On this day--one year ago--I had my first date with McBoyfriend!

It seems like yesterday and, at the same time, like I've know him forever.

And in two weeks, we'll be living together.

Today is October 19th. That means that Niue observes Constitution Day and Albania observes Mother Teresa Day.


2006: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 12,000 for the first time, ending at 12,011.73

2005: A defiant Saddam Hussein pleaded innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture at his trial in the former headquarters of his Baath Party in Baghdad.

2003: Pope John Paul II beatified Mother Teresa.

1994: New Zealand's Goodnight Kiwi aired for the last time.

1987: On Black Monday, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent.

1985: The first Blockbuster Video store opened in Dallas, Texas.

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

1960: Mauretania gained independence from France.

1959: William Gibson's "The Miracle Worker," premiered in NYC.

1954: Egypt and Britain signed a pact on the Suez Canal, ending 72 years of British military occupation. Britain agreed to withdraw its force within 20 months and Egypt agreed to maintain freedom of canal navigation.

1950: The North Korean capital of Pyongyang was captured by United Nations troops.

1944: The U.S. Navy announced that black women could join the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

1943: Researchers at Rutgers University isolated Streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis.

1901: Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March," premiered in Liverpool.

1874: Mary Walsh and Charles Colson were the first couple to be married in a balloon.

1873: Yale University, Princeton University, Columbia University, and Rutgers University drafted the first code of football rules.

1872: The world's largest gold nugget (215 kg) was found in New South Wales.

1849: Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in the U.S. to receive a medical degree.

1813: The Battle of Leipzig concluded, giving Napoleon Bonaparte one of his worst defeats.

1781: Major General Lord Charles Cornwallis surrendered to George Washington and Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau at Yorktown, Virginia, ending the American Revolutionary War.

1765: The Stamp Act Congress drew up a declaration of rights and liberties at its meeting in New York.

1453: The French recapture of Bordeaux brought the Hundred Years War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil.

0439: The Vandals, led by King Gaiseric, took Carthage in North Africa.

202 BCE: The Battle of Zama resulted in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal.

Births:
1931: John le Carré [David Cornwell] (British author) [Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; Smiley's People]

1945: John Lithgow (American actor/musician/author) [3rd Rock from the Sun, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension]

1951: Patricia Ireland (President of the National Organization for Women)

Deaths:
1745: Jonathan Swift (Anglo-Irish author) [Gulliver's Travels, A Modest Proposal]

1950: Edna St. Vincent Millay (American poet) ["Renascence"]



Word of the day: plaintive \PLAYN-tiv\
Etymology: Derives from Old French plainte, "complaint," from Latin planctus, past participle of plangere, "to strike (one's breast), to lament."
(adjective)
1. Expressive of sorrow or melancholy; mournful; sad.


Mistfox - who knows Robyn is the opposite of plaintive – Congratulations on a happy first year!

Today is October 20th. That means that Guatemala observes Revolution Day and Kenya observes Kenyatta Day.


2005: A defense lawyer in Saddam Hussein's mass murder trial was abducted from his office and found murdered hours later.

2004: U.S. Army staff sergeant, Ivan "Chip" Frederick, pleaded guilty to abusing Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison.

1992: In the first World Series to be played outside the United States, the host Toronto Blue Jays beat the Atlanta Braves with a 4-3 series victory.

1991: The Oakland Hills firestorm killed 25 people and destroyed 3469 homes and apartments, causing more than 2 billion USD in damage.

1977: A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in Mississippi, killing several band members, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines.

1973: "The Six Million Dollar Man" premiered on TV.

1973: After fifteen years of construction, the Sydney Opera House, designed by Danish architect John Utzon, was officially opened .

1973: In the so-called "Saturday Night Massacre," President Nixon fired Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refused to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was finally fired by Robert Bork.

1955: Harry Belafonte recorded "Day-O" (the Banana Boat Song).

1947: The House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into Communist infiltration in the film industry. Among those denounced as having un-American tendencies are: Katharine Hepburn, Charles Chaplin, and Edward G. Robinson.

1945: Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon formed the Arab League to present a unified front against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.

1944: U.S. troops landed at Leyte, in the Philippines. General Douglas MacArthur returned as promised in 1942.

1935: Mao Zedong arrived in Hanoi in northwest China with 8,000 survivors, and set up Chinese Communist headquarters. His Long March took a little over a year.

1906: Dr. Lee DeForest demonstrated his electrical vacuum tube (radio tube).

1903: The Joint Commission set up by Great Britain and the United States to arbitrate the disputed Alaskan boundary, ruled in favor of the United States.

1827: At the Battle of Navarino, a combined Turkish and Egyptian armada was destroyed by an allied British, French, and Russian naval force in the port of Navarino in Pylos, Greece. The most important result of this battle was the end of the Greek Liberation War and the affirmation of independence of modern Greece.

1818: Great Britain and the United States signed a diplomatic convention, which established a boundary between the United States and British Canada along the forty-ninth parallel.

1817: The first Mississippi "Showboat," left Nashville on its maiden voyage.

1803: The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase Treaty.

1740: Maria Theresa took the throne of Austria. France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony refused to honor the Pragmatic Sanction and the War of the Austrian Succession began.

1600: The Battle of Sekigahara set the Tokugawa clan as Japan's rulers (shoguns).

1097: The first Crusaders arrived in Antioch.

Births:
1632: Sir Christopher Wren (British astronomer/architect)

1888: Bela Lugosi [Bela Ferenc Dezső Blasko] (Hungarian actor) [Dracula, White Zombie, The Black Cat]

1905: Ellery Queen [Frederic Dannay] (American author)

1925: Art Buchwald (American columnist/author)

1931: Mickey Mantle (American baseball player)

1953: Tom Petty (American singer/songwriter) ["I Won't Back Down," "You Don't Know How it Feels," "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around"]

1958: Viggo Mortensen (Danish-American actor/poet/photographer/painter) [The Lord of the Rings, Hidalgo, Eastern Promises]

Deaths:
1964: Herbert Hoover (President of the U.S.A.)

1977: Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines [Lynyrd Skynyrd] Died in a plane crash Mississippi.

1994: Burt [Burton] Lancaster (American film actor) [The Crimson Pirate, Elmer Gantry, From Here to Eternity, Birdman of Alcatraz]



Word of the day: elute \ee-LOOT, i-LOOT\
Etymology: From Latin ēluere, ēlūt-, "to wash out" : ē-, ex-, ex- + -luere, "to wash"
(transitive verb)
1.Physical Chemistry. To wash out or extract; specifically to remove (adsorbed material) from an adsorbent by means of a solvent


Mistfox - who was informed this morning that caffeine elutes early on in the coffee making process

Today is October 21st. That means that the Marshall Islands observe Compact Day, the Somalia Democratic Republic observes National Day, and Taiwan observes Overseas Chinese Day.


2003: The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution demanding that Israel tear down a barrier jutting into the West Bank.

2003: Florida Governor Jeb Bush ordered a feeding tube reinserted into Terry Schiavo, a brain-damaged woman at the center of a bitter right-to-die battle.

1997: The government of Singapore announced, in a widely publicized "toilet alert", that the drive for toilet cleanliness is a great success. Five toilets were selected by citizens as toilet role models.

1992: Madonna's book "Sex" went on sale.

1988: A federal grand jury in New York indicted former Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos and his wife, Imelda Marcos, on charges of fraud and racketeering.

1971: The Nobel prize for literature was awarded to Pablo Neruda.

1967: More than 100,000 war protesters gathered in Washington, DC. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial was followed by a march to The Pentagon and clashes with soldiers and United States Marshals protecting the facility. Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.

1959: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York opened. Frank Lloyd Wright designed it.

1957: The movie Jailhouse Rock, starring Elvis Presley, opened.

1950: Chinese forces occupied Tibet.

1945: Women were allowed to vote in France for the first time.

1917: The first American troops saw action in France during World War I. The U.S. Army's First Division was assigned to Allied trenches in the Luneville sector near Nancy, France.

1895: The Republic of Taiwan collapsed as Japanese forces invaded.

1879: Thomas A. Edison invented the first working electric (incandescent) light, in his Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory.

1867: Near Medicine Lodge Creek, Kansas a landmark treaty was signed by southern Great Plains Indian leaders. The treaty required Native American Plains tribes to relocate to a reservation in western Oklahoma.

1858: In Paris, the Can-Can was first performed.

1854: Florence Nightingale and a staff of 38 nurses were sent to the Crimean War.

1805: The British fleet commanded by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated a French-Spanish fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar, but Nelson was killed.

1797: U.S. Navy frigate Constitution, nicknamed "Old Ironsides," was launched in Boston's harbor. It was built to fight Barbary pirates off the coast of Tripoli.

1492: Columbus landed on San Salvador Island.

Births:
1760: Katsushika Hokusai (Japanese artist/printmaker)

1772: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (British poet/critic/philosopher) [The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]

1833: Alfred Nobel (Swedish chemist/engineer/businessman/philanthropist) He invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes.

