers, American humorist and entertainer (d. 1935)
1916 - Walter Cronkite, news broadcaster
1918 - Art Carney, actor (d. 2003)
1923 - Freddy Heineken, Dutch businessman (d. 2002)
1937 - Loretta Swit, American actress
Deaths
1698 - Rasmus Bartholin, Danish mathematician
1847 - Felix Mendelssohn, German composer
1924 - Gabriel Fauré, French composer
On This Day
From the BBC:
1956: Soviet troops overrun Hungary
1980: Reagan beats Carter in landslide
03 November 2004
Thunderbolt & Lightning
Earlier this evening, before we left for the maCruzers meeting, it started hailing. “Gently” at first, but then, as hailstorms do, it got more intense. There was a flash of lightning and, even before the flash had quite faded, the thunder crash and roll.
Not very frightening, but loud (and close) enough to rattle the desks. 8-O
I’d Like to Split His Infinitive…
It’s this guy’s fault that we aren’t supposed to split infinitives, or end a sentence with a preposition.
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1838 - The Times of India, the world's largest circulated English language daily broadsheet newspaper was founded. It was then known as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce
1848 - A greatly revised constitution, drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, severely limiting the powers of the Dutch monarchy, and strengthening the powers of the parliament and the ministers, was proclaimed (and still in effect today)
1868 - U.S. presidential election: Republican Ulysses S. Grant is elected to the first of his two terms in a victory over Democrat Horatio Seymour
1883 - American Old West: Self-described "Black Bart the Po-8" gets away with his last stagecoach robbery, but leaves an incriminating clue that eventually leads to his capture
1896 - U.S. presidential election: Republican William McKinley is elected over Democrat William Jennings Bryan
1908 - U.S. presidential election: Republican William Howard Taft is elected over William Jennings Bryan, who was the Democratic candidate for the third and final time
1911 - Chevrolet officially entered the automobile market to compete with the Ford Model T
1913 - The USA introduce an income tax
1923 - Lady Louise Mountbatten marries Gustav, Crown Prince of Sweden
1935 - George II of Greece regains his throne
1936 - U.S. presidential election, 1936: Franklin D. Roosevelt is reelected to a second term in a landslide victory over Alf Landon
1954 - The first in the Godzilla series of films is released in Japan
1955 - The musical Guys and Dolls, starring Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra, debuts
1956 - The Wizard of Oz is shown on television for the first time (the viewing audience was estimated at 45 million people)
1957 - Sputnik program: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2. On board is the first animal to enter space - a dog named Laika
1964 - U.S. presidential election, 1964: Incumbent US President Lyndon B. Johnson defeats Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, Sr with over 60 percent of the popular vote
1971 - The UNIX Programmer’s Manual is published
1973 - Mariner program: NASA launches the Mariner 10 toward Mercury (on 29 March, 1974 it became the first space probe to reach that planet)
1992 - U.S. presidential election: Democratic challenger Bill Clinton defeats incumbent Republican George H.W. Bush and independent candidate Ross Perot
1994 - Red Hat Linux 1.0 is released
1995 - At Arlington National Cemetery, US President Bill Clinton dedicates a memorial to the victims of the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing
1998 - Former professional wrestler, Jesse Ventura is elected Governor of Minnesota
2004 - John Kerry calls George W. Bush to concede defeat in the 2004 U.S. presidential election
Births
1718 - John Montague, Earl of Sandwich (d. 1792)
1793 - Stephen F. Austin, American pioneer (d. 1836)
1794 - William Cullen Bryant, poet, journalist (d. 1878)
1801 - Vincenzo Bellini, Italian opera composer (d. 1835)
1895 - Grand Duchess Olga Nicolaievna Romanova (d. 1918)
1903 - Walker Evans, photographer
1921 - Charles Bronson, actor (d. 2003)
1960 - Karch Kiraly, volleyball star
Deaths
1580 - Jeronimo Zurita y Castro, Spanish historian
1787 - Robert Lowth, British bishop, grammarian
1918 - Aleksandr Mikhailovich Lyapunov, Russian scientist
1954 - Henri Matisse, French artist
1993 - Leon Theremin, Russian inventor
Holidays
Independence Day in Panama (1903), Dominica (1978) and Federated States of Micronesia (1986)
On This Day
From the BBC:
1957: Russians launch dog into space
1985: Rainbow warrior plea controversy
02 November 2004
“The Poor Voter on Election Day”
John Greenleaf Whittier
To-day, of all the weary year,
A king of men am I.
