Today is July 30th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Abdon, Saint Sennen, Saint Peter Chrysologus, and Saint Ursus.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: In the U.K., the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords rejected an appeal by alleged British computer hacker Gary McKinnon against extradition to the U.S. to face charges of hacking into Pentagon and NASA computers.

2002: WNBA player Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks became the first woman to dunk in a professional game during her team's 82-73 loss to the Miami Sol.

1980: Vanuatu gained independence from Great Britain and France.

1974: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon released subpoenaed White House recordings after being ordered to do so by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1965: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid.

1956: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, signed a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress, authorizing “In God We Trust” as the U.S. national motto.

1945: A Japanese submarine torpedoed the USS Indianapolis, which had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. Only 316 out of 1,196 men survived the sinking and shark-infested waters.

1930: In Montevideo, Uruguay won the first Football World Cup.

1898: William Kellogg invented Corn Flakes.

1863: Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signed the Treaty of Box Elder, promising to stop harassing the emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah.

1729: Baltimore, Maryland was founded.

1619: In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convened for the first time.

1419: The first Defenestration of Prague occurred.

0762: Baghdad was founded.

Births:
1751: Maria Anna Mozart (Austrian musician/older sister of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)

1818: Emily Brontë (English novelist) [Wuthering Heights]

1947: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Austrian-born American actor/bodybuilder/Governor of California)

2002: Hridayendra (Prince of Nepal)

Deaths:
1683: Maria Theresa of Spain (Queen of France)

1718: William Penn (English founder of the Province of Pennsylvania)

1898: Otto von Bismarck (1st Chancellor of the German Empire)


Word of the Day: exogenous \ek-SOJ-uh-nuhs\
Etymology: From Greek exo- "outside" + -gen "relating to producing".
(adjective)
1. Originating from outside.
Usage: "The key to understanding this crisis -- the worst since the 1930s -- is to see that it was generated within the financial system itself. What we are witnessing is not the result of some exogenous shock that knocked things off balance."


Mistfox – who likes lasagna okay, but never saw what Garfield sees in it

Today is July 31st. That means that it's the feast of Saint Germanus and Saint Ignatius of Loyola.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The Governor of Massachusetts, Deval Patrick, signed legislation allowing gay and lesbian couples from other states to get married in Massachusetts.

2006: Fidel Castro handed over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro.

2003: Felix Baumgartner became the first man to cross the English Channel by unpowered flight. He jumped from a plane about 9,800-m (30,000-ft) above Dover, England and glided 36-km (22-mi) across the Channel in a 10-min flight wearing a special suit with carbon-fibre wings across his back.

1990: Nolan Ryan became the 20th major league pitcher to win 300 games as his Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 11-3.

1976: NASA released the famous Face on Mars photo taken by Viking 1.

1971: Apollo 15 astronauts became the first to ride in a lunar rover.

1964: The American space probe Ranger 7 transmitted the first close-up images of the moon's surface ever taken by a U.S. spacecraft, beginning the mapping of the surface in preparation for a future lunar landing.

1948: President Harry S. Truman helped dedicate New York International Airport (later John F. Kennedy International Airport) at Idlewild Field.

1938: Bulgaria signed a non-aggression pact with Greece and other states of Balkan Antanti (Turkey, Romania, Yugoslavia).

1930: The radio mystery program The Shadow was aired for the first time. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?

1914: The New York Stock Exchange closed due to the outbreak of World War I. (Trading didn't resume until December.)

1874: The Centennial of Chemistry in the U.S. was celebrated by chemists meeting at Northumberland, Pa. where Joseph Priestley was buried after spending the last years of his life in America. The chemists commemorated the 100th anniversary of Priestley's discovery of the element oxygen on Aug. 1, 1774, regarded as the most important link in the chain of events, which eventually led to the overthrow of the phlogistic hypothesis.

1856: Christchurch, New Zealand was chartered as a city.

1777: The U.S. Second Continental Congress passed a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States."

1703: Daniel Defoe was placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but the public pelted him with flowers.

1498: On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus became the first European to discover the island of Trinidad.

1423: The French army was defeated at Cravant on the banks of the river Yonne.

Births:
1912: Milton Friedman (American economist)

1932: Ted Cassidy (American actor) [The Addams Family, Star Trek, I Dream of Jeannie]

1962: Wesley Snipes (American actor) [Blade; Demolition Man; To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar]

1965: J. K. Rowling [Joanne Murray] (British writer) [Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]

Deaths:
1556: Ignatius Loyola (Spanish priest/founder of the Jesuits)

1875: Andrew Johnson (President of the U.S.)

