Okay, I'm starting this off with yesterday's entry.
****
Today is November 19th. That means that Monaco celebrates National Day, Burma celebrates Tazaungdaing, Belize celebrates Garifuna Day, and Puerto Rico celebrates Discovery Day.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2005: For the first time in 58 years, Indians legally walked into Pakistan after a landmark decision to temporarily open divided Kashmir's heavily militarized border.

2001: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants became the first baseball player to win four Most Valuable Player Awards.

1999: In Istanbul, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe ended a two-day summit by calling for a political settlement in Chechnya and adopting a Charter for European Security.

1996: A fire broke out in the Channel Tunnel, injuring 34 people and interrupting rail service.

1993: The U.S. Senate voted in favor of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

1990: The pop duo Milli Vanilli was stripped of its Grammy Award because other singers sung the songs on their "Girl You Know It's True" album.

1985: At a summit in Geneva, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev met for the first time.

1984: A series of explosions at the PEMEX petroleum storage facility at San Juan Ixhuatepec in Mexico City ignited a major fire and killed about 500 people.

1969: Ford Motor Company announced it was halting production of the unpopular Edsel.

1965: Kellogg's Pop Tarts pastries were created.

1946: Afghanistan, Iceland and Sweden joined the United Nations.

1944: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling U.S.$14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort.

1942: The Soviet Union Red Army launched Operation Uranus, the great counter-offensive that turned the tide of the Battle of Stalingrad.

1928: The first issue of Time magazine was published, with Japanese Emperor Hirohito on the cover.

1919: Utah's Mukuntuweap National Monument, later called Zion National Monument, was established as a national park.

1916: Samuel Goldfish (later renamed Samuel Goldwyn) and Edgar Selwyn established the Goldwyn Company. This company later became one of the most successful independent filmmakers.

1895: Frederick E. Blaisdell patented the pencil.

1874: William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, of Tammany Hall (NYC) was convicted of defrauding the city of U.S.$6 Million and sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment.

1816: Warsaw University was established.

1493: Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico on his second voyage to the New World.

Births:
1831: James Garfield (President of the U.S.A.) He became the second U.S. president (after Abraham Lincoln) to be assassinated.

1933: Larry King [Lawrence Harvey Zeiger] (American TV/radio host/columnist)

1938: "Ted" [Robert Edward] Turner (American cable TV mogul)

1961: Meg Ryan [Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra] (American actress) [As the World Turns, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, Kate and Leopold]

1962: "Jodie" [Alicia Christian] Foster (American actress/director) [Taxi Driver, The Silence of the Lambs, Contact]

Deaths:
1703: The man in the iron mask

1988: Christina Onassis (Greek shipping heiress/daughter of Aristotle Onassis)


Word of the day: proclivity \pro-KLIV-uh-tee\
Etymology: From Latin proclivitas, from proclivis, "inclined," from pro-, "forward" + clivus, "a slope."
(noun)
1. A natural inclination; predisposition.

Mistfox - whose normal proclivity is to get this out early, but I woke up late and then went shopping first today

Today is November 20th. That means that Mexico celebrates the Revolution Anniversary, Brazil celebrates Zumbi Day, the United Nations celebrates Universal Children's Day, and it's the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Last year's doodlings can be found HERE.


2003: Singer Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation in Santa Barbara, Calif. (He was later acquitted.)

2001: Federal health officials approved sale of the world's first contraceptive patch, Ortho-Evra.

2000: Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori resigned, ending a 10-year reign.

1999: The People's Republic of China launched its first Shenzhou spacecraft.

1994: The Angolan government and UNITA rebels signed the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (in 1995 localized fighting resumed).

1992: In England, a fire broke out in the Private Chapel room of Windsor Castle, raged for 15 hours, and seriously damaged the northwest side of the building. (An investigation found that the fire was ignited after a spotlight came into contact with a curtain over an extended period.)

1986: The UN's WHO announced the first global effort to combat AIDS.

1980: In China, Jiang Qing, Mao Zedong's widow, went on trial on charges of treason and government subversion.

1967: The U.S. census reported the population at 200 million.

1966: "Cabaret" opened at the Imperial Theatre, New York

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis ended when, in response to the Soviet Union agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy ended the quarantine of the Caribbean nation.

1959: The UN adopted the Universal Declaration of Children's Rights.

1947: Britain's future queen, Princess Elizabeth II, married Philip Mountbatten, Duke of Edinburgh, in a ceremony broadcast worldwide from Westminster Abbey.

1923: Garrett Morgan invented and patented a traffic signal.

1919: The first municipally owned airport in the U.S. opened in Tucson, Arizona.

1917: Ukraine was declared a republic.

1914: Bulgaria proclaimed its neutrality in World War I.

1910: Francisco I. Madero denounced President Porfirio Diaz, declared himself president, and called for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico.

1873: The rival cities of Buda and Pest united to form the capital of Hungary.

1866: Howard University, the first university for African-American students, was founded in Washington, D.C. as the Howard Theological Seminary.

1820: The whaler Essex, from Nantucket, Massachusetts, was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale near the western coast of South America. It was the first American vessel sunk by a whale. (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story.)

1817: The first Seminole War began in Florida.

1700: During the Battle of Narva, King Charles XII of Sweden defeated the army of Tsar Peter the Great.

1616: Bishop Richelieu became the French minister of Foreign affairs/War.

1272: Following Henry III of England's death on November 16, his son Prince Edward became King of England.

Births:
1889: Edwin Powell Hubble (American astronomer)

1908: Alistair [Alfred] Cooke (English-born American journalist/TV host) [Letter From America, Masterpiece Theatre, Alistair Cooke's America]

1939: Dick Smothers (American comedian/composer/musician) [The Smothers Brothers]

1946: Duane Allman (American guitarist) [Allman Brothers Band]

Deaths:
1910: Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist/reformer/moral thinker) [Anna Karenina, War and Peace, The Kingdom of God is Within You]

1925: Alexandra (Queen-consort of the United Kingdom)

1973: Allan Sherman (American musician/parodist/satirist/television producer) ["Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh")


Word of the day: panacea \pan-uh-SEE-uh\
Etymology: From Greek panakeia, from panakes, "all-healing," from pan-, "all" + akos, "cure."
(noun)
1. A remedy for all diseases, problems, or evils; a universal medicine; a cure-all.

Mistfox - who wishes we had a panacea for the white pages

Today is November 21st. That means that North Carolina celebrates Ratification Day.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2005: The General Motors Corp. announced it would close 12 facilities and lay off 30,000 workers in North America.

2004: Donald Trump's casino empire filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

2004: The Nintendo DS was released in North America.

2002: NATO invited the seven former communist countries into its membership.

1995: Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.

1990: Leaders of NATO and Warsaw Pact member states signed the Charter of Paris and a treaty on conventional forces in Europe, bringing an end to the Cold War.

1989: The proceedings of Britain's House of Commons were televised live for the first time.

1986: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary started to shred documents implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contras rebels in Nicaragua.

1985: United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Jay Pollard was arrested for spying (he was caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations and was eventually sentenced to life in prison).

1981: Olivia Newton-John's "Physical," single went to #1 and stayed there for 10 weeks.

1980: A fire at the MGM Grand Hotel-Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada killed 87 people.

1974: The Birmingham Pub Bombings by the IRA killed 21 people. The Birmingham Six were sentenced to life in prison for this and subsequently acquitted.

1969: The first ARPANET link was established.

1952: The first U.S. postage stamp in 2 colors (rotary process) was introduced.

1941: The radio program King Biscuit Time was broadcast for the first time. (It would later become the longest running daily radio broadcast in history and the most famous live blues radio program.)

1922: Rebecca L. Felton of Georgia was sworn in as the first woman to serve in the U.S. Senate.

1918: The German High Seas Fleet surrendered to the Allies.

1877: Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that could record sound (this is considered to be Edison's first great invention).

1852: Duke University, founded in 1838 as Union Institute, was chartered as a Normal College.

1837: Thomas Morris of Australia skipped rope 22,806 times.

