Dec 13

FYI: Any blue text is a link. Click to check it out!

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Dec 13, 2017 Week: 50 \ Day: 348

86004 Today: H 53° \ L 20°  

Average Sky Cover: 5% 

Wind ave.:   7mph\Gusts:  19mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 67°[2010]   Record Low: -19°[1931]

Dec Averages: 50°\23°

Dec Records: H: 68° (1950) L: -23° (1990)

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Quote of the Day

Order and simplification are the first steps

toward the mastery of a subject.

  Thomas Mann

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Observances Today

Ice Cream Day

National Day of The Horse  Link

Pick A Pathologist Pal Day Link

Violin Day

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Observances This Week

10-17: Human Rights Week

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Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1500’s                                 

1577 Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England on a circumnavigation of the world

1600’s                                 

1636 The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes three militia regiments to defend the colony against the Pequot Indians. This organization is recognized today as the founding of the United States National Guard.

1700’s                                 

1759 First music store in America opens (Philadelphia)

1769 Dartmouth College in New Hampshire received its charter

1800’s                                 

1823 Gioacchino Rossini arrives in London

1879 First federal fish hatching steamer launched (Wilmington, Delaware)

1900’s                                 

1903 Italo Marcioni patents ice cream cone mound (NJ)

1916 Avalanche kills 10,000 Austrian & Italian troops in 24 hrs in Tyrol

1920 League of nations establishes International Court of Justice in The Hague

1924 KOA-AM in Denver CO begins radio transmissions

1928 Clip-on tie designed

1938 Los Angeles freezes at 28°F

1950 James Dean begins his career with an appearance in a Pepsi commercial

1954 Elsa Schiaparelli's House of Schiaparelli at Place Vendôme in Paris closes

1961 Jimmy Dean's Big Bad John album is country music 1st million $ seller

1964 In El Paso, Tx, LBJ & Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion diverting Rio Grande, to reshape US-Mexico border

1969 Arlo Guthrie releases "Alice's Restaurant"

1975 1st time "Saturday Night Live" uses a time delay, Richard Pryor hosts

1983 9,655 see highest-scoring NBA game: Detroit 186, Denver 184 (3 OT)

1989 "Driving Miss Daisy" directed by Bruce Beresford and starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy is released (Best Picture 1990)

1991 Both Koreas sign an accord calling for reconciliation

1995 US Federal Court votes that Cable companies must carry local stations

2000’s                                 

2000 American Vice President Al Gore delivers his concession speech effectively ending his hopes of becoming the 43rd President of the United States. 

2001 "A Beautiful Mind" based on the bio by Sylvia Nasar, directed by Ron Howard and starring Russell Crowe premieres in Los Angeles (Best Picture 2002)

2002 Enlargement of the European Union: The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004.

2003 Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured near his home town of Tikrit, during Operation Red Dawn by US forces

2007 The Mitchell Report is publicly released listing the names of 89 Major League Baseball players that have presumably used anabolic steroids and human growth hormones. Notable players named include Roger Clemens and Miguel Tejada.

2014 Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, criticizes UN Security Council for its lack of action over war crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan

2016 UN claims 82 civilians have been summary executed in Aleppo by pro-government forces

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My Rambling Thoughts

The only news seems to be the Alabama Senate election. I’ll wait until the votes are in before following this anymore. No matter the outcome, we will survive.

I was picking up a prescription yesterday, when I heard someone call my name. I turned around and there was a 40something man standing there with his family. Turned out to be a former jr. high student, who is now an artist here in town. We caught up for a few minutes. Good to see my former students doing well.

With no snow in town and only reclaimed water made into snow at the local ski area, our beautiful mountains look very strange for mid-December. Can’t remember a year with no snow on the peaks this late. I’m sure the weather will change just as I leave for Chicago next Friday. Weatherman says to expect moisture on the 23^rd, but I’m traveling the 22^nd, so I’m sure it will get here early.

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Bizarre News

*--------------- Museum of Fail ---------------*

A pop-up museum dedicated to failed products is kicking off its U.S. tour in Los Angeles. Conceived by Sweden-based clinical psychologist Samuel West, who specializes in workplace innovation, this celebration of failure launched to sold-out crowds in Sweden.

"It's hilarious to think of the Museum of Failure as a success," West told the Los Angeles Times. "I didn't expect it. I was, and still am, shocked that I'm opening my little museum in Los Angeles."

West said the "Failure" moniker isn't meant to be an insult to the more than 100 products found within. The exhibit includes famous failures such as the DeLorean DMC-12, the Apple Newton Message Pad, and coffee-flavored Coca-Cola BlaK. The museum also features lesser-known commercial flops, including I'm Back and You're Fired! Trump, the Game; Colgate-brand frozen dinners; Volvo's all-plastic Itera bicycle; and WiFi-enabled juicer Juicerio. The museum also includes a "Failure Confession Booth" where visitors can anonymously post their own failures for others to see. 

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Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

97- George P. Schultz,

economist and US Secretary of State (1982-89),

born in NYC

92- Dick Van Dyke,

West Plains Mo, actor (Rob Petrie-Dick Van Dyke Show)

80’s

@89- Carlos Montoya,

guitarist (Suite Flamenco 1966),

born in Madrid,

(d. 1993)

88- Christopher Plummer,

Canadian actor (Sound of Music, Doll's House),

born in Toronto

70’s

@76- Alvin York,

American World War I soldier who led a famed attack on a German machine gun nest (Medal of Honor),

born in Pall Mall, TN

(d. 1964)

@75- [Ernst] Werner von Siemens,

German inventor and industrialist (Siemens electrical conductance unit and Siemens corporation),

born in Lenthe, German Confederation

(d. 1892)

60’s

69- Jeff "Skunk" Baxter,

American guitarist (Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Deacon Blues),

born in Washington, D.C.

69- Ted Nugent,

guitarist (Cat Scratch Fever, Damn Yankees),

born in Detroit

64- Ben Bernanke,

American economist and Chairman of the Federal Reserve (2006-14),

born in Augusta

@63- Mary Todd Lincoln,

American wife of Abraham Lincoln and US First Lady (1861-65),

born in Lexington, Kentucky

(d. 1882)

60- Steve Buscemi,

actor (Fargo)

50’s

@57- Phillips Brooks,

Episcopal bishop/composer (Little Town of Bethlehem)

(d. 1893)

50- Jamie Foxx,

American actor (Ray, In Living Color) comedian and musician,

born in Terrell, TX

50-NeNe Leakes,

TV reality star

20’s

29- Rickie Fowler,

American (Navajo) golfer (number one ranked amateur golfer for 37 weeks),

born in Murrieta, CA

28- Taylor Swift, 

American singer/songwriter (Our Song),

born in Reading, PA

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Historical Obits Today

100’s

@101-1961 Grandma Moses [Anna M],

US painter

90’s

@95-2016 Thomas Schelling,

American economist, (Nobel Prize 2005 - game-theory analysis)

@93-1992 Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney,

American businessman and heir (Pan Am Airways)

80’s

@84-2011 Park Tae-joon,

South Korean general and founder of steel giant Posco

@80±-1466 Donatello,

Florentine artist and sculptor

70’s

@74-1924 Samuel Gompers,

organizer (American Federation of Labor),

uremia

60’s

@69-2016 Alan Thicke,

Canadian actor, singer-songwriter (Thicke of the Night, Growing Pains),

Aortic dissection

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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…☼☼☼☼