1886: Franz Liszt (Hungarian composer)

1972: Paul-Henri Spaak (Prime Minister of Belgium)

2001: Francisco da Costa Gomes (President of Portugal)


Word of the Day: cacography \kuh-KOG-ruh-fee\
Etymology: From caco- "bad", from Greek kakos "bad" + -graphy "writing".
(noun)
1. Bad handwriting.
2. Incorrect spelling.
Usage: "They have taken advantage of cacography in a novel way. ... They registered more than 90 of the most probable misspellings of popular Web addresses afforded by the QWERTY keyboard, for processing by typo.net."


Mistfox - who sometimes has days filled with cacography

Today is August 1st. That means that it's the feast of Saint Alphonso Maria de' Liguori, Saint Æthelwold of Winchester, Saint Eusebius, Saint Exuperius, Saint Felix, and Saint Peter Julian Eymard.


There was no On This Day last year because I was at a piper's convention.


2008: Unemployment in the U.S. rose to 5.7 per cent, its highest rate in more than four years.

2007: The I-35W Mississippi River Bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, collapsed during the evening rush hour.

2005: King Fahd of Saudi Arabia died. His half brother, Crown Prince Abdullah, became the country's new monarch.

2001: Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore had a Ten Commandments monument installed in the judiciary building, leading to a lawsuit to have it removed and his own removal from office.

1981: MTV began broadcasting in the U.S. and aired its first video, "Video Killed The Radio Star" by the Buggles.

1968: The coronation of Hassanal Bolkiah, the 29th Sultan of Brunei was held.

1960: Dahomey (later renamed Benin) declared independence from France.

1957: The Solar Building (Bridgers and Paxton Office Building), Albuquerque NM, was the first commercial building to be heated by the sun's energy.

1941: The first Jeep was produced.

1936: 100,000 saluted Adolf Hitler on his entrance at the opening of the Berlin Olympics.

1914: Germany declared war on Russia at the opening of World War I. The Swiss Army mobilized because of World War I

1902: The U.S. bought the rights to the Panama Canal from France.

1876: Colorado was admitted as the 38th U.S. state.

1834: Slavery was abolished in the British Empire as the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 came into force.

1831: A new London Bridge opened.

1800: The Act of Union 1800 was passed which merged the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

1790: The first U.S. census was completed, showing a population of nearly 4 million people.

1619: The first African slaves arrived in Jamestown, Virginia.

1461: Edward IV was crowned king of England.

1291: The Swiss Confederation was formed with the signature of the Federal Charter.

0902: The Aghlabid army captured Taormina, the last Byzantine stronghold in Sicily.

30 BCE: Octavian (later known as Augustus) entered Alexandria, Egypt, bringing it under the control of the Roman Republic.

Births:
10 BCE: Claudius [Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, Tiberius Claudius Drusus] (Roman Emperor)

1819: Herman Melville (American writer) [Moby-Dick, Billy Budd]

1893: Alexander I (King of Greece)

Deaths:
0371: St. Eusebius of Vercelli (Italian bishop)

1137: Louis VI (King of France)

1714: Anne (Queen of Great Britain)

1919: Oscar Hammerstein (German-born inventor/cigar maker/opera impresario/theater builder) Grandfather of lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II.

2005: Fahd (King of Saudi Arabia)

2007: Tommy Makem ["The Bard of Armagh"] (Irish folk singer)


Word of the Day: stannous \STAN-uhs\
Etymology: From Late Latin stannum, tin, originally an alloy of silver and lead from earlier stagnum.
(adjective)
1. Of, relating to, or containing tin, especially with valence 2.
Usage: "Stannous fluoride (SnF2) is an antimicrobial chemical that bonds with the enamel to deters the effects of the acid and plaque buildup."


Mistfox - who didn't have too bad a day at work today, even though we had some "fun" while I was there

Today is August 2nd. That means that it's the feast of Saint Alphonsus Mary de Ligouri, Saint Auspicius, Saint Eusebius, and Saint Stephen I.


There was no On This Day last year because I was at a piper's convention.


2008: Two climbers from an international expedition perished and six members of the team went missing after an icefall on the mountain K2 in the Himalayas.

2007: Mattel recalled nearly a million Chinese-made toys from its Fisher-Price division that were found to have excessive amounts of lead.

1990: Iraq invaded Kuwait, eventually leading to conflict with coalition forces in the Gulf War.

