Like Suz, I'm celebrating that Mistfox is back!

I'm also celebrating that Paul McCartner left that %^#%$^ woman a year ago today.

Today is May 18th. That means it is International Museum Day, Haiti observes Flag and University Day, Turkmenistan observes Revival and Unity Day, and Uruguay observes the Battle of Las Piedras Day.


2004: Randy Johnson, 40, became the oldest pitcher in major league history to throw a perfect game, leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 2-0 win over the Atlanta Braves.

2003: "Les Miserables" closed on Broadway after more than 16 years and 6,680 performances.

1998: The United States Department of Justice and 20 U.S. states filed an antitrust case against Microsoft.

1994: Israel's three decades of occupation in the Gaza Strip ended as Israeli troops completed their withdrawal and Palestinian authorities took over.

1980: Mount St. Helens volcano in southwestern Washington state erupted, killing 57 and devastating 210 square miles.

1974: Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonated its first nuclear weapon becoming the sixth nation to do so.

1953: Jacqueline Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier (she flew in a F-86 Sabrejet at an average speed of 652.337 miles per hour (1049.835 km/h) at Rogers Dry Lake, California).

1951: The United Nations moved out of its temporary headquarters in Lake Success, New York, to its permanent home in Manhattan.

1920: During the 46th Preakness, Clarence Kummer aboard Man o' War won in 1:51.6

1917: Congress passed the Selective Service Act, calling up soldiers to fight World War I.

1910: During the approach of Halley's comet, the Earth probably passed through part of its tail, which was millions of kilometers in length. The 1910 approach was also notable for being the first approach of which photographs exist.

1898: In Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that providing "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races" was constitutional. This decision was not overturned until 1954 in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.

1852: Massachusetts ruled all school-age children must attend school.

1804: The French Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte emperor.

1652: Rhode Island passed the first law in North America making slavery illegal.

1642: Montreal, Canada was founded.

1593: Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe.

Births:
1048: Omar Khayyam [Ghiyath al-Din Abu'l-Fath Umar ibn Ibrahim Al-Nisaburi al-Khayyami] (Persian poet/mathematician/astronomer) [The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam]

1846: Peter Carl Fabergé (Russian goldsmith/designer/jeweler)

1897: Frank Capra (Italian-born American film director) ["It's A Wonderful Life", "It Happened One Night"]

1920: Karol Wojtyla [John Paul II] (Polish priest/pope)

1952: George Strait (American country music singer) ["All My Ex's Live in Texas"; "You Look So Good in Love"; "Love Without End, Amen" ]

Deaths:
1911: Gustav Mahler (Austrian composer) [Das Lied von der Erde]

1981: William Saroyan (American author) ["The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze", "My Name Is Aram", "Obituaries"]

1995: Elizabeth Montgomery (American actress) [Bewitched, The Legend Of Lizzie Borden]


Word of the day: internecine \in-tuhr-NES-een; -NEE-syn; -NEE-sin\
Etymology: From Latin internecinus, from internecare, "to destroy utterly, to exterminate," from inter- + necare, "to kill," from nec-, nex, "violent death."
(adjective)
1. Of or relating to conflict within a nation, an organization, or a group.
2. Mutually destructive; involving or accompanied by mutual slaughter.
3. Deadly; destructive; marked by slaughter.

Mistfox - who has gone from sneezing to coughing

Today is May 19th. That means Turkey observes Youth and Sports Day.


2006: A key U.N. panel joined European and United Nations leaders in urging the Bush administration to close its prison in Guantanamo Bay, saying the indefinite detention of terror suspects there violated the world's ban on torture.

2005: "Revenge of the Sith," the final chapter of the "Star Wars" adventure series, opened in movie theaters.

2001: People’s Republic of China government officials put Zhonghua Sun to death because she refused to be sterilized. She was the mother of two boys. Birth-control officials had failed to persuade Sun to accept voluntary sterilization, and later dragged her from her home and drove off with her.

1999: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was released in movie theaters across the United States, setting a new record for opening day sales at $28.5 million.

1996: A large asteroid came within 281,000 miles of the Earth.

1992: Mary Jo Buttafuoco was shot and seriously wounded in Massapequa, N.Y., by her husband Joey's teenage lover, Amy Fisher.

1979: "In The Navy" by The Village People hit #3 on the charts.

1973: During the 99th Preakness, Ron Turcotte aboard Secretariat won in 1:54.4

1962: A birthday salute to U.S. President John F. Kennedy took place at Madison Square Garden, New York. The highlight was Marilyn Monroe's infamous rendition of Happy Birthday.

1935: The National Football League adopted an annual college draft to begin in 1936.

1928: 51 frogs entered the first annual "Frog Jumping Jubilee" at Angel's Camp, California.

1914: The Greyhound Bus Company was founded.

1900: The world's longest railroad tunnel, the 12-mile-long Simplon Tunnel linking Switzerland to Italy through the Alps, opened.

1898: The U.S. Post Office first authorized postcards.

1897: Oscar Wilde was released from Reading Gaol.

1885: Jan Matzeliger of Lynn, Massachusetts began the first mass production of shoes

1884: The Ringling Brothers Circus first performed.

1848: The first department store opened.

1848: Mexico ratified the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thus ending the Mexican-American war and ceding Texas, California and most of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $15 million dollars.

1780: A never-explained complete darkness fell on Eastern Canada and the New England area of America at 2 pm. It was dubbed New England's Dark Day.

1749: King George II of England granted the Ohio Company a charter of several hundred thousand acres of land on the Ohio River, thereby promoting westward settlement by colonists from Virginia; this directly challenged the French claim to Ohio and was a direct cause of the outbreak of the French and Indian War in 1754.

1649: England was declared a Commonwealth.

1643: The Confederation of New England was formed by Connecticut, New Haven, Plymouth, and Massachusetts Bay.

1602: Captain Bartholomew Gosnold first sighted Martha’s Vineyard.

1588: The Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon on a mission to secure control of the English Channel and transport a Spanish invasion army to Britain from the Netherlands.

1535: French explorer Jacques Cartier set sail on his second voyage to North America with 3 ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (who Cartier kidnapped during his first voyage).

Births:
1861: Dame Nellie Melba [Helen Porter Mitchell] (Australian opera singer)

1890: Ho Chi Minh [Nguyen That Thanh, Nguyen Sinh Cung] (Vietnamese revolutionary/statesman/Prime Minister/President of North Vietnam.)

1925: Malcolm X [Malcolm Little, El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Omowale] (American black nationalist/civil rights activist/spokesman for the Nation of Islam) Founded both the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

1945: Pete Townshend (English rock guitarist/singer/songwriter/composer) [The Who]

1952: Joey Ramone [Jeffrey Ross Hyman] (American musician) [The Ramones]

Deaths:
1536: Anne Boleyn (Second wife of Henry VIII of England/mother of Elizabeth I) Beheaded for adultery.

1645: Miyamoto Musashi, Japanese swordsman)

1935: T.E. Lawrence ["Lawrence of Arabia"] (English soldier)

1971: [Frederic] Ogden Nash (American poet)

1994: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (American First Lady)


Word of the day: veritable \VER-ih-tuh-bul\
Etymology: Derives from Latin veritas, "truth," from verus, "true."
(adjective)
1. Agreeable to truth or to fact; actual; real; true; genuine.

Mistfox - who is off to paint deck furniture (and herself)

On this day 18 years ago I made the best decision I will ever make and married one of the most caring men in the world!

Today is May 20th. That means the United Nations observes World Refugee Day, Cameroon observes a National Holiday/Constitution Day, Indonesia observes National Day of Awakening, Massachusetts observes Lafayette Day, North Carolina observes Anniversary of Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.


