8-17-15

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Almanac: Week: 34 \ Day: 229
August Averages: 78°\50°
86004 Today: H 87° \ L 54° Average Sky Cover: 50% 
Wind ave:   2mph\Gusts:  20mph
Ave. High: 80° Record High: 88°[2002] Ave. Low: 49° Record Low: 38°[1979]
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Observances Today:
Black Cat Appreciation Day Link
Cupcake Day Link  
Meaning of "Is" Day
National Thrift Shop Day 

Independence Day (Gabon-1960-from France)
Independence Day (Indonesia-1945-from Netherlands)

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Observances This Week:
15-21 National Aviation Week
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Quote of the Day 

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US Historical Highlights for Today
1590 - John White returns to Roanoke, NC to find no trace of colonists he had left there 3 years earlier
1788 - Losantville, OH (now Cincinnati) founded
1807 - Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins 1st trip up Hudson River
1858 - 1st bank in Hawaii opens
1863 - Federal batteries & ships attacked Fort Sumter in SC
1870 - 1st ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington
1891 - 1st public bathhouse with showers opens in NYC (People's Bath)
1891 - Electric self-starter for automobile patented
1903 - Joe Pulitzer donated $1 million to Columbia University;begins Pulitzer Prizes
1918 - University of Arizona campus was operating under its World War I declaration as a military establishment, and prostitution and gambling were outlawed within a ten mile zone.
1945 - Koreas divided on 38th parallel with US occupying the southern area
1957 - Richie Ashburn, fouls hit fan Alice Roth twice in same at bat 1st one breaks her nose, 2nd one hits her while she is on the stretcher
1960 - Francis Gary Powers U-2 spy trial opens in Moscow
1961 - Kennedy administration establishes Alliance for Progress
1994 - NY Central park reservoir officially named after Jackie Kennedy Onasis
1998 - Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony that he had an "improper physical relationship" with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. On the same day he admits before the nation that he "misled people" about his relationship.
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World Historical Highlights for Today
1836 - British parliament accept registration of birth/marriage/death
1883 - The first public performance of the Dominican Republic's national anthem, Himno Nacional.
1946 - George Orwell publishes "Animal Farm" in the United Kingdom
1980 - Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicized trial in Australian history
2012 - Three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot are jailed for two years
2013 - 18 people are killed in conflict between Boko Harem and Nigerian military
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Birthdays Today:
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today 

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My Rambling Thoughts
Quiet and warm Sunday.
We had a really good discussion group last night. As the media is talking about Sunni and Shia and the religious was over there we learned that it is mostly perpetrated by the media. Some of the political leaders have changed their religious affiliation as it fits their political objectives. The closest thing we have here is having a politician say he is Baptist and changing later to Methodist. Before our leaders send any more young men into war, the leaders have the responsibility to know exactly what they are getting into and how such a war will threaten our homeland. Not understanding the culture of the people of a country that is invaded will not work anymore.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
What has the head of a horse, the tail of a monkey, eyes like a chameleon, and the pouch of a kangaroo?
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Found on You Tube with some relevance to today
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…Flagstaff, AZ History…
25 YEARS AGO-1990
An explosive blast from the Cedar Avenue road-building project sent a large rock crashing through the roof of the home at 111 E. Oak Ave.

Tuesday’s heist at First Interstate Bank at 700 W. Riordan ended with a suspect being nabbed within an hour. As he fled toward Safeway with about $2,000 in cash he was pursued by the assistant bank manager. He grabbed a yellow shirt from a dumpster, then entered the Village Inn, where he shaved off his mustache in the restroom and called for a taxi to take him to the Mad Italian on 101 S. San Francisco, where he was arrested. There were already warrants for his arrest as he had escaped from a California Correctional Facility and robbed a Los Angeles bank on his way out of that town.
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…Harper’s Index…
10 – number of bird species names the Swedish Ornithological Society changed recently over concerns of racism
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…Instagram Photo of the Day… 

natgeoPhoto by @stefanounterthiner | A lonely guanaco in Torres del Paine NP, Chile. During early autumn, guanacos gathering ahead of the annual moving down to lower elevations where food will be more easily accessible during the winter months.
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…Foreign Laws Tourists Need to Know…
There are some glaringly obvious reasons why you wouldn’t want a moose on your team during a beer pong tournament, but it’s actually written law in Alaska that giving beer to a moose is illegal.
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…Nelson Mandela Inspiring Quote …
·         “I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.”
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…USA Facts…
In Utah, it is illegal to swear in front of a dead person.