1791: Colonel Napoleon Bonaparte was promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic.

1789: North Carolina ratified the United States Constitution and was admitted as the 12th U.S. state.

Births:
1945: Goldie Hawn (American actress) [Laugh-In, Cactus Flower, Death Becomes Her, The First Wives Club]

1969: Ken Griffey Jr. (American baseball player)

Deaths:
1695: Henry Purcell (English composer)

1916: Franz Josef I (Emperor of Austria)

1945: Robert Benchley (American humorist/critic/parodist) [Of All Things, Benchley Beside Himself, Inside Benchley]

1993: Bill [Wilfred Bailey] Bixby (American actor/director) [My Favorite Martian, The Courtship of Eddie's Father, The Incredible Hulk]


Word of the day: subaltern \suhb-OL-tuhrn; SUHB-uhl-tuhrn\
Etymology: Derives from Late Latin subalternus, "subordinate," from Latin sub-, "under" + Latin alternus, "alternate," from alter, "other."
(adjective)
1. Ranked or ranged below; subordinate; inferior.
2. (Chiefly British) Ranking as a junior officer; being below the rank of captain.
3. (Logic) Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.
(noun)
4. A person holding a subordinate position.
5. (Chiefly British) A commissioned military officer below the rank of captain.
6. (Logic) A subaltern proposition.

Mistfox - who is not feeling awfully motivated this morning, but has tons of stuff to do - sigh

Today is November 22nd. That means that Lebanon celebrates National Day/Independence Day.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2005: Ted Koppel hosted his final edition of ABC News' ''Nightline.''

2003: England beat Australia to win England's first rugby union world cup.

2002: In Nigeria, more than 100 people were killed in an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.

2000: Republican vice-presidential candidate Dick Cheney was hospitalized with what doctors called a very slight heart attack.

1996: O.J. Simpson took the stand as a hostile witness in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against him, saying it is "absolutely not true"

1977: Passenger service between New York and Europe on the supersonic Concorde began.

1976: The comic strip "Cathy," by Cathy Guisewhite, debuted.

1975: Juan Carlos I was sworn in as King of Spain, two days after the death of General Francisco Franco.

1967: The BBC unofficially banned "I Am the Walrus" by the Beatles.

1967: The U.N. Security Council approved Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from territories it captured in 1967, and implicitly called on adversaries to recognize Israel's right to exist.

1963: In Dallas, Texas, U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Texas Governor John B. Connally was seriously wounded, and U.S. Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn-in as the 36th President of the United States.

1943: Lebanon gained independence from France.

1935: The China Clipper took off from Alameda, California in an attempt to deliver the first airmail cargo across the Pacific Ocean (the airplane later reached its destination, Manila, and delivered over 110,000 pieces of mail).

1917: In Montreal, Canada, the National Hockey Association broke up (on November 26 it was replaced with the National Hockey League).

1910: Arthur Knight patented steel shaft golf clubs.

1906: The SOS distress signal was adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention.

1864: Confederate General John Bell Hood invaded Tennessee in an unsuccessful attempt to draw Union General William T. Sherman from Georgia.

1718: Off the coast of Virginia, English pirate Edward Teach (best known as "Blackbeard") was killed in battle when a British boarding party cornered and then shot and stabbed him more than 25 times.

Births:
1643: René-Robert La Salle (French explorer)

1744: Abigail Smith Adams (Wife of John Adams, second President of the U.S.)

1921: Rodney Dangerfield [Jacob Cohen] (American comedian/actor) [Caddyshack, Back to School]

1940: Terry Gilliam (American director/actor/animator) [Monty Python's Flying Circus, Brazil, Jabberwocky, Time Bandits]

Deaths:
1900: Arthur S. Sullivan (British composer) [HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance]

1963: John F. Kennedy (President of the U.S.)

1963: C. S. Lewis (British author) [The Chronicles of Narnia, Perelandra, The Screwtape Letters]

1980: Mae [Mary Jane] West (American actress/playwright) [She Done Him Wrong, My Little Chickadee]


Word of the day: mollify \MOL-uh-fy\
Etymology: From Middle French mollifier, ultimately from Latin mollis, "soft."
(transitive verb)
1. To pacify; to soothe or calm in temper or disposition.
2. To reduce in intensity; to temper.
3. To soften; to reduce the rigidity of.

Mistfox - who needs to be mollified with chocolate after dealing with white pages

Today is November 23rd. That means that Japan celebrates Kinrokansha no Hi (Labour Thanksgiving Day) and it's Thanksgiving in the U.S.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2004: Dan Rather announced that he would step down as anchorman of "The CBS Evening News" in March 2005.

1995: The Bosnian Serbs accepted a peace plan proposed during talks in Dayton, Ohio, to end the four years of conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

1985: Gunmen hijacked EgyptAir Flight 648 while en route from Athens to Cairo. When the plane landed in Malta, Egyptian commandos stormed the hijacked jetliner but 60 people died in the raid.

1984: Boston College Quarterback Doug Flutie threw a game winning 48-yard "Hail Mary" pass to Gerard Phelan to defeat The University of Miami Hurricanes 45-41. It is one of the most famous plays in college football.

1971: The People's Republic of China was given the Republic of China's seat on the United Nations Security Council.

1955: The Cocos Islands were transferred from United Kingdom to Australian control.

1942: The Coast Guard Woman's Auxiliary was authorized.

1942: Japan bombed Port Darwin, Australia.

1936: Henry R. Luce's "Life" magazine was first published.

1903: Colorado Governor James Peabody sent the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners' strike.

1897: J. L. Love patented the pencil sharpener.

1890: King William III of the Netherlands died without a male heir and a special law was passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to become Queen.

1889: The first jukebox was played, in San Francisco, at the Palais Royale Saloon.

1876: William Marcy "Boss" Tweed, leader of New York City's corrupt Tammany Hall political organization during the 1860s, was turned in to authorities in New York City after his capture in Spain.

1869: In Dumbarton, Scotland the clipper Cutty Sark was launched (it was one of the last clippers to be built, and the only one still surviving). [A cutty sark is a short chemise or nightshirt.]

1863: The Civil War's Battle of Chattanooga began. Union forces drove the Confederates away and set the stage for Union General William Sherman's March to the Sea.

1765: The people of Frederick County, Maryland refused to pay England's Stamp tax.

1499: Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck was hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London. In 1497 he invaded England claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England.

Births:
0912: Otto I the Great (Holy Roman Emperor)

1804: Franklin Pierce (President of the U.S.)

1888: Harpo [Adolph Arthur] Marx (American comedian)

1892: Erte [Romain de Tirtoff] (Russian-French artist/designer)

1925: José Napoleón Duarte (El Salvadoran president)

Deaths:
1966: Sean O'Kelly (President of Ireland)

1979: Merle Oberon [Estelle Merle O'Brien Thompson] (British film actress) [The Private Life of Henry VIII, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Dark Angel]

1992: Roy Acuff (American country music performer) [The Wreck on the Highway, Beneath That Lonely Mound of Clay, The Precious Jewel]


Word of the day: tergiversation \tuhr-jiv-uhr-SAY-shuhn\
Etymology: From Latin tergiversatus, past participle of tergiversari, "to turn one's back, to shift," from tergum, "back" + versare, frequentative of vertere, "to turn." The verb form is tergiversate.
(noun)
1. The act of practicing evasion or of being deliberately ambiguous.
2. The act of abandoning a party or cause.

Mistfox - who's been known to be tergiversate when asked about Christmas presents

I am very thankful Jean has beaten those nasty evil little cancer cells!!!!! May the cancer cells rest in hell forever! :eviltongue:

Today is November 24th. That means that the Democratic Republic of the Congo celebrates National Day.

See what I managed to scrounge up last year HERE.


2003: A jury in Virginia Beach, Virginia, sentenced John Allen Muhammad to death for the series of Washington-area sniper shootings.

2001: Taliban soldiers surrendered their last stronghold in northern Afghanistan, the city of Kunduz.