2003: The United States banned beef imports from Canada after a case of mad cow disease was discovered in Canada's cattle country.

2002: East Timor became an independent nation.

1996: The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Romer v. Evans against a law that would have prevented any city, town or county in the state of Colorado from taking any legislative, executive, or judicial action to protect the rights of homosexuals.

1980: A referendum was held in Quebec where the population rejected by a vote of 60% the proposal from its government to move towards independence from Canada.

1961: A white mob attacked a busload of "Freedom Riders" in Montgomery, Alabama, prompting the federal government to send in United States marshals to restore order.

1941: Germany captured the island of Crete in the first totally airborne invasion.

1940: The first prisoners arrived at a new concentration camp at Auschwitz.

1940: Igor Sikorsky unveiled his helicopter invention.

1939: Regular transatlantic air service began as a Pan American Airways plane, the Yankee Clipper, took off from Port Washington, New York, bound for Europe.

1932: Amelia Earhart took off from Newfoundland for Ireland to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean.

1927: Charles Lindbergh took off from Long Island, New York, aboard the Spirit of St. Louis, on his historic solo flight to Paris, France.

1920: Montreal Quebec station XWA broadcast the first regularly scheduled radio programming in North America.

1918: For the third consecutive year on this date, the town of Codell, Kansas was struck by a tornado.

1916: Norman Rockwell's first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.

1902: Cuba gained independence from the United States.

1874: Levi Strauss began marketing blue jeans with copper rivets.

1861: Kentucky proclaimed its neutrality, which would last until September 3 when Confederate forces entered the state.

1861: North Carolina voted to secede from the Union, the last state to do so.

1861: The capital of the Confederacy was moved from Montgomery, Alabama, to Richmond, Virginia.

1830: H.D. Hyde of Reading, Pennsylvania, patented the fountain pen.

1775: Citizens of Mecklenburg County, NC declared independence of Britain.

1570: Cartographer Abraham Ortelius issued the first modern atlas.

1498: Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama became the first European to reach India via either the Atlantic Ocean or Mediterranean Sea when he arrived at Calicut, India.

1310: Shoes were made for both right and left feet.

0325: The First Council of Nicaea was held; the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church.

Births:
1768: Dolly Madison [Dorothea Dandridge Payne Todd] (American First Lady)

1799: Honoré de Balzac (French novelist) [The Human Comedy]

1908: Jimmy Stewart (American actor) [The Philadelphia Story, You Can't Take It With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life]

1915: Moshe Dayan (Israeli military leader)

1944: Joe Cocker (British singer) [“Up where We Belong”, “You are So Beautiful”, “When The Night Comes”]

1946: Cher [Cherilyn Sarkisian LePiere] (American singer/actress) ["I Got You Babe", "Believe"]

Deaths:
0685: Ecgfrith (King of Northumbria)

1506: Christopher Columbus (Italian explorer)

1989: Gilda Radner (American comedian)

2002: Stephen Jay Gould (American paleontologist/author)


Word of the day: furtive \FUR-tiv\
Etymology: From Latin furtivus, from furtum, "theft," from fur, "thief."
(adjective)
1. Done by stealth; surreptitious; secret; as, a furtive look.
2. Expressive of stealth; sly; shifty; sneaky.
3. Stolen; obtained by stealth.
4. Given to stealing; thievish; pilfering.

Mistfox - who wishes Tracey many more years of happiness

Today is May 21st. That means Chile observes Battle of Iquique Day.


2004: Stanislav Petrov was awarded the World Citizen Award for averting a potential World War III in 1983. Wash. Post article on Stanislav Petrov

1999: Susan Lucci, star of the ABC soap opera "All My Children," won a Daytime Emmy Award for best actress for the first time in the 19th straight years she was nominated.

1980: Ensign Jean Marie Butler became the first woman to graduate from a U.S. service academy, from the Coast Guard Academy.

1979: Former San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the shooting deaths of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk; White's argument that junk food had fueled his rampage was derided as the "Twinkie defense."

1977: During the 103rd Preakness, Jean Cruguet aboard Seattle Slew won in 1:54.4.

1968: The nuclear-powered U.S. submarine Scorpion, with 99 men aboard, was last heard from. (The remains of the sub were later found on the ocean floor 400 miles southwest of the Azores.)

1959: The musical "Gypsy" opened on Broadway.

1956: In the Pacific Ocean, the Bikini Atoll was nearly obliterated by the first airborne explosion of a hydrogen bomb.

1945: Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart were married.

1936: Sada Abe was apprehended after wandering the streets of Tokyo for days with her dead lover's severed genitals in her hand. Her story soon became one of Japan's most notorious scandals.

1932: Amelia Earhart completed her famous flight, started the day before.

1927: Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris, having left New York the day before on his historic solo flight.

1908: The first horror movie (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) premiered in Chicago.

1892: The opera "I Pagliacci" by Ruggiero Leoncavallo was first performed, in Milan, Italy.

1881: The United States Lawn Tennis Association was formed in New York City.


1881: In Washington, DC, humanitarians Clara Barton and Adolphus Solomons founded the American Association of the Red Cross (now the American National Red Cross).

1879: During the naval battle of Iquique and Punta Gruesa, Chilean ships Esmeralda and Covadonga (that blocked the Iquique harbor) fought against the Peruvian vessels Huáscar and Independencia.

1871: French Government troops invaded the Paris Commune and engaged its residents in street fighting. By the close of "Bloody Week" some 20,000 communards had been killed and 38,000 arrested.

1851: Gold was first discovered in Australia.

1840: New Zealand was declared a British colony.

1819: The first bicycles (swift walkers) in the U.S. were introduced in NYC.

1536: The Reformation was officially adopted in Geneva, Switzerland.

Births:
427 B.C.E.: Plato [Aristocles] (Greek philosopher)

1471: Albrecht Duerer (German painter/engraver/graphic artist)

1904: "Fats" [Thomas Wright] Waller (American jazz pianist/organist/composer/comedic entertainer)

1916: Harold Robbins [Francis Kane, Harold Rubin] (American writer) [Stiletto, The Carpetbaggers, The Storyteller, Descent from Xanadu, Never Enough]

1921: Andrei Sakharov (Soviet nuclear physicist/human rights activist)

1930: Malcolm Fraser (Australian political leader/prime minister)

1944: Mary Robinson (First female President of Ireland)

Deaths:
1471: Henry VI (King of England0

1542: Hernando de Soto (Spanish explorer)

1991: Rajiv Gandhi (Indian leader) Assassinated.

2000: Sir John Gielgud (British actor) [The Prime Minister, Julius Caesar, Richard III, Arthur, Shine]

2000: Barbara Cartland (British romance novel author)


Word of the day: insuperable \in-SOO-pur-uh-bul\
Etymology: From Latin insuperabilis, from in-, "not" + superare, "to go above or over, to surmount," from super, "above, over."
(adjective)
1. Incapable of being passed over, surmounted, or overcome; insurmountable; as, "insuperable difficulties."

Mistfox - who hasn't found that finding new "Words of the Day" is insuperable yet, but it's close

Today is May 22nd. That means it's World Biodiversity Day, the Republic of Yemen observes National Day, and Sri Lanka observes National Heroes Day.


2003: The U.N. Security Council gave the U.S. and Britain a mandate to rule Iraq, ending 13 years of economic sanctions.

2003: Annika Sorenstam became the first woman since 1945 to tee off against the men on the pro tour, playing in the first round of the Colonial golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas.