A Native American tribe in South Dakota collects bottle caps left by campers, using them as currency. Several banks in the area now recognize the caps as legal tender.
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…Unusual Fact of the Day…
William S. Gray, A. Sterl Artley, and May Hill Arbuthnot were once three of the most widely read authors in the United States. They were the authors behind the Dick and Jane series for school children.
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2 jokes for the day
A child asked his father, "How were people born?" So his father said, "Adam and Eve made babies, then their babies became adults and made babies, and so on." The child then went to his mother, asked her the same question and she told him, "We were monkeys then we evolved to become like we are now." The child ran back to his father and said, "You lied to me!" His father replied, "No, your mom was talking about her side of the family."
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Teacher: "Kids, what does the chicken give you?"
Student: "Meat!"
Teacher: "Very good! Now what does the pig give you?"
Student: "Bacon!"
Teacher: "Great! And what does the fat cow give you?"
Student: "Homework!"      

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Yep, It Really Happened
APOPKA, Fla. - A Florida woman accused of leaving her young children in the car while drinking in a bar was caught on camera having her 4-year-old blow into her breathalyzer. The Apopka police officer's body camera was recording Sunday when April King, 35, handed the breathalyzer installed in her vehicle to her 4-year-old son so he could blow into it and start the car. The officer was questioning King on allegations she left the boy and his 2-year-old sibling alone in the car while she drank at Froggers Grill and Bar. King was arrested on child endangerment charges and held in lieu of $1,500 bail. King's husband, Doug King, said he had the breathalyzer installed in his wife's car after her recent stint in rehab. He said his wife has a drinking problem and he does not intend to bail her out of jail. "I think this is the best thing for her. Rehab hasn't worked and she hasn't learned anything from it," Doug King told WFTV. He said he is taking his children, who were released into the custody of a babysitter because he was out of town at the time of the incident, and moving to Oklahoma.       
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Somewhat Useless Information
The most played song on American radio during the twentieth century was You've Lost That Loving Feeling which was written by Barry Mann, Phil Spector, and Cynthia Weil.  Although recorded by different artists, the song is the only one in history to be played over 8 million times on the radio. That amounts to about 45 years if the song was played back to back!  Three songs were played 7 million times: Never My Love, Yesterday, and Stand By Me (in that order).
Source: The BMI Top 100 Songs (BMI)
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Birthdays Today
“()” indicates age at death
  95 - Maureen O'Hara [Fitzsimmons], Irish actress\singer (Miracle on 34th St)
(95) - W. Mark Felt, FBI official\Watergate "Deep Throat" d.2008
(94) - Samuel Goldwyn, [Shmuel Gelbfisz], movie producer (MGM) d.1974
(87) - Mae West,  actress\singer (She Done him Wrong), d. 1980
  72 - Robert De Niro, actor (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), born in NYC, New York
(71) - Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Sioux musician-actor d. 2007
(68) - Ted Hughes, Mytholmroyd Yorkshire, British Poet Laureate d.1998
  63 - Guillermo Vilas, Argentina, tennis champ (US Open-1977)
(59) - Glenn Corbett [Glen Edwin Rothenburg], actor (Route 66) d.1993
  55 - Sean Penn, actor (Fast Times at Ridgemont High)
(52) - Marcus Garvey, began back-to-Africa movement d.1940
 (49) - Davy Crockett, frontiersman/adventurer/politician (Alamo), d. 1836
 (47) - Francis Gary Powers, US spy (USSR captures him in 1959 U-2 incident) d.1977
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Historical Obits Today
Ira Gershwin, lyricist-1983@86
Conrad Aiken, US poet (Pulitzer)-1973@74
Pearl Bailey, actress (Landlord)/singer, heart attack-1990@72
José de San Martín, South American revolutionary hero-1850@72
Vivian Vance, actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy), cancer-1979@67
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Brain Teasers Answers
A seahorse (male)
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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

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Flagstaff, Arizona, United States
I retired in '06--at the ripe old age of 57. I enjoy blogging, photography, traveling, and living life to it's fullest.