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Almanac: Week: 19 \ Day: 123
May
Averages: 68°\35°
86004
Today: H 75°\L 43° Average Sky Cover: 55%
Wind
ave: 7mph\Gusts: 22mph
Ave. High: 63° Record High: 88°
(1947) Ave. Low: 31° Record
Low: 7° (1951)
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Observances Today:
Childhood
Depression Awareness Day Lumpy Rug Day
Constitution
Day (Poland)
Motorcycle Mass & Blessing of The Bikes Day
Constitution
Memorial Day (Japan) National
Infertility Survival Day
Day of the Holy Cross (Mexico)
National Special-abled Pets Day
National
Two Different Colored Shoes Day National Two Different Colored Shoes Day
Garden
Meditation Day Paranormal
Day Public Radio Day
Hug
Your Cat Day Teacher
Day
International
Baby Lost Mother's Day World
Laughter Day
Lemonade
Day World
Press Freedom Day
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Observances This Week:
1-3
Toad Suck Daze
1-7 Choose Privacy Week
2-10 National Tourism Week
3-9 Be Kind To Animals Week National
Anxiety & Depression Awareness Week
Children's Mental Health Week National
Correctional Officer's Week
Dating and Life Coach Recognition Week National
Family Week
Drinking Water Week National
Hug Holiday Week
Dystonia Awareness Week National
Pet Week
Flexible Work Arrangement Week National
Post Card Week
Goodwill Industries Week National
Raisin Week
Kids Win Week NAOSH
Week
North
American Occupational Safety & Health Week
Public
Service Recognition Week
National Alcohol & Drug Related Birth Defects Awareness Week
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Quote of the Day
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US Historical Highlights for Today
1715 - Edmund Halley
observes total eclipse phenomenon "Baily's Beads"
1765 - 1st US
medical college opens in Philadelphia
1802 - Washington,
D.C. is incorporated as a city
1845 - 1st
African American lawyer (Macon B Allen) admitted to the bar (Mass)
1861 - Lincoln asks for 42,000 Army Volunteers
& another 18,000 seamen
1863 - Battle
of Fredricksburg, VA (Marye's Heights)
1901 - Fire
destroyed 1,700 buildings in Jacksonville, Florida
1915 - John
McCrae writes the poem "In Flanders Fields"
1926 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Sinclair Lewis
(Arrowsmith)
1934 - the Orndorff Hotel
was scheduled for demolition in Tucson.
1937 - Margaret
Mitchell wins Pulitzer Prize for "Gone With the Wind"
1943 - Pulitzer
prize awarded to Upton Sinclair (Dragon's Teeth)
1944 - Meat rationing ends in US
1948 - Pulitzer
prize awarded to James Michener & Tennessee Williams
1954 - Pulitzer
prize awarded to Charles A Lindbergh & John Patrick
1965 - Pulitzer prize awarded to Irwin Unger
(Greenback Era)
1971 - "All
Things Considered" premieres on 112 National Public Radio stations
1971 - Nixon administration arrests 13,000 anti-war
protesters in 3 days
1976 - Pulitzer
prize awarded to Saul Bellow (Humboldt's Gift)
1978 – 1st
unsolicited bulk commercial e-mail ("spam") is sent by a
Digital Equipment Corporation marketing
representative to every
ARPANET address on the US west coast
1999 - Oklahoma
City, Oklahoma is slammed by an F5 tornado killing 42 people,
injuring 665, and causing $1 billion in
damage. The tornado was one of 66
from the 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak.
2000 - The
sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and
the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet.
2001 - United
States loses its seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission
for the
first time since the commission was formed in 1947.
2003 - New
Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses.
« »
Today’s World Events through History
1374 BC - Solar
eclipse (2m07s) seen at Ugarit by Mesopotamian astromoners
"On the day of the new moon, in the
month of Hiyar, the Sun was put to
shame, and went down in the daytime, with
Mars in attendance."
1493 -Pope divides the
"new world" between the Spanish and the Portuguese.