1997: Following a 554.26 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), officials at the New York Stock Exchange for the first time invoked the "circuit breaker" rule to stop trading (this was a very controversial move and prompted a quick change in the rule; trading stops now will only occur when the DJIA drops at least 10 or 20 percent).

1996: Rusty Wallace won the Suzuka NASCAR Thunder 100 racing event at Suzuka Circuitland in Suzuka City (this was the first NASCAR competition held in Japan).

1995: Ireland voted to end the 70-year-old ban on divorce (50.28% to 49.72%).

1993: In the United Kingdom, 11-year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables were convicted of the child murder of 2-year-old James Bulger of Liverpool (they were sentenced to "indefinite detention").

1979: The United States government admitted that thousands of troops in Vietnam were exposed to the toxic Agent Orange.

1969: Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the Moon, successfully returned to Earth.

1964: For the first time since 1800, residents of Washington, DC were permitted to vote.

1963: The first live murder was captured on TV when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

1954: Air Force One, the first US Presidential airplane, was christened.

1951: The Broadway play Gigi opened starring little known actress Audrey Hepburn playing the lead character (the play ran for six months and led to Hepburn's film debut in Roman Holiday).

1950: "Guys & Dolls" opened at the 46th St Theater in New York City for 1200 performances.

1948: Ireland voted for independence from the UK.

1932: In Washington, DC, the FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opened.

1874: Joseph Glidden received a patent for barbed wire.

1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species, a book which argues that organisms gradually evolve through natural selection (it immediately sold out its initial print run).

1835: The Texas Rangers, a mounted police force, was authorized by the Texas "Permanent Council".

1715: The Thames River froze.

1703: The first Lutheran pastor was ordained in America, Justus Falckner at Philadelphia.

1434: The Thames River froze.

Births:
1784: Zachary Taylor (President of the U.S.)

1849: Frances Hodgson Burnett (English author) [The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, Little Lord Fauntleroy]

1888: Dale Carnegie (American lecturer/author) [How to Win Friends and Influence People]

1925: William F. Buckley (American commentator/author) [National Review]

1946: Ted Bundy (American serial killer)

Deaths:
1572: John Knox (Scottish reformer) Founded the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

1963: Lee Harvey Oswald (Accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy)

1991: Freddie Mercury [Farrokh Pluto Bulsara] (Zanzibarian-English singer/songwriter) [Queen]

2004: Arthur Hailey (British/Canadian/American/Bahamian novelist.) [Hotel, Airport, Wheels, The Moneychangers]

2005: "Pat" [Noriyuki] Morita (Japanese-American actor) [Happy Days, The Karate Kid]


Word of the day: avoirdupois \av-uhr-duh-POIZ; AV-uhr-duh-poiz\
Etymology: From Middle English avoir de pois, "goods sold by weight," from Old French aveir de peis, literally "goods of weight," from aveir, "property, goods" (from aveir, "to have," from Latin habere, "to have, to hold, to possess property") + de, "from" (from the Latin) + peis, "weight," from Latin pensum, "weight."
(noun)
1. Avoirdupois weight, a system of weights based on a pound containing 16 ounces or 7,000 grains (453.59 grams).
2. Weight; heaviness; as, a person of much avoirdupois.


Mistfox - Thanks, Janice. I'm very thankful for that, too.

Today is November 25th. That means that Suriname celebrates Independence Day and the U.N. observes the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women.

See why I used this smilie :farmerjohn: last year HERE.


2003: Officials in Yemen arrested Mohammed Hamdi al-Ahdal, a top al-Qaida member suspected of masterminding the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole and the 2002 bombing of a French oil tanker off Yemen's coast.

2002: U.S. President George W. Bush signed the Homeland Security Act into law.

1999: Six-year-old Cuban refugee Elián González was rescued by two fishermen off the coast of Florida.

1992: The Czechoslovakia Federal Assembly voted to split the country into the Czech Republic and Slovakia starting on January 1, 1993.

1984: 36 of Britain and Ireland's top pop musicians gathered in a Notting Hill studio as "Band Aid" to record the song "Do They Know It's Christmas" in order to raise money for famine relief in Ethiopia.

1975: Suriname, formerly called Dutch Guiana, became an independent republic.

1973: Greek President George Papadopoulos was ousted in a bloodless military coup.

1952: Agatha Christie's play "The Mousetrap" opened at London's Ambassadors Theatre -- starting the longest continuous run of any theatrical show in the world.

1949: "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" appeared on music charts.

1920: The first Thanksgiving Parade was held in Philadelphia.

1876: In retaliation for the dramatic American defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, United States Army troops sacked Chief Dull Knife's sleeping Cheyenne village at the headwaters of the Powder River.

1874: The United States Greenback Party was established as a political party made primarily of farmers financially hurt by the Panic of 1873. :farmerjohn:

1817: The first sword swallower in the U.S. performed in New York City.

1542: During the Battle of Solway Moss, an English army invaded Scotland and defeated a Scottish army.

1491: The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, began.

1177: Baldwin IV of Jerusalem and Raynald of Chatillon defeated Saladin at the Battle of Montgisard.

Births:
1835: Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-American industrialist/philanthropist)

1914: Joe DiMaggio (American baseball Hall-of-Famer)

1920: Ricardo Montalban (Mexican-American actor) [Fantasy Island, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan]

1960: John F. Kennedy, Jr. (American attorney/cofounder of "George" magazine/son of President John F. Kennedy)

1981: Barbara and Jenna Bush (Daughters of President George W. Bush)

Deaths:
1981: Jack Albertson, (American actor/comedian/dancer/singer/musician.) [Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, The Poseidon Adventure, The Subject was Roses]


Word of the day: inclement \in-KLEM-uhnt\
Etymology: From Latin in-, "not" + clemens, "gentle, merciful."
(adjective)
1. Rough, harsh; extreme, severe -- generally restricted to the elements or weather.
2. Severe, unrelenting; cruel.


Mistfox - who had inclement weather last week

Today is November 26th. That means that Mongolia celebrates Independence Day.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2002: WorldCom and the government settled a civil lawsuit over the company's $9 billion accounting scandal.

1998: Tony Blair gave the first speech ever by a British prime minister to an Irish parliament.

1990: After 31 years, Lee Kuan Yew stepped down as Singapore's prime minister.

1983: In London, 6,800 gold bars worth nearly 26 million UK pounds were taken from the Brinks Mat vault at Heathrow Airport.

1970: In Basse-Terre, Guadeloupe, 1.5 inches (38.1mm) of rain fell in one minute, the heaviest rainfall ever on record.

1965: France successfully launched the Diamant-A rocket into space, becoming the world's third space power after the Soviet Union and the United States.

1952: The first modern 3-D movie "Bwana Devil," premiered in Hollywood.

1950: China entered the Korean conflict, launching a counter-offensive against troops from the United Nations, the United States, and South Korea.

1949: India adopted a constitution as a federal republic within the British Commonwealth.

1917: The National Hockey League was formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams.

1865: "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll was published in the U.S.

1862: Charles Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) sent the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Underground to 10-year-old Alice Liddell.

1832: Public streetcar service began in New York City.

1778: Captain James Cook became the first European to discover Maui.

1703: A heavy storm hit England, killing thousands. The Royal Navy lost 15 warships.

1688: The French king Louis XIV declared war on the Netherlands.

Births:
1607: John Harvard (English clergyman/scholar) His bequest permitted the establishment of Harvard College.

1938: Rich Little (Canadian comedian/actor)

1956: Dale Jarrett (NASCAR race car driver)

Deaths:
1504: Isabella (Queen of Castile and Aragon) Wife of Ferdinand II and patron of Christopher Columbus.

1956: Tommy Dorsey (American trombonist/bandleader)


Word of the day: travail \truh-VAYL; TRAV-ayl\
Etymology: From Old French traveillier, travaillier, from Vulgar Latin tripalium, "a three-staked instrument of torture," from Latin tripalis, "three-staked," from tri-, "three" + palus, "a stake."
(noun)
1. Painful or arduous work; severe toil or exertion.
2. Agony; anguish.
3. The labor of childbirth
4. To work very hard; to toil.
5. To suffer the pangs of childbirth; to be in labor.