1917: "Dizzy" [John Birks] Gillespie (American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer) Creator of be-bop. ["Manteca", "A Night in Tunisia", "Birk's Works", "Con Alma"]

1929: Ursula K. Le Guin (American author) [The Left Hand of Darkness, A Wizard of Earthsea, Catwings]

1956: Carrie Fisher (American actress/screenwriter/novelist) [Shampoo, Star Wars trilogy, Postcards From the Edge]

Deaths:
1805: Horatio Nelson (English admiral)

1969: Jack Kerouac (American poet/novelist/leader of the Beat movement)



Word of the day: longueur \long-GUR\
Etymology: From French (where it means "length"), ultimately deriving from Latin longus, "long," which is also the source of English long.
(noun)
1. A dull and tedious passage in a book, play, musical composition, or the like.


Mistfox - who thinks the doesn't write longueur

Today is October 22nd. That means that Zambia observes Independence Day, the Vatican City and the Holy See observes a National Holiday, the U.S. observes National Scientific Literacy Day, it's International Stuttering Awareness Day, and it's International Caps Lock Day.


2005: Tropical Storm Alpha formed in the Atlantic Basin, making the 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season the most active Atlantic hurricane season on record with 22 named storms.

2002: A bus driver was shot to death in Aspen Hill, Md., in the 13th and final attack by the Washington-area sniper.

1997: Compaq testified Microsoft threaten to break their Windows 95 agreement if they showcased a Netscape icon.

1981: The U.S. federal government decertified the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization for its strike the previous August.

1979: The U.S. government allowed the deposed Shah of Iran to travel to New York for medical treatment -- a decision that precipitated the Iran hostage crisis.

1976: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned red dye #4 after it was discovered that it causes tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.

1968: Hard rock band Led Zeppelin released the classic album Led Zeppelin II, featuring the hit single "Whole Lotta Love."

1968: Apollo 7, with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard, returned to Earth.

1966: The Supremes became the first all-female music group to attain a No. 1 selling album (The Supremes A' Go-Go).

1962: During the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy announced an air and naval blockade of Cuba, following the discovery of Soviet Union missile bases on the island. Over the next six days, the crisis escalated to the brink of nuclear war.

1958: The first female peers were introduced into the House of Lords.

1953: Laos gained independence from France.

1938: Chester Carlson invented the photocopier.

1918: The Great Influenza Epidemic began. This was a worldwide epidemic that would eventually claim 18 million lives.

1907: The Ringling Brothers circus bought the Barnum & Bailey Circus.

1897: The world's first car dealer opened in London.

1883: The original Metropolitan Opera House in New York held its grand opening with a performance of Gounod's "Faust."

1836: Sam Houston was inaugurated as the first constitutionally elected president of the Republic of Texas.

1797: French balloonist Andre-Jacques Garnerin made the first parachute jump. It was made from a hot air balloon 2,300 feet above Paris.

1746: Princeton University in New Jersey received its charter.

1575: The city of Aguascalientes, in Mexico, was founded.

Births:
1811: Franz Liszt (Austrian pianist/composer)

1844: Sarah Bernhardt [Henriette-Rosine Bernard] (French actress)

1903: "Curly" [Jerome] Howard [The Three Stooges]

1942: Annette Funicello (American actress) [The Shaggy Dog, Babes in Toyland, The Monkey's Uncle, Beach Party, Beach Blanket Bingo]

1953: Jeff Goldblum (American actor) [The Fly, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Independence Day, Jurassic Park]

Deaths:
1906: Paul Cezanne (French painter)

1973: Pablo Casals (Catalan Spanish cello player/conductor)


Word of the day: flummery \FLUHM-uh-ree\
Etymology: From Welsh llymru, a soft, sour oatmeal food.
(noun)
1. A name given to various sweet dishes made with milk, eggs, flour, etc.
2. Empty compliment; unsubstantial talk or writing; mumbo jumbo; nonsense.


Mistfox - who wonders how a name for a food became a word for nonsense

Today is October 23rd. That means that Hungary observes Anniversary of Declaration of Independence, Thailand observes Chulalongkorn Day, today is the day the swallows leave San Juan Capistrano, and it's Mole Day.


2006: Former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling was sentenced by a federal judge in Houston to 24 years, four months for his role in the company's collapse.

2004: Brazil's 'Operation Cajuana' launched its first rocket into space, the VSB-30 just 14 months after its space program was devastated by a deadly launch pad accident.

2003: George W. Bush addressed a joint sitting of the houses of the Australian Parliament and was shouted down by Green Party senators Kerry Nettle and Bob Brown.

2002: Armed Chechen men and women seized a crowded Moscow theater, taking hundreds hostage and threatening to kill them unless the Russian army pulled out of Chechnya.

1996: The civil trial of O.J. Simpson opened in Santa Monica, CA.

1987: The U.S. Senate rejected the Supreme Court nomination of Robert H. Bork.

1983: Two hundred forty-one U.S. Marines and sailors in Lebanon were killed in a suicide truck bombing at the Marine Operations Center. At the same time at another peacekeeping base, a Lebanese suicide truck bombing killed 58 French paratroopers.

1978: China and Japan exchanged treaty ratification documents in Tokyo, formally ending 40 years of hostility.

1973: President Richard Nixon agreed to turn White House tape recordings requested by the Watergate special prosecutor over to Judge John J. Sirica.

1958: Belgian cartoonist Peyo introduced a new set of comic strip characters, The Smurfs.

1946: The United Nations General Assembly convened in New York for the first time, in a Flushing Meadow auditorium.

1941: Walt Disney's "Dumbo" was released.

1915: Around 25,000 women marched in New York City, demanding the right to vote.

1915: The first national horseshoe throwing championship was held in Kellerton, Iowa.

1855: Kansas Free State forces set up a competing government under their Topeka, Kansas constitution, which outlawed slavery in the United States territory.

1813: The Pacific Fur Company trading post in Astoria, Oregon was turned over to the rival British North West Company (the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest was dominated for the next three decades by the United Kingdom).

1739: The War of Jenkins' Ear started when British Prime Minister Robert Walpole, reluctantly declared war on Spain.

1707: The first Parliament of Great Britain, created by the Acts of Union between England and Scotland, held its first meeting.

1642: The Battle of Edgehill, the first major conflict of the English Civil War, took place.

42 BCE: During the Roman Republican civil wars, at the Second Battle of Philippi, Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeated Brutus’s army. He committed suicide.

4004 BCE: According to 17th century divine James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, and Dr. John Lightfoot of Cambridge, the world was created on this day, a Sunday, at 9 a.m.

Births:
1869: John William Heisman (American football coach) Revolutionized the game of college football, most memorably at Auburn, Georgia Tech, and Rice.

1925: Johnny Carson (American TV host/comedian) [The Tonight Show]

1942: Michael Crichton (American author/producer) [The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, State of Fear]

1959: "Weird Al" [Alfred Matthew] Yankovic (American musician/parodist/accordion player) ["My Bologna", "Another One Rides the Bus", "Smells Like Nirvana", "Eat It"]

Deaths:
42 BCE: Marcus Junius Brutus (Conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar)

1910: Chulalongkorn [Rama V] (King of Thailand)

1939: Zane Grey [Pearl Zane Gray] (American author) [Riders of the Purple Sage, Heritage of the Desert]


Word of the day: inimical \ih-NIM-ih-kul\
Etymology: From Late Latin inimicalis, from Latin inimicus, unfriendly, adverse, hostile, from in-, not + amicus, friendly, well wishing, favorable to, from amare, to love.
(adjective)
1. Having the disposition or temper of an enemy; unfriendly; unfavorable.
2. Opposed in tendency, influence, or effects; antagonistic; adverse.


Mistfox - who is too sleepy to figure out how to use the word "inimical" this morning

Today is October 24th. That means that Zambia observes Independence Day and it's United Nations Day.


2003: Three British Airways Concordes landed at London's Heathrow Airport for the final time, ending an era of supersonic travel across the Atlantic.

2002: Authorities arrested Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo in connection with the Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks.

1989: Reverend Jim Bakker, television evangelist, was sentenced to 45 years is prison and fined $500,000 for his conviction on 24 counts of fraud and conspiracy.

1987: The Teamsters Union was welcomed back to the AFL-CIO after being expelled 30 years earlier.

1970: Salvador Allende was elected President of Chile.

1945: The United Nations charter took effect.

1940: The 40-hour workweek went into effect in the U.S., under the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.

1939: Nylon stockings went on sale, in Wilmington, Delaware.

1931: The George Washington Bridge opened, spanning the Hudson River in New York City.

1929: Today was Black Thursday, the first day of the stock market crash, which began the Great Depression.

1908: Billy Murray hit the charts with "Take Me Out to the Ball Game".

1901: Annie Edson Taylor, a 43-year-old daredevil widow, became the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.

1882: Dr. Robert Koch discovered the germ that causes tuberculosis.

1861: West Virginia seceded from Virginia

1861: The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent by Justice Stephen J. Field of California to President Abraham Lincoln. This eventually put the Pony Express out of business.

1818: Felix Mendelssohn, age 9, performed his first public concert in Berlin.

1795: The last independent Polish territory was divided between Prussia, Austria, and Russia, and the country of Poland ceased to exist.

1648: Switzerland's independence was recognized.

1648: The Treaty of Westphalia was signed, ending the Thirty Years' War in Europe.