To-day, alike are great and small,
The nameless and the known;
My palace is the people's hall,
The ballot-box my throne!
The rich is level with the poor,
The weak is strong to-day;
And sleekest broadcloth counts no more
Than homespun frock of gray.
To-day let pomp and vain pretence
My stubborn right abide;
I set a plain man's common sense
Against the pedant's pride.
The wide world has not wealth to buy
The power in my right hand!
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
676 - Donus becomes Pope
1772 - American Revolutionary War: Samuel Adams and Joseph Warren form the first Committee of Correspondence
1783 - In Rocky Hill, New Jersey, US General George Washington gives his "Farewell Address to the Army"
1817 - The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, openes in Montreal, Quebec
1868 - Time zone: New Zealand officially adopses a standard time to be observed nationally, and is perhaps the first country to do so
1889 - North and South Dakota are admitted as the 39th and 40th U.S. states
1920 - In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920
1936 - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is established
1947 - In California, Designer Howard Hughes performs the maiden flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built (flight lasted only eight minutes)
1948 - U.S. presidential election, 1948: Harry S. Truman defeats Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency
1959 - Ice Hockey: After being struck in the face with a puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returns to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play
1960 - Penguin Books is found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley’s Lover case
1962 - The Cuban Missile Crisis ends as President John F. Kennedy announces that Soviet nuclear missiles are to be withdrawn from Cuba
1976 - U.S. presidential election, 1976: Jimmy Carter defeats incumbent Gerald Ford to become first candidate from deep south to win since the Civil War
1995 - The Hubble space telescope takes a picture of a gas plume 7000 lightyears away from Earth that appears to contain an image of Jesus of Nazareth to many people
2000 - The first crew arrives at the International Space Station
Births
1667 - James Sobieski, Crown Prince of Poland (d. 1737)
1734 - Daniel Boone, frontiersman (d. 1820)
1795 - James Knox Polk, 11th President of the United States (d. 1849)
1815 - George Boole, mathematician and philosopher (d.1864)
1865 - Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States (d. 1923)
1913 - Burt Lancaster, actor (d. 1994)
1914 - Ray Walston, actor (d. 2001)
Deaths
1944 - Thomas Midgley, chemist and inventor
1950 - George Bernard Shaw, playwright
1966 - Peter Debye, chemist
2004 - Theo van Gogh, Dutch filmmaker (b. 1957)
Holidays & observances
Catholicism - All Souls Day
Ancient Latvia - Dveselu Diena held
Mexico and the United States - Day of the Dead (Spanish: El Dia de los Muertos), a Mexican and Mexican-American celebration of dead ancestors
01 November 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1512 - The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time
1521 - The Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, was first navigated by Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation voyage
1530 - An approximated 400,000 die after the Netherlands' dikes fail
1604 - At Whitehall Palace in London, the William Shakespeare tragedy Othello is presented for the first time
1611 - At Whitehall Palace in London, William Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time
1683 - The British crown colony of New York is subdivided into 12 counties
1755 - Lisbon earthquake: In Portugal, Lisbon is destroyed by a massive earthquake and tsunami, killing between sixty and ninety thousand people
1800 -In the United States, the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House). Construction was completed
1848 - In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with Boston University School of Medicine), opens
1859 - The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse was lighted for the first time. Its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for nineteen miles
1861 - American Civil War: US President Abraham Lincoln appoints George McClellan as commander of the Union Army, replacing the aged General Winfield Scott
1870 - In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast
1894 - Nicholas II becomes the new Tsar of Russia after his father, Alexander III, dies
1896 - A picture showing the naked breasts of a woman appears in National Geographic magazine for the first time
1963 - The Arecibo Observatory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, with the largest radio telescope ever constructed, officially opened
Births
1798 - Sir Henry Lee Guinness, brewer
1871 - Stephen Crane, writer (d. 1900)
1923 - Gordon R. Dickson, science fiction author (d. 2001)
1923 - Victoria de los Angeles, soprano
Deaths
1979 - Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States
1983 - Anthony van Hoboken, musicologist
1985 - Phil Silvers, actor, comedian
1999 - Walter Payton, American football player
Holidays
Catholicism - Holy Day of Obligation All Saints Day. Holiday in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, Italy, Lithuania and Croatia.
