Feb 23

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Feb 23, 2019 Week: 08 \ Day: 54

86004 Today: H 28° \ L 1° \ Average Sky Cover: 90% 

Wind:   6mph\Gusts:  8mph Visibility: 1/2 mi

Record High: 66°[1946]   Record Low: -5°[1960]

FebAverages: 45°\19°

Today’s Quote

An optimist is a fellow who believes a housefly

is looking for a way to get out.

George Jean Nathan

Observances This Week

Date (Fruit) Week: 15-24
National Entrepreneurship Week: 16-23 Link
Build A Better Trade Show Image Week: 17-23
National Engineers Week: 17-23
National FFA Week: 17-24 Link 
Brotherhood / Sisterhood Week: 17-23  Link
Random Acts of Kindness Week: 17-23 Link
Bird Health Awareness Week: 18-24 Link  
American Birkenbreiner Race: 20-24
Texas Cowboy Poetry Gathering: 22-23

Observances for Today

Curling is Cool Day
Diesel Engine Day
Girl Scout Cookie Weekend: thru:-24 Link

International Dog Biscuit Appreciation Day

International Sword Swallowers Day
International Tongue Twister Day Link 
Iwo Jima Day (flag raised)
National Chili Day

National Dog Biscuit Day Link
National Tile Day  Link
International Toast Day  Link
Open That Bottle Night 

Single Tasking Day
Tennis Day

Tootsie Roll Day  Link

My Rambling Thoughts

So happy that the record-breaking snow (35.9” in 24 hrs) was powder snow. Note: It is still snowing and will continue throughout the day. Took about 30 minutes to clear off the vehicle. Four-wheel drive lo got me right out of my parking space. My neighbor, who has a front-end loader, bet me $5 I’d have to shovel out. I didn’t have to. He asked for a ride to his business and said he would clear our parking lot after he picked up a new battery. It was worth the trip.  Schools all around N. AZ are closed today and even the Univerisy is closed, which hasn’t happened for decades.

This storm has brought snow to many areas in AZ that haven’t seen snow for decades or more. For me it just brings back memories of the 70’s and 80’s when this kind of snow was expected, not exceptional.

Yesterday I had a nice conversation with Focus Travel Leader Ellie. She has had a cold or something for a few weeks but is sounding much better now. Glad she is doing better.

So sorry to hear that N. Korea is cutting its food subsidy to its population by half. The population is already living in poverty and now this. The government says it is due to drought. Hmmm, climate change?   

Our discussion is meeting Saturday to discuss ‘Populism is Europe’. Got lots of reading ahead of that, and hopefully we won’t have to cancel due to our snow.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1400’s

1455 Johannes Gutenberg prints his first Bible (estimated date)

1700’s

1782 Engineer James Watt's patent for a rotary motion for the steam

             engine (his sun-and-planet gear) is granted

1792 Humane Society of Massachusetts incorporated (erected life-

            saving stations for distressed mariners)

1800’s

1813 1st US raw cotton-to-cloth mill founded in Waltham,

            Massachusetts

1836 Alamo besieged for 13 days until March 6 by Mexican army

            under General Santa Anna; entire garrison eventually killed

1892 1st college student government forms at Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

1896 Tootsie Roll introduced by Leo Hirshfield

1900’s

1903 The US and Cuba sign an agreement by which Cuba releases

            Guantanamo and Bahia Hondo to the US for naval stations

1904 United States acquires control of the Panama Canal Zone for

            $10 million

1927 US President Calvin Coolidge creates Federal Radio Commission

            (FRC)

1945 US Marines raise American flag on top of Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima.

             Photo of which by Joe Rosenthall later became iconic, inspiring

            the Marine Corps War Memorial sculpture

1954 1st mass inoculation against polio with Salk vaccine (Pittsburgh)

1967 25th amendment (US Presidential succession) adopted

1971 US army officer William Calley confesses & implicates Captain

            Medina during his trial for the My Lai Massacre

1975 In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences

            nearly two months early in the United States.

1998 US Supreme Court lets Megan's Law (sex offender’s information)

            stand

1998 Osama bin Laden publishes a fatwa declaring jihad against all

            Jews and Crusaders

2000’s

2010 Unknown criminals pour more than 2.5 million liters of diesel oil

            and other hydrocarbons into the river Lambro, in Northern Italy,

            causing an environmental disaster.

2018 Study suggests earliest European Palaeolithic artwork in Spain

            made by Neanderthals not humans in "Science Journal"

Birthdays Today

1685 George Frideric Handel,

German-British baroque composer and organist (Messiah, Water

 Music), born in Halle, Duchy of Magdeburg, Germany

(d. 1759-@74)

1744 Mayer Amschel Rothschild,

German Jewish banker and founder of the Rothschild banking

 dynasty, born in Frankfurt

(d. 1812-@68)

1787 Emma Willard,

American women's rights activist and educator who founded the

1st school for women's higher education in the US, born in Berlin,

 Connecticut

(d. 1870-@83)

1868 W. E. B. Du Bois,

American civil rights activist, writer (Souls of Black Folk) and

founder of the NAACP, born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts

 (d. 1963-@95)

1889 Victor Fleming,

American film director (The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind),

born in Pasadena, California

(d. 1949-@59-heart attack)

1915 Paul Tibbets,

US Air Force retired Brigadier General and Pilot of B-29 "Enola

 Gay" over Hiroshima

(d. 2007-@92)

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54- Michael Dell,

American computer manufacturer (Dell Technologies),

born in Houston, Texas

79- Peter Fonda,

American actor (Easy Rider, Lilith, Wild Angels, Trip),

born in NYC, New York

49- Niecy Nash

[Carol Denise Ensley],

American actress and comedian, born in Compton, California

36- Aziz Ansari,

Indian-American comedian and actor (Parks and Recreation,

Master of None), born in Columbia, South Carolina

36- Emily Blunt,

English-American actress, born in London, United Kingdom

25- Dakota Fanning,

American actress (I Am Sam, Man of Fire),

born in Conyers, Georgia

Historical Obits Today

@91-2008 Douglas Fraser,

Scottish pilot, first to land at Newfoundland Airport

on January 11, 1938

@80-1944 Leo Baekeland,

Belgian-American chemist and inventor (bakelite plastics)

@80-1848 John Quincy Adams,

6th US President (1825-1829),

dies of a stroke

@78-1995 James Herriot

[James Alfred Wight],

Scottish author (All Creatures Great & Small)

@77-1855 Carl Friedrich Gauss,

German mathematician considered one of the greatest of all

time (Gaussian distribution, fundamental theorem of algebra)

@76-1934 Edward Elgar,

English composer (Coronation Ode, Pomp and Circumstance),

dies of colorectal cancer

@74-1965 Stan Laurel,

British comedian (Laurel & Hardy films),

dies of a heart attack

@69-2016 Lenny Baker,

American musician (Sha Na Na),

dies of infection

@25-1821 John Keats,

English Romantic poet (Ode to a Grecian Urn),

dies of tuberculosis