0439: The Roman city of Carthage, in North Africa, fell to Genseric and the Vandals.

Births:
1632: Anton van Leeuwenhoek (Dutch microscope pioneer)

1915: Bob Kane [Robert Kahn] (American comic book artist/writer) [Batman]

1930: The Big Bopper [Jiles Perry Richardson, Jr.] (American d.j/rock and roll star) ["Beggar To A King", "Chantilly Lace"]

Deaths:
0996: Hugh Capet (King of France)

1537: Jane Seymour (Third wife of England's King Henry VIII) She died 12 days after giving birth to Prince Edward (later King Edward VI).

1601: Tycho Brahe )Danish astronomer)

1948: Franz Lehar (Austro-Hungarian composer) [The Merry Widow, Land of Smiles]

1957: Christian Dior (French fashion designer)

2005: Rosa Parks (American seamstress/civil rights activist)


Word of the day: inveterate \in-VET-uhr-it\
Etymology: From the past participle of Latin inveterari, "to grow old, to endure," from in- + vetus, veter-, "old." It is related to veteran, "one who is long experienced in some activity or capacity; an old soldier of long service; one who has served in the armed forces." The noun form is inveteracy or inveterateness.
(adjective)
1. Firmly established by long persistence; deep-rooted; of long standing.
2. Fixed in habit by long persistence; confirmed; habitual.


Mistfox - who is an inveterate reader

Today is October 25th. That means that Kazakhstan observes Republic Day, Taiwan observes Retrocession Day, and the Virgin Islands observe Thanksgiving Day.


2005: Iraq's election commission declared that final results from the Oct. 15 referendum showed the new constitution was ratified by a huge margin, paving the way for elections.

2004: Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist announced that he had thyroid cancer.

2001: Microsoft Corporation released its new computer operating system to the public, Windows XP.

1983: A U.S.-led force invaded Grenada at the order of President Ronald Reagan, who said this was done to protect U.S. citizens there and restore order after a recent coup within Grenada's Communist government.

1972: The first women to become FBI agents completed training: Susan L. Roley and Joanne E. Pierce.

1971: The United Nations General Assembly voted to admit mainland China and expel Taiwan.

1965: The Rolling Stones released "Get Off of My Cloud".

1962: Author John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.

1955: Tappan sold the first microwave oven.

1944: The Japanese were defeated in the Battle of Leyte Gulf, the largest sea engagement of World War II. This loss made them increasingly dependent on using suicidal attacks of Kamikaze fighters.

1938: The Archbishop of Dubuque, Francis J. L. Beckman, denounced Swing music as "a degenerated musical system... turned loose to gnaw away at the moral fiber of young people", warning that it leads down a "primrose path to hell".

1929: Albert B. Fall, who served as secretary of the interior in President Warren G. Harding's cabinet, was found guilty of accepting a bribe while in office. It was part of the Teapot Dome Affair. He was the first Cabinet member in history to go to jail.

1922: The Dail of the Irish Free State approved the constitution of the new state, formally bringing it into being.

1870: Postcards were first used in the U.S.

1854: The "Charge of the Light Brigade" took place during the Crimean War. Lord James Cardigan led a charge of light cavalry over open terrain against well-defended Russian artillery at Balaclava.

1760: King George III succeeded his late grandfather, George II.

1415: The King of England, Henry V, led his forces to victory at the Battle of Agincourt in northern France during the Hundred Years' War.

Births:
1825: Johann Strauss II (Viennese composer) [The Blue Danube waltz]

1838: Georges Bizet (French composer) [Carmen]

1881: Pablo Picasso (Spanish-born Cubist painter/sculptor)

1941: Ann Tyler (American author) [The Accidental Tourist, Breathing Lessons]

Deaths:
1400: Geoffrey Chaucer (English author/philosopher/diplomat/poet) [The Canterbury Tales]

1993: Vincent Price (American actor) [The House of the Seven Gables, House of Wax, The Pit and the Pendulum]

1999: Payne Stewart (American golfer) Died in a plane crash in South Dakota.

2002: Richard Harris (Irish actor/singer/songwriter) [Camelot, A Man Called Horse, This Sporting Life, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone]


Word of the day: louche \LOOSH\
Etymology: From French louche, "shady, suspicious," from Old French losche, "squint-eyed," from Latin luscus, "one-eyed."
(adjective)
1. Of questionable taste or morality; disreputable or indecent; dubious; shady.


Mistfox - who has never been called "louche"

Today is October 26th. That means that Austria and Iran observe National Day, Nauru observes Angam Day, the United States observes Mule Day, and Spain observes the Exaltation of the Shellfish.


2005: The Chicago White Sox won their first World Series since 1917 by defeating the Houston Astros 1-0 in Game 4.

2002: A hostage siege by Chechen rebels at a Moscow theater ended with 129 of the 800-plus captives dead, most from a knockout gas used by Russian special forces who stormed the theater.

2001: President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.

2001: The Supreme Court building was closed for anthrax testing; traces were found in the State Department and CIA headquarters.

2000: The New York Yankees became the first team in more than a quarter century to win three straight World Series championships, beating the New York Mets in five games.

1999: Britain's House of Lords voted to end the right of hereditary peers to vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.

1994: Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin of Israel and Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali of Jordan signed a peace treaty.

1977: The experimental space shuttle Enterprise landed at Edwards Air Force Base in California.

1975: "A Chorus Line" premiered on Broadway. It later surpassed "Grease" to become the longest-running Broadway show in history.

1970: Gary Trudeau's comic strip "Doonesbury" first appeared.

1962: In the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviets suggested that their missile bases in Cuba would be dismantled under United Nations supervision, and that Cuban leader Fidel Castro would accept a pledge to accept no more offensive weapons, in return for a United States guarantee not to invade Cuba.

1958: The first New York-to-Paris passenger service was started by Pan Am, while British Overseas Airway Corporation (BOAC) inaugurated the first New York-to-London transatlantic service.

1955: The U.S. Air Force officially proclaimed that there were no such things as flying saucers.

1954: Walt Disney's first television program, "Disneyland," premiered on ABC.

1948: A killer smog settled into Donora, Pennsylvania.

1905: Sweden and Norway ended their union and Oscar II, the Norwegian king, abdicated.

1881: Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and professional killer Doc Holliday challenged the Clanton gang and the McLowerys to the legendary Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. The McLowerys and one of the Clantons were killed.

1863: Soccer rules were standardized and rugby started as a separate game.

1860: Italian unification leader Giuseppe Garibaldi proclaimed Victor Emmanuel King of Italy.

1858: Hamilton Smith patented the rotary washing machine.

1825: The Erie Canal opened in upstate New York, connecting Lake Erie and the Hudson River. It provided overland water transportation between the East Coast and the Great Lakes region.

1787: "The Federalist Papers" were published, calling for the ratification of the Constitution of the U.S.

1492: Lead pencils were first used.

Births:
1685: Domenico Scarlatti (Italian composer)

1879: Leon Trotsky (Russian Communist leader)

1911: Mahalia Jackson (American gospel singer)

1945: Pat Conroy (American author) [The Lords of Discipline, Beach Music, The Great Santini, The Prince of Tides]

1946: Pat Sajak [Patrick Sajdak] (American game show host) [Wheel of Fortune]

1947: Hillary Rodham Clinton (Senator/attorney/first lady / presidential candidate)

1962: Cary Elwes [Ivan Simon Cary Elwes] (British actor) [The Princess Bride, Hot Shots!, Robin Hood: Men in Tights , Another Country, Cradle Will Rock]

Deaths:
0899: Alfred the Great (King of England)

1764: William Hogarth (British painter)

1972: Igor Sikorsky (Russian-born American aeronautical engineer) Best known for his successful development of the helicopter.

1999: Hoyt Axton (American country music singer-songwriter/actor) [The Black Stallion, Heart Like a Wheel, Bonanza, Gremlins]



Word of the day: bravado \bruh-VAH-doh\
Etymology: Derives from Spanish bravada and French bravade, "swagger, bravery," and is related to brave, "bold, courageous," bravura, "a brilliant style or performance," and the Italian interjections bravo! and brava! used when expressing approval of male and female performers respectively.
(noun)
1. A real or pretended show of courage or boldness.


Mistfox - who was wondering if this would ever get posted because her internet connection is running reeeaaaalllly slooooowwww today

Today is October 27th. That means that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines observe Independence Day, Turkmenistan observes Independence Day, and the United States observes Navy Day.


2005: White House counsel Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court after three weeks of brutal criticism from fellow conservatives.

2004: Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox won the World Series in 4 games over the St. Louis Cardinals on a night featuring a full lunar eclipse, becoming champions again for the first time since 1918.

1994: The U.S. Justice Department announced that the U.S. prison population had topped one million.

1979: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines gained independence.

1971: The Republic of Congo changed its name to the Republic of Zaire.

1947: "You Bet Your Life," starring Groucho Marx, premiered on radio. It later became a television show.

1946: The first commercially sponsored television program aired (Geographically Speaking, sponsored by Bristol-Myers).

1938: DuPont announced its new synthetic yarn, called "nylon."