Mistfox - who thinks cleaning up after Thanksgiving cooking is a travail

Today is November 27th. That means that it's Pins And Needles Day in the U.S.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2005: Doctors in France performed the world's first partial face transplant on a woman disfigured by a dog bite; Isabelle Dinoire received the lips, nose and chin of a brain-dead woman in a 15-hour operation.

2003: President George W. Bush flew to Iraq under extraordinary secrecy and security to spend Thanksgiving with U.S. troops.

2002: United Nations investigators began a new round of weapons inspections in Iraq.

1997: The Inter-Agency Somalia Flood Response Team estimated that flooding in Somalia had left 230,000 people homeless.

1973: The Senate voted 92-3 to confirm Gerald R. Ford as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew, who'd resigned.

1966: In the highest-scoring NFL game, the Washington Redskins defeated the N.Y. Giants 72-41.

1926: In Williamsburg, Virginia, the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg began.

1924: In New York City the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade was held.

1912: Spain declared a protectorate over the north shore of Morocco.

1901: The Army War College was established in Washington, D.C.

1895: At the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Alfred Nobel signed his last will and testament, setting aside his estate to establish the Nobel Prize after he died.

1870: The N.Y. Times dubbed baseball "The National Game".

1863: Confederate cavalry leader John Hunt Morgan and several of his men escaped the Ohio state prison and returned safely to the South.

1826: John Walker invented the friction match in England.

1703: The first Eddystone Lighthouse was destroyed in storm.

Births:
1701: Anders Celsius (Swedish astronomer/thermometer inventor)

1843: Cornelius Vanderbilt (American businessman)

1874: Chaim Weizmann (Zionist leader/first president of the state of Israel)

1917: "Buffalo" Bob Smith (American TV host) [The Howdy Doody Show]

1940: Bruce Lee (Liu Yuen Kam) (Chinese-born American actor/martial arts expert) [Enter the Dragon, The Green Hornet.]

1942: Jimi Hendrix (American guitarist/singer/songwriter/producer)

1957: Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg (Daughter of President John F. Kennedy)

Deaths:
1895: Alexandre Dumas, fils (French author) [The Lady of the Camellias]

1988: John [Richmond Reed] Carradine (American actor) [The Grapes of Wrath]


Word of the day: equivocate \ih-KWIV-uh-kayt\
Etymology: Means literally to call equally one thing or the other: It comes from Medieval Latin aequivocare, from the Latin aequus, equal + vocare, to call (from Latin vox, voice).
(intransitive verb)
1. To be deliberately ambiguous or unclear in order to mislead or to avoid committing oneself to anything definite.


Mistfox - who equivocates when asked about Christmas presents

Today is November 28th. That means that Albania celebrates Dit'e Flamurit (Independence Day/Flag Day), Mauritania celebrates Independence Day, Panama celebrates Independence Day (from Spain 1821), and Hawaii celebrates Ka Lahui (Hawaiian Independence Day).

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2005: Eight-term Congressman Randy ''Duke'' Cunningham pleaded guilty to graft and tearfully resigned. The California Republican admitted he'd taken $2.4 million in bribes mostly from defense contractors in exchange for government business and other favors.

2001: Enron Corp., once the world's largest energy trader, collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion deal to take it over.

1999: Hsing-Hsing, a giant panda who arrived at the National Zoo in 1972 as a symbol of U.S.-China detente, was euthanized at age 28 because of his deteriorating health.

1995: U.S. President Bill Clinton signed a highway bill that ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.

1994: Voters in Norway rejected European Union membership.

1986: Phylicia Ayers-Allen accepted NBC's Ahmad Rashad marriage proposal during halftime of the Detroit Lions-N.Y. Jets football game.

1975: East Timor declared its independence from Portugal.

1964: Mariner 4 was launched, the first successful mission to Mars, taking photographs and instrument readings.

1960: Mauritania gained independence from France.

1958: Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon became autonomous republics within the French Community.

1943: President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin met in Tehran during World War II.

1932: Groucho Marx performed on radio for the first time.


1914: Following a war-induced closure in July, the New York Stock Exchange re-opened for bond trading.

1912: Albania declared its independence after more than 400 years of Turkish rule.

1907: In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opened his first movie theater.

1905: Irish nationalist Arthur Griffith founded Sinn Fein as a political party whose goal was independence for all of Ireland.

1843: The Kingdom of Hawai`i was officially recognized by the United Kingdom and France as an independent nation.

1660: At Gresham College, 12 men, including Christopher Wren, Robert Boyle, John Wilkins, and Sir Robert Moray decided to found what was later known as the Royal Society.

1340: During the Battle of Salado, Spain, the last Moor invasion was driven back.

Births:
1757: William Blake (English poet)

1853: Helen Magill White (American educator) She was the first American woman to earn a Ph.D. degree.

1962: Jon Stewart (American comedian/satirist/actor/author/producer) [The Daily Show]

Deaths:
1170: Owain Gwynedd (Prince of Gwynedd)

1954: Enrico Fermi (Italian-born American physicist)

1994: Jeffrey Dahmer (American serial killer) Was murdered in the Columbia Correctional Institute in Portage, Wisconsin, by a fellow inmate.


Word of the day: redact \rih-DAKT\
Etymology: Derives from Latin redactus, past participle of redigere, to drive back, from re-, red-, "again, back" + agere, "to put in motion, to drive."
(transitive verb)
1. To draw up or frame (a statement, proclamation, etc.); to put in writing.
2. To make ready and put in shape for publication; to edit.


Mistfox - who's having a hard time getting moving this morning

Yahooooo. Here's yesterday's. If we don't go to white pages, I'll get today's up soon.
*****
Today (well, yesterday was) is November 29th. That means that it's National Day in Albania and was Republic Day in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


1999: Protestant and Catholic adversaries formed a Northern Ireland government.

1996: Evidence suggesting that water might be present on the Moon was published in "Science" magazine.

1975: The name "Micro-soft" (for microcomputer software) was used by Bill Gates in a letter to Paul Allen for the first time.

1963: The Beatles released "I Want to Hold Your Hand".

1950: United Nations troops began a long, hard retreat out of North Korea under heavy fire from the Chinese. Chinese forces overran South Korea, and by the beginning of 1951 have captured Seoul, the capital.

1948: The children's television program Kukla, Fran and Ollie debuted.

1947: The U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for Palestine to be partitioned between Arabs and Jews.

1945: Yugoslavia was proclaimed a Federal People's Republic under Josip Tito's rule.

1942: The U.S. rationed coffee.

1933: The first state liquor stores were authorized in Pennsylvania.

1890: The Meiji Constitution went into effect in Japan and the first Diet convened.

1887: The U.S. received the rights to Pearl Harbor, on Oahu, Hawaii.

1877: Thomas Edison demonstrated his phonograph for the first time.

1864: Colorado volunteers led by Colonel John Chivington massacred at least 400 Cheyenne and Arapahoe noncombatants at Sand Creek, Colorado.

Births:
1803: Christian Johann Doppler (Austrian mathematician/physicist)

1898: C.S. Lewis (Irish-born British author) [The Chronicles of Narnia, The Screwtape Letters]

1949: Garry Shandling (American comedian)

Deaths:
1530: Thomas Wolsey (British cardinal/adviser to King Henry VIII of England)

1924: Giacomo Puccini (Italian composer) [Madame Butterfly, Tosca]

1986: Cary Grant [Archibald Alexander Leach] British-born American film actor [Suspicion, Notorious, Mr. Lucky, The Philadelphia Story]

2004: John Drew Barrymore (American actor/father of Drew Barrymore) [Not as a Stranger]


Word of the day: colloquial \kuh-LOH-kwee-uhl\
Etymology: From the Latin colloquium, a conversation, from col- (com-), with, together + loquor, loqui, to speak.
(adjective)
1. Characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation; "wrote her letters in a colloquial style"; "the broken syntax and casual enunciation of colloquial English"; hence, unstudied; informal; as, colloquial phrases; a colloquial style.