2002: A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicted former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry of murder in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. (Cherry was sentenced to life in prison and died in 2004.)

1998: Voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland cast ballots giving resounding approval to a Northern Ireland peace accord.

1992: Johnny Carson hosted his last "Tonight Show," where he had reigned for nearly 30 years.

1990: After 150 years apart, pro-Western North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen merged to form the Republic of Yemen.

1979: Canadians voted in parliamentary elections that put the Progressive Conservative party in power, ending the 11-year tenure of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

1972: Ceylon became the republic of Sri Lanka.

1969: The lunar module of Apollo 10 separated from the command module and flew to within nine miles of the moon's surface in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

1967: The children's program "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" premiered on TV.

1965: "Super-cali-fragil-istic-expi-ali-docious" hit #66 on the charts.

1961: The first revolving restaurant (Top Of The Needle in Seattle) opened.

1960: An earthquake (also known as the Great Chilean Earthquake) measuring 9.5 on the Richter scale affected southern Chile. It is the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

1947: In an effort to fight the spread of Communism, President Harry S. Truman of America signed an act into law that would later be called the Truman Doctrine. The act granted $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece.

1931: Canned rattlesnake meat first went on sale in Florida.

1926: "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" by Gene Austin hit #1.

1908: The Wright brothers registered their flying machine for a U.S. patent.

1902: Crater Lake National Park was established.

1892: Dr. Washington Sheffield invented the toothpaste tube.

1856: Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas ("Bleeding Kansas").

1843: A massive wagon train of 1,000 settlers, called the "Great Emigration," set off down the Oregon Trail from Independence, Missouri.

1840: The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.

1819: The SS Savannah left port at Savannah, Georgia on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The ship would arrive at Liverpool, England on June 20.

1803: The first public library opened in Connecticut.

1761: The first life insurance policy in the United States was issued, in Philadelphia.

1455: In the opening battle of England's War of the Roses, the Yorkists defeated King Henry VI's Lancastrian forces at St. Albans, near London, capturing Henry VI and killing Edmund Beaufort, Duke of Somerset.

Births:
1813: [Wilhelm] Richard Wagner (German composer) [Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, Der Ring des Nibelungen]

1844: Mary Cassatt (American artist)

1859: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (British physician, writer) [The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes]

1907: Sir Laurence Olivier (British actor) [Clash of the Titans , The Boys from Brazil , Othello, Marathon Man , The Entertainer, Hamlet]

Deaths:
1885: Victor Hugo (French author) [The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Miserables]

1990: Rocky Graziano [Thomas Rocco Barbella] (American boxer)

2005: Thurl Ravenscroft (American voice actor) Ravenscroft was best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger. He was also the vocalist of the song "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in How the Grinch Stole Christmas!.


Word of the day: delectation \dee-lek-TAY-shun\
Etymology: Derives from Latin delectatio, from the past participle of delectare, "to please."
(noun)
1. Great pleasure; delight, enjoyment.

Mistfox - who gets delectation from books

Today is May 23rd. That means Morocco observes National Day and Sweden observes Linnaeus Day.


2006: ABC appointed Charles Gibson to replace Elizabeth Vargas as anchor of its "World News Tonight" evening newscast.

2004: Part of Paris Charles De Gaulle International Airport Terminal 2E collapsed, killing five people and injuring three others.

1995: In Oklahoma City the remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was imploded.

1969: The rock band The Who released Tommy, the first rock opera.

1969: The BBC ordered 13 episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

1960: Israel announced the arrest (after his abduction in Argentina) of Adolf Eichmann, who had been responsible for organizing the Germans' mass extermination of Jews in World War II.

1949: The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) came into being, with its capital at Bonn.

1935: The first major league night baseball game played under lights occurred, in Cincinnati, Ohio between the Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies.

1934: Dr. Wallace Carothers, a chemist at Du Pont, first produced Nylon.

1915: Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary in World War I.

1911: President William Howard Taft dedicated the New York Public Library, the largest marble structure ever constructed in the United States.

1882: 6" of snow fell in eastern Iowa.

1873: The Canadian Parliament established the North West Mounted Police (which would be renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in 1920).

1873: During the first Preakness G. Barbee aboard Survivor won in 2:43.

1865: The Army of the Potomac celebrated the end of the Civil War by parading down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

1788: South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the Constitution of the United States of America.

1785: Benjamin Franklin announced his invention of bifocals.

1533: Henry VIII's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void.

1430: Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians, who sold her to the English.

Births:
1707: Carolus Linnaeus [Carl von Linné] (Swedish botanist)

1734: Friedrich Anton Mesmer (Viennese physician/hypnotist)

1898: Scott O'Dell (American author) [Island of the Blue Dolphins, The King's Fifth, The Black Pearl]

1910: Margaret Wise Brown (American children's author) [Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny]

1958: Drew Carey (American actor/comedian) [The Drew Carey Show, Whose Line Is It Anyway?]

Deaths:
1701: Captain William Kidd (Scottish pirate)

1934: Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker (American Bank robbers) Shot to death in a police ambush in Gibsland, Louisiana.

1945: Heinrich Himmler (Commander of the German Schutzstaffel [SS])

2006: Lloyd Bentsen (American senator/vice-presidential candidate/Treasury Secretary)


Word of the day: redolent \RED-uh-luhnt\
Etymology: Derives from Latin redolens, -entis, present participle of redolere, "to emit a scent, to diffuse an odor," from red-, re- + olere, "to exhale an odor."
(adjective)
1. Having or exuding fragrance; scented; aromatic.
2. Full of fragrance; odorous; smelling (usually used with 'of' or 'with').
3. Serving to bring to mind; evocative; suggestive; reminiscent (usually used with 'of' or 'with').

Mistfox - who likes redolent flowers

Today is May 24th. That means Bermuda observes Bermuda Day, Eritrea observes Independence Day, Belize observes Commonwealth Day, Bulgaria observes Culture Day, and Ecuador celebrates the Battle of Pichincha.


2006: Taylor Hicks was named the new "American Idol" over runner-up Katharine McPhee.

2000: Israeli troops pulled out unilaterally from south Lebanon, ending 18 years of occupation.

1994: Four men convicted of bombing New York's World Trade Center were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

1993: Microsoft unveiled Windows NT.

1993: Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia.

1976: The London to Washington, DC Concorde service began.

1969: The Beatles' "Get Back," single went to #1 and stayed #1 for 5 weeks.

1962: Astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.

1958: United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1940: Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1930: Amy Johnson landed in Darwin, Australia, becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).

1929: The Cocoanuts, the first film to star the Marx Brothers, opened.

1899: The first public parking garage in the United States opened in Boston, Massachusetts.

1883: The Brooklyn Bridge, linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, was opened. It took 14 years to construct; 27 people died working on it.

1844: Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message, "What hath God wrought!" from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America's first telegraph line.

1830: "Mary Had A Little Lamb," was written.

1830: The first passenger railroad in the U.S. began service between Baltimore and Elliott's Mills, Maryland.

1822: During the Battle of Pichincha, Simon Bolivar secured the independence of Quito.

1738: The Methodist Church was established.

1689: English Parliament passed the Act of Toleration, protecting Protestants; Roman Catholics are specifically excluded.

1626: Peter Minuet bought Manhattan from Indians for trinkets, valued at $24.

1153: Malcolm IV became King of Scotland.