Lá Samhna the traditional first day of Winter in modern Ireland, see also Samhain
Mexico and United States - The Day of the Dead
Shake, Rattle, & Roll Redux
From the PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT e-mail:
PRINCIPAL EARTHQUAKE PARAMETERS
_______________________________
Magnitude : 3.57 ML (A minor quake)
Event Date & Time : 11/01/2004 02:02:33 PM PST
11/01/2004 22:02:33 UTC
Coordinates : 37.0745 N, 122.2770 W
: (37 deg. 4.47 min. N, 122 deg. 16.62 min. W)
Depth : 5.9 miles ( 9.6 km)
Location Quality : Fair
15 km ( 9 miles) WSW (245 degrees) of Boulder Creek, CA
17 km ( 11 miles) W (267 degrees) of Ben Lomond, CA
20 km ( 12 miles) W (277 degrees) of Felton, CA
24 km ( 15 miles) W (276 degrees) of Scotts Valley, CA
25 km ( 16 miles) WNW (297 degrees) of Santa Cruz, CA
40 km ( 25 miles) SW (214 degrees) of Sunnyvale, CA
We missed this one…
31 October 2004
Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled…
…pronunciation?!?!?!
Ever wonder where Peter Piper and his habañeros came from? Wonder no longer… (My brain hurts!!)
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1864 - Nevada is admitted as the 36th U.S. state
1892 - Arthur Conan Doyle publishes The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
1926 - Magician Harry Houdini dies of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured
1936 - The Boy Scouts of the Philippines was formed.
1938 - Great Depression: In an effort to try restore investor confidence, the New York Stock Exchange unveils a fifteen-point program aimed to upgrade protection for the investing public
1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain ends - The United Kingdom prevents Germany from invading Great Britain
1941 - After 14 years of work, drilling is completed on Mount Rushmore
2000 - The last Multics machine was shut down
Births
1345 - King Fernando of Portugal (d. 1383)
1391 - King Duarte of Portugal (d. 1438)
1632 - Johannes Vermeer, painter (he was actually baptised on that day, his birthdate is not confirmed) (d. 1675)
1795 - John Keats, British poet (d. 1821)
1860 - Juliette Low, founder of the Girl Scouts
1887 - Chiang Kai-shek, Nationalist Chinese leader (d. 1975)
1920 - Dick Francis, novelist
1922 - Barbara Bel Geddes, actress
1922 - Illinois Jacquet, musician
1930 - Michael Collins, American astronaut
1931 - Dan Rather, American news anchor
1936 - Michael Landon, actor (d. 1991)
1947 - Frank Shorter, marathon runner
Deaths
1448 - John VIII Palaeologus, Byzantine Emperor
1926 - Harry Houdini, magician
1984 - Indira Gandhi, prime minister of India
1986 - Robert S. Mulliken, American physicist, chemist
1987 - Joseph Campbell, American author and expert on mythology
1999 - Greg Moore, CART driver (b. 1975)
Holidays & observances
Halloween
Samhain (an approximate date)
30 October 2004
Want To See More GPS Hardware for Macs?
Sign GPSCity’s petition. Even if you’re not into GPS, take the time to sign.