1945: President Harry S. Truman, Soviet leader Josef Stalin and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee concluded the Potsdam conference.

1938: The first nylon-bristle toothbrush in the U.S. was described in a New York Times business report.

1937: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was passed in America, essentially rendering marijuana and all its by-products illegal.

1932: The positron (antiparticle of the electron) was discovered by Carl D. Anderson.

1880: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted officially by Parliament.

1869: Japan's samurai, farmer, artisan, merchant class system (Shinokosho) was abolished as part of the Meiji Restoration reforms.

1610: Henry Hudson sailed into what it is now known as Hudson Bay, thinking he had made it through the Northwest Passage and reached the Pacific Ocean.

338 BCE: A Macedonian army led by Philip II defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes in the Battle of Chaeronea, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece and the Aegean.

Births:
1754: Pierre-Charles L'Enfant (French-born architect/engineer)

1834: Frédéric Bartholdi [Amilcar Hasenfratz] (French sculptor) [the Statue of Liberty]

1868: Constantine I (King of Greece)

1923: Shimon Peres (Prime Minister of Israel/President of Israel)

Deaths:
1100: William II (King of England)

1589: Henry III (King of France)

1921: Enrico Caruso (Italian tenor)

1922: Alexander Graham Bell (Scottish-born inventor)

1923: Warren G. Harding (President of the U.S.)


Word of the Day: annihilate \uh-NAHY-uh-leyt\
Etymology: From an obsolete adjective meaning "reduced to nothing", originally the past participle of a verb, anihil, from Old French annihiler, from Late Latin annihilare "to reduce to nothing," from Latin ad- "to" + nihil "nothing".
(transitive verb)
1. To reduce to utter ruin or nonexistence; destroy utterly.
2. To destroy the collective existence or main body of; wipe out.
3. To annul; make void.
4. To cancel the effect of; nullify.
5. To defeat completely; vanquish.
Usage: "The heavy bombing almost annihilated the city."


Mistfox - who is going to have a hard time being productive today with the weather being so grey and icky

Today is August 3rd. That means that it's the feast of Saint Nicodemus and Saint Lydia of Thyatira.


There was no On This Day last year because I was at a piper's convention.


2008: Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority launched an investigation into safety at Qantas after three emergencies in two weeks, beginning with the explosion aboard Qantas Flight 30.

2004: The pedestal of the Statue of Liberty reopened after being closed since the September 11 attacks.

2003: Police in London, England, used the Taser electric stun gun on a suspect for the first time in that country.

1972: The U.S. Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

1958: The nuclear submarine USS Nautilus traveled beneath the Arctic ice cap.

1936: Jesse Owens won the 100 meter dash by defeating Ralph Metcalfe at Berlin Olympics.

1934: Adolf Hitler became the supreme leader of Germany by joining the offices of President and Chancellor into Führer.

1926: The first traffic lights in Britain were installed at Piccadilly Circus.

1923: Vice President Calvin Coolidge succeeded the deceased Warren G. Harding as the 30th President of the U.S.

1900: The Firestone Tire & Rubber Company was founded.

1852: America's first intercollegiate athletic event was held as Yale and Harvard met for a crew race on Lake Winnipesaukee in Center Harbor, N.H. Harvard won.

1778: The opera house La Scala opened in Milan, Italy, with a performance of Antonio Salieri's "Europa riconosciuta."

1678: Robert LaSalle built the Le Griffon, the first known ship built in America.

1527: John Rut, while at St. John’s, Newfoundland, sent the first known letter from North America.

0881: The Battle of Saucourt-en-Vimeu was fought, where Louis III of France defeated the Vikings, an event celebrated in the poem Ludwigslied.

0008: The Roman Empire general Tiberius defeated the Dalmatians on the river Bathinus.

Births:
1770: Friedrich Wilhelm III (King of Prussia)

1856: Alfred Deakin (Prime Minister of Australia)

1867: Stanley Baldwin (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1926: Tony Bennett [Anthony Dominick Benedetto] (American singer) ["Because of You", "Rags to Riches", "I Left My Heart in San Francisco"]

1941: Martha Stewart (American media personality)

Deaths:
1460: James II (King of Scotland)

1924: Joseph Conrad [Józef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski] (Polish-born writer) [The Secret Agent, Heart of Darkness, The Duel]

1964: [Mary] Flannery O'Connor (American writer) [Wise Blood, The Violent Bear It Away, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, Everything That Rises Must Converge]

2008: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russian novelist/dramatist/historian) [The Gulag Archipelago, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich]