Births:
1819: Victoria [Alexandrina Victoria] (Queen of the United Kingdom/empress of India)

1941: Bob Dylan [Robert Allen Zimmerman] (American singer/songwriter) ["Blowin' in the Wind", "The Times They Are A-Changin'"]

1945: Priscilla Presley [Priscilla Ann Wagner] (American actress) [Dallas, The Naked Gun]

Deaths:
1543: Nicolas Copernicus (Polish astronomer/mathematician/economist)

1974: "Duke" [Edward Kennedy] Ellington (American jazz composer/musician)


Word of the day: polymath \POL-ee-math\
Etymology: From Greek polymathes, "having learned much," from poly-, "much" + manthanein, "to learn."
(noun)
1. A person of great or varied learning; one acquainted with various subjects of study.

Mistfox – who thinks the best librarians are polymaths

Today is May 25th. That means it's Towel Day; Argentina observes Revolution Day/Veintecinco de Mayo; Jordan observes Independence Day; and Chad, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, and Zambia observe African Freedom Day.


2006: Former Enron Corp. chiefs Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling were convicted in Houston of conspiracy and fraud for the company's downfall. (Lay died in July from heart disease and his convictions were vacated; Skilling was sentenced to 24 years in prison.)

2004: The Boston Roman Catholic archdiocese announced it would close 65 of 357 parishes because of financial problems caused in part by the clergy sex abuse scandal.

2003: Nestor Kirchner became President of Argentina after defeating Carlos Menem. He is the first elected President since the December 2001 economic crisis.

1997: Strom Thurmond (R, SC) became the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, with 41 years and 10 months in office. (Thurmond's record was surpassed in 2006 by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., who won re-election to a ninth six-year term in November.)

1992: Jay Leno made his debut as permanent host of NBC's "Tonight Show," succeeding Johnny Carson.

1986: An estimated seven million people participated in "Hands Across America," forming a line across the country to raise money for the nation's hungry and homeless.

1977: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope opened in theaters and became the highest grossing movie to date.

1973: Mike Oldfield released Tubular Bells.

1968: Rolling Stones released "Jumping Jack Flash".

1968: In St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Vice-President Hubert Humphrey and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall dedicate the Gateway Arch as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

1946: Transjordan (now Jordan) became a kingdom.

1935: Babe Ruth hit the 714th and final home run of his career, for the Boston Braves, in a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

1935: In a span of 45 minutes at the Big Ten meet in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Jesse Owens set or tied four track and field world records.

1927: Ford Motor Company announced the end of the Model T and its replacement by the Model A.

1925: John T. Scopes was indicted in Tennessee for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

1914: The British House of Commons passed the Irish Home Rule bill.

1878: Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta "HMS Pinafore," premiered in London.

1810: In the May Revolution, armed citizens of Buenos Aires, Argentina expel the Viceroy during the Semana de Mayo.

1793: In Baltimore, Maryland, Father Stephen Theodore Badin became the first Catholic priest to be ordained in the United States.

1787: The Constitutional Convention was convened in Philadelphia with 55 delegates (a quorum) to compose the Constitution of the United States of America.

1768: James Cook sailed on his first voyage of discovery, on which he explored the Society Islands and charted the coasts of New Zealand and West Australia.

1660: Charles II, the exiled king of England, landed at Dover, England, to assume the throne and end 11 years of military rule.

1659: Richard Cromwell resigned as English Lord Protector.

1521: The Diet of Worms ended when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor issued the Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.

1234: The Mongols took Kaifeng and destroyed the Chin dynasty.

Births:
1803: Ralph Waldo Emerson (American essayist/philosopher/poet)

1889: Igor Sikorsky (Ukrainian-American aviation engineer) Developed the helicopter.

1927: Robert Ludlum (American author) [The Bourne Identity, The Matarese Circle, The Gemini Contenders, The Prometheus Deception]

1929: Beverly Sills [Belle Miriam Silverman] (American operatic soprano)

1944: Frank Oz [Richard Frank Oznowicz] (British-American puppeteer/director/actor) [Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Grover, Cookie Monster, and Bert, Yoda]

Deaths:
0735: Bede (English historian/monk)

1789: Anders Dahl (Swedish botanist) The dahlia was named after him.


Word of the day: dyspeptic \dis-PEP-tik\
Etymology: Derived from Greek dys-, "difficult, bad" + pepsis, "digestion."
(adjective)
1. Of, pertaining to, or having dyspepsia (indigestion).
2. Irritable or ill-humored, as if suffering from dyspepsia; morose; gloomy.
(noun)
3. A person suffering from dyspepsia.

Mistfox - who was definitely dyspeptic (both definitions) the other day

Today is May 26th. That means Georgia and Guyana observe Independence Day.


2004: The New York Times published an admission of journalistic failings, claiming that its flawed reporting and lack of skepticism towards sources during the buildup to the 2003 war in Iraq helped promote the belief that Iraq possessed large stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.

2004: In state court, Oklahoma bombing accomplice Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 counts of first-degree murder. He had been already convicted in federal court.

1994: Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Republic.

1989: Danish parliament allowed legal marriage among homosexuals

1978: In Atlantic City, New Jersey, Resorts International, the first legal casino in the eastern United States, opened.

1977: George H. Willig scaled the outside of the South Tower of New York's World Trade Center; he was arrested at the top of the 110-story building.

1972: Willandra National Park was established in Australia.

1969: Apollo 10 returned to Earth after a mission that served as a dress rehearsal for the first moon landing.

1966: British Guiana gained independence, as Guyana.

1954: The Egyptian pharaoh Cheops's funeral ship was found.

1938: The House Un-American Activities Committee began its first session.

1937: San Francisco Bay's Golden Gate Bridge opened

1930: The Supreme Court ruled buying liquor does not violate the Constitution

1924: U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill limiting immigration into the U.S. and entirely excluding the Japanese.

1918: The Democratic Republic of Georgia was established.

1908: At Masjid-al-Salaman in southwest Persia, the first major commercial oil strike in the Middle East was made. The rights to the resource were quickly acquired by the United Kingdom.

1897: The novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, went on sale in London.

1896: Nicholas II, the last czar, was crowned ruler of Russia.

1868: The impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson ends, with Johnson being found not guilty by one vote.

1865: Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith, commander of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi division, was the last general of the Confederate Army to surrender, at Galveston, Texas.

1864: President Abraham Lincoln signed an act establishing the Montana Territory.

1830: the U.S. Congress passed The Indian Removal Act.

1805: Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned king of Italy.

1637: The Pequot massacres began as part of the Pequot War; an allied Puritan and Mohegan force under English Captain John Mason attacks a Pequot village in Connecticut, killing approximately 500 inhabitants.

1538: John Calvin was thrown out of Geneva.

1521: Martin Luther was declared an outlaw and his writings were banned by the Edict of Worms because of his religious beliefs.

Births:
1878: Isadora Duncan [Dora Angela Duncanon] (American dancer)

1907: John Wayne [Marion Morrison] (American actor) [Stagecoach, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, The Quiet Man, The Searchers, The Wings of Eagles, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance]

1948: Stevie Nicks [Stephanie Lynn Nicks] (American singer/songwriter) [Fleetwood Mac]

1951: Sally Ride (American astronaut)

Deaths:
1703: Samuel Pepys (English diarist)

1924: Victor Herbert (Irish-American operetta composer) [Babes in Toyland, Mlle. Modiste, The Red Mill, Little Nemo, Naughty Marietta]


Word of the day: bon vivant \bon-vee-VONT\
Etymology: From French bon, "good" (from Latin bonus) + vivant, present participle of vivre, "to live," from Latin vivere.
(noun)
1. A person with refined and sociable tastes, especially one who enjoys fine food and drink.


