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link. Click to check it out!
1.1.16 Week: 01 \ Day: 1
January Averages: 43°\16°
86004 Today: H 35° \ L 14° Average
Sky Cover: 0%
Wind Chill-drop temp by 10°
Wind ave: 11mph\Gusts: 23mph
Ave. High: ° Record High: °[] Ave. Low: ° Record
Low: °[]
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Quote of the Day
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Observances Today:
Asarah B'Tevet
Copyright Law Day
Commitment Day
Ellis Island Day
Euro Day
Global Family Day Link
Mummer's Parade
New Year's Dishonor List Day
Polar Bear Plunge or Swim Day Link (Cony
Island NY & Vancouver, BC)
Rose Bowl Game
Tournament of Roses Parade Day
World Day of Peace Link
Z Day
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Independence Day-Haiti-1804 from France
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Observances This Week:
1-8
Celebration of Life Week Link
Diet Resolution Week
Silent Record Week
New Year's Resolutions Week
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US Historical Highlights for Today
1673 - Regular mail delivery begins between NY & Boston
1788 - Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves
1797 - Albany replaces NYC as capital of NY
1818 - Official reopening of the White House
1842 - 1st illustrated weekly magazine in US publishes 1st
issue, NYC
1852 - 1st US public bath opens, in NYC
1853 - 1st practical fire engine (horse-drawn) in US enters
service
1862 - 1st US income tax (3% of incomes > $600, 5% of
incomes > $10,000)
1863 - Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln to free
slaves in confederate states
1874 - New York City annexes the Bronx
1892 - Ellis Island becomes reception center for new immigrants
1893 - 1st US college extension courses for credit, Univ of
Chicago
1898 - Brooklyn merges with NY to form present City of NY
1899 - Cuba liberated from Spanish rule by the US, American
occupation continues till 1902
1902 - 1st Rose Bowl: Michigan beats Stanford 49-0
1907 - US President T. Roosevelt shakes a record 8,513 hands
in 1 day
1928 - 1st US air-conditioned office building opens, San
Antonio
1934 - Alcatraz officially becomes a federal prison
1935 - 1st Orange Bowl: Bucknell beats Miami (FL), 26-0
1936 - 1st newspaper to microfilm its current issues, NY
Herald Tribune
1948 - 1st color newsreel filmed (Pasadena, California)
1985 - US's 1st manadatory seat belt law goes into effect (NY)
1985 - The Internet's Domain Name System is created.
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World Historical Highlights for
Today
1965 - International Cooperation Year begins
1972 - International Book Year begins
1974 - World Population Year begins
1975 - International
Women's Year begins
1979 - International Year of the Child begins
1980 - International Decade of Water & Sanitation begins
1981 - International Year for the Disabled begins
1985 - International Youth Year begins
1986 - International Peace Year begins
1987 - International Year of Shelter for Homeless begins
1988 - Year of the Reader begins
1989 - Year of the Young Reader begins
1992 - International Space Year begins
1994 - International Year of Family
1995 - International Year of Tolerance
1999 - International Year of Elderly
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45 BC - The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time.
1 - Origin of Christian Era
630 - The Prophet Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with the
army that captures it bloodlessly.
1502 - Portuguese navigators discover Rio de Janeiro
1583 - 1st day of the Gregorian calendar in Holland &
Flanders
1600 - Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead
of 25 March.
1610 - German astronomer Simon Marius 1st discovers the
Jupiter moons, but does not officially report it, Galileo does on
July 1 1610
1651 - Charles II Stuart crowned king of Scotland
1758 - The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature
establish the "starting point" for standardized species names across
the animal kingdom. This naming system is based on the binomial nomenclature
laid out in Carolus Linnaeus 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
1785 - "Daily Universal Register" (Times of London)
publishes 1st issue
1801 - The Irish Parliament votes to join the Kingdom of Great
Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
1818 - Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, The Modern
Prometheus" is published anonymously by the small London publishing house
of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones
1846 - Yucatan declares independence from Mexico
1880 - Building of Panama Canal, begins
1896 - Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery
of x-rays
1912 - Sun Yat-sen forms Chinese Republic
1917 - T. E. Lawrence joins the forces of the Arabian
sheik Feisal al Husayn, beginning his adventures that will lead him to Damascus
by October, 1918
1970 - The Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR), an infantry regiment
of the British Army, comes into existence
2002 - Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve
of the European Union's member states.
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♫ Birthdays
Today: ♫
How many can you identify? Answers below in Birthdays Today
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My Rambling Thoughts
Ready for a quiet NYE in our little mountain
town. Beautiful sky but chilly with the wind to end this crazy year. Ready for
2016.
Flipped on the news to see the fire in Dubai.