Mistfox - crossing her fingers that this doesn't get eaten by the white pages (does anyone know what I might be doing to cause them?)

Thanks, ani!!!! You're a goddess. So, just to keep people from going into the DTs, I'll post a little one before trotting off to the doctor's.

Today is December 22nd. That means the Winter Solstice occurred today at 00:22 UT (so, 7:22 last night EST). Happy Solstice!!!!

I can't link to last year's, so we'll just forget that.


2005: New York transit workers ended their three-day strike without a new contract.

2005: Astronomers announced the discovery of two more rings encircling the planet Uranus.

2001: Cc the cat, the first cloned pet, was born.

2001: Richard C. Reid, a passenger on a flight from Paris to Miami, tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers.

1990: Lech Walesa was sworn in as President of Poland

1989: Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausçescu was overthrown in a revolutionary coup.

1944: During the Battle of the Bulge, General Anthony McAuliffe responded to a German surrender request with a one word answer: "Nuts!"

1938: The first coelacanth to be identified was caught in the Bay of Chalumna off South Africa. The fish, thought extinct for 50 million years, was later named Latimeria-Chalumnae.

1895: German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen made the first X-ray.

1894: The United States Golf Association (USGA) was founded.

1894: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. He was sent to Devil's Island but was later vindicated.

1849: The execution of Fyodor Dostoevsky was canceled at the last second

1775: The Continental Navy was organized in the American colonies under the command of Ezek Hopkins.

Births:
1858: Giacomo Puccini (Italian musician/opera composer) [Madam Butterfly]

1949: Robin Gibb/Maurice Gibb (English musicians) [The Bee Gees]

1962: Ralph Fiennes (British actor) [The English Patient., The Avengers, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire]

Deaths:
1880: George Eliot [Mary Ann Evans] (English novelist) [Middlemarch,]

1943: Beatrix Potter (English author/artist) [The Tale of Peter Rabbit]


Word of the day: flibbertigibbet \FLIB-ur-tee-jib-it\
Etymology: From Middle English flipergebet, which is probably an imitation of the sound of meaningless chatter.
(noun)
1. A silly, flighty, or scatterbrained person, especially a pert young woman with such qualities.


Mistfox - who hopes she won't break the new board and cause white pages

Great to see On This Day back, Mistfox!

Sharon
:laughing: about flibbertigibbet. I had no idea it was a real word!!

Today is December 23rd. That means that Japan celebrates The Emperor's Birthday, Sweden celebrates the Birthday of Queen Silvia, and Mexico celebrates the Night of the Radishes/Feast of the Radishes.


2004: Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland pleaded guilty to a corruption charge. (He was later sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison.)

2003: New York Governor George Pataki pardoned the late comedian Lenny Bruce for his 1964 obscenity conviction.

1997: A Denver federal court jury convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

1986: The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, round-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1982: The Environmental Protection Agency recommended the evacuation of Times Beach, Missouri due to dangerous levels of dioxin contamination

1975: Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act declaring that the SI (International System of Units) would be the country's basic system of measurement.

1972: The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Oakland Raiders 13-7 in an NFL playoff game on a last-second touchdown catch by Franco Harris that was dubbed the "immaculate reception."

1954: Doctors Murray and Harrison at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston performed the first human organ transplant, of a kidney.

1948: In Tokyo, Japan, Hideki Tojo, former Japanese prime minister and chief of the Kwantung Army, was executed along with six other top Japanese leaders for their war crimes during World War II.

1947: John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley invented the transistor at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey. They won the Nobel Prize for their discovery.

1938: Margaret Hamilton's costume caught fire during the filming of "The Wizard of Oz".

1922: The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began daily news broadcasts.

1888: Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.

1788: Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government; about two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.

1783: George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.

1620: French Huguenots declared war on King Louis XIII.

Births:
1790: Jean-Francois Champollion (French egyptologist) Deciphered the Rosetta Stone.

1867: Sarah Breedlove Walker (American businesswoman/philanthropist) Considered to be the first black female millionaire.

1947: Susan Lucci (American actress) [All My Children]

1965: Eddie Vedder (American lead singer/lyricist/guitar player) [Pearl Jam]

Deaths:
1982: Jack Webb (American actor/producer/director) [Dragnet]

2000: Victor Borge (Danish humorist/entertainer/pianist)


Word of the day: urbane \ur-BAYN\
Etymology: From Latin urbanus, "of a city," hence "refined, polished," from urbs, "city." The noun form is urbanity.
(adjective)
1. Polished and smooth in manner; polite, refined, and elegant.


Mistfox - who might be considered suburbane

Today is December 24th. That means that Libya celebrates Independence Day and Christians celebrate Christmas Eve.


2004: The international Cassini spacecraft launched a probe on a three-week free-fall toward Saturn's mysterious moon Titan.

2003: The Spanish police thwarted an attempt by ETA to detonate 50 kg of explosives at 3:55 PM inside Madrid's busy Chamartin Station.

2002: Laci Peterson was reported missing from her Modesto, California home by her husband, Scott, who was later convicted of murdering her and their unborn son.

1970: Walt Disney's "Aristocats" was released.

1968: Apollo 8 astronaut William A. Anders took the first color photograph of earthrise. The moon was between the spacecraft and the earth so that the earth looks like it is rising.

1963: New York's Idlewild Airport was renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in honor of the assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

1951: Libya achieved independence as the United Kingdom of Libya, under King Idris I.

1951: Gian Carlo Menotti's ''Amahl and the Night Visitors,'' the first opera written specifically for TV, was first broadcast by NBC.

1919: John D. Rockefeller, thought to be the world's richest man, gave away $100 million dollars.

1871: Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" had its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal.

1865: Some veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan. The name of the Ku Klux Klan is derived from the Greek word kuklos, meaning circle, and clann, a Scottish Gaelic word for the traditional tribal units of Scotland that reflects the Scottish ancestry of many of the KKK's founding members.

1851: Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying around 2/3 of its collection, including 2/3 of Thomas Jefferson's personal library, sold to the institution in 1815.

1814: The War of 1812 officially ended as the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.

1777: James Cook discovered Kiritimati, also called Christmas Island.

Births:
1166: John ["Lackland", "Softsword"] (King of England)

1809: Kit Carson (American frontiersman/fur trapper/guide/American Indian agent/Union general)

1905: Howard Hughes (American industrialist/pilot/Hollywood producer/director)

1922: Ava Gardner [Lucy Johnson] (American actress)

1929: Mary Higgins Clark (American author) [Two Little Girls in Blue, Santa Cruise, No Place Like Home]

1971: Ricky Martin [Enrique Martin Morales] (Puerto Rican singer/actor) [Menudo, General Hospital, "Livin' La Vida Loca"]

Deaths:
1524: Vasco da Gama (Portuguese explorer)

1914: John Muir (Scottish-American naturalist)

1993: Norman Vincent Peale (American theologian/author)

1997: Toshiro Mifune (Japanese actor) [Rashomon, The Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Shogun]


Word of the day: wassail \WAH-sul; wah-SAYL\
Etymology: From the Middle English expression of festive benevolence, wæs hæil!, be well!, from Old Norse ves heill, be (ves) well (heill).
(noun)
1. An expression of good wishes on a festive occasion, especially in drinking to someone.
2. An occasion on which such good wishes are expressed in drinking; a drinking bout; a carouse.
3. The liquor used for a wassail; especially, a beverage formerly much used in England at Christmas and other festivals, made of ale (or wine) flavored with spices, sugar, toast, roasted apples, etc.
4. Of or pertaining to wassail, or to a wassail; convivial; as, a wassail bowl.
5. To drink to the health of; a toast.
6. To drink a wassail.


Mistfox - who wishes her fellow ADWOFFers wassail!!!

Today is December 25th. That means that the United Kingdom (except Scotland) celebrates Quarter Day and Christians celebrate Christmas Day.