Mistfox – who’s sorry this is late, but she had to work today

Today is May 27th. That means it's National Grape Popsicle Day and the Golden Gate Bridge Fiesta is observed.


2006: A 6.3-magnitude earthquake in central Indonesia killed at least 5,800 people.

1999: The International War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands indicted Slobodan Milošević and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

1995: In Charlottesville, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve was paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition.

1994: Nobel Prize-winning author Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after two decades of exile.

1973: According to the non-retroactive copyright laws of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics, all works published before this date were in the public domain. This applied worldwide.

1963: Folk music singer Bob Dylan released The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, which features "Blowin' in the Wind" and several other of his best-known songs.

1961: The first black light was sold.

1937: In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to pedestrian traffic creating a vital link between San Francisco and Marin County.

1936: The RMS Queen Mary began her maiden voyage.

1933: The Walt Disney Company released the cartoon The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

1930: Richard Gurley Drew received a patent for adhesive tape, later made by 3M as Scotch tape.

1921: After 84 years of British control, Afghanistan achieved sovereignty.

1907: A Bubonic plague outbreak began in San Francisco, California.

1896: A tornado struck St. Louis and East St. Louis, Ill., killing 255 people.

1883: Alexander III was crowned Tsar of Russia.

1703: After winning access to the Baltic Sea through his victories in the Great Northern War, Czar Peter I founded the city of St. Petersburg as the new Russian capital.

1679: The Habeaus Corpus Act (no false arrest & imprisonment) passed in Britain.

1328: Philip VI was crowned King of France.

Births:
1894: [Samuel] Dashiell Hammett (American author) [The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, The Dain Curse]

1907: Rachel Carson (American biologist/author) [Silent Spring]

1925: Tony Hillerman (American mystery author) [Coyote Waits, A Thief of Time, The Wailing Wind]

1934: Harlan Ellison (American science fiction author) ["The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World", "A Boy and his Dog", "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream", "City on the Edge of Forever"]

1975: Jamie Oliver (British celebrity chef/TV personality) [The Naked Chef]

Deaths:
1564: John Calvin (French religious reformer)

1647: Achsah [also Alse or Alice] Young (first person executed as a witch in America)

1949: Robert LeRoy Ripley (American cartoonist) [Ripley's Believe It or Not!]

1964: Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian statesman/prime minister)


Word of the day: recidivism \rih-SID-uh-viz-uhm\
Etymology: Derives from Latin recidivus, "falling back," from recidere, "to fall back," from re-, "back" + cadere, "to fall." One who relapses or who is an incorrigible criminal is a recidivist.
(noun)
1. A tendency to lapse into a previous condition or pattern of behavior; especially, a falling back or relapse into prior criminal habits.


Mistfox - who has a history of recidivism with eating habits and laziness

Today is May 28th. That means Azerbaijan observes Independence Day/Day of the Republic, Ethiopia observes National Day, Scotland observes Whitsunday Term Day, and the United States observes Memorial Day.
Also, according to one of my sources, today the sunset and sunrise occur along Manhattan's street grid centerline.


2006: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit his 715th home run to pass Babe Ruth on the career list and move into second place behind Hank Aaron.

1999: In Milan, Italy, after 22 years of restoration work, Leonardo de Vinci's newly restored masterpiece "The Last Supper" was put back on display.

1998: Pakistan responded to a series of Indian nuclear tests with five of its own, prompting the United States, Japan and other nations to impose economic sanctions.

1987: A robot probe found the wreckage of the USS Monitor near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

1964: The Palestine Liberation Organization was formed.

1961: Peter Benenson's article "The Forgotten Prisoners" was published in several internationally read newspapers. This would later be thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.

1961: The Orient Express, from Paris to Bucharest, made its last journey after operating for 78 years. It was revived in 1982.

1959: Monkeys Able & Baker zoomed 300 mi (500 km) into space on a Jupiter missile, becoming the first animals retrieved from a space mission.

1957: The National League approved the move of the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants baseball teams to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively.

1937: Neville Chamberlain became prime minister of Britain.

1937: In Washington, DC President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed a button signaling the start of vehicle traffic over the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California.

1936: Alan Turing submitted On Computable Numbers for publishing.

1929: The first all color talking picture "On With the Show" was exhibited in NYC.

1928: The Chrysler Corporation merged with Dodge Brothers, Inc.

1923: The U.S. Attorney General determined that it was legal for women to wear trousers anywhere.

1918: The Tatars declared Azerbaijan, in the Russian Caucasus, independent.

1892: The Sierra Club was organized in San Francisco.

1863: The 54th Massachusetts, the first regiment of African-American recruits in the Civil War, left Boston for South Carolina.

1754: In the first engagement of the French and Indian War, a Virginia militia under 22-year-old Lieutenant Colonel George Washington defeated a French reconnaissance party in southwestern Pennsylvania.

1742: The first indoor swimming pool opened at Goodman's Fields, London.

1539: Hernando de Soto landed in Florida.

585 BCE: A solar eclipse occurred, as predicted by Thales, while Alyattes wais battling Cyaxares, leading to a truce. This is one of the cardinal dates from which other dates can be calculated.

Births:
1660: George I [George Ludwig von Guelph-d'Este] (King of Great Britain)

1908: Ian Fleming (British author) [Casino Royale, Dr. No , The Man with the Golden Gun, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]

1934: Annette, Cecile, Emilie, Marie and Yvonne Dionne [The Dionne quintuplets] (The first quintuplets who survived) Born to Oliva and Elzire Dionne in Ontario, Canada.

1944: "Rudy" [Rudolph William Louis] Giuliani (Former mayor of New York City/presidential candidate)

1945: John Fogerty (American musician) [Creedence Clearwater Revival]

Deaths:
1843: Noah Webster (American author/politician/lexicographer) [American Dictionary of the English Language]

1971: Audie Murphy (American actor) The most decorated U.S. combat soldier of World War II.

1972: Edward VIII [Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor] (King of the U. K.)


Word of the day: lacuna \luh-KYOO-nuh\
plural lacunae \luh-KYOO-nee\ or lacunas
Etymology: From Latin lacuna, "a cavity, a hollow," from lacus, "a hollow."
(noun)
1. A blank space; a missing part; a gap.
2. (Biology) A small opening, depression, or cavity in an anatomical structure.


Mistfox - who has a lacuna of only about 3 Nora books now

Personally, I think there was a lacuna in Ian Fleming's brain, which led to the gross display of sexism in the Bond series. The books are even more patronising than the movies...

Today is May 28th and my husband and I are celebrating our 90th wedding anniversary. Hard to imagine that we've been together this long.

Gack, Gina, did you marry as a baby??????

The dh and I are sort of celebrating the 27th anniversary of our SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) wedding. Probably not the exact day, but it was on Memorial Day weekend.

Mistfox - who can't believe she's known the dh for almost 30 years now

Today is May 29th. That means England observes Oak Apple Day.


2005: French voters rejected the European Union's proposed constitution.

2004: The World War II Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

1999: Space shuttle Discovery completed the first-ever docking with the International Space Station.

1990: Boris Yeltsin was elected the president of Russia.

1977: Janet Guthrie became the first woman to qualify for the Indianapolis 500.

1973: Tom Bradley was elected the first black mayor of Los Angeles.

1969: The self-titled debut album by Crosby, Stills and Nash was released.

1953: Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Norgay of Nepal became the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest.

1943: Meat and cheese were rationed in the U.S.

1919: Charles Strite patented the pop-up toaster.

1914: In one of the worst ship disasters in history, the British liner Empress of Ireland collided with the Norwegian freighter Storstad on the St. Lawrence River. The Storstad penetrated 15 feet into the Empress of Ireland's side and the vessel sank within 14 minutes, drowning 1,012 of its passengers and crew.