1621 - Francis
Bacon accused of bribery
1810 - English
poet Lord Byron swims the Hellespont (modern day Dardanelles)
1837 - The
University of Athens is founded
1841 - New
Zealand proclaimed a colony independent of New South Wales
1867 - The
Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island
1947 - New post-war Japanese constitution goes into
effect.
1952 - 1st landing by an airplane at geographic
North Pole
1956 - A new range of mountains discovered in
Antarctica (2 over 13,000')
1960 - The Anne
Frank House opens in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
1967 - African American
students seize finance building at Northwestern University
2013 - Aorun
zhaoi, a Theropod dinosaur, dating from 161 million years ago,
discovered in China
« » « »
♫ Birthdays Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthday’s Today
« » « »
My Rambling Thoughts
Good weather day to spend on the deck. Light breeze, warm weather,
NICE
One of my neighbors loaded up his vehicle with cases of beer and
said he was heading for a river trip on the Verde River. Sounded like a great
way to spend the weekend.
Really want to watch the fight tonight, but don’t want to pay $100
to watch it on TV. Looking for some place in town that is showing it. I’ll see
what happens. I remember driving from Boulder to Denver to watch the big
Ali/Frazier fight on a ‘big screen’ at some venue in town. It was an arena and
they had a fairly big pull-down screen like we all had for showing home slides…back
in the day. It was a great experience, especially thanks to Dick Cavett who did
several weeks of build up to the fight. I was in college and part of the draw
was Conservative Frazier fighting Rebel Ali. This is fight is the current
version of good (Pac Man) v evil (Mayweather) with Manny a congressman from the
Philippines and Mayweather a domestic violence convict. I guess the fight will
happen, even if I don’t pay my hard earned money to watch it.
« » « »
Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
In
this teaser you have been given two definitions. Each pair of definitions is
for two unrelated words. Your task is to discover what these two words are. In
the answer to the second word, I took the first word, but changed one of its
letters to make a completely different word. (i.e. table - fable)
1. An instrument used to measure time - an outer garment.
2. An instrument used in woodworking for smoothing wood - a shallow dish used
for eating food.
3. A deep basin used to hold liquids or food - to utter a loud prolonged cry.
4. A position of authority - a group of singers.
« » « »
Found on You Tube with some
relevance to today
« » « »
…Cat
Facts…
The two oldest cats on record lived to 38 and 34 years old, both
were owned by the same owner and lived off a diet of bacon, eggs, broccoli and
coffee.
Cats are one of the only animals to domesticate themselves and
approach humans on their own terms.
…Cool
Facts…
The LifeStraw is a simple and compact, yet powerful water
filtration system which may be the solution to the world's water emergency.
All employees of Ben & Jerry’s get to take home 3 free pints
of ice cream every single day!
The world's first genetically-engineered bioluminescent
(glow-in-the-dark) house plants have been created and could eventually be used
as a functional light source.
…Flagstaff,
AZ History…
100 YEARS AGO-1915
~Feed seeds have been sent by Congressman Carl Hayden to the Board
of Trade. They may be secured at the office of the Board of Supervisors.
Flagstaff’s new hotel, The Ideal, is located two blocks from the
Post Office. Every room in the new building has new fixtures with hot and cold
running water.
Peter Michaelbach has put in a 10-foot dam at his winter
headquarters. It will cover 30 acres with water when filled.
~Sheet celluloid and Mohair top dressing for auto tops can now be
purchased at W. H. Switzer’s Hardware Shop.
…Harper’s
Index…
37--Percentage of white U.S. Protestants who say they sympathize
with Palestinians
52--Of black U.S. Protestants
57--Of religiously unaffiliated Americans
…Linguistic
Facts…
Whereas English lags behind in the number of native speakers, it
is by far the world's most commonly studied language. Overall, more people
learn English than French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German and Chinese
combined.