You, Too, Have the Right to Vote in the Manner of Your Choosing
From the EFF:
“Electronic voting machines will be used in 10 California counties during the next election. However, every California voter has the right to request a paper ballot, which can be used in a recount and verified for accuracy by each voter. Some election officials are trying to keep this choice a secret, so we want to make sure that you know about the availability of paper ballots. If you live in Alameda, Merced, Napa, Orange, Plumas, Riverside, San Bernardino, Santa Clara, Shasta, Tehama, please pass this to your friends and neighbors.”
For further details, check out the Paper or Plastic 2004 Web site.
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1470 - Henry VI of England returns to the throne after Earl of Warwick defeats Yorkists in battle
1864 - Helena, Montana is founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch"
1905 - Tsar Nicholas II of Russia grants Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly
1925 - John Logie Baird creates Britain's first television transmitter.
1938 - Orson Welles broadcasts his radio play of H. G. Wells's The War of the Worlds, causing a nationwide panic
1975 - Prince Juan Carlos becomes King of Spain after dictator Francisco Franco concedes that he is too ill to govern
Births
1735 - John Adams, American revolutionary leader and President of the United States (d. 1826)
1882 - William Halsey, Jr, American admiral (d. 1959)
1939 - Grace Slick, singer with Jefferson Airplane
1945 - Henry Winkler, actor
1951 - Harry Hamlin, actor
Death
1910 - Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross
1968 - Rose Wilder Lane, author, reporter (b. 1886)
1988 - John Houseman, actor, director, teacher
2000 - Steve Allen, comedian, author, and composer
Maybe the Irish Haven’t Been Imagining the Little People After All…
Lots of interest in the latest anthropological discovery, Homo floresiensis. One of the very recent articles speculates the little guys may have been alive as little as 500 years ago…
Homo floresiensis
Remains of New Species of Hobbit-Sized Human Found
“Hobbit” Discovered: Tiny Human Ancestor Found in Asia
Small relatives may add layer to human history
‘Hobbit’ Skeleton Could Rewrite Prehistory
Quarry Logan Watsonville
Whilst poking around for details of our little earthquake this morning, I stumbled onto a littler event on Thursday past in the general Watsonville area. According to the USGS, this 2.1 magnitude “event” may have been a quarry explosion.
There was nothing to be found searching Google News on this intriguing tidbit, but searching the Web with Google came up with some interesting things (and a lot of hits, besides):
Southern Pacific Daylight Limiteds & GS2-5 Lime Locomotives
Photo, Southern Pacific 4-8-4 #4458 at Logan
The Pajaro River Watershed
Shake, Rattle, and Roll
From the Preliminary Earthquake Report:
“A minor earthquake occurred at 9:55:16 AM (PDT) on Saturday, October 30, 2004. The magnitude 3.4 event occurred 15 km (9 miles) WSW of Boulder Creek, CA. The hypocentral depth is 8 km (5 miles).”
There was a thump sound (no movement, at least that I felt), and then just a second or two of rattle. I (and Bob, too) figured it was further excitement from Parkfield, or maybe Paso Robles. We were amazed to discover it was only 9 miles away; both of us would have figured something so close would have been far more exciting...
We’re still waiting for the CISN shake map…
29 October 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
437 - Valentinian III, Western Roman Emperor, marries Eudoxia, daughter of his cousin Theodosius II, Eastern Roman Emperor in Constantinople. This unifies the two branches of the House of Theodosius
1061 - Emperor disposes of bishop Cadalus & Pope Honorius II
1422 - Charles VII of France becomes king in succession to his father Charles VI of France
1618 - English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh is beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England
1675 - Leibniz makes the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral
1787 - Mozart's opera Don Giovanni receives its first performance in Prague.