1913: Igor Stravinsky's ballet score The Rite of Spring premiered in Paris.

1911: The first running of the Indianapolis 500 took place.

1900: The trademark "Escalator" was registered by the Otis Elevator Co.

1886: Chemist John Pemberton began to advertise Coca-Cola in an ad in the Atlanta Journal.

1849: Lincoln said, "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of time, but you can't fool all of the people all of time."

1848: Wisconsin became the 30th state of the union.

1790: Rhode Island became the 13th original colony to ratify the Constitution of the United States of America.

1453: Mohammed II, founder of the Ottoman Empire, captured Constantinople. The Byzantine emperor Constantine XI was killed, and the Byzantine Empire was ended. Constantinople became the Ottoman capital.

Births:
1630: Charles II (King of Britain)

1736: Patrick Henry (American Revolution patriot/orator)

1826: Ebenezer Butterick (American manufacturer) Developed use of paper patterns for clothing.

1903: Bob Hope (Leslie Townes Hope) (British-born American entertainer/actor/comedian) [Road to Singapore, Road to Morocco, My Favorite Brunette]

1906: T.H. [Terence Hanbury] White (English historian/novelist) [The Sword in the Stone, The Godstone and the Blackymor, England Have My Bones]

1917: John F. Kennedy (President of the U.S.)

1939: Al Unser (American race car driver)

1959: Adrian Paul (British-American actor) [The Colbys, Highlander, The Masque of the Red Death, Tracker]

Deaths:
1814: Josephine de Beauharnais [Marie Josephe Rose Tascher de la Pagerie] (Empress of France)

1979: Mary Pickford [Gladys Louise Smith] (Canadian-born actress/studio founder) She founded United Artists together with Charlie Chaplin, David Wark Griffith and her husband Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. and became its first vice president in 1936.

1998: Barry Goldwater (U.S. Senator from Arizona/presidential candidate)


Word of the day: fecund \FEE-kuhnd; FEK-uhnd\
Etymology: From Latin fecundus, "fruitful, prolific." The noun form is fecundity.
(adjective)
1. Capable of producing offspring or vegetation; fruitful; prolific.
2. Intellectually productive or inventive.


Mistfox - who thinks Nora has a fecund imagination

Today is May 30th. That means Croatia observes Statehood Day, Virginia observes Confederate Memorial Day, and Trinidad observes Indian Arrival Day.


2006: A jury in Rockville, Md., convicted John Allen Muhammad of six of the Washington-area sniper killings.

2006: The FBI said it had found no trace of Jimmy Hoffa after digging up a suburban Detroit horse farm.

2005: American teenager Natalee Holloway, during a visit to Aruba, was last seen leaving a bar with three young men before disappearing. Her fate remains unknown.

2003: The Air France Concorde made its final commercial flight from Paris to New York City.

2002: A solemn, wordless ceremony marked the end of the cleanup at Ground Zero in New York, 8 1/2 months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

1997: Jesse Timmendequas was convicted of murdering his neighbor, seven-year-old Megan Kanka: the case that inspired "Megan's Law."

1967: The breakaway state of Biafra proclaimed its independence from Nigeria.

1964: The Beatles' "Love Me Do," single went to #1.

1958: The bodies of several unidentified soldiers killed in action during World War II and the Korean War were buried at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery.

1933: Sally Rand performed her famous fan dance for the first time, at Chicago's Century of Progress Exposition.

1922: The Lincoln Memorial was dedicated in Washington, D.C.

1913: A peace treaty was signed in London ending the First Balkan War. Albania became an independent nation.

1911: The first long-distance auto race in Indianapolis was won by Ray Harroun.

1896: The first recorded auto accident occurred when a Duryea Motor Wagon, driven by Henry Wells from Springfield, Massachusetts, collided with a bicycle ridden by Evylyn Thomas of New York City.

1883: A rumor that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge was in danger of collapsing triggered a stampede that led to the trampling deaths of 12 people.

1879: New York City's Gilmores Garden was renamed Madison Square Garden by William Vanderbilt and was opened to the public at 26th Street and Madison Avenue.

1868: By proclamation, the first Decoration Day (now Memorial Day), honoring Civil War dead, was held by decorating their graves with flowers.

1854: The territories of Nebraska and Kansas were established.

1848: William Young patented the ice cream freezer.

1814: The First Treaty of Paris was signed returning French borders to their 1792 extent. Napoleon I of France was exiled to Elba on the same day.

1806: Andrew Jackson killed a man in a duel after the man had accused Jackson's wife of bigamy.

1783: "The Pennsylvania Evening Post" became the first published newspaper in the U.S.

1588: The last ship of the Spanish Armada set sail from Lisbon heading for the English Channel.

1539: In Florida, Hernando de Soto landed at Tampa Bay with 600 soldiers with the goal of finding gold.

1536: English king Henry VIII married Jane Seymour.

Births:
1672: Peter I [Peter the Great] (Czar of Russia)

1908: Mel [Melvin Jerome] Blanc (American cartoon voice actor) [Bugs Bunny, Tweety Bird, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Barney Rubble, Heathcliff]

1909: Benny [Benjamin David] Goodman (American clarinetist/bandleader)

1964: Wynonna Judd (American country music singer)

Deaths:
1431: Joan of Arc (French martyr) Condemned as a heretic, burned at the stake in Rouen, France.

1593: Christopher Marlowe (English dramatist/poet/translator) [Tamburlaine, Doctor Faustus]

1640: Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish painter)

1778: Voltaire [François-Marie Arouet] (French writer/deist/philosopher) [Candide]

1912: Wilbur Wright (American aviation pioneer)


Word of the day: chortle \CHOR-tl\
Etymology: A combination of chuckle and snort. It was coined by Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson), in Through the Looking-Glass, published in 1872.
(transitive and intransitive verb)
1. To utter, or express with, a snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle.
2. A snorting, exultant laugh or chuckle.


Mistfox – who is not awake enough to chortle this morning

Duh! I meant to say 30th wedding anniversary. I guess that I was surprised that it's been 30 years already; and if I'm honest sometimes it feels like 90years. We had a nice quiet day.

Hope everyone else had an enjoyable Memorial Day!

Today is May 31st. That means it's World No Tobacco Day. Go Cindy and Sue!


2005: Former FBI official W. Mark Felt admitted that he was the anonymous source, Deep Throat, in the Watergate scandal.

2004: A foul-up during routine software update at the Royal Bank of Canada lead to a three-day misplacement of ten million account balances.

1990: "Seinfeld" premiered on TV.

1985: The US-Canadian Outbreak occurred. Forty-one tornadoes occurred in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario. Seventy-six people died.

1977: The Alaska oil pipeline, three years in the making, was completed.

1969: Stevie Wonder released "My Cherie Amore".

1961: South Africa became an independent republic.

1913: The Seventeenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing direct election of United States Senators, was declared ratified.

1907: Taxis first began running in NYC.

1902: Great Britain and the Boer states signed the Treaty of Vereeniging, officially ending the 3.5-year Boer War.

1889: More than 2,000 people perished when a neglected dam broke in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The town was almost completely destroyed.

1884: Dr. John Harvey Kellogg applied for a patent for flaked cereal.

1868: The first Memorial Day parade took place in Ironton, Ohio.

1866: In the Fenian Invasion of Canada, John O'Neill lead 800 Fenian raiders across the Niagara River at Buffalo, New York/Fort Erie, Ontario, as part of an effort to free Ireland from the English.

