Aug 19

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Aug 19, 2018 Week: 34\ Day: 231

86004 Today: H 79° \ L 53° \ Average Sky Cover: 80% 

Nearest Lightning:  123 miles away

Wind ave.:   1mph\Gusts:  10mph Visibility: 10 mi

Aug Averages: 80°\49°

Today’s Quote

The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.

  Henry David Thoreau

Harper’s Index

9/10

Portion of Hawaii’s drinking water that comes from underground wells

53,000,000

Gallons of raw sewage that leak into the ground from Hawaii cesspools each day

Observances This Week

15-21

National Aviation Week  

16-26

Little League World Series

18-24

Minority Enterprise Development Week
National Chef's Appreciation Week  Link  Link  

Observances for Today

Aviation Day
"Black Cow" Root Beer Float Day
Chef Appreciation Day Link  
Coco Chanel Day
International Bow Day Link
International Geocaching Day

International Orangutan Day   Link
National Honey Bee Day Link  
World Humanitarian Day Link  
World Photo Day  Link

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1600’s                                         

1692 Five more people hanged for witchcraft (20 in all) in Salem, Massachusetts

1700’s                                         

1745 Jacobite Rising 1745 : Bonnie Prince Charlie, raises his standard at Glenfinnan, Scotland, igniting the second Jacobite rebellion.

1800’s                                         

1839 Details of Louis Daguerre's 1st practical photographic process are released in Paris

1887 Dmitri Mendeleev makes a solo ascent by balloon to an altitude of 11,500 feet (3.5 km) above Klin, Russia to observe an eclipse

1897 1st electric taxis drive in London

1900’s                                         

1914 In a message to the Senate, US President Woodrow Wilson urges the American people to be 'neutral in fact as well as name'

1934 The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio.

1942 World War II: Over 4,000 Canadian and British soldiers killed, wounded or captured raiding Dieppe, France

1944 Last Japanese troops driven out of India

1960 Francis Gary Powers convicted of spying by USSR (U-2 incident)

1960 Soviet Sputnik 5 carries 2 dogs, 2 rats, 40 mice, 1 rabbit and fruit flies into orbit, - 1st animals to return alive from obit

1970 The Chinese Community in South Africa is granted 'White' status

1979 "My Sharonna" by the Knack hits #1 (stays for 42 days)

1993 Mattel & Fisher Price toy companies merge

2000’s                                         

2015 US Food and Drug administration approves Female Viagra libido pill Addyi

My Rambling Thoughts

My computer went crazy last night. Thankfully I have a good tech support team and they brought it back, except for all my browser bookmarks. I had a list of the most sites so it just took some time to re-enter them.

The readings for our China discussion certainly opened my eyes. I knew China was busy in Africa, and the water around China, but they are everywhere. We are not keeping up. Our current administration is trying to play a different game with China, but so far, it ain’t slowing down their plans. Hopefully our seasoned diplomats will figure out a way to stay ahead of China’s plans.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

80’s

@87►Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, French fashion designer (Chanel), born in Saumur, France (d. 1971)

@85►Charles E. Hires, American pharmacist, inventor and manufacturer of the Hires Root Beer beverage, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1937)

70’s

@76► Orville Wright, aviator (Wright Brothers), born in Dayton, Ohio (d. 1912)

@73►Seth Thomas, American pioneer in mass production of clocks (d. 1859)

72►Bill Clinton [William Jefferson], 42nd US President (Democrat, 1993-2001), born in Hope, Arkansas

@70►Malcolm Forbes, American publisher of Forbes Magazine, born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1990) heart attack

70►Tipper Gore, wife of US Vice President Al Gore (1993-01)

60’s

@68►Ogden Nash, humorous poet (I'm a Stranger Here Myself), born in Rye, NY (d. 1971) Crohn’s diseast

@62- Edward John Dent, British Clockmaker to Queen Victoria and commissioned to make Big Ben, London (completed after his death by his son Frederick Dent), born in London, (d. 1853)

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@93-1994 Linus Pauling, Nobel prize scientist (Vitamin C advocate)

