Apr 14

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Apr 14, 2018 Week: 15\ Day: 104

86004 Today: H 47° \ L 25° \ Average Sky Cover: 5% 

RED FLAG WARNING  Wind chill: drop temp by 10°

Nearest Lightning:  704 miles away

Wind ave.:   9mph\Gusts:  25mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 75°[1937]   Record Low: 5°[1972]

Apr Averages: 58°\27°

Today’s Quote

Politics is such a torment that I advise everyone I love

not to mix with it.

Thomas Jefferson

Harper’s Index

5

          Percentage of news stories about 45 during his

first 60 days in office that were positive

More Observances This Month

National Autism Awareness Month
National Cancer Control Month  Link
National Child Abuse Prevention Month
National Card and Letter Writing Month

Observances This Week

7-15

National Robotics Week Link

8-14

Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week Link
National Dog Bite Prevention Week Link
National Crime Victims Rights Week  Link
National Public Safety Telecommunicators (911 Operators) Week
National Student Employment Week Link
Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week Link
Pan American Week
Undergraduate Research Week  Link  

9-15

National Library Week 
National Occupational Health Nursing Week Link
National Work Zone Safety Awareness Week Link

14-22

International Wildlife Film Week Link
Animal Cruelty/Human Violence Awareness Week Link 
National Coin Week 
National Karaoke Week
National Pet ID Week Link  Link
National Paperboard Packaging Week
National Volunteer Week
Spring Astronomy Week
Week of The Young Child Link

Observances for Today

American Fancy Rat & Mouse Days: thru-16

Baby Massage Day Link 
Children with Alopecia Day
Dictionary Day  Link
Ex Spouse Day

Global Day to End Child Sexual Abuse Link
International Moment of Laughter Day
Look up at the Sky Day

National Dolphin Day
National Ex-Spouse Day  Link
National Gardening Day Link
National Pecan Day Link
Pan American Day
Pathologists' Assistant Day
Reach as High as You Can Day

Slow Art Day Link 

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

✪ Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1600’s                                          

✪1699 Khalsa: Birth of Khalsa, the brotherhood of the Sikh religion, in Northern India in accordance with the Nanakshahi calendar

1700’s                                          

1756 Governor Glen of South Carolina protests against 900 Acadia Indians

1800’s                                          

1818 US Medical Corps forms

1828 First American Dictionary: its author Noah Webster registers its copyright for publication

1841 1st detective story published, Edgar Allan Poe's "Murders in Rue Morgue" (April 1841)

1860 1st Pony Express rider arrives in San Francisco from St Joseph, Missouri

1865 US President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater in Washington

✪1890 Pan American Day-1st conference of American states (Washington, D.C.)

1900’s                                          

1903 Dr Harry Plotz discovers vaccine against typhoid (NYC)

1906 US President Theodore Roosevelt denounces "muckrakers" in US press, taken from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

1910 President Taft begins tradition of throwing out ball on opening day

✪1927 The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden

1935 Black Sunday: Severe sandstorm ravages the US Midwest, creating the "Dust Bowl"

1939 John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" published

1940 RCA demonstrated its new electron microscope in Philadelphia

✪1948 A flash of light is observed in crater Plato on Moon

1956 Ampex Corp demonstrates 1st commercial videotape recorder

✪1958 Sputnik 2 (with dog Laika) burns up in atmosphere

1960 American record company Motown, founded by Berry Gordy Jr., is incorporated as Motown Record Corporation

1969 41st Academy Awards: "Oliver", Cliff Robertson& Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand win (1st ever tie for best actress)

✪1971 President Nixon ends blockade against People's Republic of China

✪1972 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explodes twenty-four bombs in towns and cities across Northern Ireland

✪1980 1st Cubans of the Mariel boatlift sail to Florida

1980 52nd Academy Awards: "Kramer vs Kramer", Dustin Hoffman & Sally Field win

1980 Pulitzer prize awarded to Norman Mailer(Executioner's Song)

1983 US President Reagan signs $165 billion Social Security rescue

✪1989 1,100,000,000th Chinese born

✪1999 NATO mistakenly bombs a convoy of ethnic Albanian refugees - Yugoslav officials say 75 people are killed.