Word of the Day: desultory \DES-uhl-tor-ee\
Etymology: From Latin desultorius, from desultor, "a leaper," from the past participle of desilire, "to leap down," from de-, "down from" + salire, "to leap."
(adjective)
1. Jumping or passing from one thing or subject to another without order or rational connection; disconnected; aimless.
2. By the way; as a digression; not connected with the subject.
3. Coming disconnectedly or occurring haphazardly; random.
4. Disappointing in performance or progress.
Usage: "The shadows on the perfect lawn were straight and angular; they were the shadows of an old man sitting in a deep wicker-chair near the low table on which the tea had been served, and of two younger men strolling to and fro, in desultory talk, in front of him."


Mistfox - who used to pronounce desultory wrong

Today is August 4th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Sithney and Saint John Vianney.


There was no On This Day last year because I was at a piper's convention.


2008: Eleven climbers from an international expedition were reported dead after ice fall took out the fixed ropes on part of the route on K2 mountain in the Himalayas.

2007: NASA's Phoenix spaceship was launched.

2007: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants tied Hank Aaron's 755 career home runs in a 3-2 loss to the Padres in San Diego.

1984: The African republic Upper Volta changed its name to Burkina Faso.

1977: U.S. President Jimmy Carter signed legislation creating the U.S. Department of Energy.

1958: The Billboard Hot 100 was founded.

1958: The first potato-flake plant was established in the U.S. at Grand Fork, North Dakota.

1944: A tip from a Dutch informer led the Gestapo to a sealed-off area in an Amsterdam warehouse where they found Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family.

1936: Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas suspended parliament and the Constitution and established the 4th of August Regime.

1922: Every telephone in North America was silent for one minute at sunset marking the time funeral services were taking place for Alexander Graham Bell.

1914: Germany invaded Belgium. In response, the U.K. declared war on Germany. The U.S. declared its neutrality.

1892: Andrew and Abby Borden were axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass. Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden's daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, though she was later acquitted.

1830: Plans for the city of Chicago were laid out.

1821: Atkinson & Alexander published the Saturday Evening Post for the first time as a weekly newspaper.

1790: A newly passed tariff act created the Revenue Cutter Service (the forerunner of the U.S. Coast Guard).

1693: Dom Perignon invented Champagne.

1578: During the Battle of Al Kasr al Kebir, the Moroccans defeated the Portuguese. King Sebastian of Portugal was defeated and killed in North Africa, leaving his elderly uncle, Cardinal Henry, as his heir. This initiated a succession crisis in Portugal.

1265: At the Battle of Evesham the army of Prince Edward (future Edward I of England) defeated the forces of rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester. De Montfort and many of his allies were killed. This is sometimes considered the end of the age of chivalry in England.

0367: Gratian, son of Roman Emperor Valentinian I, was named co-August by his father and associated to the throne at the age of eight.

Births:
1792: Percy Bysshe Shelley (English poet)

1821: Louis Vuitton [ Malletier] (French designer)

1900: Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon [Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother, The Queen "Mum"] (Queen consort of George VI of the U.K.)

1961: Barack Obama (President of the U.S.)

1971: Jeff Gordon (American race car driver)

Deaths:
1060: Henry I (King of France)

1265: Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester (French-English nobleman) After the rebellion of 1263 and 1264, de Montfort became de facto ruler of England and called the first directly elected parliament in medieval Europe. For this reason, de Montfort is regarded today as one of the progenitors of modern parliamentary democracy.

1875: Hans Christian Andersen (Danish writer) ["The Steadfast Tin Soldier", "The Snow Queen", "The Little Mermaid", "Thumbelina", "The Little Match Girl", "The Ugly Duckling"]

2001: Lorenzo Music (American actor/voice actor/ writer/television producer/musician) [Garfield, Carlton the doorman, Larry the Crash Test Dummy]


Word of the Day: perdition \per-DISH-uhn\
Etymology: From Middle English perdicion, from Old French, from Late Latin perditio, perdition-, from Latin perditus, past participle of perdere, "to lose" : per-, per- "through" + dare, "to put".
(noun)
1. A state of final spiritual ruin; loss of the soul; damnation.
2. The future state of the wicked.
3. Hell.
4. Utter destruction or ruin.
5. Obsolete. Loss.
Usage: "The road to perdition is paved with good intentions."


Mistfox - who is getting nervous about her upcoming cruise

Mistfox, sweetie, you gotta take a nice, warm bath and get rid of some of that nervous. Your word of the day has gone from the innocuous stannous to annihilate and now perdition.