80’s

@86-2009 Don Hewitt, television news producer & director; creator of 60 Minutes

@83-1887 Alvan Clark, American astronomer and maker of the Dearborn Observatory telescope, the largest telescope in the world at the time

@82-2016 Donald Henderson, American epidemiologist, led world campaign that eradicated smallpox

40’s

49►Mathew Perry, actor (Friends)

30’s

@39-1662 laise Pascal, French mathematician, physicist and Christian philosopher (Pascal's Law, Pascal's Wager), stomach tumor

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…☼☼☼☼

Aug 18

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Aug 18, 2018 Week: 33\ Day: 230

86004 Today: H 76° \ L 54° \ Average Sky Cover: 80% 

Nearest Lightning:  16.7 miles away

Wind ave.:   2mph\Gusts:  9mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 87°[2002]   Record Low: 36°[1975]

Aug Averages: 80°\49°

Today’s Quote

  Music does a lot of things for a lot of people.

  It's transporting, for sure. It can take you right back,

  years back, to the very moment certain things

  happened in your life.

  It's uplifting, it's encouraging, it's strengthening.

    Aretha Franklin

Harper’s Index

  95

  Percentage of US adults who claim

  to support organ donation

  54

  Who register to donate their organs

Observances This Week

12-18

National Motorcycle Week Link 
Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week  Link  Link 
National Resurrect Romance Week
Weird Contest Week 

15-21

National Aviation Week  

16-26

Little League World Series

18-24

Minority Enterprise Development Week
National Chef's Appreciation Week  Link  Link  

Observances for Today

Bad Poetry Day
Birth Control Pills Day
Clear The Shelters Day  Link 
International Homeless Animals Day
World Honey Bee Day Link   Link
Mail Order Catalog Day
National Badge Ribbon Day
National Fajita Day  Link
Serendipity Day

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

BC’s                                             

293 BC The oldest known Roman temple to Venus is founded, starting the institution of Vinalia Rustica (grape harvest festival)

1700’s                                         

1737 First public admittance to the Salon de Paris art exhibition at the Louvre in Paris

1800’s                                         

1835 Last Pottawatomie Indians leave Chicago

1862 Sioux Indians begin uprising in Minnesota (it is later crushed)

1868 French Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovers helium in solar spectrum during eclipse

1872 1st mail-order catalog issued by A M Ward

1900’s                                         

1909 Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River.

1920 22 year old representative Harry T. Burn is deciding vote in Tennessee's and thus America's ratification of the 19th Amendment to the constitution allowing women's suffrage after letter from his mother

1938 FDR dedicates Thousand Islands Bridge connecting US & Canada

1956 Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" reaches #1

1958 "Lolita" by Vladimir Nabokov published

1962 Peter, Paul & Mary release their first hit "If I Had a Hammer"

1963 James Meredith becomes the 1st black graduate from University of Mississippi

1964 South Africa banned from Olympic Games because of apartheid policies

1969 Woodstock Music & Art Fair closes with Jimi Hendrix / Band of Gypsys as the final act

1976 Korean axe murder incident: 2 US soldiers tasked with cutting down a poplar tree blocking the view of UN observers are killed by North Koreans claiming it was planted by Kim Il-sung in the Korean Demilitarized Zone

1982 Longest baseball game at Wrigley Field in Chicago IL, ends after 22 innings - before LA Dodgers beat Cubs 2-1 (game started Aug 17th)

1984 Triangle Oil Corp, above-ground storage tank at Jacksonville Fla, spills 2.5 m gallons of oil burned after lightning sparked a fire

2000’s                                         

2000 A Federal jury finds the US Environmental Protection Agency guilty of discrimination against Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, later inspiring passage of the No FEAR Act.

2008 An American 1-2-3 in the 400m hurdles at the Beijing Olympics; Angelo Taylor wins gold in 47.25 ahead of Kerron Clement and Bershawn Jackson

2016 Jamaica's Usain Bolt wins the gold medal in the men's 200m for the 3rd successive Summer Olympics, recording a time of 19.78 in Rio de Janeiro

2017 White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon is fired by US President Donald Trump

My Rambling Thoughts

Cloudy and awaiting afternoon monsoon.