1936: Mrs. Wallis Simpson was granted a divorce from her husband, leaving her free to marry Britain's King Edward VIII.

1925: Fred Waller patented Water skis

1916: The first published reference to "jazz" appeared in Variety.

1904: The first rapid transit subway, the IRT T (Interborough Rapid Transit), opened in New York City. Today, the New York subway system is the largest in the world.

1787: The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the U.S. Constitution, was published in a New York newspaper.

1659: Two Quakers who came from England in 1656 to escape religious persecution, were executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their religious beliefs.

1492: Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba and claimed it for Spain.

Births:
1782: Niccoló Paganini (Italian violinist/composer) [24 Caprices]

1858: Theodore Roosevelt (President of the U.S.A.)

1914: Dylan Thomas (Welsh poet)

1939: John Cleese (English actor/comedian) [Fawlty Towers, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Die Another Day, A Fish Called Wanda, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

Deaths:
0939: Athelstan I (King of England)

1553: Michael Servetus (Spanish physician/theologian) Discoverer of pulmonary blood circulation, was burned for heresy in Switzerland.

1975: Rex Stout (American writer) [Fer-de-Lance, Three at Wolfe's Door, The Hand in the Glove, The President Vanishes]


Word of the day: dapple \DAP-uhl\
Etymology: Derives rom Old Norse depill, "a spot."
(noun)
1. A small contrasting spot or blotch.
2. A mottled appearance, especially of the coat of an animal (as a horse).
(transitive verb)
3. To mark with patches of a color or shade; to spot.
(intransitive verb)
4. To become dappled.
(adjective)
5. Marked with contrasting patches or spots; dappled.


Mistfox - who likes the sound of the word "dapple"

Today is October 28th. That means that the Czech Republic observes the Foundation of the Republic Anniversary and Greece observes Ohi (No) Day.


2005: Vice President Dick Cheney's top adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, resigned after he was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation. (Libby was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison. President George W. Bush commuted his sentence.)

1990: Non-Communist parties triumphed in elections in Georgia, USSR.

1965: The Gateway Arch was completed as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis, Missouri.

1965: Pope Paul VI issued a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis effectively ended as Soviet Union leader Nikita Khrushchev announced his government's intent to dismantle and remove all offensive Soviet weapons from Cuba.

1949: Helen Eugenie Moore Anderson was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, becoming the first female American ambassador.

1942: The Alaska Highway was completed.

1922: Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini marched on Rome and took over the Italian government with the assistance of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XI declared that "Mussolini is a man sent by divine providence."

1919: Congress passed the Volstead Act, or National Prohibition Act, over President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

1918: Czechoslovakia gained its independence from Austria-Hungary.

1914: George Eastman, of Eastman Kodak Company, announced the introduction of a color photographic process.

1904: St Louis police tried the new investigation method of fingerprinting.

1886: President Grover Cleveland dedicated The Statue of Liberty, a gift from France designed by sculptor Frederic Bartholdi, in New York Harbor. It was originally named Liberty Enlightening the World.

1858: Macy's Dept. store opened in NYC.

1831: English chemist and physicist Michael Faraday demonstrated the first dynamo.

1636: The college that later was known as Harvard University was founded by an act of the General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony.

969: The Byzantine siege ended 300 years of Arab rule in Antioch.

312: At the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Roman emperor Constantine the Great defeated the forces of Maxentius. Constantine converted himself and the empire to Christianity.

Births:
1467: Desiderius Erasmus [Gerrit Gerritszoon] (Dutch author/scholar)

1846: Georges August Escoffier (French culinary artist/author) [Le Guide Culinaire, Le Carnet d'Epicure]

1875: Gilbert Grosvenor (American geographer) Credited with transforming "National Geographic" into a renowned magazine.

1903: Evelyn Waugh (English novelist) [Brideshead Revisited, Love Among the Ruins]

1907: Edith Head (American costume designer)

1914: Jonas Salk (American medical researcher) Inventor of the polio vaccine.

1938: Anne Perry [Juliet Hulme] (British-born novelist) [At Some Disputed Barricade, Dark Assassin, Long Spoon Lane]

1955: William Gates (American computing entrepreneur/chairman and CEO of Microsoft Corporation)

Deaths:
1704: John Locke (English philosopher)

1818: Abigail Adams (First Lady of the U.S.)

2006: Red Auerbach (American Hall of Fame basketball coach)


Word of the day: valetudinarian \val-uh-too-din-AIR-ee-un; -tyoo-\
Etymology: Derives from Latin valetudinarius, "sickly; an invalid," from valetudo, "state of health (good or ill)," from valere, "to be strong or well."
(noun)
1. A weak or sickly person, especially one morbidly concerned with his or her health.
(adjective)
1. Sickly; weak; infirm.
2. Morbidly concerned with one's health.


Mistfox - who tries not to be valetudinarian

Today is October 29th. That means that Turkey observes Republic Day/National Day.


2006: Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, won re-election in a landslide.

2004: European Union leaders signed the EU's first constitution.

1998: South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission condemned apartheid and violence committed by the African National Congress.

1998: U.S. Senator John Glenn, age 77, went to space aboard the shuttle Discovery, 36 years after his last flight as an astronaut.

1994: The National Museum of the American Indian opened in NYC.

1969: The Internet was created when the first connection was made between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. That connection, ARPANET, was the precursor to the Internet developed by the Department of Defense.

1967: The musical "Hair" opened off-Broadway.

1966: The National Organization for Women was founded.

1964: Thieves made off with the Star of India and other gems from the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

1964: The union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was announced and the country became Tanzania.

1956: The Suez Canal Crisis began when, in response to Egypt's nationalization of the canal and barring of Israeli shipping, Israel launched an attack on Egypt and its Arab allies.

1945: The first ballpoint pen went on sale, 57 years after it was patented.

1940: Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number (158) in America's first peacetime military draft.

1929: The Great Depression began with Black Tuesday, when the New York Stock Exchange crashed, ushering in what will be a worldwide economic crisis.

1923: The Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Ataturk, was the first president.

1886: The ticker-tape parade was invented in New York City when office workers spontaneously threw ticker tape into the streets as the Statue of Liberty was dedicated.

1863: Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant founded The International Red Cross.

1787: Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" was first performed, in Prague.

1682: William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, landed at what is now Chester, Pennsylvania.

1675: Leibniz made the first use of the long s, ∫, for integral.

Births:
1947: Richard Dreyfuss (American actor) [Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Mr. Holland's Opus]

Deaths:
1618: Sir Walter Raleigh (English adventurer/writer/favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I) Beheaded for conspiracy against King James I.

1911: Joseph Pulitzer (American newspaper editor/publisher)

1971: Duane Allman (American musician) [Allman Brothers Band]

1997: Anton LaVey [Howard Stanton Levey] (Founder of the Church of Satan)


Word of the day: terminus \TUR-muh-nuhs\
Etymology: From the Latin word meaning "limit or boundary." It is related to term, "a limited period of time," and terminate, "to bring to an end."
(noun)
1. The finishing point; the end.
2. A boundary; a border; a limit.
3. A post or stone marking a boundary.
4. Either end of a railroad or other transportation line; also, the station house, town, or city at that place.


Mistfox - who hasn't gotten to the terminus of the book she's reading yet

Today is October 30th. That means that Mexico observes Los Angelitos and the United States observes Devil's Night or Mischief Night, on the eve of Halloween.


2005: The body of Rosa Parks arrived at the U.S. Capitol, where the civil rights pioneer became the first woman to lie in honor in the Rotunda.

2001: Michael Jordan returned to the National Basketball Association with the Washington Wizards after 3 1/2 years (the Wizards lost 93-91 to the New York Knicks).

1995: Quebec voted to remain within the federation of Canada by a narrow majority in a referendum.

1983: The first democratic elections in Argentina after seven years of military rule are held.

1975: Prince Juan Carlos became Spain's acting head of state after General Francisco Franco, dictator since 1936, saying he is too ill to govern.

1961: The Soviet Party Congress unanimously approved a resolution ordering the removal of Josef Stalin's body from Lenin's tomb. Nikita Khrushchev ordered the de-Stalinization of the USSR.

1945: The U.S. government ended shoe rationing.

1938: A radio play entitled "The War of the Worlds" and starring Orson Welles aired. It was a hoax portraying a Martian invasion; many people panicked, believing the portrayal to be true.

1918: The Republic of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed.

1911: P'u-Yi, emperor of China (aged five), granted a new constitution and officially ended three centuries of the Manchu dynasty.

1905: The Russian czar Nicholas II issued the October Manifesto, which granted civil liberties and elections in hopes of averting a revolution.

1900: The first U.S. auto show opened in Madison Square Garden in NYC.

1864: Helena, Montana was founded after four prospectors discover gold at "Last Chance Gulch."

1838: Oberlin Collegiate Institute in Ohio became the first U.S. college to admit female students.

1650: The Quakers (or the Society of Friends) came into existence when George Fox, the founder, told a court magistrate to '"quake and tremble at the word of God."

1534: English Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy, making King Henry VIII head of the English church: a role formerly held by the Pope

1485: King Henry VII of England established the Yeomen of the Guard.

1270: The 8th (and last) crusade was launched.

