May 9

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May 9, 2019 Week: 19 \ Day: 129

86004:   H 60° \ L 37° \ Average Sky Cover: 30% 

Nearest wildfire:  79mi. Nearest lightning:  14mi

Wind:   10mph\Gusts:  24mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 81°[1934]   Record Low: 14°[1930]

Mar Averages: 68°\34° (3 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

It is amazing what you can accomplish

 if you do not care who gets the credit.

Harry S Truman

More Observances This Month

Necrotizing Fasciitis Awareness Month
Neurofibromatosis Awareness Month Link
Older Americans Month
Personal History Month Link
Pet Cancer Awareness Month Link
Prader-Willi Syndrome Awareness Month
Preeclampsia Awareness Month Link
Prepare Tomorrow's Parents Month (5/11-6/15)
React Month
Revise Your Work Schedule Month
Social Security Education Awareness Month
Skin Cancer Awareness Month  Link
Spiritual Literacy Month
Strike Out Strokes Month
Sturge-Weber Awareness Month Link

Observances This Week

Ramadan 5/5-6/4

Children's Book Week: 6-11 
National Pet Week: 6-12 Link  
National Nurses Day and Week: 6-12 Link  Link
National Safety Stand Down Week (Construction Falls): 6-10 Link 
National Wildflower Week: 6-11

PTA Teacher Appreciation Week: 6-10

Observances for Today

Europe Day

Lost Sock Memorial Day

National Foodies Day

National Shrimp Day

Second World War
Time of Remembrance & Reconciliation for Those Who Lost Their Lives During The Second World War
National Children's Mental Health Awareness Day

National Moscato Day
National Sleepover Day  Link

My Rambling Thoughts

A very nice birthday celebration for Cheryl yesterday. We had lunch at a great little restaurant, with pie for dessert   in Williams and then headed to Bearizona. It’s a wild animal rescue park in Williams. Cheryl has an annual pass. They have 2 new jaguars and a new venue for the otters. It was a cloudy day and had rained before we got there, but our visit was dry, warm and enjoyable as it was not very crowded. Williams is a tourist town, known as the Gateway to the Grand Canyon. I think they must be redoing every street in downtown. It’s only about 4 streets but moving around was a challenge. Glad we carpooled from Flag and then Cheryl drove in Williams.

Another school shooting. Another school shooting in Colorado.  This has to stop. While the judiciary argues about 45 and a constitutional crisis, remember, this is a REAL crisis, with REAL people dying for no reason.

I live in a town where it is possible to drive from one end of town to the other in less than 20 minutes, depending on traffic. Even so, businesses will come to your home to detail your vehicle or replace a windshield. Last week a guy spent a couple of hours with his mobile unit to detail a small car. This morning, Safelite was busy replacing a windshield on another vehicle. One can also order groceries on line and have them delivered by either Safeway or Fry’s. Guess we are big time.

May 8^th is Howard Carter’s birth date. I remember climbing down into King Tut’s tomb, and several others, when I was in Egypt with HLO/Focus. When I went down, there were small electric lights to guide us, we had to bend down several times, and finally reached the tomb. It was then I was glad I had a career as a teacher and not as an archeologist. I kept telling myself, on the climb down, this has been done by thousands of tourists…don’t be too claustrophobic. Even today I can’t believe that people would go into a pyramid, with only a small light on their helmet and may a torch, to go who knows where to see who knows what. I’m really glad those people exist, it’s just not for me.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

What is special about these words: job, polish, herb?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1700’s

1768 John Hancock pays duties on 25 pipes of wine, only one fourth of his ship's carrying capacity. British officials accuse him of unloading the rest during the night to avoid paying duties on the entire cargo.

1785 British inventor Joseph Bramah patents beer-pump handle

1800’s

1862 US Naval Academy relocated from Annapolis Maryland to Newport, Rhode Island

1865 President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation declaring armed resistance in the South is virtually at an end; this is the commonly accepted end date of the American Civil War

1868 The city of Reno, Nevada, is founded

1900’s

1922 The International Astronomical Union formally adopt Annie Jump Cannon's stellar classification system, which with only minor changes, is still used today

1925 Cornerstone for Hebrew University, Jerusalem, laid

1926 1st flight over the North Pole claimed by Richard E. Byrd and co-pilot Floyd Bennett. Later discovery of Byrd's diary suggests they may have turned back 150 miles short of the pole due to an oil leak.

