Mar 16

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Mar 16, 2019 Week: 11 \ Day: 75

86004 Today: H 40° \ L 27° \ Average Sky Cover: 15% 

Wind:   15mph\Gusts:  27mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 72°[2007]   Record Low: -1°[1969]

Mar Averages: 51°\23° (6 days with rain)

Today’s Quote

A forest bird never wants a cage.

Henrik Ibsen

Random Tidbits

Benjamin Franklin wasn't only the discoverer of electricity, he was also the inventor of Daylight Savings Time. In 1874, Franklin was the U.S. ambassador to Paris, and he wrote a letter suggesting that "the sun gives light as soon as it rises" and that Parisians were wasteful with their night-owl habits.

Observances This Week

Lent: 6-20

Campfire USA Birthday Week: 10-16

Girl Scout Week: 10-16 

Termite Awareness Week: 10-16

National Agriculture Week: 10-16

International Brain Awareness Week: 11-17 

Turkey Vultures Return to the Living Sign: 11-17

Special Olympics 2019: 14-21

Sherlock Holmes Weekend: 15-17  

Observances for Today

Black Press Day
Campfire Girls Day
Corn Dog Day Link 
Curlew Day

Everything You Do is Right Day
Freedom of Information Day
Goddard Day Link  Link
International Sports Car Racing Day Link
Lips Appreciation Day
National Artichoke Heart Day

National Quilting Day

No Selfies Day
Panda Day
Play The Recorder Day  
Save The Panther Day
St. Urho's Day Link and Link
Worldwide Quilting Day  Link

My Rambling Thoughts

It’s kinda windy today. Thankfully it’s blowing out that cold spell.

Another Mosque shooting yesterday in New Zealand. So sad. The shooter said some crazy stuff about agreeing with our 45. Even sadder.

As an educator and life-long learner, I think it is time for some PSA’s regarding CIVICS…how our government works. And while they are at that, add some real, current immigration numbers to our great country. Maybe someone has an idea on how to fix our illegal immigration problem without walling off our country from the rest of the world.

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1600’s

1621 Native American chief visits colony of Plymouth, Massachusetts

1800’s

1802 Law signed to establish US Military Academy (West Point, NY)

1827 First US newspaper, "Freedom's Journal" owned and operated by

            African Americans begins publishing in New York City

1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" published by Ticknor,

             Reed and Fields in Boston

1861 Arizona Territory votes to leave the Union (US Civil War)

1861 Edward Clark became Governor of Texas, replacing Sam Houston,

            who is evicted from the office for refusing to take an oath of

            loyalty to the Confederacy (US Civil War)

1867 First publication of an article by Joseph Lister outlining the

            discovery of antiseptic surgery, in "The Lancet"

1881 Barnum & Bailey Circus debuts

1900’s

1915 Federal Trade Commission organizes

1920 1 Acre Park also known as Baby Park in the Bronx renamed

            Melrose Park

1922 Egypt achieves independence from Britain, but British troops

            remain

1950 1st annual National Book Awards

1955 President Eisenhower upholds the use of atomic weapons in case

            of war

1964 LBJ asks Congress to pass Economic Opportunity Act as part of his

            War on Poverty

1968 My Lai massacre occurs when American soldiers kill ~400 unarmed

            Vietnamese civilians, in one of the most controversial incidents

            of the Vietnam War

1977 US President Jimmy Carter pleads for a Palestinian homeland

1994 Tonya Harding pleads guilty to felony attack on Nancy Kerrigan

1995 Mississippi House of Representatives formally abolishes slavery &

            ratifies 13th Amendment

1998 Pope John Paul II asks God for forgiveness for the inactivity and

            silence of some Roman Catholics during the Holocaust

2000’s

2006 The United Nations General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to

            establish the UN Human Rights Council.

2016 US college student Otto Warmbier is sentenced to 15 years hard

            labor for trying to steal a political poster, in Pyongyang, North

            Korea

2017 US President Donald Trump's second travel ban is blocked by 2

            federal courts

Birthdays Today

1751 James Madison,

4th US President (1809-17), born in Port Conway, Virginia

(d. 1836-@85)

1799 Anna Atkins,

English botanist, photographer and the 1st person to publish

a book illustrated with photographic images,

born in Tonbridge, England

(d. 1871-@72- paralysis, rheumatism, and exhaustion)

1903 Mike Mansfield,

American politician (Sen-D-Montana 1953-77) majority whip,

born in New York City

(d. 2001-@98)

1906 Henny Youngman,

American comedian and violinist (Take my wife ... please),

born in London, England (d. 1998-@91)

1912 Patricia Nixon, [Thelma Catherine],

1st lady (1968-74)

(d.1993-@81)

1926 Jerry Lewis

[Joseph Levitch],

American comedian (Martin and Lewis, MDA Telethon),

born in Newark, New Jersey

(d. 2017-@91)

77- Jerry Jeff Walker

[Ronald Clyde Crosby],

American country music singer and songwriter (Mr Bojangles),

born in Oneonta, New York

70- Erik Estrada,

actor (CHiPs),

born in NYC, New York

65- Nancy Wilson,

rock guitarist (Heart-Never, What about Love),

born in San Francisco, California

61- Jorge Ramos,

Mexican TV anchor,

born in Mexico City

Historical Obits Today

@81-1940 Selma Lagerlöf,

Swedish writer and Nobel Prize laureate

@72-2016 Frank Sinatra Jr,

American singer/bandleader,

dies of cardiac arrest

@68-1971 Thomas E. Dewey,

Governor of NY and

Republican presidential candidate (1944, 1948),

dies of a heart attack

@64-1975 T-Bone Walker,

blues guitarist (Funky Town, Well Done)

dies from stroke