Nov 11 Veteran's Day

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Nov 11, 2018 Week: 46 \ Day: 315

86004 Today: H 60° \ L 22° \ Average Sky Cover: 5% 

Wind:   121mph\Gusts:  -mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 73°[1973]   Record Low: 7°[1950]

Nov Averages: 51°\23°

Today’s Quote

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. Douglas MacArthur

Random Tidbits

The stereotypical image of the haggard witch with a pointy black hat and warty nose stems from a pagan goddess known as "the crone," who was honored during Samhain. The crone was also known as "the old one" and the "Earth mother," who symbolized wisdom, change, and the turning of the seasons.

Observances This Week

           

7-13

Dear Santa Letter Week

9-17

National Hunger & Homeless Awareness Week Link  

10-16

Geography Awareness Week Link 
National Nurse Practioner's Week Link  Link
Perioperative Nurse Week Link
International Fraud Awareness Week Link   
National Split Pea Soup Week Link
Snowcare For Troops Awareness Week
World Kindness Week 16  Link 
National Book Awards Week
National Global Entrepreneurship Week Link

Observances for Today

           

Armistice Day Link
Death/Duty Day
Forget-Me-Not Day Link 

National Homunculus Awareness Day  Link
National Sundae Day

Origami Day
Red Lipstick Day
Veteran's Day

World Orphans Day 

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1600’s                                         

1647 Massachusetts passes first compulsory school attendance law in the American colonies

1700’s                                         

1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie's army enters England

1775 Mohawk military leader Joseph Brant goes to London to solicit more support from the government and to persuade the Crown to address past Mohawk land grievances in exchange for their participation as allies in the impending war

1778 Iroquois Indians in NY kill 40 in Cherry Valley Massacre

1800’s                                         

1807 Washington Irving's Salmagundi periodical published - first to associate the name "Gotham" with New York City

1839 The Virginia Military Institute is founded in Lexington, Virginia.

1868 1st American amateur track & field meet (NYC)

1889 Washington admitted as 42nd state of USA

1900’s                                         

1909 Construction of US navy base begins at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

1918 Armistice signed by the Allies and Germany comes into effect and World War I hostilities end at 11am, "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"

1921 US President Warren G. Harding dedicates Tomb of Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery

1922 Largest US flag displayed (150' X 90') expanded in 1939 (270' X 90')

1925 Robert A. Millikan announces discovery of cosmic rays

1926 U.S. Route 66 is established.

1930 Patent number US1781541 was awarded to Albert Einstein and Leó Szilárd for their invention, the Einstein refrigerator.

1940 Willys unveiled its General Purpose vehicle ("Jeep")

1959 1st episode of "Rocky & His Friends" airs

1961 "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller is published by Simon and Schuster in New York

1981 Fernando Valenzuela is 1st rookie ever to win a Cy Young Award

1987 van Gogh's "Irises" sells for record $53.6 million at auction

1988 Oldest known insect fossils (390 million yrs) reported in Science

1994 Bill Gates buys Leonardo da Vinci's "Codex" for $30,800,000

2000’s                                         

2004 Yasser Arafat's death through unidentified causes confirmed by Palestine Liberation Organization, Mahmoud Abbas elected PLO chairman minutes later.

2017 Largest Singles Day sales ever - Alibaba says its sales alone were $25.3 billion

2017 Nationalist march in Warsaw, Poland, draws 60,000, to coincide with country's independence day

My Rambling Thoughts

Quite chilly last night. Warmed up nicely today.

Our discussion group meets tonight to learn about the studies of extra-terrestrial life. Should be very informative. We are getting a private showing of a presentation done at Flagstaff’s Lowell Observatory, where Pluto was discovered. I’ve always been interested in ‘space’ and this should add a lot of new information.

The Presidents of France and Germany unveiled a new WWI monument today. 45 didn’t go, it was raining. When one has no empathy, one does not understand.

I saw a great 60 Minutes segment on various rifles and the damage they do to humans. Hard hitting and was shocked by the damage an assault rifle does. Now a group of emergency room physicians are warning of an ‘emergency’ caused by these weapons. Not to be thwarted by their voice, the NRA issued a statement telling them to ‘stay in their own lane’. Will the violence every stop? Not as long as the NRA continues to pay elected officials in DC.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

@92 Alger Hiss,

State Department official hid papers in a pumpkin (d. 1996)

80’s

@87 Jonathan Winters,

comedian (J Winters Show, Mork & Mindy), born in Dayton, Ohio (d. 2013)

@84 Sam Spiegel,

producer (On the Waterfront, Bridge over River Kwai)

@84 Kurt Vonnegut Jr,

American author (Slaughterhouse Five, Sirens of Titan), born in Indianapolis, Indiana (d. 2007)

70’s

@73 Abrigail Adams,

1^st lady (d, 1818)

60’s

@60 George S. Patton,

American WWII general (Sicily, Italy and Normandy) known as "Old Blood & Guts", born in San Gabriel, California (d. 1945) heart failure

50’s

@59 Fyodor Dostoyevsky,

Russian novelist (Crime and Punishment, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man) who helped shape literary modernism and existentialism, born in Moscow, Russian Empire (d. 1881) lung disease

58 Stanley Tucci,

American actor and director

55 Demi Moore [Guynes],

American actress (Ghost, Striptease, GI Jane), born in Roswell, New Mexico

54 Calista Flockhart,

actress

40’s

@49 Joseph G. Hamilton,

American physician who was a pioneer of using radioactive isotopes in disease treatment and diagnosis, born in Waverley, Massachusetts (d. 1957)

@47 Paracelsus,

Swiss physician and alchemist (Zinc, Laudanum), born in Einsiedeln, Switzerland (d. 1541)

45 Adam Beach,

First Nation’s Canadian actor

44 Leonardo DiCaprio,

American actor (The Departed, Inception, The Wolf of Wall Street), born in Los Angeles, California

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@83-2016 Robert Vaughn,

American actor (Napolean Solo in Man from UNCLE, I Spy)

70’s

@75-2004 Yasser Arafat,

Chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, 1st President of the Palestinian National Authority (1994-2004) and 1994 Nobel peace prize winner, stroke

60’s

@69-1938 Mary Mallon,

Irish-American patient best known as 'Typhoid Mary' and the first person in the United States known to be immune to typhoid, pneumonia

50’s

@53-1886 Paul Bert,

Auxerre, French Zoologist, Physiologist and pioneer of aerospace medicine whose study of the effects of air pressure on the body made possible space and ocean exploration, dysentery

40’s

@42-1855 Søren Kierkegaard,

Danish philosopher, TB?

30’s

@31-1831 Nat Turner,

slave rebel who led a violent insurrection in Virginia, hanged