2002: Katie Hnida became the first woman to play in a Division I football game when she attempted an extra point for New Mexico against UCLA in the Las Vegas Bowl.

1991: Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself was dissolved the next day).

1974: Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Australia.

1973: The ARPANET crashed when a programming bug caused all ARPANET traffic to be routed through the server at Harvard University, causing the server to freeze.

1972: The Nicaraguan capital Managua was devastated by an earthquake, which killed over 10,000 people.

1964: "Goldfinger" premiered in the U.S.

1950: The Coronation Stone, taken from Scone in Scotland by Edward I in 1296, was stolen from Westminster Abbey and smuggled back to Scotland.

1931: The Metropolitan Opera broadcast a complete opera for the first time on NBC radio. NBC paid $5,000 for the rights to broadcast the Saturday matinee performance of "Hansel and Gretel." The box office gate for the show was $4,233.50. Texaco began to sponsor the Saturday matinee broadcast in 1940 and continued its sponsorship until the end of the 2004 season, making it the longest continuous sponsorship in broadcast history. The broadcast continues under different sponsorship.

1939: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was introduced by Montgomery Ward stores.

1926: Hirohito became emperor of Japan, succeeding his father, Emperor Yoshihito.

1868: President Andrew Johnson granted unqualified amnesty to all those who participated in the "insurrection or rebellion" against the United States, i.e. the Civil War.

1830: The first regularly scheduled passenger train in the United States began operation, the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company.

1776: General George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey.

1741: Astronomer Anders Celsius introduced the Centigrade temperature scale.

1223: St. Francis of Assisi assembled one of the first Nativity scenes, in Greccio, Italy.

1066: William the Conqueror was crowned king of England at Westminster Abbey.

0800: Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne the first Holy Roman Emperor in Rome.

0336: The first recorded celebration of Christmas on December 25 took place in Rome. Church fathers designated December 25th, the birthday of the popular pagan god Mithras, as Jesus' official birth date. The celebration of the birth of Christ also took over the pagan winter solstice holiday, which like the birthday of the sun god Mithras, fell in late December. From thereon, December 25 was to be observed at a holy mass, or "Christ's Mass."

Births:
1642: Sir Isaac Newton (British mathematician)

1821: Clara Barton (American nurse) Founder of American Red Cross.

1899: Humphrey Bogart (American actor) [The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The African Queen]

1924: Rod [Edwin Rodman] Serling (American scriptwriter/T.V. host) [The Twilight Zone]

1946: Jimmy Buffett (American singer/songwriter) ["Margaritaville"]

Deaths:
1977: Charlie Chaplin (English comedian/actor/director/producer) [The Great Dictator]

1989: "Billy" [Alfred Manual] Martin (American baseball player/manager)

1995: Dean Martin, [Dino Paul Crocetti] (American singer/actor) [My Friend Irma, The Wrecking Crew, The Dean Martin Show]


Word of the day: irenic \eye-REN-ik; -REE-nik\
Etymology: From Greek eirenikos, from eirene, "peace."
(adjective)
1. Tending to promote peace; conciliatory.


Mistfox - who hopes the holidays are irenic

Today is December 26th. That means that Boxing Day is celebrated in England, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and some other countries. It's also Handsel Day in Scotland, Independence Day in Slovenia, Junkanoo in the Bahamas, the Day of Goodwill in South Africa, and the beginning of Kwanzaa


2004: A tsunami triggered by the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean, left more than 275,000 people dead or missing, while inundating coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia.

2004: Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts broke Dan Marino's single-season touchdown pass record when he threw his 48th and 49th of the season in a victory over San Diego.

1998: Severe gales blew over Ireland, northern England, and southern Scotland. Widespread power outages and disruption occurred in Northern Ireland and southern Scotland.

1995: Israel turned dozens of West Bank villages over to the Palestinian Authority in a smooth transfer of power.

1986: The TV soap "Search for Tomorrow" ended its 35 year run.

1982: TIME magazine's Man of the Year was for the first time given to a non-human; a computer.

1979: The Soviet Union began a massive airlift of men into Kabul, Afghanistan, in an effort to reinstate Communist rule in the nation.

1973: The Exorcist, starring Linda Blair (rated X) premiered.

1966: The first Kwanzaa celebration was organized in Los Angeles, California, by Dr. Maulana Karenga, chairman of Black Studies at California State University at Long Beach. Kwanzaa is a non-religious African-American holiday that celebrates family, community, and culture for seven days.

1963: The Beatles released "I Want To Hold Your Hand"/"I Saw Her Standing There".

1947: Heavy snow blanketed the Northeast and buried NYC under 25.8" of snow in 16 hours. That same day, LA set a record high of 84ø F.

1933: FM radio was patented.

1925: Turkey adopted the Gregorian calendar.

1898: Scientists Pierre Curie and Marie Curie announced their discovery of the radioactive element radium.

1878: Electric lights were installed in the first U.S. store, in Philadelphia.

1865: James H. Nason of Franklin, Massachusetts, received a patent for a coffee percolator.

1606: Shakespeare's King Lear was performed in the Court of England.

1492: Christopher Columbus established the first Spanish settlement in the Americas on the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti.

Births:
1891: Henry Miller (American novelist) [Tropic of Cancer]

1893: Mao Tse-tung [or Zedong or Zhedong] (Chinese Communist leader)

1921: Steve Allen (American comedian/author/musician/composer/TV host) [The Tonight Show, The Benny Goodman Story, "This Could Be The Start of Something Big"]

1956: David Sedaris (American essayist) [Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day]

Deaths:
1890: Heinrich Schliemann (German archaeologist)

1909: Frederic Remington (American artist)

1963: Gorgeous George [George Raymond Wagner] (American professional wrestler/TV personality)

1972: Harry S. Truman (President of the U.S.).

1974: Jack Benny [Benjamin Kubelsky] (American comedian/vaudeville performer/radio, television, and film actor)

1996: Jon Benet Ramsey (Colorado child beauty contestant)

2000: Jason Robards (American actor) [All the President's Men, Melvin and Howard]


Word of the day: harbinger \HAR-bin-juhr\
Etymology: Derives from Middle English herbergeour, "one who supplies lodgings," from Old French herbergeor, from herbergier, "to provide lodging for," from herberge, "a lodging, an inn" (cp. modern French auberge), ultimately of Germanic origin. See first (archaic) definition.
(noun)
1. (Archaic) One who provides lodgings; especially, the officer of the English royal household who formerly preceded the court when traveling, to provide and prepare lodgings.
2. A forerunner; a precursor; one that presages or foreshadows what is to come.

(transitive verb)
3. To signal the approach of; to presage; to be a harbinger of.

Mistfox - who hopes the temperatures this week aren't a harbinger of the year to come

Today is December 27th. That means that Hong Kong celebrates Ta Chiu.


2005: Indonesia's Aceh rebels formally abolished their 30-year armed struggle for independence under a peace deal born out of the 2004 tsunami.

2004: In an audiotape, a man purported to be Osama bin Laden endorsed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as his deputy in Iraq and called for a boycott of January's elections in the country.

2002: North Korea ordered U.N. nuclear inspectors to leave the country and said it would restart a laboratory capable of producing plutonium for nuclear weapons.

1996: Muslim fundamentalist Taliban forces retook the strategic air base of Bagram, solidifying their buffer zone around Kabul, the Afghanistan capital.

1979: Soviet Union forces seized control of Afghanistan. Babrak Karmal replaced President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed. It was the beginning of a 10-year war.

1978: Spain became a democracy after 40 years of dictatorship.

1970: "Hello, Dolly!" closed on Broadway after a run of 2,844 performances.

1949: Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted Indonesia sovereignty.

1947: The children's television program "Howdy Doody" made its debut.

1945: Twenty-eight nations signed an agreement to create the World Bank. The International Monetary Fund and the Bank for Reconstruction and Development were created.

1945: After World War II, the former Allied nations of the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain agreed to divide Korea into two occupation zones and govern them for five years. The country was split along the 38th parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the northern zone, and Americans stationed to the south. In 1948 self-rule was granted with the establishment of two separate regimes in North Korea and South Korea.