Just lookin' out for you

Sharon
~finally carving out some time to visit

Today is August 5th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Abel of Reims, Saint Afra, Saint Cassian of Autun, Saint Emygdius, Saint Memmius, Saint Ormisdas, Saint Oswald of Northumbria, and Saint Sixtus II.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Rwanda formally accused senior French officials, including former Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and late President François Mitterrand, of involvement in the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and called for them to be put on trial.

2002: The coral-encrusted gun turret of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor was raised from the floor of the Atlantic.

1981: Ronald Reagan fired 11,359 striking air-traffic controllers who ignored his order for them to return to work.

1963: The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union signed a treaty in Moscow banning nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space and underwater.

1962: Nelson Mandela was jailed. He would not be released until 1990.

1962: A lunar occultation on August 5 enabled Australian radio astronomers to more precisely fix the location of the previously known radio source 3C 273, in Virgo. In 1963 this became the first member of a new class of object eventually to be called quasars or "quasi-stellar radio sources."

1957: American Bandstand, a show dedicated to the teenage "baby-boomers" by playing the songs and showing popular dances of the time, debuted on the ABC television network.

1914: In Cleveland, Ohio, the first electric traffic light was installed.

1884: The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty was laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor.

1861: In order to help pay for the war effort, the United States government levied the first income tax as part of the Revenue Act of 1861 (3% of all incomes over US $800; rescinded in 1872).

1860: Carl IV of Sweden-Norway was crowned king of Norway, in Trondheim.

1772: The First Partition of Poland began.

1695: The Scottish Parliament established a General Post Office.

1583: Sir Humphrey Gilbert established the first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland.

1305: William Wallace, who led Scottish resistance to England, was captured by the English near Glasgow and transported to London for trial and execution.

1100: Henry I was crowned King of England in Westminster Abbey.

Births:
1827: Deodoro da Fonseca (First President of Brazil)

1908: Harold Holt (Prime Minister of Australia)

1930: Neil Armstrong (American astronaut)

Deaths:
1877: Gustavus (Crown Prince of Sweden)

1901: Victoria (Princess Royal of Great Britain/German Empress)

1960: Arthur Meighen (Prime Minister of Canada)

1962: Marilyn Monroe [Norma Jeane Mortenson, Norma Jeane Baker] (American actress/singer/model) [Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, How to Marry a Millionaire, The Seven Year Itch]

2000: Sir Alec Guinness [Alec Guinness de Cuffe] (British actor) [Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Man in the White Suit, Oliver Twist, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Horse's Mouth, Star Wars]


Word of the Day: reprise \ri-PRAHYZ\ for 1; \ruh-PREEZ\ for 2, 3
Etymology: From Middle English, "act of taking back", from Old French, from feminine past participle of reprendre, "to take back", from Latin reprendere.
(noun)
1. Usually, reprises. Law. An annual deduction, duty, or payment out of a manor or estate, as an annuity or the like.
2. Music.
a. A repetition.
b. A return to the first theme or subject.
(transitive verb)
3. To repeat or resume an action; to recapitulate.
Usage: "They reprised the elaborate dance number in the third act. "


Mistfox - who has to reprise her visit to the dentist today

Today is August 6th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Agapitus, Saint Donatus, Saint Joachim, Saint Justus, Saint Pastor, Saint Xystus/Sixtus II, and Saint Walburga.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The government declared that Army scientist Bruce Ivins was solely responsible for the anthrax attacks that killed five and rattled the nation in 2001. (Ivins had committed suicide on July 29.)

1991: Tim Berners-Lee released files describing his idea for the World Wide Web. The WWW debuted as a publicly available service on the Internet.

1984: The album "Purple Rain" by the Prince was released.

1965: The album "Help!" by the Beatles was released.

1964: Prometheus, the world's oldest tree (a Great Basin Bristlecone Pine), was cut down.

1962: Jamaica became independent.

1945: Hiroshima was devastated when the U.S. B-29 Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb, “Little Boy”. Around 70,000 people were killed instantly, and some tens of thousands died in subsequent years due to burns and radiation poisoning.

1930: Judge Joseph Force Crater stepped into a taxi in New York and disappeared thereafter.

1926: Gertrude Ederle became first woman to swim across the English Channel.

1914: Serbia declared war on Germany; Austria declared war on Russia.

1890: At Auburn Prison in New York murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed by electric chair.

1806: Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor, abdicated ending the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation.