2000 Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich files a lawsuit against P2P sharing phenomenon Napster. This law-suit eventually leads the movement against file-sharing programs.

2000’s                                          

✪2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%

✪2010 Icelandic Volcano Eyjafjallajökull begins erupting from the top crater in the centre of the glacier

✪2015 Archeologists announce they have found at Lomekwi in Kenya 3.3 million-year old stone tools, the oldest ever discovered and which pre-date the earliest humans

My Rambling Thoughts

Yesterday was a very windy day. I had lunch with Mary and caught up on the recent wedding of her niece. Wind like yesterday wears me out. I stopped by the Med place and picked up a new headpiece for my CPAP machine. Happy to say it is smaller, more comfortable, and a great discovery. Too bad I didn’t do it long ago. I got too lazy to write anything when I got home.

I’m leading a discussion on South Africa’s fragile democracy at our group meeting on Sat. Lots of reading, lots to think about, and lots has changed since the articles were printed. I’ll be busy today and tomorrow morning getting ready for it.

If any readers have a +1 for the upcoming Royal nuptials, I won’t be able to attend, so you will have to find someone else to attend with you. The Focus Amazon trip ends and I get back home on the 7^th and won’t be ready for more international travel for the 19May wedding. If you are attending, have a great time.

My brother and his wife had a recent business trip to Morocco. What a great place to visit. Great food and wonderful pictures. Glad they had such a good time. The textiles were awesome.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

98- John Paul Stevens,

Supreme Court Justice

80’s

@86- Arnold J. Toynbee,

English historian (A Study of History),

born in London

(d. 1975)

86- Loretta Lynn,

American country singer-songwriter 

(Coal Miner's Daughter),

born in Butcher's Hollow Kentucky

70’s

78- Julie Christie,

British actress (Darling, Doctor Zhivago),

born in Chukua, Assam, India

@77- Rod Steiger,

American actor (Illustrated Man, Pawnbroker),

born in Westhampton, NY

surgery complications (d. 2002)

77- Pete Rose, 

MLB player and manager (Cincinnati Reds),

60’s

@66- Christiaan Huygens,

astronomer (discovered Saturn's rings)

(d. 1695)

@65- B.R. Ambedkar [Baba Saheb],

Indian politician, jurist (architect of the Constitution of India)

 social reformer who inspired the Dalit Buddhist Movement,

born in Mhow, India

diabetic complications (d. 1956)

50’s

58- Brad Garrett [Brad H. Gerstenfeld],

American actor and comedian

(Everybody Loves Raymond),

born in Los Angeles

40’s

45- Adrien Brody,

American actor (The Pianist, The Grand Budapest Hotel),

born in NYC

41- Sarah Michelle Gellar, 

actress (Kendall-All My Children, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

born in NYC

20’s

22- Abigail Breslin,

American child actress

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@85-1995 Burl Ives,

American folk singer and actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)

70’s

@78-1986 Simone de Beauvoir,

French author and feminist

(The Mandarins, The Second Sex, She Came to Stay),

pneumonia 

@77-1975 Fredric March,

American actor (Inherit the Wind),

prostate cancer

@76-2011 Trevor Bannister,

British actor (Mr. Lucas: Are You Being Served?),

heart attack

@74-1759 George Frideric Handel,

German-British baroque composer and organist

(Messiah, Water Music)

@67-1999 Anthony Newley,

English actor and singer-songwriter

(Dr Doolitte, Goldfinger theme),

cancer

60’s

@67-1924 Louis Sullivan,

architect (father of skyscrapers)

50’s

@56-1964 Rachel Carson,

American biologist/author (Silent Spring),

breast cancer/heart attack

30’s

@37-2000 Phil Katz,

American computer programmer (Zip file format),

effects of alcoholism

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…☼☼☼☼