1934: The Shah of Persia declared that Persia would be known as Iran.

1932: Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City.

1927: Defeated in his struggle for power against Josef Stalin, Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

1927: "Show Boat," with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York City.

1904: James Barrie's play Peter Pan premiered in London.

1900: Militant prohibitionist Carry A. Nation performed her first public smashing of a bar, at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kansas.

1871: The world's first cat show was held at the Crystal Palace in London.

1845: Dr. Crawford Williamson Long in Jefferson, Georgia used Ether anesthetic for childbirth for the first time.

1831: British naturalist Charles Darwin set out from Plymouth, England, aboard the HMS Beagle, on a five-year surveying expedition of the southern Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean.

1825: The first public railroad using a steam locomotive was completed in England.

1703: Portugal and England signed the Methuen Treaty, which gave preference to Portuguese imported wines into England.

Births:
1571: Johannes Kepler (German astronomer)

1822: Louis Pasteur (French scientist) Developed the pasteurization process and rabies vaccination.

1901: Marlene Dietrich [Maria von Losch] (German-born actress)

1943: "Cokie" [Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs] Roberts (American journalist/author) [Founding Mothers]

1948: Gerard Depardieu (French actor) [Cyrano de Bergerac, Green Card, 1492: Conquest of Paradise]

Deaths:
1836: Stephen F. Austin (American pioneer)

1981: "Hoagy" [Hoagland Howard] Carmichael (American composer/singer/pianist) ["Stardust", "Georgia on My Mind"]

1985: Dian Fossey (American ethologist) [Gorillas in the Mist]


Word of the day: efface \ih-FAYS\
Etymology: From the French effacer, from Old French esfacier, from es-, "out" (from Latin ex-) + face, "face" (from Latin facies).
(transitive verb)
1. To cause to disappear by rubbing out, striking out, etc.; to erase; to render illegible or indiscernible.
2. To destroy, as a mental impression; to wipe out; to eliminate completely.
3. To make (oneself) inconspicuous.

Mistfox - who used to efface herself more than she does now

Today is December 28th. That means that Australia celebrates Proclamation Day and Nepal celebrates The King's Birthday.


2005: Former top Enron Corp. accountant Richard Causey pleaded guilty to securities fraud and agreed to help pursue convictions against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

2005: A U.S. immigration judge ordered retired autoworker John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard, deported to his native Ukraine.

2000: U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announced it is going out of business after 128 years.

1995: CompuServe set a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups after being pressured by German prosecutors.

1973: Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago".

1958: The Chipmunks (Alvin, Simon & Theodore with David Seville) had a #1 hit.

1945: Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."

1937: The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.

1908: The most destructive earthquake in European history struck Messina, Italy, flattening the city and killing more than 80,000 people. The earthquake registered 7.5 on the Richter scale.

1902: Trans-Pacific cable linked Hawaii to the U.S.

1895: The Lumiere brothers had their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines -- this date is commonly considered the debut of the cinema.

1869: William F. Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio patented chewing gum.

1849: M. Jolly-Bellin discovered dry-cleaning. He accidentally upset a lamp containing turpentine and oil on his clothing and saw a cleaning effect.

1846: Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

1836: South Australia and Adelaide were founded

1836: Mexico's independence was recognized by Spain.

1832: John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Andrew Jackson.

1065: Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.

Births:
1856: [Thomas] Woodrow Wilson (President of the U.S.A.)

1922: Stan Lee [Stanley Martin Lieber] (American comic book writer) [The Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, the X-Men, Spider-Man]

1954: Denzel Washington (American actor) [St. Elsewhere, Malcolm X, The Pelican Brief, The Manchurian Candidate]

Deaths:
1694: Mary II (Queen of England)

1734: Rob Roy [Robert MacGregor] (Scottish outlaw) Often recognized as the Scottish Robin Hood.

1937: Maurice Ravel (French composer)

2004: Susan Sontag (American essayist/novelist/filmmaker/activist). [In America, The Volcano Lover]

2004: Jerry Orbach (American actor) [Law and Order]


Word of the day: equanimity \ee-kwuh-NIM-uh-tee; ek-wuh-\
Etymology: From Latin aequanimitas, "impartiality, calmness," from aequanimus, "impartial, even-tempered," from aequus, "even" + animus, "mind, soul."
(noun)
1. Evenness of mind; calmness; composure; as, "to bear misfortunes with equanimity."

Mistfox - who thinks we've been taking the changes to the board with equanimity

Today is December 28th. That means that Poland celebrates Kulig.


2000: Britain had its first significant widespread snowfall for seven years. Northern Ireland saw the worst snowfall in 18 years. London was covered in snow for the first time since 1994.

1997: Hong Kong began to kill all the nation's chickens (1.25 million) to stop the spread of a potentially deadly influenza strain.

1989: Playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country's Federal Assembly, becoming the first non-Communist to attain the post in more than four decades.

1967: Star Trek's "Trouble With Tribbles" first aired.

1940: London suffered its most devastating air raid, and approximately 1,500 fires were started, when Germany started dropping incendiary bombs on it during World War II.

1934: The first college basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York City was played, between the University of Notre Dame and New York University.

1911: Sun Yat-sen became the first President of the Republic of China

1890: The Wounded Knee massacre took place in South Dakota as some 300 Sioux Indians were killed by U.S. troops. It was the last major battle between Native Americans and U.S. troops.

1862: The bowling ball was invented.

1852: Emma Snodgrass was arrested in Boston for wearing pants.

1851: The first U.S. branch Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) was established, in Boston. The organization started in London in 1844.

1845: Texas (comprised of the present state of Texas and part of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming) was admitted as the 28th state of the Union, with the provision that the area should be divided into no more than five states.

1607: Indian chief Powhatan spared John Smith's life because of the pleas of Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas.

Births:
1808: Andrew Johnson (President of the U.S.A.)

1809: William Gladstone (English statesman/Prime Minister)

1876: Pablo Casals (Spanish cellist).

1937: Mary Tyler Moore (American actress/comedienne) [The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show]

1938: Jon Voight (American actor) [Coming Home, Midnight Cowboy, Runaway Train]

1972: Jude Law (British actor) [The Aviator, Shopping, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Gattaca]

Deaths:
1170: Thomas Becket [Thomas á Becket] (Archbishop of Canterbury) Murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England by four knights of King Henry II, apparently on orders of the king.

1986: Harold Macmillan (British Prime Minister)


Word of the day: acuity \uh-KYOO-uh-tee\
Etymology: From Latin acutus, "sharpened, pointed, acute," past participle of acuere, "to sharpen."
(noun)
1. Acuteness of perception or vision; sharpness.

Mistfox - who thinks her acuity is down
and who hopes that this will fix the weird post (it looks okay here in edit mode)

Agggggh, I've done it again. I've broken it.

Mistfox - hoping the bump will fix her previous post

Nope, doesn't help. HEEEELLLPPPP. My previous post looks just fine in edit mode, but as soon as I post it, it goes all wonky.

Mistfox - who wonders if this is a sign that I should stop the OTD

Well, I could see yesterday's post (with the wrong day, oops) on the computer at work, but can't see it here at home on Firefox. So I don't know what I did. If you can see this, today's went okay.

Today is December 30th. That means that the Philippines celebrate Rizal Day.


2003: The federal government announced it would ban the sale of ephedra, an herbal stimulant linked to 155 deaths and dozens of heart attacks and strokes.

1980: After 25 years, the longest-running prime-time TV series The Wonderful World of Disney was cancelled by NBC.

1965: Ferdinand E. Marcos was sworn in as the Philippine Republic's sixth president.

1963: "Let's Make a Deal" premiered on television.

1953: The first color television sets went on sale for about USD $1,175.

1940: California's first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened.

1924: Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galaxies.

1922: Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, comprising a confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, the Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation.

1880: In British South Africa, the Transvaal province was declared an independent Boer republic, which set off an armed conflict with Britain.

1879: Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Pirates of Penzance" was first performed, in England.