1790: President George Washington signed the first U.S. copyright law, giving 14 years' protection to books written by U.S. citizens.

1678: The Godiva procession, to commemorate Lady Godiva's ride through Coventry, was first reenacted.

Births:
1819: Walt Whitman (American poet, essayist) [Leaves of Grass]

1923: Rainer III [Rainier Louis Henri Maxence Bertrand Grimaldi] (Prince of Monaco)

1930: Clint Eastwood (American actor/director) [Dirty Harry, Play Misty for Me, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Unforgiven]

1976: Colin Farrell (Irish actor) [Alexander, Daredevil, The Recruit, Minority Report]

Deaths:
1809: [Franz] Joseph Haydn (Austrian composer)

1962: Adolf Eichmann (Gestapo official) Hanged in Israel for his role in the Holocaust.

1996: Dr. Timothy Leary (American psychologist/educator) Advocate of psychedelic drug research and use.


Word of the day: acme \ACK-mee\
Etymology: From Greek akme, point, highest point, culmination.
(noun)
1. The highest point of something; the highest level or degree attainable.


Mistfox - who always wondered about "acme" when watching Road Runner cartoons

Today is June 1st. That means Samoa observes Independence Day, Tunisia observes Constitution Day/Victory Day, Kenya observes Madaraka Day, and China observes International Children's Day.


2006: A contrite U.S. Army Corps of Engineers took responsibility for the flooding of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.

2005: Dutch voters rejected the European Union constitution.

2004: A federal judge declared the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act unconstitutional, saying the measure infringed on women's right to choose.

2003: The People's Republic of China began filling the reservoir behind the Three Gorges Dam.

2001: The king, queen, and seven other members of Nepal's royal family were slain by Crown Prince Dipendra, who then shot himself, dying three days later.

1990: President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed an agreement to end production of chemical weapons and begin destruction of the reserves.

1980: Cable News Network (CNN) began broadcasting.

1968: Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson" hit #1.

1967: The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released.

1958: Charles de Gaulle became premier of France.

1954: The Peanuts comic strip character Linus van Pelt was shown with a security blanket for the first time.

1951: The International Cheese treaty was signed.

1943: A civilian flight from Lisbon to London was shot down by the Germans during World War II, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.

1938: Action Comics issued the first Superman comic.

1938: Batters wore protective baseball helmets for the very first time.

1880: The first pay telephone was installed.

1869: Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric voting machine.

1812: U.S. President James Madison asked the U.S. Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom.

1796: Tennessee became the 16th state.

1792: Kentucky became the 15th state in the United States.

1660: Mary Dyer was hanged in Boston, Massachusetts for defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered to be the last religious martyr in North America.

1638: The first earthquake was recorded in the U.S., at Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1495: The first written record of Scotch Whiskey appeared in the Exchequer Rolls of Scotland. Friar John Cor was the distiller.

1485: King Matthias of Hungary took Vienna in his conquest of Austria (from Frederick III) and made the city his capital.

Births:
1926: Marilyn Monroe [Norma Jean Baker Mortenson] (American actress/sex symbol) [The Seven Year Itch, The Prince and the Showgirl, Some Like It Hot]

1926: Andy Griffith (American actor/writer/producer) [The Andy Griffith Show, Matlock]

1937: Morgan Freeman (American actor) [The Electric Company, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption]

Deaths:
1868: James Buchanan (President of the U.S.A.)

1968: Helen Keller (American author/lecturer)

2001: Hank Ketcham (American cartoonist) ["Dennis the Menace"]


Word of the day: omnipresent \om-nuh-PREZ-uhnt\
Etymology: From Medieval Latin omnipresens, from Latin omni-, "all" + praesens, present participle of praeesse, "to be before, to be present," from prae-, "before" + esse, "to be."
(adjective)
1. Present in all places at the same time; ubiquitous.


Mistfox - who is afraid today will be as much a zombie day as yesterday

This just really cracked me up. Adding zombie.....LOL

Today is June 2nd. That means Belgium observes the Procession of the Golden Chariot, Bhutan observes Coronation Day, Bulgaria observes Hristo Botev Day, Italy observes Festa della Repubblica/Republic Day, and the United Kingdom observes the Coronation Day of HM Queen Elizabeth II.


2006: Canadian authorities announced they had foiled a homegrown terrorist attack by arresting 17 suspects.

2005: Georgia "runaway bride" Jennifer Wilbanks pleaded no contest to faking her own abduction; she was sentenced to probation, community service and a fine.

2004: The first episode of Ken Jennings' incredible reign as Jeopardy! champion aired. He started out with $37,201 and would go on to win more than two million dollars.

1998: Voters in California passed Proposition 227, requiring that all schoolchildren be taught in English.

1997: Timothy McVeigh was convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy for his role in the 1995 terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

1974: Mali adopted its constitution.

1974: Malta's constitution went into effect.

1966: The U.S. space probe Surveyor I landed on the Moon and began transmitting detailed photographs of the lunar surface.

1964: The Rolling Stones’ first U.S. concert tour debuted in Lynn, Massachusetts.

1953: Queen Elizabeth II of Britain was crowned in Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI.

1949: Transjordan was renamed Jordan.

1946: In a referendum Italians decided to turn Italy from a monarchy into a Republic. After this referendum the king of Italy Umberto II di Savoia was exiled.

1928: Velveeta Cheese was created by Kraft.

1925: Wally Pipp, first baseman of the New York Yankees, asked for a day off due to a headache. Lou Gehrig, who also started the next 2,128 consecutive games, replaced him in the lineup.

1924: Congress granted citizenship to all Native Americans born in the United States.

1897: The New York Journal quoted Mark Twain as saying, that “the report of my death was an exaggeration”.

1896: Great Britain granted Guglielmo Marconi the first wireless radio patent.

1886: U.S. President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom in the White House, becoming the first and only president to wed in the executive mansion.

1883: Chicago's "El" opened to traffic.

1865: Forces under Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith surrendered at Galveston, Texas, becoming the last to do so, ending the American Civil War.

1851: Maine became the first state to enact a law prohibiting alcohol.

1835: P.T. Barnum and his circus began its first tour of the U.S.

1800: The first smallpox vaccination in North America was administered, at Trinity, Newfoundland.

1793: Jean Paul Marat recited the names of 29 people to the French National Convention. Almost all of these are guillotined, followed by 17,000 more over the course of the next year, during the Reign of Terror.

1780: The Epsom Derby (or just The Derby), horse race, was first held.

1774: The Quartering Act, requiring American colonists to allow British soldiers into their houses, was reenacted. This was considered one of the Intolerable Acts.

1763: At what is now Mackinaw City, Michigan, Chippewas captured Fort Michilimackinac by diverting the garrison's attention with a game of lacrosse, then chasing a ball into the fort.

0455: The Vandals entered Rome, and plundered the city for two weeks. They departed with countless valuables, spoils of the Temple in Jerusalem brought to Rome by Titus, and the Empress Eudoxia and her daughters Eudocia and Placidia.

Births:
1740: Marquis de Sade [Donatien Alphonse Francois, de Sade] (French nobleman/writer) [The 120 Days of Sodom, Philosophy in the Bedroom, Juliette, Crimes of Love]

1904: Johnny Weissmuller [Janos Weissmueller] (Austrian-American Olympic gold medallist swimmer/actor) [Tarzan the Ape Man , Jungle Jim] I had a major crush on him as a little girl and even got an autographed photo.

1929: Norton Juster (American author/architect) [The Phantom Tollbooth, The Dot and the Line.]