1792 - Mt. Hood (Oregon) is named after the British naval officer Alexander Arthur Hood by Lt. William E. Broughton who spotted the mountain near the mouth of the Willamette River
1863 - Sixteen countries meeting in Geneva agree to form the International Red Cross
1886 - The ticker-tape parade is invented in New York City when office workers spontaneously throw ticker tape into the streets as the Statue of Liberty is dedicated
1929 - Great Depression begins: Black Tuesday - The New York Stock Exchange crashes, ushering in what will be a world-wide economic crisis
1969 - The first computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET
1988 - In Japan, the Sega Megadrive is released for the first time
1991 - The American Galileo spacecraft makes its closest approach to 951 Gaspra, becoming the first probe to visit an asteroid
1998 - Space Shuttle Discovery blasts-off with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space. He became the first American to orbit Earth on February 20, 1962
Births
1740 - James Boswell, biographer of Samuel Johnson (d. 1795)
1921 - Bill Mauldin, cartoonist
1923 - Carl Djerassi, chemist, inventor of the birth control pill
1929 - Leon Redbone, musician
1945 - Melba Moore, singer, actress
1947 - Richard Dreyfuss, actor
Deaths
1618 - Sir Walter Raleigh, explorer (executed)
28 October 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
312 - Battle of Milvian Bridge: Constantine the Great defeats the forces of Maxentius. Roman emporer Constantine converts himself and the empire to Christianity
1492 - Christopher Columbus lands in Cuba
1868 - Thomas Edison applied for his first patent, the electric vote recorder
1886 - In New York Harbor, US President Grover Cleveland dedicates the Statue of Liberty
1918 - Czechoslovakia gains its independence from Austria-Hungary
1936 - US President Franklin Roosevelt rededicates the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary
1942 - The Alaska Highway is completed
1958 - Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli becomes Pope and takes the name Pope John XXIII
1962 - Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he had ordered the removal of Soviet missile bases in Cuba
1965 - In St. Louis, Missouri, the 630-foot-tall catenarian steel Gateway Arch is completed
1970 - land speed record set by Gary Gabelich in a rocket powered automobile called the Blue Flame
1986 - The centennial of the Statue of Liberty's dedication is celebrated in New York Harbor
Births
1718 - Ignacije Szentmartony, Croatian geographer (d. 1793)
1793 - Eliphalet Remington, firearm manufacturer (d. 1861)
1846 - Georges Auguste Escoffier, chef
1903 - Evelyn Waugh, novelist (d. 1966)
1914 - Dr. Jonas Salk, scientist, discoverer of polio vaccine (d. 1995)
1937 - Charlie Daniels, musician
1944 - Dennis Franz, actor
1964 - Paul Wylie, figure skating champion
Deaths
1704 - John Locke, philosopher
1794 - John Smeaton, civil engineer
Holidays & Observances
Feast day of Saint Jude Thaddaeus
Greece - National Day
Czech Republic - Independence Day (Founding Day)
27 October 2004
Fairest of Them All
“[when the Red Sox win the World Series] It is said that an entire generation of Sox fans, holding on for just this ending, will drift off forever, a contented smile on their faces as they go. It’s just as likely, and a lot less morbid, that an entire generation of Sox fans will be conceived the night the Sox win the Series.”
LOL!!
Read the entire John Donovan piece on SI.com.
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1904 - First New York City subway line opens; system becomes biggest in United States of America, and one of biggest in world
1946 - First commercially-sponsored television program airs (Geographically Speaking, sponsored by Bristol-Myers)
1981 - The Soviet submarine U 137 ran aground on the east coast of Sweden.
