Jul 17

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Jul 17, 2018 Week: 29 \ Day: 198

86004 Today: H 81° \ L 58° \ Average Sky Cover: 85% 

Nearest Lightning:  68 miles away

Wind ave.:   5mph\Gusts:  16mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 91°[1980]   Record Low: 40°[1904]

Jul Averages: 82°\50°

Today’s Quote

I had to live in the desert before I could understand the full value of grass in a green ditch. Ella Maillart

Harper’s Index

1:2

Ratio of homeless Americans to empty investor-owned properties in the US

1:1

Ration of the wealth held by the world’s 42 richest people to that held by the poorest 50%

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

Disneyland Day
Peach Ice Cream Day

Victims of Baton Rouge, Louisianna Attack Day  Link
World Day for International Criminal Justice  Link
World Emoji Day  Link
Wrong Way Corrigan Day
Yellow Pig Day  Link

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

100’s                                           

180 6 inhabitants of Carthage, North Africa executed for being Christians. Earliest record of Christianity in this part of the world.

1200’s                                         

1203 Siege of Constantinople begins during the fourth Crusade, Crusaders aboard a Venetian fleet attack the city

1600’s                                         

1686 A meeting takes place at Lüneburg between several Protestant powers in order to discuss the formation of an 'evangelical' league of defense, called the 'Confederatio Militiae Evangelicae', against the Catholic League.

1800’s                                         

1861 US Congress authorizes paper money

1900’s                                         

1903 The Russian Social Democratic Workers Party meets, first in Brussels and then London because their leaders have been forced into exile by the Russian Government

1917 Royal Proclamation by King George V changes name of British Royal family from German Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor

1918 The Romanov royal family and several of their retainers are executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in the basement of Ipatiev House, in Yekaterinburg, Siberia 1942 3' of rain falls on Pennsylvania, flooding kills 15

1945 Potsdam Conference (Truman, Stalin, Churchill) holds 1st meeting 1948 US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen encounters children in at Templehof Airport in Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, giving him the idea to drop candy in 'Operation Little Vittles' 1954 Construction of Disneyland commences

1955 Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California.

1959 Paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey discovers partial skull of a new species of early human ancestor, Zinjanthropus boisei or 'Zinj' (now called Paranthropus boisei) lived in Africa almost 2 million years ago

1962 Senate rejects Medicare for aged

1964 ANC leader Nelson Mandela, recently sentenced to life imprisonment, is awarded the Joliot Curie Gold Medal for Peace

1966 Jim Ryun sets mile record (3m51s3)

1967 Monkees perform at Forest Hills NY, Jimi Hendrix is opening act

1976 21st modern Olympic games opens in Montreal: 25 African teams (later rising to 33 nations) boycott the games due to New Zealand playing rugby in apartheid South Africa

1984 US passes National Minimum Drinking Age Act, prohibiting under 21's from buying or possessing alcohol as a condition of receiving State highway funds

1988 4 Billion tv-viewers watch Mandela's 70th Birthday Tribute

1998 Russia buries Tsar Nicholas II and family, 80 years after they died

2000’s

2004 Martha Stewart is sentenced to five months in prison plus five months in home confinement for lying to federal investigators

2004 Former South African President Nelson Mandela calls for commitment by the world to take action against Aids

2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 is shot down over Eastern Ukraine by a Buk surface-to-air missile launched from pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory, killing all 283 passengers and 15 crew on board

2016 17 works by Swiss architect Le Corbusier included in UNESCO World Heritage sites list as "an Outstanding Contribution to the Modern Movement"

My Rambling Thoughts

Just as I was getting ready to start this post yesterday a storm hit. Lots of lightning (so didn’t turn on my computer). The closest lightning was 3/10 miles from my place. Then the rain hit. Our little mountain town got 2-1/2” of rain in 2 hours. One forgets how much rain it takes to do some flooding in the high desert. Roads throughout Flagstaff were soon rivers. Several parked cars were flooded out in the downtown area. This morning I headed out for some essentials before the next monsoon hits. Many main roads were covered with dirt and debris from the flooding yesterday. The Flagstaff City workers were everywhere cleaning up the mess. Hopefully we get much smaller storms for the rest of the monsoon. The forest needs moisture, but that moisture needs a little time to soak in for it to be of any real value.