Finally got around to doing some grocery shopping. Quick trip as I didn’t need much.

Looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow night our discussion group meets to discuss China. Got lots of articles to read, so better get started.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

90’s

91►Rosalynn Smith Carter, American 1st lady (1977-1981), born in Plains, Georgia

80’s

85►Roman Polanski, Polish-French film director (Rosemary's Baby, Chinatown, Pirates), born in Paris, France

82►Robert Redford, American actor (Sting, Candidate, Natural, Great Gatsby), born in Santa Monica, California

60’s

61►Denis Leary, American actor and comedian (Rescue Me), born in Worcester, Massachusetts

50’s

@57►Patrick Swayze, actor/dancer (Dirty Dancing, Ghost), born in Houston, (d. 2009) pancreatic cancer

40’s

49►Christian Slater, actor (Robin Hood, Untamed Heart, Heathers)

49►Edward Norton, American actor (American History X), born in Boston, Massachusetts

48►Malcolm Jamal Warner, actor (Theodore-Cosby Show), born in Jersey City, New Jersey

40► Andy Samberg, actor

Historical Obits Today

80’s

@86-1990 B F Skinner, American psychologist (Skinner Box)

70’s

@78-1919 Joseph E. Seagram, Canadian distillery founder

60’s

@65-1940 Walter Chrysler, American founder of car company Chrysler, stroke

@65-1227 Genghis Khan, Mongol conqueror, KIA

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…☼☼☼☼

Aug 17

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Aug 17, 2018 Week: 33\ Day: 229

86004 Today: H 78° \ L 55° \ Average Sky Cover: 60% 

Nearest Lightning:  55 miles away

Wind ave.:   1mph\Gusts:  12mph Visibility: 10 mi

Record High: 88°[2002]   Record Low: 38°[1979]

Aug Averages: 80°\49°

Today’s Quote

 We all require and want respect,

 man or woman, black or white.

 It's our basic human right.

   Aretha Franklin

Harper’s Index

 5

  Estimated percentage of US children who exhibit

  symptoms of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders

Observances This Week

9-16

Elvis Week Link
National Hobo Week Link
National Scrabble Week  Link  

12-18

National Motorcycle Week Link 
Feeding Pets of the Homeless Week  Link  Link 
National Resurrect Romance Week
Weird Contest Week 

15-21

National Aviation Week  

16-26

Little League World Series

Observances for Today

Black Cat Appreciation Day Link   Link
Chinese Valentine's Day/Daughter's Day

I Love My Feet Day Link
Meaning of "Is" Day|
Men's Grooming Day Link 
National Nonprofit Day  Link
National Thriftshop Day Link

Today’s Significant US Historical Events

Today’s Significant International Historical Events 

1800’s                                         

1807 Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins first trip up Hudson River

1846 Commodore Robert F Stockton, US Navy, annexes California

1858 1st bank in Hawaii opens

1870 1st ascent of Mt Rainier, Washington

1891 1st public bathhouse with showers opens in NYC (People's Bath)

1891 Electric self-starter for automobile patented

1900’s                                         

1903 Joe Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University & begins the Pulitzer Prizes in America

1908 Bank of Italy (now Bank of America) opens new HQ at Clay & Montgomery, San Francisco

1933 Lou Gehrig plays record 1,308th consecutive game

1938 1st aircraft owned by US Forest Service in service (Oakland)

1945 Sukarno and Mohammad Hatta declare Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) independent from the Netherlands

1945 Korea is divided into North and South Korea along the 38th parallel

1946 George Orwell publishes "Animal Farm" in the United Kingdom

1950 Indonesia gains independence from Netherlands

1959 7.1 quake strikes Yellowstone National Park

1961 Kennedy administration establishes Alliance for Progress

1976 An earthquake & tsunami in the Philippines kills up to 8,000

1979 Monty Python's "Life of Brian" directed by Terry Jones, starring Graham Chapman & John Cleese premieres

1982 First Compact Discs (CDs) released to the public in Germany

1994 NY Central park reservoir officially named after Jackie Kennedy Onasis

1998 Monica Lewinsky scandal: US President Bill Clinton admits in taped testimony he had an "improper physical relationship" with the intern and on the same day admits before the nation he "misled people" about the relationship

