May 16

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May 16, 2019 Week: 20 \ Day: 136

86004:   H 73° \ L 39° \ Average Sky Cover: 40% 

Nearest wildfire:  79mi. Nearest lightning: 303 mi

Wind:   6mph\Gusts: 12mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: °[]   Record Low: °[]

Mar Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

Have patience.

All things are difficult before they become easy.

Saadi

Random Tidbits

Wolves have inspired fear, awe and superstition in humans for millennia.

The earliest drawings of wolves in caves in southern Europe date from 20,000 B.C.

Vikings wore wolf skins and drank wolf blood to take on the wolf's spirit in battle.

But once again, the wolf's greatest enemy as been humankind.

Observances This Week

Ramadan 5/5-6/4

Universal Family Week: 10-16 
Food Allergy Awareness Week: 12-18 Link
National Body Piercing Week: 12-17  Link 
National Hospital Week: 12-18 Link
National Nursing Home Week: 12-18     
National Police Week:  12-18
National Return To Work Week:  12-18
National Transportation Week: 12-18 
National Women's Health Week: 12-18 Link
Reading is Fun Week:  12-18 Link 
Salute to Moms 35+ Week: 12-18 
Salvation Army Week: 12-18 
Work At Home Moms Week: 12-18

American Craft Beer Week: 13-19 Link
National Bike to Work Week: 13-19 Link  
National Etiquette Week: 13-17  
National Public Gardens Week: 13-19  Link
National Stuttering Awareness Week: 13-19 
PGA Championship: 13-19

Cannes Film Festival: 15-26

National Foul Ball Week: 16-21

Observances for Today

Biographer's Day
International Day of Light  Link
Love a Tree Day

Mimosa Day (Drink)
National Barbecue Day

National Piercing Day
National Sea Monkey Day

Honor Our LGBT Elders' Day  Link

Wear Purple for Peace Day

My Rambling Thoughts

I had a blood doctor appointment yesterday at 10a. I got there at 9:45. At 10:30 I checked with the desk. One still in front of me. I was talking to the lady next to me. She made her appointment last week because her doctor had retired. Her appointment was with my doctor at 10a, just like me. And she got called first…my appointment was at made 3 months ago. At 11a I got called. Only to discover that the full waiting room had another Charles, so back to the wait. Finally got in at 11:45. The nurse who does blood pressure said she was sorry for my wait. Then I saw the Dr. The staff gave him old notes as he said “Wow, it’s been a year, how are you doing?” I reminded him I was here 3 months ago. He shuffled through the notes and realized it was not his day. Turns out, I OK, but he belongs to ‘a group’ and when the doc in Sedona retired, they just moved all the appointments to the two Docs in Flag. He had seen 5 new patients yesterday before me. Not the Docs fault, but very poor public relations from ‘the group’.

Got my airline tickets to get to Denver to get to Moscow. It’s only a little more than a month before I take off. Getting excited. We don’t land in Denver until a little after midnight on our way home. Next step is to find a hotel after I arrive, so I can get some sleep in a bed before leaving for Flagstaff the same afternoon.

I can’t believe all the saber rattling with Iran. Did 45 have a business deal gone wrong back before the revolution. Is all this 45’s payback for the overthrow of the Shah in the late 70’s. There was a good deal involving the International community to stop Iran from making nuclear weapons. Now that has fallen apart since 45 pulled us out of the agreement. Now many in the administration are preparing for a war. Insanity reigns.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

A sundial has the fewest moving parts of any timepiece.

Which has the most?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1700’s

1792 Denmark abolishes slave trade

1800’s

1866 Charles E. Hires invents "Hires Root Beer"

1866 US Congress authorizes the nickel 5 cent piece (replaces silver half-dime)

1868 US Senate fails to impeach President Andrew Johnson by one vote

1891 George A. Hormel & Co establishes Geo. A.Hormel & Co. (Hormel Foods Corporation) in Austin, Minnesota

1900’s

1918 The Sedition Act of 1918 is passed by the U.S. Congress, making criticism of the government an imprisonable offense.