Births:
1735: John Adams (American lawyer/President of the U.S.A.).

1893: Charles Atlas [Angelo Siciliano] (Italian-American bodybuilder)

1945: Henry Winkler (American actor/director/author) [Happy Days]

Deaths:
1968: Rose Wilder Lane (American author/reporter) [The Discovery of Freedom] The first child of Laura Ingalls and Almanzo Wilder (Little House on the Prairie).

2000: Steve Allen (American comedian/TV host/author/composer) [The Tonight Show, I've Got a Secret, Meeting of Minds, "This Could Be The Start of Something Big"]


Word of the day: soi-disant \swah-dee-ZAHN\
Etymology: From the French, from soi, "oneself" + disant, "saying," present participle of dire, "to say."
(adjective)
1. Self-styled; so-called.


Mistfox - who is a soi-disant history buff

Today is October 31st. That means that Germany observes Reformationsfest; Taiwan observes Chiang Kai-shek Day; Nevada observes Admission Day; United States, Canada, United Kingdom observes Halloween or All Hallows' Eve; it's National UNICEF Day; and Samhain is observed.


2003: Mahathir bin Mohamad resigned as Prime Minister of Malaysia after 22 years in power.

1992: Vatican formally rehabilitated Galileo Galilei, who was forced by the Inquisition in 1633 to recant his assertion that the Earth orbits the Sun.

1983: Ron Grant completed a 217 day, 8,316 mile run around Australia.

1980: Reza Pahlavi, oldest son of the late shah, proclaimed himself the successor to the Peacock Throne.

1968: President Lyndon Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.

1941: Mount Rushmore National Memorial was completed after 14 years.

1938: The day after his "War of the Worlds" broadcast had panicked radio listeners, Orson Welles expressed "deep regret" but also bewilderment that anyone had thought the simulated Martian invasion was real.

1918: The Spanish flu-virus killed 21,000 in the U.S. in one week

1892: Arthur Conan Doyle published The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

1863: The Maori Wars resumed as British forces in New Zealand led by General Duncan Cameron began their Invasion of the Waikato.

1803: Congress ratified the Louisiana Purchase, adding territory, which would eventually become 13 states.

1517: Martin Luther posted the "95 Theses" on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church in Germany, starting the Protestant Reformation.

0475: Romulus Augustus was proclaimed Roman Emperor.

Births:
1795: John Keats (English poet) [Endymion, Ode on a Grecian Urn]

1860: Juliette Low (American founder of the Girl Scouts)

1887: Chiang Kai-shek (First constitutional president of the Republic of China/army general)

Deaths:
1926: Harry Houdini [Erik Weisz] (Hungarian-born American magician/escape artist)

1984: Indira Gandhi (Indian Prime Minister) Assassinated by Sikh members of her own security guard.

1987: Joseph Campbell (American professor/author/mythologist) [The Hero With a Thousand Faces, The Power of Myth]

1993: River Phoenix (American film actor) [Stand By Me, My Own Private Idaho]

1993: Federico Fellini (Italian film maker) [Amarcord, Satyricon, La Dolce Vita]


Word of the day: ensorcell \en-SOR-suhl\
Etymology: From Middle French ensorceler, alteration of Old French ensorcerer, from en-, intensive prefix + sorcier, "sorcerer."
(transitive verb)
1. To enchant; to bewitch.


Mistfox - who went out to breakfast with the dh to celebrate Halloween

Today is November 1st. That means that Algeria observes National Day/Revolution Anniversary, the Virgin Islands of the United States observe Liberty Day, Antigua and Barbuda observe Independence Day, Mexico observes the start of Dias de los Muertos or Days of the Dead, and it's World Vegan Day.


1995: Bosnia peace talks opened in Dayton, Ohio, with the leaders of Bosnia, Serbia, and Croatia taking part.

1993: The Maastricht Treaty came into effect, formally establishing the European Union. Great Britain, France, Germany, the Irish Republic, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Denmark, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands agreed to work together on economic integration, common foreign and security policies, and cooperation between police and other authorities on crime, terrorism, and immigration issues.

1989: East Germany reopened its border with Czechoslovakia and thousands of refugees to flee to the West.

1981: Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from the United Kingdom.

1969: After seven years off the top of the charts, Elvis Presley's song "Suspicious Minds," hit No. 1 on the Billboard Music charts.

1967: The first issue of "Rolling Stone" magazine was published.

1954: Algeria rebelled against French rule.

1952: During Operation Ivy, the United States successfully detonated the first hydrogen bomb, codenamed "Mike" ["m" for megaton], at Eniwetok Island in the Bikini atoll located in the Pacific Ocean.

1951: U.S. soldiers were exposed to an atomic explosion for training purposes in Desert Rock, Nevada; participation was not voluntary.

1918: The Hapsburg monarchy came to an end and two separate republics were proclaimed: the Hungarian Republic and the Austrian Republic.

1897: The first Library of Congress building opened its doors to the public; it had previously been housed in the Congressional Reading Room of the United States Capitol building.

1896: A picture showing the naked breasts of a woman appeared in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1884: The International Meridian Conference set up time zones for the world and adopted a treaty making Greenwich, England, the Prime Meridian.

1870: The U.S. Weather Bureau made its first meteorological observations, using telegraphed reports from 24 stations.

1859: The current Cape Lookout, North Carolina, lighthouse was lit for the first time. Its first-order Fresnel lens can be seen for nineteen miles.

1848: The first American medical school for women opened in Boston, the Boston Female Medical School; it eventually (1874) merged with Boston University School of Medicine.

1834: The first published reference to poker, as a Mississippi riverboat game, was made.

1765: The British Parliament enacted the Stamp Act on the 13 colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America.

1611: William Shakespeare's play "The Tempest" was first presented, in London at Whitehall Palace.

1604: William Shakespeare's play "Othello" was first presented, in London at Whitehall Palace.

1521: Ferdinand Magellan first navigated the Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, during his global circumnavigation voyage.

1512: Michelangelo's painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling was exhibited for the first time.

0079: Pompeii was buried by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius.

Births:
1871: Stephen Crane (American journalist/novelist/poet) [The Red Badge of Courage]

1957: Lyle Lovett (American singer/songwriter/actor) [Mad About You, "Cowboy Man", "All My Love Is Gone", "Ain't It Something"]

Deaths:
1979: Mamie Eisenhower (American first lady)

1999: Walter Payton (American football player)


Word of the day: haberdasher \HAB-er-dash-er\
Etymology: From Middle English haberdasshere, perhaps from Anglo-French hapertas "small wares," of unknown origin. At first "a dealer in small articles of trade".
(noun)
1. A retail dealer in men's furnishings, as shirts, ties, gloves, socks, and hats.
2. Chiefly British. A dealer in small wares and notions.


Mistfox - who is seriously thinking about more coffee this morning

Today is November 2nd. That means that in Ancient Latvia, the Dveselu Diena was held.


2006: The Rev. Ted Haggard resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals after a man said they had had sexual trysts together.

2004: President George W. Bush was elected to a second term as Republicans strengthened their grip on Congress.

2000: The first crew arrived at the International Space Station.

1988: The Morris worm, the first Internet distributed computer worm to gain significant mainstream media attention, was launched from MIT.

1983: President Ronald Reagan signed the bill designating a federal holiday (third Monday in January) in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1964: King Saud of Saudi Arabia was deposed by a family coup, and replaced by his half-brother King Faisal.

1960: A British jury acquitted Penguin Books of obscenity for publishing D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover."

1959: After being struck in the face with a puck, goalkeeper Jacques Plante returned to play wearing a protective mask for the first time in professional play.

1959: Charles Van Doren admitted to a House subcommittee that he had the questions and answers in advance of his appearances on the TV game show "Twenty-One."

1948: In a great upset, Harry S. Truman narrowly beat Republican challenger Thomas E. Dewey and surprised many, including the "Chicago Tribune" editors who had prematurely printed news of Dewey's "win".

1947: Howard Hughes proved the airworthiness of the Spruce Goose, but the aircraft never flew again. It was designed to take 700 men to war, but the war ended before the plane was completed.

1936: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

1930: Ras Tafari, King of Ethiopia, was crowned emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia.

1924: Sunday Express published the first British crossword puzzle.

1921: Margaret Sanger and Mary Ware Dennett formed the American Birth Control League.

1920: In the United States, KDKA of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania starts broadcasting as the first commercial radio station. The first broadcast was the results of the U.S. presidential election, 1920.

1914: Russia declared war on Turkey.

1903: London's "Daily Mirror" newspaper was first published.

1889: North Dakota and South Dakota became the 39th and 40th states.

1871: The "Rogues Gallery" was started, when photographs of all prisoners in Britain were first taken.

1868: New Zealand officially adopted a standard time to be observed nationally, and was perhaps the first country to do so.

1817: The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opened in Montreal, Quebec.

1721: Peter the Great, the czar of Russia, changed his title to emperor to be more in line with European thinking. He also founded the new Russian capital of St. Petersburg.

Births:
1470: Edward V (King of England)

1734: Daniel Boone (American frontiersman/explorer)

1755: Marie Antoinette (Queen of King Louis XVI of France)

1795: James Knox Polk (President of the U.S.A.)