1941 British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines aboard the weather ship Muenchen

1960 US becomes the first country to legalize the birth control pill

1979 Iranian-Jewish businessman Habib Elghanian is the 1st Jew executed by the Islamic government firing squad in Tehran, prompting the mass exodus of the once 100,000-strong Jewish community of Iran

1989 VP Quayle says in United Negro College Fund speech: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind" instead of "a mind is terrible thing to waste"

1992 Salem Village Witchcraft Victims' Memorial dedicated in Danvers (formally Salem Village) to mark 300 year anniversary of trials

1997 1st US ambassador since Saigon fell arrives in Vietnam

2000’s

2002 38-day stand-off in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem comes to an end when Palestinians inside agree to have 13 suspected militants among them deported

2005 Liberal commentary website The Huffington Post is launched

2012 United States President Barack Obama officially states his support for same-sex marriage

2017 US President Donald Trump dismisses FBI Director James Comey

2017 Fossil of Chinese feathered baby dinosaur formally identified as Beibeilong sinensis (baby dragon in Chinese)

2018 Walmart takes a majority stake in Indian online retailer Flipkart for 16 billion

2018 Iranians and their president Hassan Rouhani react angrily to President Trump pulling the US out the Iran Nuclear deal

2018 Oldest viral DNA, a form of hepatitis B, reported discovered in 7,000-year-old skeleton found in Germany

Birthdays Today

0’s

1800 John Brown,

(d. 1859: @59: hanged) with Stonewall Jackson, John Wilkes Booth, and Walt Whitman present.

American abolitionist and revolutionary (Harpers Ferry), born in Torrington, Connecticut 1860

J.M. [James Matthew] Barrie,

(d. 1937: @77: pneumonia)

Scottish novelist and playwright (Peter Pan), born in Kirriemuir, Angus

1873 Howard Carter,

(d. 1939: @64: Hodgkin’s Disease)

British archaeologist and Egyptologist who found King Tutankhamun's tomb, born in London

1882 Henry J. Kaiser,

(d. 1967: B@85)

American ship builder and industrialist (Liberty Ships, Jeeps, Boulder Dam), born in Sprout Brook, New York

1893 William Moulton Marston,

(d. 1947: @53: cancer)

American psychologist, writer (co-creator, Wonder Woman)

1910 Barbara Woodhouse,

(d. 1988: @78: stroke)

dog training expert

1918 Mike Wallace,

(d. 2012: @93)

American journalist and media personality (Biography, 60 Minutes), born in Brookline, Massachusetts

1936 Albert Finney,

(d. 2019: @82)

English actor (The Dresser, Under the Volcano), born in Salford, England

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80’s

83- Glenda Jackson,

English actress (Women in Love),

born in Cheshire, England

70’s

74- Steve Katz,

American rock guitarist and vocalist (Blood, Sweat & Tears),

born in NYC, New York

73- Candice Bergen,  

actress (Carnal Knowledge, Murphy Brown)

 born in Beverly Hills

70- Billy Joel,

American rock vocalist (Pianoman, Capt Jack, Bridge),

born in The Bronx, New York

50’s

51- Scott Pruitt,

American politician (EPA head 2017-18),

born in Danville, Kentucky

40’s

40- Rosario Dawson,

movie actress

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@92-2010 Lena Horne,

American singer and actress

80’s

@84-2012 Vidal Sassoon,

British-American hair stylist and CEO of Vidal Sasson,

dies from leukemia

70’s

@76-2004 Alan King

[Irwin Kniberg],

American comedian and actor (Anderson Tapes, Memories of Me),

dies from lung cancer

@71-1986 Tenzing Norgay,

Tibetan climber who was the 1st to reach the summit of Mount Everest in 1953 with Edmund Hillary,

dies of a cerebral hemorrhage

50’s

@59-1914 C.W. Post,

American food manufacturer of breakfast cereals,

commits suicide

@55-1977 James Jones,

American novelist (Bad Blood, From Here to Eternity),

dies from heart failure

@53-1791 Francis Hopkinson,

American author and composer (designed the first American flag),

dies from an apoplectic seizure

Puzzle answer:

They are pronounced differently when the first letter is capitalized.