1927 US Supreme Court ruled bootleggers must pay income tax

1939 Food stamps are 1st issued

1948 Israel issues its 1st postage stamps

1951 The first regularly scheduled transatlantic flights begin between Idlewild Airport (New York International Airport) and Heathrow Airport (London), operated by El Al Israel Airlines

1958 Eli Beeding experiences 83 g deceleration on a rocket sled, New Mexico

1960 Big 4 summit in Paris collapses as USSR levels spy charges against US

1965 The Campbell Soup Company introduces SpaghettiOs under its Franco-American brand

1966 The Beach Boys release their groundbreaking album "Pet Sounds", containing hit singles "Sloop John B" and "Wouldn't It Be Nice"

1966 Stokely Carmichael named chairman of Student Nonviolent Coordinating

1986 The Seville Statement on Violence is adopted by an international meeting of scientists, convened by the Spanish National Commission for UNESCO, in Seville, Spain.

1988 US Surgeon General C Everett Koop reports nicotine as addictive as heroin

1988 US Supreme Court rules trash may be searched without a warrant

1990 Eugene Stoner and Mikhail Kalashnikov, the creators of the M16 rifle and the AK-47 rifle respectively, meet in Washington D.C.

1991 Queen Elizabeth II becomes 1st British monarch to address US congress

1993 Farmer Sugeng finds 1.2 million year old Pithecanthropus IX skull

2000’s

2004 Day of Mourning at Bykivnia forest, just outside of Kiev, Ukraine where during 1930s and early 1940s communist bolsheviks executed over 100,000 Ukrainian civilians

2007 Alex Salmond is elected First Minister of Scotland. He is first Scottish National Party leader to be elected First Minister after winning a historic victory at the Scottish general election on the 3rd May.

Birthdays Today

1801 William H. Seward,

(d. 1872: @71)

American politician (Secretary of State, 1861-69, Governor of New York, 1839-42),

born in Florida, New York

1804 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody,

 (d. 1894: @89)

American educator,

founder of first English-language kindergarten in the US,

born in Billerica, Massachusetts

1831 David Edward Hughes,

 (d. 1900: @68)

British-American inventor (microphone, teleprinter),

born in either London, England or Corwen, Wales

1832 Philip Danforth Armour,

(d. 1901: @68: pneumonia)

founder (Armour Foods)

1905 Henry Fonda,

(d. 1982: @77: heart disease)

American actor (Mr Roberts, On Golden Pond),

born in Grand Island, Nebraska

1919 Liberace

[Wladziu Valentino],

(d. 1987: 67: AIDS)

American pianist (Liberace Show, Evil Chandell-Batman),

born in West Allis, Wisconsin

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70’s

78- Aldrich Ames,

American CIA officer and spy for the Soviet Union,

born in River Falls, Wisconsin

75- Danny Trejo,

American actor

Born in LA, CA

60’s

68- Christian Lacroix,

French fashion designer,

born in Arles, France

66- Pierce Brosnan,

Irish actor (Remington Steele, Golden Eye),

born in Drogheda, Ireland

64- Debra Winger,

American actress (Terms of Endearment, Officer & Gentleman),

born in Columbus, Ohio

50’s

50- David Boreanaz,

American actor (Angel, Bones),

born in Buffalo, New York

40’s

46- Tori Spelling,

American actress and reality TV star (90210),

born in Los Angeles, California

30’s

33- Megan Fox,

American actress (Transformers) and model,

born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@96-1920 Levi P. Morton,

United States Vice President under Benjamin Harrison

80’s

@88-1952 Frances Benjamin Johnston,

early American female photographer

@86-2004 June Taylor,

American choreographer

@82-1985 Margaret Hamilton,

American actress (The Wizard of Oz)

70’s

@76-1956 Harry Burnett ‘H. B.’ Reese,

American inventor of Reese's,

dies of heart attack

@75-1703 Charles Perrault,

French author and fairy tale writer (Tales of Mother Goose)

@71-1984 Irwin Shaw,

American writer (Rich Man, Poor Man),

dies after surgery for prostate cancer

60’s

@64-1990 Samuel "Sammy" Davis Jr,

American singer/dancer/actor (Ocean's 11, Candy Man),

dies of throat cancer

50’s

@54-1957 Eliot Ness,

American federal agent "The Untouchables" (put away Al Capone),

dies of a heart attack

@53-1990 James "Jim" Henson,

American puppeteer, artist, screenwriter and filmmaker,

best known as the creator of 'the Muppets" (Sesame Street, The Muppet Show),

dies of toxic shock syndrome caused by pneumonia

30’s

@35-1984 Andy Kaufman,

comedian (Latka-Taxi),

dies of cancer

Puzzle answer:

An hourglass—It has thousands of grains of sand.