1865: Warren G. Harding (President of the U.S.A.)

Deaths:
1950: George Bernard Shaw (Irish comic dramatist/literary critic) [Candida, Pygmalion]

1961: James Thurber (American humorist/cartoonist)


Word of the day: gamut \GAM-uht\
Etymology: From the "lowest note in the medieval musical scale," in the system of notation devised by Guido d'Arezzo, a contraction of Medieval Latin gamma ut, from gamma, the Greek letter, indicating a note below A + ut (later do), the low note on the six-note musical scale that took names from corresponding syllables in a Latin hymn for St. John the Baptist's Day. Gamut came to be used for "the whole musical scale" by 1529; the figurative sense of "entire scale or range" of anything was first recorded in 1626.
(noun)
1. A complete extent or range; as, "a face that expressed a gamut of emotions."
2. The entire scale of musical notes.


Mistfox - who seems to be running the gamut from sleepy to sleepy this morning

Today is November 3rd. That means that Panama observes National Day, Dominica observes Independence Day, Japan observes Culture Day, and the Federated States of Micronesia observe Independence Day.


2006: Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who had pleaded guilty in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation, resigned from Congress.

2004: Hamid Karzai was officially declared the winner of Afghanistan's first presidential election.

1999: Aaron McKinney was convicted of murder in the beating of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard. (McKinney and Russell Henderson are each serving life in prison for the 1998 slaying.)

1994: Susan Smith of Union, S.C., was arrested for drowning her two young sons, nine days after claiming the children had been abducted by a black man. (Smith is serving life in prison.)

1992: Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley-Braun became the first black woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

1986: A Lebanese magazine, "Ash-Shiraa," reported that the United States had been secretly selling arms to Iran in hopes of securing the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon.

1983: The Nashville Network began on cable TV.

1979: The Greensboro Massacre occurred when five members of the Communist Workers' Party, participating in an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, were shot to death in broad daylight by a group of Klansmen and neo-Nazis.

1975: Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the North Sea pipeline, the first underwater pipeline.

1969: The Public Broadcasting System debuted when a few local educational TV channels united.

1957: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2 with the dog Laika, the first living creature in space, on board.

1956: The Wizard of Oz was shown on television for the first time (the viewing audience was estimated at 45 million people).

1954: The first in the Godzilla series of films was released in Japan.

1942: The Battle of El Alamein in the North African desert ended, with British field marshal Bernard Montgomery victorious. Nine thousand German and Italian soldiers were captured and the Axis fled Africa.

1927: Turkey adopted the Roman alphabet or Latin alphabet, discontinuing the use of Arabic.

1914: Mary Phelps Jacob received the first patent for a brassiere. She marketed it under the name of Caresse Crosby.

1911: Chevrolet officially entered the automobile market to compete with the Ford Model T.

1903: With the encouragement of the United States, Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt wanted the United States to build the Panama Canal but was blocked by Colombia.

1900: The first U.S. automobile show was held at Madison Square Garden.

1883: The U.S. Supreme Court declared Native American Indians to be "dependent aliens."

1848: A greatly revised constitution, drafted by Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, severely limiting the powers of the Dutch monarchy, and strengthening the powers of the parliament and the ministers, was proclaimed (and is still in effect today).

1839: The first Opium War between China and Britain began.

1755: The colony of Massachusetts offered a bounty of 20 British pounds for the scalps of Native American boys and girls under the age of 12.

1631: The first Protestant missionary, Reverend John Eliot, arrived in Boston. He was the first to try to convert Native Americans to Christianity.

1507: Leonardo da Vinci was commissioned to paint Lisa Gherardini, the "Mona Lisa."

1493: Christopher Columbus, on his second voyage, sighted Dominica in the West Indies.

Births:
1718: John Montague(4th Earl of Sandwich) Inventor of the "sandwich" and for whom the Sandwich Islands of Hawaii are named.

1793: Stephen Austin (American founder of Texas) The capital city of Austin is named for him.

1953: Kate Capshaw (American actress) [Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Love Letter]

Deaths:
1926: Annie Oakley (American markswoman/wild west show entertainer)

1954: Henri Matisse (French painter) Leader of the Fauvist movement.

1998: Bob Kane (American comic book artist/writer) The creator of Batman.


Word of the day: politic \POL-ih-tik\
Etymology: Derives from Greek politikos, from polites, "citizen," from polis, "city."
(adjective)
1. Of or pertaining to polity, or civil government; political (as in the phrase "the body politic").
2. (Of persons): Sagacious in promoting a policy; ingenious in devising and advancing a system of management; characterized by political skill and ingenuity; hence, shrewdly tactful, cunning.
3. (Of actions or things): Pertaining to or promoting a policy; hence, judicious; expedient; as, "a politic decision."


Mistfox - who definitely could not be considered politic

Today is November 4th. That means that Italy observes Victory Day, Panama observes Flag Day, and Oklahoma observes Will Rogers Day.


2003: The largest ever solar flare was recorded.

1991: Imelda Marcos returned to the Philippines after five years of exile in the United States of America; she was to be tried on corruption and tax evasion charges.

1979: The Iranian hostage crisis began as followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini stormed the United States Embassy in Tehran; the crisis continued 444 days, with 52 people remaining hostages for that time.

1960: Filming wrapped on The Misfits, starring Marilyn Monroe and Clark Gable (this was the last film either performed in).

1956: Soviet troops invaded Hungary to crush the Hungarian revolution that started on October 23. Thousands were killed, more were wounded and nearly a quarter million left the country.

1946: UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) was established, with its headquarters in Paris.

1922: The U.S. Postmaster General ordered all homes to get mailboxes or relinquish mail delivery.

1922: British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb in Egypt.

1914: The first fashion show was held at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York City. Edna Woodman Chase of “Vogue” magazine organized it.

1899: Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams was published.

1880: James Ritty and John Ritty of Dayton, Ohio patented the first cash register.

1869: The first issue of scientific journal Nature was published.

1861: The University of Washington opened in Seattle, Washington as the Territorial University

1845: Americans observed the first national election day in accordance with Congressional legislation passed earlier in the year.

1841: The first wagon train arrived in California

1825: The first vessel to traverse the Erie Canal arrived in New York.

1677: The future Mary II of England married William, Prince of Orange. They would later be known as William and Mary.

Births:
1650: William III (King of Great Britain and Ireland)

1879: Will Rogers (American writer/actor)

1916: Walter Cronkite (American reporter/news anchor)

Deaths:
1847: Felix Mendelssohn (German composer/musical conductor)

1995: Yitzhak Rabin (Prime minister of Israel) Tried to lead his country to peace with its Arab neighbors and was assassinated.


Word of the day: sciolism \SY-uh-liz-uhm\
Etymology: From Late Latin sciolus, "a smatterer," from diminutive of Latin scius, "knowing," from scire, "to know." One who has only superficial knowledge is a sciolist.
(noun)
1. Superficial knowledge; a superficial show of learning.


Mistfox - who could be considered to have a sciolism of history

Today is November 5th. That means that the United Kingdom observes Guy Fawkes Day.


2006: Saddam Hussein was convicted and sentenced by the Iraqi High Tribunal to hang for crimes against humanity. (He was hanged the following month.)

1999: U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson declared Microsoft a monopoly.

1998: The journal Nature published a genetic study showing compelling evidence that Thomas Jefferson fathered his slave Sally Hemings' son Eston Hemings Jefferson.

1994: Former President Ronald Reagan disclosed he had Alzheimer's disease.

1935: Parker Brothers launched the game Monopoly.

1930: Sinclair Lewis was the first American awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, for "Babbit".

1914: Cyprus was annexed by Britain on the outbreak of war with Turkey; France and Great Britain declared war on Turkey.

1913: The insane king Otto of Bavaria was deposed by his cousin, Prince Regent Ludwig, who assumed the title Ludwig III.

1912: Arizona, Kansas and Wisconsin voted for female suffrage.

1911: Calbraith P. Rodgers completed the first transcontinental airplane trip; it took 49 days and flew from New York City to Pasadena, California.

1895: George B. Selden of Rochester, New York, received the first U.S. patent for an automobile.

1639: The first post office in the colonies was set up in Massachusetts.

1872: Suffragist Susan B. Anthony was fined $100 for attempting to vote in a presidential election.

1605: A plot by Guy Fawkes to blow up the English Houses of Parliament was foiled when Sir Thomas Knyvet, a justice of the peace, found Fawkes in a cellar below the Parliament building.

1556: Emperor Akbar defeated the Hindus at Panipat and secured control of the Mogul Empire.

Births:
1912: Roy Rogers [Leonard Slye] (American actor/singer) [Sons of the Pioneers, The Roy Rogers Show]

1941: Art Garfunkel (American singer/songwriter) [Simon and Garfunkel.]

Deaths:
1979: Al Capp [Alfred Gerald Caplin] (American cartoonist) ["Li'l Abner"]

1989: Vladimir Horowitz (Ukrainian-born classical pianist)

1991: Fred MacMurray (American actor) [My Three Sons, The Shaggy Dog, The Absent-Minded Professor, Double Indemnity]


Word of the day: choler \KOLL-ur; KOLE-ur\
Etymology: From Latin cholera, a bilious disease, from Greek kholera, from khole, bile.
(noun)
1. Irritation of the passions; anger; wrath.