The hotel there is way out of my price range, but I do remember seeing it on my
two trips there with Focus Travel. A fire of this size, in these times, is very
suspicious.
Have a great new year, and may your best day
of 2015 be your worst day of 2016.
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Brain Teasers
(answers at the end of post)
Bark At The Moon
Language brain teasers
are those that involve the English language. You need to think about and
manipulate words and letters.
Difficulty 3 out of 4
What emotion is an anagram of a
homonym of an antonym of a homonym of an anagram of wolf?
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…Bet You Didn’t Know…
The first advanced anti-tobacco
campaign in the modern world was started by the Nazis.
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…Civil War Facts You May Not Know…
People remember the men who fought
in the war, but many don't realize that hundreds of women dressed up as men to
fight as well.
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…Grammar Craziness…
The English language includes an
interesting category of words and phrases called contronyms (also spelledcontranyms,
or referred to as autoantonyms) — terms that, depending on context,
can have opposite or contradictory meanings. When you use these words, be sure
the context clearly identifies which meaning is intended:
2. Aught: All, or
nothing
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…Harper’s Index…
2 Number of people fatally shot by British
police in the past three years
2.4 Average number of people fatally shot by
US police each day so far this year
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…Instagram Photo of the Day…
natgeoA young girl in her Sunday dress rides her mother's mule on the way home
from a full day at a country market near Jacmel, Haiti. Their home is in the
mountains stretched out across the distant horizon. Photo by @fotokonbit
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2 jokes for the day
Duck Talks With The Bartender -
A duck walks into a pub and orders a
pint of beer and a ham sandwich.
The bartender looks at him and says,
"Hang on! You're a duck."
"I see your eyes are working,"
replies the duck.
"And you can talk!"
exclaims the bartender.
"I see your ears are working,
too," says the duck. "Now if you don't mind, can I have my beer and
my sandwich please?"
"Certainly, sorry about
that" says the bartender as he pours the duck a pint. "It's just we
don't get many ducks in this pub. What are you doing around this way?"
"I'm working on the building
site across the road," explains the duck. "I'm a plasterer."
The flabbergasted bartender cannot
believe the duck and wants to learn more, but takes the hint when the duck
pulls out a newspaper from his bag and proceeds to read it.
So, the duck reads his paper, drinks
his beer, eats his sandwich, bids the barman good day and leaves.
The same thing happens for two
weeks.
Then one day the circus comes to
town.
The ringmaster comes into the pub
for a pint and the bartender says to him:
"You're with the circus, aren't
you? Well, I know this duck that could be just brilliant in your circus. He
talks, drinks beer, eats sandwiches, reads the newspaper and everything!"
"Sounds marvelous," says
the ringmaster, handing over his business card. "Get him to give me a
call."
So the next day when the duck comes
into the pub the bartender says, "Hey Mr. Duck, I reckon I can line you up
with a top job, paying really good money."
"I'm always looking for the
next job," says the duck. "Where is it?"
"At the circus," says the
bartender.
"The circus?" repeats the
duck.
"That's right," replies
the bartender.
"The circus?" the duck
asks again. "With the big TENT?"
"Yeah!" the bartender
replies.
"With all the animals who live
in CAGES, and performers who live in CARAVANS?" says the duck.
"Of course," the bartender
replies.
"And the tent has CANVAS sides
and a big canvas roof with a hole in the middle?" persists the duck.
"That's right!" says the
bartender.
The duck shakes his head in
amazement, and says: "What would they want with a plasterer???"
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Emergency Landing -
Rajiv and Priya are flying to
Australia for a two-week vacation to celebrate their 40th anniversary.
Suddenly, over the public address
system, the Captain announces, "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have
some very bad news. Our engines have ceased functioning and we will attempt an
emergency landing. Luckily, I see an uncharted island below us and we should be
able to land on the beach. However, the odds are that we may never be rescued
and will have to live on the island for the rest of our lives."
Thanks to the skill of the flight
crew, the plane lands safely on the island.
An hour later, Rajiv turns to his
wife and asks, “Priya, did we pay our deposit cheque yet to ICICI Bank?”
“No, sweetheart” she responds.
Rajiv, still shaken from the crash
landing, then asks, “Priya, did we pay our ICICI Bank Mastercard yet?”
“Oh no! I’m sorry. I forgot to send
the cheque,” she says.
“One last thing, Priya. Did you
remember to send cheques for the auto loan to them too this month?” he asks.
“Oh, forgive me, Rajiv,” begged
Priya. “I didn’t send that one, either.”
Rajiv grabs her and gives her the
biggest hug in 40 years. Priya pulls away and asks him, “So, why did you hug
me?”