1986 - The London Stock Exchange is deregulated and computerisation is introduced for the first time
1993 - Fires in five counties in southern California destroy more than 500 homes and cause an estimate 1 billion USD of damage within a week
Births
1466 (assumed) - Erasmus of Rotterdam, Dutch writer and philosopher
1728 - James Cook, British naval captain and explorer. (d. 1779)
1744 - Mary Moser, English painter and one of only two female founder members of the Royal Academy (d. 1819)
1782 - Niccolò Paganini, Italian violinist and composer (d. 1840)
1811 - Isaac Singer, inventor of the sewing machine (d. 1875)
1914 - Dylan Thomas, British poet and writer (d. 1953)
1932 - Sylvia Plath, American poet (d. 1963)
1953 - Robert Picardo, actor (Star Trek: Voyager)
1966 - Matt Drudge, Internet personality
Deaths
939 - King Athelstan I of England
1271 - Hugh IV, Duke of Burgundy
1439 - Albert II of Habsburg, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire
1449 - Ulugh Beg, Timurid astronomer
1505 - Ivan III of Russia
1968 - Lise Meitner, German physicist
1975 - Rex Stout, novelist
1980 - Steve Peregrin Took, singer/song writer
1990 - Xavier Cugat, musician
Holidays
Feast day of Saint Frumentius, who introduced Christianity into Ethiopia
Independence Day in Turkmenistan (1991)
Independence Day in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (1979)
26 October 2004
Total Lunar Eclipse: October 27-28, 2004
From Fred Espenak, at NASA’s GSFC (Goddard Space Flight Center)
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
740 - An earthquake strikes Constantinople, causing much damage and death.
1640 - The Treaty of Ripon is signed, restoring peace between Scotland and Charles I of England
1863 - The Football Association is formed
1863 - International Federation of the Red Cross is formed
1881 - The “Gunfight” at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona
1905 - Norway becomes independent from Sweden
1936 - The first generator goes online at Boulder Dam
1947 - The Maharaja of Kashmir agrees to allow his kingdom to join India
1948 - Killer smog settles into Donora, Pennsylvania
1994 - Jordan and Israel sign a peace treaty
1994 - Announcement of Andrew Wiles’ correct proof of Fermat's Last Theorem
1999 - Britain's House of Lords votes to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament
Births
1685 - Domenico Scarlatti, Italian composer
1854 - C. W. Post, cereal entrepreneur
1911 - Mahalia Jackson, gospel singer (d. 1972)
1911 - Sorley MacLean, Scots Gaelic poet
1932 - Eidegenegen Eidagaruwo, first Angam Baby
1961 - Dylan McDermott, actor (The Practice)
Deaths
1947 - Canon Edwin Sidney Savage, Rector of Hexham Abbey and St Bartholomew the Great
1972 - Igor Sikorsky, helicopter pioneer
1999 - Hoyt Axton, musician
On This Day
From the BBC:
1994: Israel and Jordan make peace
1956: Fighting spreads in Hungary revolution
25 October 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1415 - The army of Henry V of England defeats the French army at the Battle of Agincourt
1662 - King Charles II of England sells Dunkirk to France
1861 - The Toronto Stock Exchange was created
1922 - The Dáil of the Irish Free State approves the constitution of the new state, formally bringing it into being
1924 - First appearance of Little Orphan Annie
Births
1825 - Johann Strauss II, composer (d. 1899)
1838 - Georges Bizet, composer (d. 1875)
1888 - Richard E. Byrd, explorer (d. 1957)
1912 - Minnie Pearl, comedian, singer (d. 1996)
1924 - Billy Barty, actor (d. 2000)
1928 - Marion Ross, actress
1935 - Russell Schweickart, astronaut
1942 - Helen Reddy, singer
1944 - Jon Anderson, singer (Yes)
1954 - Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 United States Olympic gold medal-winning ice hockey team
Deaths
625 - Pope Boniface V
1400 - Geoffrey Chaucer, poet
1495 - King John II of Portugal
1986 - Forrest Tucker, actor
1992 - Roger Miller, musician, composer
1993 - Vincent Price, actor
1999 - Payne Stewart, golfer
2002 - Richard Harris, actor
Holidays
Feast day of Saint Crispin
Mood Music
Driving home from Marisa’s funeral Saturday, after I got out of range of KUSC, Joan Osborne’s “One of Us” (from Relish) kept me company, when the sounds weren’t turned off altogether.
Other than it’s on my Desert Island list, what’s the attraction? Fit my mood, I guess: seemingly out of place with the rest of the album; asking questions, questions, questions...
