May 19

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May 19, 2019 Week: 21 \ Day: 140

86004:   H 57° \ L 27° \ Average Sky Cover: 10% 

Nearest wildfire:  82mi. Nearest lightning:  496mi

Wind:   7mph\Gusts:  15mph

Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 85°[2008]   Record Low: 29°[1971]

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

Today’s Quote

Nothing can be done except little by little.

Charles Baudelaire

Random Tidbits

Biologists have found that wolves will respond to humans imitating their howls.

Wolves howl to contact separated members of their group, to rally the group before hunting, or to warn rival wolf packs to keep away. Lone wolves will howl to attract mates or just because they are alone.

Observances This Week

Ramadan 5/5-6/4

American Craft Beer Week: 13-19 Link
National Bike to Work Week: 13-19 Link  
National Public Gardens Week: 13-19  Link
National Stuttering Awareness Week: 13-19 
PGA Championship: 13-19

Cannes Film Festival: 15-26

National Foul Ball Week: 16-21

National Safe Boating Week: 18-24 

EMS (Emergency Medical Services) Week: 19-25  Link  
International Heritage Breeds Week: 19-25  Link  
National Eosinophil Awareness Week: 19-25  Link  
National Medical Transcription Week: 19-25  Link
National New Friends, Old Friends Week: 19-25
National Stationery Week: 19-22
National Unicycle Week: 19-25
World Trade Week: 19-25 

Observances for Today

Bay to Breakers Race  Link    Note: Oldest Footrace in America!
Boy's Club Day-1906
May Ray Day
National Hepatitus Testing Day
National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Link
National Devil’s Food Cake Day

National Scooter Day
Ride A Unicycle Day 
Take Your Parents To The Playground (Park) Day Link 

World Plant a Vegetable Garden Day

My Rambling Thoughts

Cooled off a little, but still a nice day. Took a short walk this morning. Glad I don’t live in tornado country. It seems to becoming a larger area every year.

Watched a good show, United Shades of America on CNN. The latest episode was about the Hmong people who helped the US in Vietnam, were abandoned when the US pulled out, leaving them country-less. Now, many are living in Minnesota. Amazing the stories we never heard. Well worth a watch.

 Lots of Dems on the campaign trail, lots on the news channels. Not spending much time watching it. I’ll catch the highlights later.

PUZZLE OF THE DAY

Answer at the bottom of this page

What five-letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it?

Today’s Significant Historical Events

1100’s

1182 The high altar of Paris cathedral Notre Dame is consecrated by Cardinal Henri de Château-Marçay and Maurice de Sully

1500’s

1536 Anne Boleyn, second wife of English King Henry VIII, is beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason

1568 English Queen Elizabeth I arrests Mary, Queen of Scots

1700’s

1780 About midday, near-total darkness descends on New England, now known to be caused by forest fires in Canada

1800’s

1856 Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts speaks out against slavery

1884 Ringling Brothers circus premieres

1885 1st mass production of shoes (Jan Matzeliger in Lynn, Massachusetts)

1891 Rice Institute, which became Rice University in Houston, Texas, is chartered

1896 1st auto (Karl Benz) arrives in Netherlands

1900’s

1906 Federated Boys' Club (Boys' Club of America) organizes

1921 Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system

1930 White women win voting rights in South Africa

1992 27th Amendment ratified, prohibits Congress from raising its salary

2000’s

2011 Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, project to search for dark matter, led by Samuel C. C. Ting, installed on the International Space Station

2015 Historic first handshake between Prince Charles and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams at the National University of Ireland in Galway

Birthdays Today

1869 Henry Horatio Dixon,

(d.1953: @84)

Irish Biologist who originated the cohesion-tension theory of water and mineral movement in plants,

born in Dublin, Ireland

1881 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk,

(d. 1938: @57: cirrhosis)

1st President of Turkey (1923-38); founder of the Republic of Turkey,

born in Salonica, Ottoman Empire

1890 Ho Chi Minh [Nguyễn Sinh Cung],

(d. 1969: @79: heart failure)

Vetnamese communist revolutionary and President of North Vietnam (1946-69),

born in Nghệ An Province, French Indochina

1925 Malcolm X [Little],

(d. 1965: @39: assassinated)

African American human rights activist and Muslim minister,

born in Omaha, Nebraska

1925 Pol Pot,

(d. 1998: @72: suicide or heart attack)

Cambodian dictator (1976-79) and revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge (1963-97),

born in Prek Sbauv, Kampong Thom, Cambodia

1944-Peter Mayhew,

actor (Chewbacca)

(d. 2019: @74: heart attack)

1959 Nicole Brown Simpson,

(d. 1994: @36: murdered)

German-American ex-wife of O.J. Simpson who was later murdered,

born in Frankfurt, Germany

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80’s

85- James Charles Lehrer,

news anchor (McNeil-Lehrer Report),

born in Wichita, Kansas

80- Nancy Kwan,

Hong Kong-born American actress (Flower Drum Song, World of Suzie Wong), born

in Hong Kong

70’s

74- Peter Townshend,

English rock guitarist, vocalist and composer (The Who-Tommy),

born in London, England

71- Grace Jones,

Jamacian singer/actress (Vamp, A View to a Kill),

born in Spanish Town, St. Catherine

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@96-2016 Angus "Alan" Young,

British actor and voice actor (Mister Ed, Scrooge McDuck)

80’s

@84-2016 Morley Safer,

Canadian American TV newscaster (60 Minutes)

@84-2004 Tony Randall

[Leonard Rosenberg],

American actor (The Odd Couple)

70’s

@74-1994 Henry Morgan,

American comedian and TV panelist (I've Got a Secret, Arena),

dies of cancer

@72-2014 Michael Aldrich,

British inventor (Online shopping)

60’s

@67-1907 Benjamin Baker,

English civil engineer who designed the bridge over the Firth of Forth, Scotland and the London underground

@64-1994 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,

American 1st lady (1961-63),

dies of cancer

50’s

@59-1864 Nathaniel Hawthorne,

American writer (The Scarlet Letter),

dies in his sleep

40’s

@46-1935 T. E. Lawrence [Lawrence of Arabia],

British author, soldier and diplomat famous for his liaison role in Arabia during WWI,

dies in a motorcycle accident in Dorset, England

20’s

@28-35-1536 Anne Boleyn,

Queen of England (1533-36), second wife of Henry VIII,

beheaded at the Tower of London on charges of adultery, incest and treason

Puzzle answer:

Short