1955: Dana Carvey (American actor/comedian) [Saturday Night Live, Wayne's World]

1960: Kyle Petty (American race car driver)

Deaths:
1941: Lou Gehrig (American baseball player)

1990: Rex Harrison (British actor) [Cleopatra, My Fair Lady, Doctor Dolittle]


Word of the day: biddable \BID-uh-buhl\
Etymology: From bid, which partly comes from Middle English bidden, "to ask, to command," from Old English biddan; and partly from Middle English beden, "to offer, to proclaim," from Old English beodan.
(adjective)
1. Easily led or commanded; obedient.
2. Capable of being bid.


Mistfox - who didn't have biddable children

Today is June 3rd. That means Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina observe Jefferson Davis's Birthday and Kentucky and Louisiana observe Confederate Memorial Day.


2006: Montenegro declared independence from the state union of Serbia and Montenegro.

2001: Mel Brooks' musical comedy "The Producers" won a record 12 Tony Awards.

1989: The Chinese government authorized its soldiers and tanks to reclaim Beijing's Tiananmen Square after seven weeks of protests for democratic reforms, killing 2000 protesters.

1976: Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" went gold.

1973: Reggae stars Bob Marley and the Wailers released the classic album Exodus, which would be named Time magazine's "Album of the Century" in 1999.

1972: Sally Jan Priesand was ordained the first woman rabbi in the U.S.

1969: The science fiction television series Star Trek aired its final new episode after being canceled by NBC.

1968: Pop artist Andy Warhol was shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio by Valerie Solanas, an actress and militant feminist.

1967: Aretha Franklin's "Respect" reached #1 on the charts.

1965: Astronaut Edward White became the first American to "walk" in space, during the flight of Gemini 4.

1960: In Gideon v. Wainwright, the United States Supreme Court ruled that all accused persons must be given the right to an attorney.

1959: The first class of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, graduated.

1953: Billy Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge, according to the 1967 hit song Ode to Billy Joe by Bobbie Gentry, and the movie that followed.

1939: Beer Barrel Polka by Will Glahe hit #1 on the pop singles chart.

1937: The Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII, who had abdicated the British throne, married Wallis Warfield Simpson in Monts, France.

1916: The National Defense Act was authorized, establishing the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC).

1889: The first long distance electric power transmission line in the United States was completed, running 14 miles between a generator at Willamette Falls and downtown Portland, Oregon.

1889: The Canadian Pacific Railway was completed from coast to coast.

1888: The poem Casey at the Bat, by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, was published in the San Francisco Examiner.

1876: Lacrosse was introduced in Britain and Canada.

1851: The NY Knickerbockers wore the first baseball uniforms. They wore a straw hat, white shirt and blue long trousers.

1800: John Adams, the second president of the United States of America, became the first president to reside in Washington, D.C., when he took up residence at Union Tavern in Georgetown.

1770: Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo was founded in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.

1621: The Dutch West India Company received a charter for New Netherlands (now New York).

1509: Henry VIII married wife number 1, Catherine of Aragon

1162: Thomas à Becket was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury.

1098: After a 5-month siege during the First Crusade, the Crusaders seized Antioch Turkey

Births:
1808: Jefferson Davis (President of the Confederacy)

1853: William Matthew Flinders Petrie (English archaeologist)

1864: Ransom E. Olds (American automobile pioneer)

1865: George V [George Frederick Ernest Albert Saxe-Coburg-Gotha] (King of the U.K.)

1906: Josephine Baker [Freda Josephine McDonald] (American actress/comedienne/singer/dancer)

1925: Tony Curtis [Bernard Schwartz] (American actor) [Some Like It Hot, The Defiant Ones, Operation Petticoat, The Great Impostor]

Deaths:
1875: Georges Bizet (French composer)

1899: Johann Strauss II ["The waltz king"] (Austrian composer) [The Blue Danube, Die Fledermaus]

1924: Franz Kafka (Austrian writer) ["The Metamorphosis", "A Hunger Artist", "In the Penal Colony", The Trial, Amerika, The Castle]

1989: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (Iranian political/religious leader)

2001: Anthony Quinn [Antonio Rudolfo Oaxaca Quinn] (Mexican-born actor) [Viva Zapata!, Lust for Life, Wild is the Wind, Requiem for a Heavyweight, Zorba the Greek]


Word of the day: discomfit \dis-KUHM-fit; dis-kuhm-FIT\
Etymology: From Old French desconfit, past participle of desconfire, from Latin dis- + conficere, "to make ready, to prepare, to bring about," from com- + facere, "to make."
(transitive verb)
1. To make uneasy or perplexed, or to put into a state of embarrassment; to disconcert; to upset.
2. To thwart; to frustrate the plans of.
3. (Archaic). To defeat in battle.

Mistfox - getting this off late today, sorry

Today is June 4th. That means Finland observes Flag Day, Ghana observes Revolution Day, Tonga observes Emancipation Day/Independence Day, and it's Old Maids' Day and International Innocent Child Abuse Victim Day.


2004: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was released in theaters.

2003: Martha Stewart stepped down as head of her media empire, hours after federal prosecutors in New York charged her with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, securities fraud, and lying to investigators.

1989: Chinese army troops stormed Tiananmen Square in Beijing to crush the pro-democracy movement; hundreds - possibly thousands - of people died.

1985: The Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling striking down an Alabama law providing for a daily minute of silence in public schools.

1984: Bruce Springsteen released "Born in the USA".

1974: The Cleveland Indians hosted "Ten Cent Beer Night", but had to forfeit the game to the Texas Rangers due to drunken and unruly fans.

1973: A patent for the ATM was granted to Don Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain.

1970: Tonga gained independence from the United Kingdom.

1942: The Battle of Midway began in World War II.

1940: The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast ended as German forces captured the port.

1939: The SS St. Louis, a ship carrying a cargo of 963 Jewish refugees, was denied permission to land in Florida after already having been turned away from Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, most of its passengers later died in Nazi concentration camps.

1929: George Eastman demonstrated the first Technicolor movie in Rochester, NY.

1919: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, guaranteeing women the right to vote, was passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification.

1917: The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded.

1912: Massachusetts passes the first U.S. minimum wage law.

1907: The automatic washer and dryer were introduced.

1896: Henry Ford made a successful test run of his horseless carriage, called a quadricycle, in Detroit.

1876: An express train called the Transcontinental Express arrived in San Francisco, California via the First Transcontinental Railroad, only 83 hours and 39 minutes after having left New York City.

1792: Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain.

1647: The English army seized King Charles I as a hostage.

1615: Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu took Osaka Castle in Japan.

780 BCE: The first historic solar eclipse was recorded in China.

Births:
470 BC: Socrates (Greek philosopher)

1738: George III [George William Frederick Hanover] (King of Great Britain and Ireland)

1928: Ruth Westheimer [Karola Ruth Siegel] (German-born sex therapist/author) [Dr. Ruth's Encyclopedia of Sex]

1975: Angelina Jolie [Voight] (American actress) [Girl, Interrupted, Lara Croft - Tomb Raider]

Deaths:
1798: Giovanni Casanova (Italian adventurer)

1941: Wilhelm II [Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern ] (Last German Kaiser/King of Prussia)

1989: Dik Browne [Richard Arthur Allan Browne] (American cartoonist) [Hagar the Horrible, Hi and Lois)


Word of the day: acrimony \AK-ruh-moh-nee\
Etymology: From Latin acrimonia, from acer, "sharp."
(noun)
1. Bitter, harsh, or biting sharpness, as of language, disposition, or manners.

Mistfox – who hates when we have acrimony on the board