On 11 June 2004, “A music fan (Brooklyn, NY)” posted a review of Relish on amazon.com: “Ray Charles died today, and I immediately thought of “Spider Web,” one of the many amazing songs on “Relish.” Forget “One of Us.” Please, please forget “One of Us,” and listen to this album with fresh ears. It’s basically about doing drugs, having amazing sex, feeling great and getting down and dirty,…”
Ah, yes, the basis of the well-lived life: drugs, sex, turning one’s own self on… Sign me up. NOT.
“One of Us” makes the album.
Frankly, “Spider Web” is notable mostly for the Ray Charles connection. That’s not completely true, actually. The premise, Ray’s gaining his sight chases away his musical muse, is certainly a different twist. And the percussion work is pretty cool!
I didn’t like “Man in the Long Black Coat” when Greg Lake sang it; time and gentler treatment haven’t improved it any.
You’ve gotta love a song that, in the middle of all that down and dirty sex and drugs, sounds suspiciously like our girl’s gotten that old-time (and I do mean old, not, er, nouveau, Bible-thumping, fer instance) religion. Guess it’s hard to concentrate on sex and drugs when you have to think about God’s name and face…
![[Relish album cover]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s04RfHYepSS4OfI5eTbzKOEm6U1DNLGgOQ-SzEPUjXfcABfPUcAliWMO_gWcqvgr0TTUtR8sqTPqVsPeaWD6k9-YL_VRo7cft94PpkJcOOiZi205xCSC-sr1pHswQG=s0-d)
24 October 2004
Shorty
Spent Friday night at my Dad’s. Being the considerate host that he is, he made sure there were Dr Peppers chilling in the reefer; I just wasn't expecting cute little cans!
![[shorty Dr Pepper Can]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_u9nghqL6veIkEkF67vJaBZcP4ZkEIBquCqEShP5dB-AcyMeo9R1gZDBcw4eRaQrHnkgxdqt1S-UDX9metWaG1tsoQIP56Crd-qeBTxxZO0hdoNX2pId7Rduw=s0-d)
Spiritual Father of Cuba
Today’s Saint of the Day, St Anthony Claret (I won’t divulge what we called him when we were younger…), AmericanCathlic.org:
“He was appointed to head the much-neglected archdiocese of Santiago in Cuba. He began its reform by almost ceaseless preaching and hearing of confessions, and suffered bitter opposition mainly for stamping out concubinage and giving instruction to black slaves. A hired assassin (whose release from prison Anthony had obtained) slashed open his face and wrist. Anthony succeeded in getting the would-be assassin’s death sentence commuted to a prison term. His solution for the misery of Cubans was family-owned farms producing a variety of foods for the family’s own needs and for the market. This invited the enmity of the vested interests who wanted everyone to work on a single cash crop — sugar. Besides all his religious writings are two books he wrote in Cuba: Reflections on Agriculture and Country Delights.”