1853: The United States bought 45,000 square miles of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase. The treaty established the final boundaries of the southern United States.

1817: The first coffee was planted in Hawaii (Kona).

Births:
1865: Rudyard Kipling (English novelist/short story author/poet/Nobel Prize for Literature winner) [The Jungle Book, Kim]

1934: Del Shannon [Charles Weedon Westover] (American singer) ["Runaway", "Stranger in Town"]

1942: Michael Nesmith (American musician/songwriter/actor/producer/novelist/businessman/philanthropist) [The Monkees]

1945: Davy Jones (British actor/singer) [The Monkees]

1959: Tracey Ullman (British comedienne)

1961: Sean Hannity (American talk radio host/political commentator)

1975: Tiger Woods (American pro golfer)

Deaths:
1968: Trygve Lie (Norwegian politician/the first United Nations Secretary General)

1979: Richard Rodgers (American composer of musical comedies) [Babes in Arms, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, The Sound of Music]

2004: Artie Shaw [Arthur Jacob Arshawsky] (American jazz clarinetist/composer/bandleader)


Word of the day: ignoramus \ig-nuh-RAY-mus\
Etymology: Ignoramus was the name of a character in George Ruggle's 1615 play of the same name. The name was derived from the Latin, literally, "we are ignorant," from ignorare, "not to know," from ignarus, "not knowing," from ig- (for in-), "not" + gnarus, "knowing, acquainted with, expert in." It is related to ignorant and ignore.
(noun)
1. An ignorant person; a dunce.

Mistfox - who is an ignoramus when it comes to why the board glitches

Today is December 31st. That means that the western world celebrates New Year's Eve, Japan celebrates Omisoka or Grand Last Day, and the day and evening are called Hogmanay in Scotland.


2004: Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych resigned, acknowledging that he had little hope of reversing the presidential election victory of his Western-leaning rival, Viktor Yushchenko.

1999: Panama assumed control of the Panama Canal, according to the treaty of 1979.

1995: Bill Watterson's comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes" ended syndication, which started on November 18, 1985.

1993: Entertainer Barbra Streisand performed her first paid concert in 22 years, singing to a sellout crowd at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas.

1990: The Sci-Fi Channel on cable TV began transmitting.

1974: Private U.S. citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.

1966: The Monkee's "I'm a Believer" hit #1 and stayed there for 7 weeks.

1961: The Beach Boys played their debut gig under that name.

1960: The farthing coin, which had been in use in Great Britain since the 13th century, ceased to be legal tender.

1935: Charles Darrow patented Monopoly.

1923: in London, the BBC broadcast the chimes of Big Ben for the first time.

1911: Marie Sklodowska Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her isolation of the element of metallic radium and other earlier discoveries in the field of chemistry. She was the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize, eight years after she became the first woman ever to be honored with a Nobel Prize.

1904: The first New Year's Eve celebration was held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York.

1897: Brooklyn, New York, spent its last day as a separate entity before becoming part of New York City.

1890: New York's Ellis Island opened its doors to what would be millions of immigrants to the United States.

1879: Thomas Edison first demonstrated his electric incandescent light bulb to the public, in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1857: Queen Victoria chose Ottawa, Ontario, as the capital of Canada.

1781: The first modern bank in the U.S., the Bank of North America, was organized by Robert Morris and received its charter from the Confederation Congress. It began operating in Philadelphia.

1695: A window tax was imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax.

1600: Queen Elizabeth I of England granted a formal charter to the London merchants trading to the East Indies, hoping to break the Dutch monopoly of the spice trade.

0406: Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed the Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.

Births:
1720: Charles Edward Stuart [The "Young Pretender", "Bonnie Prince Charlie"] Pretender to the British throne.

1869: Henri Matisse (French painter/designer)

1943: John Denver [Henry John Deutschendorf] (American singer/songwriter/musician/actor) ["Country Roads", "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Rocky Mountain High"]

1945: Diane von Furstenberg [Diane Simone Michelle Halfin] (Belgian-American fashion designer)

1959: Val Kilmer (American actor)

Deaths:
1985: Rick "Ricky" Nelson (American actor/singer) Died in an airplane crash. ["For You", "Garden Party", The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Rio Bravo, Love and Kisses]


Word of the day: fait accompli \fay-tah-kom-PLEE; fet-ah-\
Plural - faits accomplis \same or -PLEEZ\
Etymology: From the French, literally meaning "accomplished fact": fait, from Latin factum, "a thing done," from factus, past participle of facere, "to make or do" + accompli, past participle of accomplir, from Latin ad- + complere, "to fill up, to complete," from com- + plere, "to fill."
(noun)
1. An accomplished and presumably irreversible deed or fact.

Mistfox - who thinks it is a fait accompli that there will be people with hangovers tomorrow

Today is January 1st. That means that the western world celebrates New Year's Day, Cuba celebrates Liberation Day or Anniversary of the Triumph of the Revolution, the Sudan celebrates Independence Day, Haiti celebrates Independence Day, Slovakia celebrates a national holiday for the establishment of the Slovak Republic in 1993, and Taiwan celebrates Foundation Day.



2002: The euro replaced the Deutsche Mark, the French franc, the Italian lira, the Spanish peseta, the Greek drachma, the Austrian schilling, the Belgian franc, the Finnish markka, the Irish pound, the Luxembourg franc, the Dutch guilder, and the Portuguese escudo as the official currency of these countries.

1995: The last "Far Side" was published by cartoonist Gary Larson (the series started in 1980).

1993: Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

1985: The Internet's Domain Name System was created.

1983: The ARPANET officially changed to use the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet.

1971: Cigarette advertisements were banned on U.S. television.

1959: Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista.

1937: At a party at the Hormel Mansion in Minnesota, a guest won $100 for naming a new canned meat -- Spam.

1935: The colonies of Cyrenaica, Tripoli, and Eezaan united to form the country of Libya.

1922: People in Vancouver, BC started driving on the right side of road.

1919: The first national park in the eastern United States was established on Maine's Mt. Desert Island. It was originally called Lafayette National Park but was renamed Acadia National Park in 1929.

1905: The Trans-Siberian Railway made its maiden voyage, uniting Vladivostok, Manchuria with Paris, France.

1901: The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed when the six colonies of Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, and Northern Territory were united.

1898: Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were consolidated into New York City.

1876: The first modern New Year's Day Mummers' Parade was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was a boisterous Swedish custom of celebrating the end of the calendar year with noise making and shouting was combined with the tradition of the British mummery play.

1872: The Holtermann nugget was mined at Hill End, New South Wales in Australia; weighing 630 lbs -- the largest gold nugget ever found.

1863: President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebellious states were free.

1808: The United States Congress officially prohibited the African slave trade, though the decree was much ignored.

1803: Jean-Jacques Dessalines proclaimed the independence of Saint-Domingue, renaming it Haiti, just two months after his defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's colonial forces.

1797: Albany became the capital of New York State, replacing New York City.

1788: "The Times", London's oldest-running newspaper, published its first edition.


1781: Lord Cornwallis surrendered to General George Washington at Yorktown, Virginia, marking the end of the Revolutionary War.

1582: New Year's Day was introduced with the new Gregorian calendar in France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain (it was not adopted in Britain until 1752).

0404: The last gladiator competition in Rome was held,

45 BCE: New Year's Day was celebrated for the first time when the Julian calendar took effect.

Births:
1449: Lorenzo de Medici (Italian statesman)

1895: J. Edgar Hoover (American founding director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations)

1919: J.D. [Jerome David] Salinger (American author). [The Catcher in the Rye]

Deaths:
1782: Johann Christian Bach (German composer)

2001: Ray Walston (American stage, television, and film actor) [Picket Fences, My Favorite Martian]

2005: Shirley Chisholm (American politician/educator/author)


Word of the day: nascent \NAS-uhnt; NAY-suhnt\
Etymology: From Latin nascens, "being born," present participle of nasci, "to be born."
(adjective)
1. Beginning to exist or having recently come into existence; coming into being.

Mistfox - who's late because she had to watch the Rose Parade