2000’s                                         

2012 Gay pride events are banned for a century in Moscow

2016 American sweep in 100m women's hurdles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics with Brianna Rollins taking gold ahead of Nia Ali & Kristi Castlin; 1st time US has swept medals in an Olympic women's track & field event

2017 Anti-immigrant One Nation party leader Pauline Hansen is widely criticized for wearing a burqa into the Australian parliament

2017 On This Day helps launch Borneo Dictionary, an online not for profit dictionary of indigenous Borneo languages with translations in English and Bahasa Malaysia

My Rambling Thoughts

Did some necessary shopping at Sam’s today. While there I saw an inexpensive ‘air fryer’ on one of those end displays. I had dinner at a friend’s place the other day and she used an air fryer. Food was good, so I’ll try one out. Growing up we had a deep fryer and it was used a lot. I miss some of that good old fried food. Maybe this will help with healthier food.

Rainfall here is up for the monsoon season, but still way way down for the year. Drought is awful.

Today remembers Floyd Westerman’s birthday. I have put several of his songs in the birthday section. If you haven’t heard of him, or haven’t listened to him for a few years, check it out.

I’ve never been a big fan of organized churches. I grew up going to a small Episcopal church. They had their share of ‘issues’. Sometimes groups would leave because they didn’t like the Priest. Other times the Priest would leave because powerful members didn’t like something he did. While working on the Rez, I saw lots of Church people going to very drastic measures to convince traditional people that their way was wrong. I also saw ‘churches’ pop up at people’s homes. Members of a known church would get upset, leave, and start their own ‘church’. Some of my staff would change these home ‘churches’ like others change their clothes. All to political for me. The latest information on the Catholic church only adds to my dissatisfaction…child rape is never OK; hiding child rape is NEVER OK. I believe those who harm children have a special place in Hell. Those who allow children to be harmed are headed to the same place.

Birthdays Today

@-  indicates age at death

0’s

@95►Samuel Goldwyn [Shmuel Gelbfisz], Jewish Polish American movie producer (MGM), born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1974)

@95►Maureen O'Hara [FitzSimons], Irish actress and singer (Miracle on 34th St, The Quiet Man), Ranelagh, County Dublin (d. 2015)

@90►Frederick Russell, developed 1st successful typhoid fever vaccine (d. 1960)

@87►Mae West, American actress and singer (She Done him Wrong), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1980)

75►Robert De Niro, American actor (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull), born in NYC, New York

@71►Floyd Red Crow Westerman (Kanghi Duta), Sioux musician-actor “Custer Died For Your Sins” “Where Were You When?” “Drums” “They Didn’t Listen” “Here Come The Antros” (d. 2007) leukemia

58►Sean Penn, actor (Fast Times at Ridgemont High), born in Santa Monica, California

@52►Marcus Garvey, began back-to-Africa movement among US African Americans (d. 1940) strokes

@49► Davy Crockett, American frontiersman, adventurer and politician, born in Greene County, Tennessee (d. 1836) at the Alamo

49►Donald E Wahlberg Jr, rocker (New Kids-Hangin' Tough), born in Boston, Massachusetts

@47-Francis Gary Powers, US spy (USSR captures him in 1959 U-2 incident) (d. 1977) helicopter crash

Historical Obits Today

90’s

@93-1987 Rudolf Hess, German Nazi official (Deputy Fuhrer who dramatically escaped to Britain in 1941, sentenced to life in Spandau Prison), commits suicide

70’s

@72-1990 Pearl Bailey, American actress and singer (Hello Dolly), heart attack

@72-1850 Jose de San Martin, South American revolutionary hero and general

@70-1979 Vivian Vance, American actress (Ethel Mertz-I Love Lucy), 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…☼☼☼☼