Mistfox - who rarely has choler

Today is November 6th. That means that the Dominican Republic observes Constitution Day, Morocco observes the Anniversary of the Green March, Sweden observes Gustavus Adolphus Day, and it's Melbourne Cup day in Australia.


2005: The Evansville Tornado killed 25 in Northwestern Kentucky and Southwestern Indiana.

2004: It was the Official Guided by Voices Day in Dallas, Texas.

2001: Billionaire Republican Michael Bloomberg was elected New York City mayor.

1999: Australians voted to keep the British queen as their head of state.

1998: Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela.

1988: A virus crippled six thousand U.S. Defense Department computers. The culprit was the 23-year-old son of the head of the country's computer security agency.

1979: Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolutionary Council took power in Iran from the provisional government.

1976: King Hassan II of Morocco launched the Green March, a mass migration in which over 300,000 unarmed Moroccans marched into the newly sovereign nation of Western Sahara and settled.

1962: The United Nations condemned South Africa for its Apartheid policies. The General Assembly called on all member states to terminate economic and military relations with South Africa.

1947: "Meet the Press" premiered on TV, making it the oldest program still on television.

1945: The first jet landed on a carrier, the USS Wake Island.

1932: In general elections held in Germany, the Nazis emerged.

1928: Swedes started a tradition of eating Gustavus Adolphus pastries to commemorate the king.

1917: The Third Battle of Ypres finally ended when Canadian forces took the village of Passchendaele in Belgium. It was one of the bloodiest battles of World War I with 250,000 casualties.

1913: Mohandas K. Gandhi was arrested as he led a march of Indian miners in South Africa.

1911: Maine became a dry state.

1879: Canada celebrated its first Thanksgiving Day.

1869: The first intercollegiate football game took place, between Rutgers University and Princeton University, in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

1861: Jefferson Davis was elected to a six-year term as president of the Confederacy.

1844: The Dominican Republic gained its independence from Haiti.

1528: Shipwrecked Spanish conquistador Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca became the first known European to set foot on Texas.

1429: Henry VI was crowned King of England.

Births:
1494: Suleiman the Magnificent (Sultan of the Ottoman Empire)

1854: John Philip Sousa (American bandleader/composer)

1946: Sally Field (American actress) [The Flying Nun, Sybil, Places in the Heart, Steel Magnolias]

Deaths:
1632: Gustavus Adolphus (King of Sweden) Julian Calendar

1893: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian composer) [Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The Nutcracker]


Word of the day: patina \PAT-n-uh; puh-TEEN-uh\
Etymology: Adopted from Italian, from Latin patina, "a dish" (from the incrustation on ancient metal plates and dishes).
(noun)
1. The color or incrustation which age gives to works of art; especially, the green rust which covers ancient bronzes, coins, and medals.
2. The sheen on any surface, produced by age and use.
3. An appearance or aura produced by habit, practice, or use.
4. A superficial layer or exterior.

Mistfox - who occasionally has a patina of sophistication and gentility, but rarely

Today is November 7th. That means that Russia observes National Day/Day of Accord and Reconciliation.


2006: Democrats won control of the House and Senate, riding a wave of anger over the Iraq war and congressional scandals.

2004: The Aurora Borealis was seen in the northern sky as far south as Arizona and North Carolina following a coronal mass ejection.

2000: Republican George W. Bush president won over incumbent Democratic Vice President Al Gore in the U.S. presidential election, but the results were not finalized for more than a month because of a dispute over votes in Florida.

1991: Basketball player Magic Johnson announced he tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS, and that he was retiring.

1989: L. Douglas Wilder won the election for governor in Virginia, making him the first black governor in U.S. history. In New York, former Manhattan borough president David Dinkins, a Democrat, was elected New York City's first African-American mayor.

1973: Congress overrode President Richard Nixon's veto of the War Powers Act, which limits a chief executive's power to wage war without congressional approval.

1973: New Jersey became the first state to allow girls into little league baseball.

1967: Carl Stokes was elected the first black mayor of a major city, Cleveland, Ohio.

1965: The Pillsbury Doughboy made its first public appearance.

1950: The Hawaii Territory ratified a state constitution, though it did not join the Union until 1959.

1940: The middle section of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge between Seattle and Tacoma, the third-largest suspension bridge in the world, collapsed -- just four months after opening.

1932: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century aired on radio for the first time.

1929: New York's Museum of Modern Art opened to the public.

1917: Vladimir Lenin returned from exile and led the Bolshevik Revolution with Leon Trotsky, staging a coup d'etat of the provisional government in Russia.

1916: Republican Jeannette Rankin of Montana became the first woman elected to Congress.

1895: Canada's transcontinental railway was completed.

1893: Colorado granted women the right to vote.

1874: A cartoon by Thomas Nast in "Harper's Weekly", is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party.

1872: The U.S. cargo ship Mary Celeste set sail from N.Y. on a journey that ended when it was found mysteriously abandoned the following month.

1665: The "London Gazette," the oldest surviving journal, was first published.

1637: Anne Hutchinson, the first female religious leader in the American colonies, was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for heresy. She preached that faith alone was sufficient for salvation, and therefore that individuals had no need for the church or church law.

Births:
1867: Marie Curie [Marja Sklodowska] (Polish-French physicist)

1879: Leon Trotsky [Lev Davidovich Bronstein] (Russian Communist leader)

1918: Billy Graham (American evangelist/TV host)

Deaths:
1962: Eleanor Roosevelt (American first lady)

1980: Steve [Terence Steven] McQueen (American actor) [The Towering Inferno, Papillon, Bullitt, The Magnificent Seven]


Word of the day: fealty \FEE-uhl-tee\
Etymology: From Old French fealté, from Latin fidelitas, "fidelity," from fidelis, "faithful," from fides, "faith," from fidere, "to trust."
(noun)
1. Fidelity to one's lord; the feudal obligation by which the tenant or vassal was bound to be faithful to his lord.
2. The oath by which this obligation was assumed.
3. Fidelity; allegiance; faithfulness.

Mistfox - who is feeling kind of achy this morning, darn it

Today is November 8th. That means that today is X-Ray Discovery Day, National Young Reader's Day, and Montana Admission Day in the U.S.


2006: After years of defending his secretary of defense, President Bush announced Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation following the Democrats' triumph in congressional elections. Bush chose former CIA Director Robert Gates to succeed him.

2005: French President Jacques Chirac declared a 12-day state of emergency to halt France's worst civil unrest in nearly four decades.

1997: Chinese engineers diverted the Yangtze River to make way for the Three Gorges Dam.

1994: In Oregon, "Measure 16," which permitted euthanasia in regulated circumstances for the terminally ill, was voted in.

1971: The album "Led Zeppelin IV," which included the song "Stairway to Heaven," was released.

1965: The soap opera Days of Our Lives debuted on NBC in the United States.

1935: A dozen labor leaders come together to announce the creation of the Congress for Industrial Organization (CIO), an organization charged with pushing the cause for industrial unionism.

1933: President Franklin Roosevelt created the Civil Works Administration, to create jobs for the more than four million unemployed.

1923: Adolf Hitler made his first attempt at seizing power with a failed coup in Munich, Germany, the "Beer-Hall Putsch."

1895: William Röntgen discovered X-rays during an experiment at the University of Wurzburg.

1889: Montana became the 41st state.

1805: Meriwether Lewis and William Clark reached the Pacific coast after setting out from St. Louis over a year earlier.

1793: The Louvre opened as a museum in Paris, though only part of the collection could be viewed.

1789: Elijah Craig of Bourbon, Kentucky, was the first (in recorded history) to distill Bourbon Whiskey from corn.

1731: In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin opened the first U.S. library.

1602: The Bodleian Library at Oxford University was opened to the public.

1519: Hernando Cortes entered Tenochtitlan and Aztec ruler Moctezuma welcomed him with great pomp as would befit a returning god.

Births:
1656: Edmund Halley (British astronomer/mathematician)

1836: Milton Bradley (American manufacturer/lithographer/game maker)

1847: Bram [Abraham] Stoker (Irish author) [Dracula]

1900: Margaret Mitchell (American author) [Gone With the Wind,]

1907: Katherine Hepburn (American actress) [Morning Glory, The Philadelphia Story, Adam's Rib, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner]

Deaths:
1674: John Milton (English poet) [Paradise Lost]

1978: Norman Rockwell (American illustrator)


Word of the day: extempore \ik-STEM-puh-ree\
Etymology: From the Latin phrase ex tempore, "out of the time," therefore "immediately, at the very time the occasion arises."
(adverb)
1.Without premeditation or preparation; on the spur of the moment.
(adjective)
2. Done or performed extempore.

Mistfox - who rarely does anything extempore

Today is November 9th. That means that Cambodia observes National Day/Independence Day and Morocco observes the Wax Festival.


2004: Houston Astros pitcher Roger Clemens won his record seventh Cy Young award.

2004: The Xbox game Halo 2 was released, bringing in US $75 million from pre-orders.