“Rajiv answers, “They’ll find us!”
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Yep, It Really Happened
JEONGEUP, South Korea - A South Korean teacher
is facing child abuse charges for allegedly eating a live hamster in front of
his students to teach them "how dear life is," police said. Police
said the 44-year-old teacher, identified by the surname Yu, allegedly chewed a
live hamster and swallowed it May 11 at the boarding school in Jeongeup while
seven children were present. Yu, who also allegedly used abusive language in
front of the students, allegedly told police he had caught students abusing
hamsters and wanted to teach them "how dear life is" by making them
watch him eat one of the rodents. Police said Yu left the facility after
complaints from colleagues and he was arrested after parents of the students
contacted authorities. Yu was charged with child abuse and released from
custody, police said. The teacher publicly apologized to the children and their
parents. "I couldn't control the situation and couldn't stand it," he
told Yonhap News. "While watching the hamsters die from teasing, I thought
I should teach the children it was wrong to make light of life." Yu said
he would not have eaten the hamster if he had known his actions would be
considered child abuse.
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Somewhat Useless Information
7 Wonders of the Modern World.
Empire State Building. Finished in 1931, it towers 1,250 ft over New
York City. Until the first tower of the World Trade Center was finished in
1972, it was the world's tallest building.
Itaipu Dam. Built by Brazil and Paraguay on the Parana River, the dam is
the world's largest hydroelectric power plant. Completed in 1991, it took 16
years to build this series of dams whose length totals 7,744 m. It used 15
times more concrete than the Channel Tunnel.
CN Tower. In 1976, the tower became the world's tallest freestanding
structure. It looms about one-third of a mile high (1,815 ft) above Toronto,
Canada. A glass floor on the observation deck lets you look 342 m down to the
ground.
Panama Canal. It took 34 years to create this 50-mile-long canal across
the Isthmus of Panama. The amount of digging required and the size of its locks
helped make it the most expensive project in American history at that time-and
the most deadly: About 80,000 people died during construction (most from
disease).
Channel Tunnel. Known as the Chunnel, it links France and England. It is
31 mi long, and 23 of those miles are 150 ft beneath the seabed of the English
Channel. High-speed trains whiz through its side-by-side tubes.
Netherlands North Sea Protection Works. Because the Netherlands is below
sea level, a series of dams, floodgates, and surge barriers have been built to
keep the sea from flooding the country during storms. The biggest part of the
project was a two-mile-long moveable surge barrier across an estuary finished
in 1986. It is made of 65 concrete piers each weighing 18,000 tons. It has been
said that the project is nearly equal in scale to the Great Wall of China.
Golden Gate Bridge. Connecting San Francisco and Marin County in 1937,
for many years this was the longest suspension bridge in world. Experts thought
that winds, ocean currents, and fog would make it impossible to build. It took
about four years to complete the beautiful 1.2-mile-long bridge. It is held by
80,000 mi worth of steel wire, and the cables that link the two towers are 36.5
inches in diameter the biggest ever made.
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Birthdays Today
“()” indicates age at death
(91) - J[erome]
D[avid] Salinger, novelist (Catcher in the Rye), born in NYC, New York(d.2010)
(89) - Barry Goldwater, (Sen-R-Az, 1953-65, 69- )/Pres
candidate (R) 1964) (d.1998)
86 - Ty
Hardin, actor (Riptide, Bronco), born in NYC, New York
(83) - Paul Revere, silversmith/US patriot (British are coming)
(d.1818)
(82) - Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer/art dealer
(Camera Work), born in Hoboken, New Jersey(d.1946)
(77) - J. Edgar Hoover, first Director of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation (1924-72), born in Washington, D.C. (d.1972)
(74) - Betsy Ross [Elizabeth Griscom], seamstress widely
credited with making the first American flag(d.1836)
74 - Country Joe McDonald, California, rock
guitarist/vocalist (& the Fish) (d.)
47 - Morris Chestnut, actor (Boyz N the Hood)
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Historical Obits Today
@92-1998 - Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (31 Grand
Slams)
@86-1994 - Cesar Romero, US actor (Joker-Batman)
@85-2013 - Patti Page [Clara Ann Fowler], American pop singer
@82-2015 - Donna Douglas, American actress (Elly May Clampett-The
Beverly Hillbillies)
@80-2005 - Shirley Chisholm, 1st African American Congresswoman
and presidential candidate
@29-1953 - Hank Williams, country
singer (Cold Cold Heart), alcohol
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Brain Teasers Answers
The anagram of wolf is fowl. The homonym of
fowl is foul. The antonym of foul is fair. The homonym of fair is fare. The
anagram of fare is fear, which is the emotion.
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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… ╫╫╫╫
