Jul 15

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Jul 15, 2018 Week: 29 \ Day: 196

86004 Today: H 77° \ L 56° \ Average Sky Cover: 75% 

Nearest Lightning:  20 miles away

Wind ave.:   3mph\Gusts:  6mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 92°[1970]   Record Low: 38°[1905]

Jul Averages: 82°\50°

Today’s Quote

History is a vast early warning system.

    Norman Cousins

Harper’s Index

64

Percentae of Americans who are concerned that Amazon is forcing brick-and-mortar stores out of business

71

Who have a favorable impression of the company

Observances This Week

15^th-21^st

Rabbit Week
Captive Nations Week1
Everybody Deserves A Massage Week Link 
National Body Piercing Week  Link
National Parenting Gifted Children Week Link 
National Zoo Keeper Week Link 
National Independent Retailers Week Link 

Observances for Today

Be a Dork Day

Cow Appreciation Day
Gummi Worm Day Link
Lake Superior Day
National Ice Cream Day 
National Give Something Away Day
National Pet Fire Safety Day Link  Link
Saint Swithin's Day 

Tapioca Pudding Day

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1000’s                                         

1099 City of Jerusalem is captured and plundered by Christian forces during the First Crusade

1200’s                                         

1205 Pope Innocent III states Jews are doomed to perpetual servitudea and subjugation due to crucifixion of Jesus

1500’s                                         

1501 Portuguese explorer Pedro Cabral arrives back in Lisbon after successfully discovering Brazil and returning from India

1700’s                                         

1795 "Marseillaise" becomes French national anthem

1799 The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign

1800’s                                         

1806 Zebulon Pike begins his journey to explore the American Southwest

1830 Indian tribes, Sioux, Sauk & Fox, sign fourth Treaty of Prairie du Chien giving the US most of Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri

1870 Georgia becomes last confederate to be readmitted to US

1898 Camillo Golgi discovers the Golgi Apparatus (a delicate network inside cells essential for the transmission and reception of information between cells)

1900’s                                         

1904 1st Buddhist temple in US forms, Los Angeles

1912 American athlete Jim Thorpe is placed in top 4 in all 10 events, for an Olympic record 8,413 points to win the Decathlon gold medal at the Stockholm Olympics, medal stripped 1913 (played pro baseball), reinstated 1982

1916 Boeing Company (Pacific Aero) formed by William Boeing in Seattle Wash

1922 1st duck-billed platypus publicly exhibited in US, at NY Zoo

1948 Alcoholic Anonymous founded in Britain

1955 18 Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by 34 more laureates

1959 The US steel strike of 1959 begins, leading to significant importation of foreign steel for the first time in United States history.

1961 Spain accepts equal rights for men and women

1971 US President Richard Nixon announces he will visit the People's Republic of China

1976 36-hr kidnap of 26 school children and their bus driver in California

1994 Hundreds of thousands of Hutus flee to Zaire in the Congo near the end of the Rwandan Genocide

1996 MSNBC begins Microsoft internet-NBC TV

2000’s

2002 "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh pleads guilty to supplying aid to the enemy and to possession of explosives during the commission of a felony

2002 Anti-Terrorism Court of Pakistan hands down the death sentence to British born Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and life terms to three others suspected of murdering Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl

2014 Israel announces it has officially voted to accept the ceasefire proposed by Egypt; Hamas reject, saying they were not consulted

2016 Attempted military coup in Turkey fails, nearly 300 killed, 6,000 then arrested

My Rambling Thoughts

Monsoon continues here. Nice female rain this morning. Still cloudy, expecting more this afternoon and this evening.

Our discussion group meets tonight. It’s about Turkey and the changes that have been happening in that country in the past 10 years. Turkey is an important ally, due to its location. However, things have change since the USSR fell and now changes are happening at a much faster rate. These changes are becoming Anti-American, anti-democracy, authoritarian. Bush the younger and Obama both learned that our tight alliance with this Muslim country are not as they were before. There are at least 3 factions in Turkey and the only one that might be pro-Western are the Kurds, who need the West to survive.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

80’s

83- Ken Kercheval, Wolcottville Ind, actor (Cliff Barnes-Dallas)

70’s

@78- Inigo Jones, architect (Old St Paul's Cathedral, Coven Garden), born in London, (d.1652)

@77- Alex Karras, NFLer (Detroit Lions)/actor (George-Webster), born in Gary, Indiana (d. 2012) dementia, kidney failure

74- Jan-Michael Vincent, actor (Hooper, Tribes, Buster & Billie), born in Denver, Colorado

72- Linda Ronstadt, singer (Dif Drum)/actress (Pir of Penzance), born in Tucson, Arizona

@70- Thomas Bulfinch, mythologist (Bulfinch's Mythology) (d. 1867)

@70- Maggie Mitchell Walker, 1st woman bank director/philanthropist (d. 1934)

60’s

@69- Emmeline Pankhurst, British suffragette who formed the Women's Social & Political Union (1903), born in Moss Side, Manchester (d. 1928) stomach issues

69- Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (2006-present), born in Al Shindagha, Dubai, Trucial States

68- Arianna Huffington, Greek-American author, syndicated columnist and creator of The Huffington Post, born in Athens, Greece

67- Jesse Ventura, [James Janos], wrestler, actor and politician (Governor of Minnesota 1999-2003), born in Minneapolis, Minnesota

@63- Rembrandt van Rijn, Dutch painter (Night Watch), born in Leiden, Netherlands (d. 1669)

50’s

57- Forest Whitaker, actor and director (The Last King of Scotland, Platoon), born in Longview, Texas

40’s

44- Brian Austin Green, American actor (David-Beverly Hills 90210), born in Van Nuys, California

42- Gabriel Iglesias, comedian ‘Fluffy’

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@95-2012 Celeste Holm, American actress (Gentleman's Agreement, All About Eve)

80’s

@89-2017 Martin Landau, American actor (Mission Impossible, Space 1999, Ed Wood)

@87-1948 John J. Pershing [Blackjack], American general and WWI commander

60’s

@66-1919 [Hermann] Emil Fischer, German chemist, discovered Fischer esterification (Nobel Prize 1902), suicide 

@61-1521 Juan Ponce de León, Spanish explorer and conquistador who searched for the fountain of youth and the first European to discover Florida

50’s

@57-1991 Bert Convy, American actor and game show host (Tattletales), brain cancer

@50-1997 Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (Versace), shot and murdered by Andrew Cunanan

40’s

@44-1904 Anton Chekhov, Russian writer (Uncle Vanya), stroke

@44-1883 Tom Thumb, famous small person (40"), stroke

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.