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Dec 20, 2017 Week: 51\ Day: 355
86004 Today: H 54° \ L 23°
Average Sky Cover: 5%
Wind ave.: 4mph\Gusts: 13mph
Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 61°[1917] Record Low: -12°[1924]
Dec Averages: 50°\23°
Dec Records: H: 68° (1950) L: -23° (1990)
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Quote of the Day
In life, as in chess, forethought wins.
Charles Buxton
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Observances Today
International Human Solidarity Day
Games Day Link
Mudd Day
National Sangria Day Link
Poet Laureat Day
World Day of Prayer and Action for Children Link
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Observances This Week
14-28: Halcyon Days
16-24: Posadas
17-23: Saturnalia
Gluten-free Baking Week Link
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Today’s Significant US Historical Events
Today’s Significant International Historical Events
1100’s
1192 Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna
1500’s
1522 Suleiman the Magnificent accepts surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. Eventually settle in Malta, become known as the Knights of Malta.
1600’s
1699 Russian Tsar Peter the Great ordered Russian New Year changed from Sept 1 to Jan 1
1700’s
1790 1st successful US cotton mill to spin yarn in Pawtucket, Rhode Island
1800’s
1812 "Grimm's Fairy Tales" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is published
1880 NY's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way"
1883 Intl cantilever railway bridge opens at Niagara Falls
1892 Pneumatic automobile tire patented, Syracuse, NY
1893 1st state anti-lynching statute approved, in Georgia
1900’s
1919 Canadian National Railways established (N America's longest, 50,000 KM)
1919 US House of Representatives restricts immigration
1920 Bob Hope becomes an American citizen
1946 "It's a Wonderful Life" American film directed by Frank Capra, starring James Stewart and Donna Reed, premieres in New York
1950 "Harvey" starring James Stewart premieres in New York
1955 Cardiff is proclaimed the capital city of Wales
1956 Montgomery, Alabama removes race-based seat assignments on its buses
1957 Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service
1963 Berlin Wall opens for 1st time to West Berliners
1967 Ian Anderson & Glenn Cornick form rock group Jethro Tull
1968 The People's Democracy (PD) announce that its members will undertake a protest march from Belfast to Derry beginning 1 January 1969
1969 Peter, Paul & Mary's "Leaving on a Jet Plane" reaches #1
1971 First preview issue of "Ms" magazine is published in the US launched by Gloria Steinem
1974 Ethiopia becomes socialist one-party state
1974 "The Godfather Part II", directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, is released (Academy Awards Best Picture 1975)
1981 Harry Krieger and Tom Eyen's musical "Dreamgirls" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for 1522 performances
1984 33 unknown Bach keyboard works found in Yale library
1985 Sportscaster Howard Cosell retires from television sports after 20 years with ABC
1987 Dona Paz ferry sinks after crash with oil tanker Vector in Philippine waters, 4,386 die in world's deadliest peacetime maritime disaster
1991 A Missouri court sentences the Palestinian militant Zein Isa and his wife Maria to death for the honor killing of their daughter Palestina.
2000’s
2005 US District Court Judge John E. Jones III rules against mandating the teaching of "intelligent design" in his ruling of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.
2005 The first same sex civil partnerships in Scotland are celebrated
2007 Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II becomes the oldest ever monarch of the United Kingdom, surpassing Queen Victoria, who lived for 81 years, 7 months and 29 days.
2007 The painting Portrait of Suzanne Bloch (1904), by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, was stolen from the São Paulo Museum of Art, along with O Lavrador de Café, by the major Brazilian modernist painter Candido Portinari.
2012 Apple is denied a patent for mobile pinch-to-zoom gestures by the US patent authorities
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My Rambling Thoughts
Picked up some last-minute Christmas gifts. Had to stop at the post office to mail a package. Dumb choice on my part. Line at the main post office had 15 people ahead of me. When I finally finished, the line was still at least that long. Lesson learned until next year. The good thing was that all six windows were open and all the workers were smiling and in a good mood.
Wondering if there will be a government shut down as Congress doesn’t seem that bothered, they just care about the tax cut. They will probably pass a short-term thing which is what they bitched about when the other party had control. After all the tax cut is really raising our debt, another thing that the current majority party bitched about when they were not in power.
Sent my final check for the Amazon trip this morning. Starting to get excited. Just awaiting the arrival of my new passport. The old one was full and expires before the trip. It used to be that you could make an appointment at the PO to get the renewal paperwork done. No more, has to be done on line and mailed. The PO doesn’t even have a person to look at renewals to be sure they are right. I was hoping it would be here before Christmas, but looks like that won’t happen.
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Birthdays Today
@- indicates age at death
80’s
@87- Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman,
American tennis player (US Open 1909-11),
born in Healdsburg, CA
(d. 1974)
@83- David Levine,
American artist (New York Review of Books caricatures),
born in Brooklyn
(d. 2009)
70’s
75- Larry Willis,
rock keyboardist (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
72- Peter Criss [George Peter John Criscuola],
American drummer and singer (Kiss),
born in Brooklyn
71- Uri Geller,
Israeli magician and psychic who is known for bending forks,
born in Tel Aviv, Israel
71- Dick Wolf,
American television series creator (Miami Vice, Law & Order),
born in NYC
60’s
@69- Harvey Firestone,
American industrialist and founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company ("where the rubber meets the road"),
born in Columbiana, Ohio
(d. 1938)
50’s
54- Iqbal Theba,
TV actor
(Principal Figgins: Glee)
40’s
@49 Samuel A Mudd,
doctor, convicted of giving medical aid to JW Booth
(d. 1883)
30’s
34- Jonah Hill,
American actor (Superbad, Moneyball, The Wolf of Wall Street),
born in Los Angeles
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Historical Obits Today
90’s
@95-1982 Artur Rubinstein,
pianist (My Young Years)
80’s
@85-1994 Dean Rusk,
US Sect of State (1961-69)
@84-1953 Henry Horatio Dixon,
Irish Biologist (cohesion-tension theory in plants)
@81-1997 Vincent Ciccone,
inventor (Blow-Pops candy)
70’s
@78-1971 Roy O Disney,
brother of Walt,
cerebral hemorrhage
@74-2010 Steve Landesberg,
American actor and comedian (Barney Miller),
colon cancer
60’s
@66-1968 John Steinbeck,
American author (Grapes of Wrath, Nobel Prize 1940, 1962),
heart disease
@62-1996 Carl Sagan,
American scientist, astronomer, author, (Contact),
blood disease
50’s
@57-1961 Moss Hart,
American dramatist (You can't take it with you),
heart attack
40’s
@49-1988 Max Robinson,
1st African American network TV anchor (ABC),
AIDS
30’s
@37-1973 Bobby Darin,
singer (Mack the Knife),
heart failure
20’s
@24-1812 Sacagawea,
Lemhi Shoshone interpreter for Lewis & Clark,
tribe says she died at 95
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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…☼☼☼☼