The plastic headlights on my vehicle had become very murky. The dealership offered to clean them for $25. I could by some special stuff for about $15. The I saw a DIY thing on the internet machine. It said to put toothpaste, not gel, on the plastic, rub it a little and rinse it off. I tried it Saturday and it did the job in no time. Happy camper.

Our discussion on Turkey was outstanding. We concluded that Turkey has been a crossroads for centuries and that is how they want to remain. Many Turks are becoming very Anti-American for our siding with the Kurds, the segment of the population that wants to be its own country. Their leader is a democratically elected leader who is quickly becoming a dictator as he has purged much of the military and judges who do not side with him. We need a strong diplomatic leader to work with Turkey and to keep our very strategic military bases there. Hmmmm. Sadly, the US State Dept. has a travel advisory for Turkey: Level 3: Reconsider travel. The only higher level is a Level 4: Do Not Travel. This is not a good thing.

All I can say about the 45/Putin Press Conference is WHOA! Even FoxNews is not happy. Even Republicans are not happy. Will this be the tipping point?

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

@97- Art Linkletter, Saskatchewan Canada, TV host (People are Funny) (d. 2010)

@95- Phyllis Diller, American comedienne and actress (Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number), born in Lima, Ohio (d. 2012)

80’s

@86- James Cagney, American actor (Yankee Doodle Dandy), born in NYC, (d. 1986)

@85- Gordon Gould, American physicist (inventor of the laser), born in NYC, New York (d. 2005)

@84- John Jacob Astor [Johann Jakob Astor] German-American businessman (first multi-millionaire in the United States), born in Walldorf, Electoral Palatinate, Holy Roman Empire (d. 1848)

83- Diahann Carroll, actress (Julia, Claudine, Dominique-Dynasty), born in The Bronx, New York

83- Donald Sutherland, St John New Brunswick, Canadian actor (M*A*S*H, Body Snatchers)

83- P D Q Bach, [Peter Schickele], Iowa, composer (5th of Beethoven)

@80- Erle Stanley Gardner, American detective writer (Perry Mason), born in Malden, Massachusetts (d. 1970)

70’s

79- Spencer Davis, Wales, vocalist (Spencer Davis Group-Gimme Some Lovin)

79- Ali Hosseini Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran (1989- ) and Muslim cleric, born in Mashhad, Khorasan, Iran

76- Gale Garnett, singer (We'll Sing in the Sunshine), born in Auckland, New Zealand

71- Camilla Parker Bowles (Duchess of Cornwall), wife of Prince Charles, born in London, England

@70- Elbridge Gerry, (DR) 5th VP (Mass-Gov), invented gerrymandering (d. 1814)

60’s

66- David Hasselhoff, American actor (Night Rider, Mitch-Baywatch), born in Baltimore, Maryland

64- Angela Merkel, German politician, Chancellor of Germany (2005-), born in Hamburg, West Germany

40’s

42- Luke Bryan, country singer

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@92-2009 Walter Cronkite, American broadcast journalist and news anchor (CBS Evening News 1962-81)

80’s

@89-2014 Elaine Stritch, American actress (30 Rock, Two's Company), singer and member of the American Theater Hall of Fame

@88-2006 Mickey Spillane [Frank Morrison Spillane], American mystery writer (I the Jury)

@85-1887 Dorothea Dix, American social activist

@84-1958 Henri Farman, British-French aviator who broke several aviation records

70’s

@77-1881 Jim Bridger, American mountain man, Indian fighter, and explorer

@74-1961 Ty Cobb, American baseball great (Detroit Tigers) who set 90 MLB records during his career, cancer

60’s

@67-1790 Adam Smith, Scottish economist (Wealth of Nations) and moral philosopher

40’s

@44-1959 Billie Holiday, jazz singer, cirrhosis of the liver

@40-1967 John Coltrane, American jazz saxophonist & composer (Blue Train), cancer 

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…☼☼☼☼