April 13, 2016

Apr 14

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4.14.16 Week: 15 \ Day: 105
April Averages: 58°\27°
86004 Today: H 66° \ L 34° Average Sky Cover: 25% 
Wind ave:   11mph\Gusts:  18mph Visibility: 10 mi
Record High: 75°[1989]   Record Low:[1972]
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Quote of the Day 

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Observances Today                         
Celebrate Teen Literature Day Children with Alopecia Day
Dictionary Day Link

National Dolphin Day
Pan American Day
Pathologists' Assistant Day

Vaisakhi: harvest festival of the Punjab region
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Observances This Week
9-17
YoYo & Skill Toys Week
10-16

Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week Link 
Spring Astronomy Week
National Library Week
National Public Safety Telecommunicators (911 Operators) Week Link  

National Student Employment Week Link 
Pan American Week: 
National Volunteer Week
Week of The Young Child Link
American Indian Awareness Week Link
International Dark Sky Week 
Undergraduate Research Week 
 Health Information Privacy and Security Week   Link
12-18

National Animal Control Appreciation Week  Link 
National Tattoo Week Link
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US Historical Highlights for Today
1614 John Rolfe marries Pocahontas
1775 1st abolitionist society in US organizes in Phila
1818 US Medical Corp forms
1828 First American Dictionary: its author Noah Webster registers its copyright for publication
1836 Congress forms Territory of Wisconsin
1841 Edgar Allen Poe's "Murders in the Rue Morgue" published
1865 US Secret Service created to fight counterfeiting
1865 President Abraham Lincoln is shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater
1890 Pan American Day-1st conference of American states (Wash DC)

1894 1st public showing of Thomas Edison's kinetoscope (moving pictures)

1903 Dr Harry Plotz discovers vaccine against typhoid (NYC)
1906 US President Theodore Roosevelt denounces "muckrakers" in US press, taken from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

1910 President Taft begins tradition of throwing out ball on opening day
1935 Black Sunday: The worst sandstorm ravages US midwest (creates the Dust Bowl)
1939 John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath" published 
1940 RCA demonstrated its new electron microscope in Philadelphia

1969 41st Academy Awards - "Oliver", Cliff Robertson & Katharine Hepburn and Barbara Streisand win (1st ever tie for best actress)
1971 President Nixon ends blockade against People's Republic of China
1980 1st Cubans of the Mariel boatlift sail to Florida
1980 52nd Academy Awards - "Kramer vs Kramer", Dustin Hoffman & Sally Field win

1980 Pulitzer prize awarded to Norman Mailer (Executioner's Song)
1983 President Reagan signs $165 billion Social Security rescue
2003 The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%
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World Historical Highlights for Today
1434 The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid.
1611 Word "telescope" is 1st used (Prince Federico Cesi)
1848 In Dublin, the tricolor national flag of Ireland is presented to the public for the first time by Thomas Francis Meagher and the Young Ireland Party
1912 RMS Titanic hits an iceberg at 11.40pm off Newfoundland
1919 Following Gandhi's nonviolent methods, Muslim and Hindu protest British rule; British troops fire on the crowds, killing 400
1927 The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden.
1958 Sputnik 2 (with dog Laika) burns up in atmosphere
1961 1st live television broadcast from Soviet Union
1963 George Harrison is impressed by unsigned group "Rolling Stones"
1972 The Provisional Irish Republican Army explode twenty-four bombs in towns and cities across Northern Ireland
1986 Desmond Tutu elected Anglican Archbishop of Capetown
1989 1,100,000,000th Chinese born
1992 "Guys & Dolls" opens at Martin Beck Theater NYC for 1143 performances
2003 - An international survey rates Dublin as one of the safer cities in the world. At 18 in the rankings, it is well ahead of many other cities.
2012 J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels, launches her website "Pottermore"
2015 The oldest stone tools, at 3.3 million-years old, are found at Lomekwi 3, Kenya
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My Rambling Thoughts
I have been disappointed with the US IRS for decades. I don’t mind paying my fair share, but I do dislike a system so complicated that almost everyone goes to a tax preparer. I have always tried to have enough taken out of my money that I get a refund at the end of the year. This year I did get a refund from both the state and the Feds. Yeah. Then I paid the tax preparer and it cost me all but $200 of my refund. Of course I have to pay the tax bill now, long before my refund arrives, so I won’t be getting any interest on that money. There are so many tax codes and such a complicated set of forms, that one must hire someone who knows what they are doing or risk not getting back all you owe, or not understanding something and getting audited. I have been audited twice and by tax preparer, for a fee, represented me in the audit. Once I won, once they won. My preparer and his bosses knew that they were right but the idiot wouldn’t give in and they even paid the $57 that they said I owed…because it was cheaper for them to pay than fight anymore.
Seems to me that everyone, including corporations, should pay a flat tax. One simply lists all income from everything and then pays say 12% for the government to do its business. If 12% isn’t enough, then spend less….just like all of us have to do. No tax preparers, no lawyers, no complicated laws…just pick a percentage, tell everyone to pay. If your total income is below the poverty line, you don’t pay anything. KISS—Keep It Simple, Stupid.
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Birthdays Today
“( )” indicates age at death
(96) John Gielgud,
London, actor and director (Arthur, Ages of Man) (d.2000)
96- John Paul Stevens,
Supreme Court Justice
(86) Arnold J. Toynbee,
London, English historian (A Study of History) (d. 1975)
84- Loretta Lynn,
Butcher's Hollow Ky, singer (Coal Miner's Daughter)
(77) Rod Steiger,
 West Hampton NY, actor (Illustrated Man, Pawnbroker) (d.2002)
75- Julie Christie,
Assam India, British actress (Darling, Doctor Zhivago)
75- Pete Rose,

Cincinnati, MLB player and manager (Cincinnati Reds)
(70) Anne Mansfield Sullivan,
US, educated Helen Keller (d.1936)
55- Robert Carlyle,
Glasgow, British actor (Trainspotting, The Full Monty), born in Scotland
48- Anthony Michael Hall,
Boston, comedian (SNL, Breakfast Club)
43- David Miller,
American tenor (Il Divo)
39- Sarah Michelle Gellar,
NYC, actress (Kendall-All My Children, Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
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Historical Obits Today
@85-1995 Burl Ives,
folk singer/actor (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof)
@77-1975 Fredric March,
American actor (Inherit the Wind), prostate cancer
@76-2007 Don Ho,
American musician, heart failure
@74-1759 George Frideric Handel,
German-British baroque composer and organist (Messiah, Water Music)
@67-1924 Louis Sullivan,
architect (father of skyscrapers), alcoholism
@56-1964 Rachel Carson,
American biologist/author (Silent spring), breast cancer

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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.
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