1989: East Germany opened it borders to West Germany and allowed thousands of its citizens to pass freely through the Berlin Wall. The next day, East German troops began dismantling the wall, and less than a year later, East Germany and West Germany were formally reunited.

1972: Bones discovered by the Leakey family of anthropologists set human origins 1 million years earlier than previously determined.

1965: The Great Northeast Blackout took place in all of New York State, portions of seven neighboring states, and parts of eastern Canada, as they were hit by a series of power failures lasting up to 13.5 hours.

1953: Cambodia became independent from France.

1938: Bands of Nazis destroyed Jewish shops, synagogues, and beat, or arrested thousands of Jews (and killed 35) in Germany, Austria, and other Nazi-controlled areas. The attack, became known as Kristallnacht or "Crystal Night" for all the broken glass in the streets.

1925: The SS (Schutzstaffel or "Protection Squad)" was formed in Germany.

1918: Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II announced he would abdicate, then fled to the Netherlands just two days before the signing of the Armistice.

1906: U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt departed for Panama aboard the battleship Louisiana, on the first official foreign trip in history by a U.S. president.

1821: The first U.S. pharmacy college held its first classes in Philadelphia.

1799: Napoleon Bonaparte succeeded with a coup and declared himself dictator of France.

1494: Family de' Medici became rulers of Florence.

Births:
1841: Edward VII (King of England)

1934: Carl Sagan (American author/astronomer) [The Dragons of Eden, Cosmos]

1951: Lou Ferrigno [Louis Jude] (American bodybuilder and actor) [The Incredible Hulk]

Deaths:
1911: Howard Pyle (American illustrator and author) [The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood]

1953: Dylan Thomas (Welsh poet) ["Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night", "And Death Shall Have No Dominion"]

2003: Art Carney (American comedian/actor) [The Honeymooners, Harry and Tonto]

2006: Ed Bradley (American newsman) [Sixty Minutes]


Word of the day: polyglot \POL-ee-glot\
Etymology: Derives from Greek polyglottos, from poly-, "many" + glotta, "tongue, language."
(adjective)
1. Containing or made up of several languages.
2. Writing, speaking, or versed in many languages.
(noun)
3. One who speaks several languages.

Mistfox - who envies people who are polyglots

Today is November 11th. That means that Angola observes Independence Day; Australia, Canada, Bermuda, and the United Kingdom observe Remembrance Day; Belgium, France observes Armistice Day; Poland observes Independence Day; Sweden observes Saint Martin's Day; and Switzerland observes Martinmas Goose/Martinigians


2004: Mahmoud Abbas was elected chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization minutes after the death of Yasser Arafat.

2004: The New Zealand Tomb of the Unknown Warrior was dedicated at the National War Memorial, Wellington.

2000: Republicans went to court, seeking an order to block manual recounts from continuing in Florida's presidential election.

1993: A bronze sculpture was dedicated in Washington, D.C. to the 11,500 U.S. women who served in the Vietnam War.

1992: The Church of England voted to ordain women as priests.

1978: A renovated Hollywood sign was unveiled, replacing the older version that was built in 1923.

1975: Angola gained independence from Portugal.

1966: Gemini 12 launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, with astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin aboard.

1965: Rhodesia declared its independence from Britain.

1959: The first episode of "Rocky & His Friends" aired.

1952: The first video recorder was demonstrated in California, by its inventors John Mullin and Wayne Johnson.

1940: The Willys-Overland Company came out with a four-wheel drive vehicle for the U.S. Army, named "jeep" after GP, for "general purpose."

1939: Kate Smith first sang Irving Berlin's "God Bless America" on the radio.

1921: The British Legion held its first Poppy Day for wounded World War I veterans.

1921: President Warren Harding dedicated the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier (Tomb of the Unknowns) at Arlington National Cemetery.

1918: World War I (then called the Great War) came to an end with the signing of an Armistice between the Allies and Germany. In all, there were nine million soldiers dead, 21 million wounded, and seven million taken prisoner or missing in action. In addition, some six million civilians died from disease, starvation, or exposure.

1889: Washington became the 42nd state.

1864: Union General William Tecumseh Sherman began burning Atlanta, Georgia to the ground in preparation for his march south.

1790: Chrysanthemums were introduced into England from China

1675: Gottfried Leibniz demonstrated integral calculus for the first time to find the area under the y=x function.

1647: Massachusetts passed the first U.S. compulsory school attendance law.

1620: The Pilgrims on the Mayflower anchored in Provincetown Harbor of Massachusetts and drafted and signed the Mayflower Compact. The text of the Compact called for the establishment of a "Civil Body Politick" to enact "just and equal laws" for the governance of the first English colony in New England.

1215: The fourth lateran council met and adopted the doctrine of transubstantiation, meaning that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ.

Births:
1493: Paracelsus [Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim] [The "father" of toxicology] (Swiss alchemist/physician/astrologer/general occultist)

1744: Abigail Smith Adams (First Lady of the U.S.)

1821: Fyodor Dostoyevsky (Russian political revolutionary/author) [Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov]

1885: George Patton (American Army General)

1922: Kurt Vonnegut (American novelist) [Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle]

Deaths:
1880: Ned Kelly (Australian outlaw)

1917: Liliuokalani [Lydia K. Dominis] (Queen of the Hawaiian Islands)

2004: Yasser Arafat (Palestinian president)


Word of the day: mercurial \mur-KYUR-ee-uhl\
Etymology: From Latin Mercurius, "Mercury," the Roman god of commerce and messenger of the gods.
(adjective)
1. [Often capitalized] Of or pertaining to the god Mercury.
2. [Often capitalized] Of or pertaining to the planet Mercury.
3. Having the qualities of shrewdness, eloquence, or thievishness attributed to the god Mercury.
4. Changeable in temperament or mood; temperamental; volatile.
5. Of, pertaining to, or containing mercury.
6. Caused by the use of mercury.

Mistfox - who apologizes for not posting yesterday. I worked and then never got on the computer after I got home.

Today is November 12th. That means that the United States observes Veteran's Day (Monday holiday).


2004: A jury in Redwood City, CA. convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body into the San Francisco Bay.

1998: Daimler-Benz completed a merger with Chrysler to form Daimler-Chrysler.

1997: Ramzi Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

1996: Jonathan Schmitz was convicted of second-degree murder for shooting Scott Amedure, a gay man who'd revealed a crush on Schmitz during a taping of "The Jenny Jones Show."

1990: Two years after his father's death, Crown Prince Akihito was enthroned, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch.

1987: The American Medical Association issued a policy statement saying it was unethical for a doctor to refuse to treat someone solely because that person has AIDS or is HIV-positive.

1982: Yuri Andropov was elected to succeed the late Leonid Brezhnev as general secretary of the Communist Party's Central Committee and president of the Supreme Soviet.

1980: Voyager I got within 78,000 miles of Saturn.

1970: The Oregon Highway Division attempted to destroy a rotting beached Gray whale with explosives, leading to the now infamous exploding whale incident.

1954: Ellis Island closed after processing more than 20 million immigrants since opening in the New York Harbor in 1892.

1948: Former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and several other Japanese leaders were sentenced to death by a World War II crimes tribunal.

1946: A branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, Illinois opened the first ten drive-up teller windows.

1942: The Battle of Guadalcanal began in World War II, which ended up being a major victory for the United States over Japan.

1934: The musical Babes in Toyland debuted, featuring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

1933: Hugh Gray of the British Aluminium Company took the first known photos of the Loch Ness Monster. Four of them turned out to be blank, while the last one was later proven to be a hoax.

1927: The Holland Tunnel opened to traffic as the first Hudson River vehicular tunnel linking New Jersey to New York City.

1927: Josef Stalin took over the Soviet Union as Leon Trotsky was expelled from the Communist Party.

1920: Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was elected the first commissioner of Major League Baseball.

1918: A day after World War I ends, Austria and Hungary were declared independent republics, and Emperor Charles I, ruler of Austria-Hungary since 1916, was forced to abdicate.

1912: The remains of English explorer Robert Scott and his companion travelers were found in Antarctica.

1859: Jules Léotard Jules Leotard performed the first Flying Trapeze circus act in Paris. He also designed the garment that bears his name.

1799: Andrew Ellicott Douglass, an early American astronomer, reported witnessing the Leonids meteor shower from a ship off the Florida Keys -- the first meteor shower on record.

1439: Plymouth, England, became the first town incorporated by the English Parliament.

Births:
1840: Auguste Rodin (French sculptor)

1929: Grace Kelly (American actress/Princess of Monaco) [Mogambo, High Noon, Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, The Country Girl, High Society]

1934: Charles Manson (American mass murderer)

1945: Neil Young (Canadian singer-songwriter) [Buffalo Springfield; Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young]

Deaths:
1035: Canute the Great (King of England, Denmark and Norway/overlord of Schleswig and Pomerania)

1994: Wilma Rudolph (American athlete)


Word of the day: gesticulate \juh-STIK-yuh-layt\
Etymology: From Latin gesticulatus, past participle of gesticulari, "to gesticulate," from gesticulus, diminutive of gestus, "gesture, action."
(intransitive verb)
1. To make gestures or motions, especially while speaking or instead of speaking.
2. To indicate or express by gestures.

Mistfox - who got to sleep in again today