Some languages have only recently gained attention: The number of
U.S. colleges that teach Chinese has risen by 110 percent between 1990 and
2013, making the language more accessible. During the same time, the number of
offered Russian college courses decreased by 30 percent.
Some language skills could be more rewarding than others. If you
are able to speak German, Americans could earn $128,000 extra throughout their
career, according to MIT scientist Albert Saiz. At least financially, German is
worth twice as much as French and nearly three times as much as Spanish, for
instance.
…Murphy’s
Real Laws…
14. I wonder how much
deeper the ocean would be without sponges.
15. Honk if you love
peace and quiet.
…Unusual
Fact of the Day…
“Calico” is not a breed of cat, but rather a description of fur
color. Most calicos are female, but occasionally a male kitten is born with an
extra chromosome that allows him to sport calico fur. Unfortunately, that extra
chromosome also renders him sterile.
« » « »
2 jokes
for the day
Larry tells Harry: "When I grow up, I am
going to be a policeman and follow in my father's footsteps."
"I didn't know your father was a policeman," said Harry.
"He isn't... He is a burglar." replied Larry.
« »
There is a knock on the pearly gates. Saint
Peter looks out, and a man is standing there. Saint Peter is about to begin his
interview when the man disappears. A moment later there's another knock. Saint
Peter gets the door, sees the man, opens his mouth to speak, but the man
disappears once again. "Hey, are you playing games with me?" Saint
Peter calls after him, rather annoyed.
"No" the man's distant voice replies anxiously.
"They are trying to resuscitate me."
« »
Yep, It
Really Happened
BURY,
England (UPI) - A British man caught stealing coins from a parking meter was
banned from using vending machines or any other coin-operated devices until
2020. Russell Stansfield, 38, of Derker, England, was caught stealing from a
parking meter in Bury earlier this year and he admitted in court to committing
multiple similar petty thefts on a variety of coin-operated machines. Bury
Magistrate's Court ruled this week to slap Stansfield with a Criminal
Behavioral Order banning him from using coin-operated machines, including
parking meters and vending machines, until February 2020. The only exceptions to
the order allow Stansfield to use a pay phone to call emergency services and
use a Metrolink machine to purchase a ticket, but he must immediately move away
from the machine once his ticket has been issued. The order also banned
Stansfield from any airports or airport parking lots unless he can prove he is
traveling. He was also banned from Trafford Center and its parking lot.
"It's just weird if I'm honest, there are so many things I can't do,"
Stansfield told reporters after the order was issued. "If I'm at the
hospital for hours for example I can't buy any food from the machines."
Stansfield, who apologized for his crimes and said he committed them during a
"tough time," joked the order could occasionally come in handy.
"At least I have an excuse not to pay for things," he said. "I
think I might be the only person in the country with this bizarre restriction,
maybe even the world."
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Somewhat
Useless Information
1. Largest flower
The Corpse flower, also known as Rafflesia arnoldii. The poetically named posy
boasts the largest bloom in the world, measuring in at 3-feet wide with
blossoms that weigh 15 pounds.
2. The largest animal
The blue whale. When a baby blue whale is born, it measures up to 25 feet and
weighs up to three tons. Growing to lengths of up to 100 feet and weighing up
to 200 tons, the blue whale is, in fact, the biggest animal known to live on
Earth.
3. The heaviest known organism
In Utah's Fishlake National Forest in Utah there lives a massive grove of trees
called Pando, which is actually a single clonal colony of a male quaking aspen.
Nicknamed the Trembling Giant, this enormous root system is comprised of some
47,000 stems that create the grove. All together - with all of the individual
trunks, branches and leaves - this quivering organism weighs in at an estimated
6,600 short tons. It is the heaviest known organism on the planet, and perhaps
even more impressive is its age. Conservative estimates put it at 80,000 years
old, making it also the oldest living thing known to man.
4. The largest land animal
The African bush elephant holds the title for largest land animal. Reaching
lengths of up to 24 feet and gaining heights of 13 feet, these beautiful gray
beasts weigh in at 11 tons. Their trunks alone can lift objects of more than
400 pounds.