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1360 - The Treaty of Brétigny was ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War
1861 - First transcontinental telegraph line completed, ending the Pony Express
1998 - Launch of Deep Space 1 comet/asteroid mission
Births
1632 - Anton van Leeuwenhoek, microbiologist (d.1723)
1939 - F. Murray Abraham, Acadamy Award-winning actor
Deaths
996 - King Hugh Capet of France
1672 - John Webb, architect
1948 - Franz Lehár, composer
1972 - Jackie Robinson, member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
1991 - Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek series
1997 - Don Messick, voice actor
23 October 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
4004 BC - The universe was created, according to the Ussher-Lightfoot Calendar
1739 - War of Jenkins' Ear starts: British Prime Minister, Robert Walpole, reluctantly declares war on Spain
1855 - Kansas Free State forces set up a competing government under their Topeka, Kansas constitution, which outlaws slavery in the United States territory
1911 - First use of aircraft in war: an Italian pilot takes off from Libya to survey Turkish lines during the Turco-Italian War
1915 - Woman's suffrage: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women march up Fifth Avenue to demand the right to vote
1956 - Thousands of Hungarians protest Soviet influence and occupation in their nation (Hungarian Revolution is put down on November 4)
1958 - Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of comic strip characters The Smurfs
1992 - Akihito becomes the first Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil
2001 - The Provisional Irish Republican Army of Northern Ireland commences disarmament after peace talks encouraged by American President Bill Clinton
Births
1762 - Samuel Morey, inventor (d. 1843)
1817 - Pierre Athanase Larousse, lexicographer and encyclopedist
1875 - Gilbert N. Lewis, American chemist
1892 - Gummo Marx, actor, comedian, Marx Brothers (d. 1977)
1905 - Felix Bloch, Swiss physicist
1909 - Zellig Harris, American linguist
1923 - Frank Sutton, actor (Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.) (d. 1974)
1925 - Johnny Carson, American television host
1935 - Chi Chi Rodriguez, golf champion
1940 - Pelé, Brazilian football player
1942 - Michael Crichton, writer
1959 - Weird Al Yankovic, American musical parodist
1962 - Doug Flutie, Canadian football and American football quarterback
Deaths
1939 - Zane Grey, author
1950 - Al Jolson, singer, actor
Holidays
Chemistry: Mole Day
On This Day
From the BBC:
1956: Hungarians rise up against Soviet rule
2001: IRA begins decommissioning weapons
22 October 2004
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
362 - The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch is destroyed in a mysterious fire
1383 - The 1383-1385 Crisis in Portugal: A period of civil war and anarchy began when King Fernando died without a male heir to the Portuguese throne
1746 - The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) receives its charter
1797 - 3,200 feet above Paris, Andre-Jacques Garnerin makes the first recorded parachute jump
1836 - Sam Houston is inaugurated as the first President of the Republic of Texas
1924 - Toastmasters International was founded
1964 - Canada: A Mult-Party Parliamentary Committee selects a design to become the new official Flag of Canada
1968 - Apollo program: Apollo 7 safely splashes down in the Atlantic Ocean after orbiting the Earth 163 times
1976 - Red dye #4 is banned by the US Food and Drug Administration after it is discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada
1989 - Jacob Wetterling is abducted in St. Joseph, Minnesota
Births
1071 - William IX, Duke of Aquitaine and vernacular poet
1903 - Curly Howard, actor, member of the Three Stooges (d. 1952)
1963 - Brian Boitano, figure skating champion
Deaths
1906 - Paul Cezanne, painter
1973 - Pau Casals, Catalan virtuoso cellist and conductor
Holidays
International Stuttering Awareness Day
21 October 2004
Sierra town seeks to ease family’s agony
On MercuryNews.com today:
Sierra town seeks to ease family’s agony
20 October 2004
I Had NO Idea There Were So Many BoSox Fans in Boulder Creek
We stepped out to the brewery for dinner tonight, and, not surprisingly, the final ALCS game was on in the bar. We heard one pro-Yankee comment all night. When the game ended, the crowd roared, and almost everyone in the place applauded. Good job, Boston!!
CNN has this to say: Boston Red Sox make history
And He’s Still Wearing #80!
From seattlepi.com today:
KIRKLAND, Wash. -- The Seahawks didn't bring the greatest receiver in NFL history up from Oakland to use him as a decoy or to set an example in the locker room.
Mike Holmgren has a clue...
Today in History
From wikipedia.org:
Events
1803 - United States Senate ratifies the Louisiana Purchase
1973 - The Sydney Opera House opens
1991 - Oakland Hills firestorm kills 25 and destroys 3469 homes and apartments
Births
1632 - Sir Christopher Wren, architect (d. 1723)
1905 - Frederic Dannay (Ellery Queen), mystery novelist (d. 1982)
1935 - Jerry Orbach, actor (Law & Order)
19 October 2004
First Fig
Edna St Vincent Millay (1920)
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends--
It gives a lovely light!
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