5. The largest tree by volume
The world's largest tree is a stately giant sequoia, known as General Sherman
in California's Sequoia National Park. This majestic arboreal master is about
52,500 cubic feet in volume.
6. The largest invertebrate
The aptly named colossal squid is the world's largest squid species and the
largest invertebrate on the planet. They can weigh as much as 1,000 pounds and
can grow to 30 feet long. That's a lot of calamari.
7. The tallest land animal
The title of the world's tallest mammal belongs to the giraffe. The legs of
these even-toed ungulates are taller than many people. Giraffes can grow to
heights of 19 feet and can weigh as much as 2,800 pounds. They can sprint up to
35 miles-an-hour over short distances.
8. The largest reptile
As the largest of living reptiles - as well as the largest terrestrial and
riparian predator in the world - the saltwater crocodile can reach lengths of
22 feet and can weigh in at 4,400 pounds.
9. The heaviest bird
The ostrich is the world's heaviest bird, with a weight of 350 pounds and a
height of 9 feet. While they cannot fly, they can sprint up to 43 miles an hour
and run long distance at 31 miles an hour.
10. The largest thing of all
In 1998 a single colony of honey fungus was discovered in the Malheur National
Forest in east Oregon that covered an area of 3.7 square miles, and occupied
some 2,384 acres.
The discovery was remarkable in that not only would the massive specimen be
recognized as the world's largest known organism, but based on its growth rate,
the fungus is estimated to be 2,400 years old - and maybe as old as 8,650 years
- making it one of the planet's oldest living organisms as well.
« »« »
Birthday’s Today
81 - Frankie Valli, American singer (The
Four Seasons)
80 - Ron Popeil, American inventor
69 - Greg Gumbel,
sportscaster (CBS TV, WFAN)
64 - Christopher
Cross, [Geppert], Texas, singer (Sailing, Arthur's Theme)
40 - Dulé Hill,
American actor (Psych)
30 - Cheryl Burke,
American professional dancer (DWTS)
« »
Remembered for being born today
- Pete Seeger,
folk singer (Weaver, Goodnight Irene) 1919-2014@94
- Beulah Bondi,
actress (It's a Wonderful Life) 1892-1981@91
- Mary Astor,
Quincy Illinois, actress (Maltese Falcon, Dinky) 1906-1987@81
- Golda Meir,
[Meyerson], Kiev Ukraine, 4th Israeli PM (1969-74) 1898-1978@80
- Bing Crosby,
actor and singer (White Christmas, Going My Way) 1903-1977@74
- James
Brown, soul singer\originator of funk music 1933-2006@73
- Charles Tennant,
Scottish chemist and industrialist 1768-1838@70
- Sugar Ray Robinson,
[Walter Smith], middle/welterweight boxer 1921-1989@67
- Niccolo Machiavelli,
Florence, Italy, politician/writer (Prince) 1469-1527@58
« » « »
Historical Obits Today
Jackie
Cooper, actor (Our Gang)-2011@88
Wally
Schirra, American astronaut-2007@84
John Joseph Cardinal
O'Connor, Catholic Archbishop of New York-2000@80
Robert
Alda, actor (Dan Lewis-Supertrain), stroke-1986@72
Bruce
Cabot, actor (Diamonds are Forever), cancer-1972@68
John
Winthrop, American astronomer-1779@64
David
Bruce, actor-1976@62
« » « »
Brain Teasers Answers
1. clock - cloak
2. plane - plate
3. bowl - howl
4. chair - choir
« » « »
Disclaimer: All opinions are mine…feel free to agree or
disagree.
All ‘data’ info is from the internet sites and is usually
checked with at least one other source, but I have learned that every site contains
mistakes and sadly once the information is out there, many sites simply copy it
and is therefore difficult to verify. Also for events occurring before the
Gregorian calendar was adopted [1582] the dates may not be totally accurate.
§…And That Is All
for Now…§