1753: Professor Georg Richmann of St. Petersburg, Moscow, was killed by his experiment with lightning one year after Benjamin Franklin's kite experiment.

1284: The Italian city of Pisa was defeated in Battle of Meloria by Genoa, ruining its naval power.

Births:
1809: Alfred Lord Tennyson (English poet)

1881: Alexander Fleming (Scottish bacteriologist)

1911: Lucille Ball (American actress) [I Love Lucy; Too Many Girls; Yours, Mine, and Ours]

1928: Andy Warhol (American artist)

1990: Jon Benet Ramsey (American beauty pageant contestant/murder victim)

Deaths:
0258: Saint Pope Sixtus II (Greek-Italian pope)

0523: Saint Pope Hormisdas (Italian pope)

1221: Saint Dominic (Spanish founder of the Dominicans)

1945: Wu (Prince of Korea)

1991: Shapour Bakhtiar (Iranian prime minister)


Word of the Day: parthenogenesis \par-thuh-noh-JEN-uh-sis\
Etymology: From New Latin: Greek parthenos, "virgin" + genesis, "origin, creation, generation," from gignesthai "to be born".
(noun)
1. A form of reproduction in which an unfertilized egg develops into a new individual, occurring commonly among insects and certain other arthropods.
2. Virgin birth.
Usage: "Gods are often portrayed as parthenogenetically born."


Mistfox - who wonders if she'll get everything done before her trip <- speed this up and this is my mind

Today is August 7th. That means that it's the feast of St. Afra, St. Albert of Trapani, Saint Cajetan of Thienna, St. Carpophorus, St. Donatus of Arezzo, and St. Peter.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Georgia launched a military offensive against South Ossetia to counter the alleged Russian invasion, starting the South Ossetia War.

1998: Al Qaeda set off bombs at the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people - including 12 Americans - and injuring more than 5,500

1978: U.S. President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency at Love Canal.

1974: Philippe Petit performed a high wire act between the twin towers of the World Trade Center 1,368 feet (417 m) in the air.

1966: Race riots occurred in Lansing, Michigan.

1964: The U.S. Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution giving U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson broad war powers to deal with North Vietnamese attacks on American forces.

1959: The U.S. launched Explorer 6, which sent back a picture of the Earth.

1944: IBM dedicated the first program-controlled calculator, the Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (known best as the Harvard Mark I).

1940: The Third Reich annexed Alsace Lorraine.

1807: Robert Fulton's North River Steam Boat (also known as the Clermont) began chugging its way up New York's Hudson River on its successful round-trip from New York City to Albany.

1794: The Whiskey Rebellion began when farmers in the Monongahela Valley of Pennsylvania rebelled against the federal tax on liquor and distilled drinks.

1782: George Washington ordered the creation of the Badge of Military Merit to honor soldiers wounded in battle. It was later renamed to the more poetic Purple Heart.

1606: The first documented performance of Macbeth, was held at the Great Hall at Hampton Court.

0936: King Otto I of Germany was crowned.

Births:
1282: Elizabeth (Princess of Rhuddlan)

1751: Wilhelmina of Prussia (Princess of Orange)

1783: Amelia (Princess of the U.K.)

1862: Victoria of Baden (Queen of Sweden)

1942: Garrison Keillor (American writer/radio host) [A Prairie Home Companion]

Deaths:
1855: Mariano Arista (President of Mexico)

2005: Peter Jennings (Canadian-born news anchor)


Word of the Day: render \REN-der\
Etymology: From Middle English rendren, from Old French rendre, "to give back", from Vulgar Latin rendere, alteration of Latin reddere (influenced by prendere, "to grasp") : red-, re-, re- "reverse of" + dare, "to give".
(transitive verb)
1. To cause to be or become; make: to render someone helpless.
2. To do; perform: to render a service.
3. To furnish; provide: to render aid.
4. To exhibit or show (obedience, attention, etc.).
5. To present for consideration, approval, payment, action, etc., as an account.
6. To return; to make (a payment in money, kind, or service) as by a tenant to a superior: knights rendering military service to the lord.
7. To pay as due (a tax, tribute, etc.).
8. To deliver formally or officially; hand down: to render a verdict.
9. To translate into another language: to render French poems into English.
10. To represent; depict, as in painting: to render a landscape.
11. To represent (a perspective view of a projected building) in drawing or painting.
12. To bring out the meaning of by performance or execution; interpret, as a part in a drama or a piece of music.
13. To give in return or requital: to render good for evil.
14. To give back; restore (often fol. by back).
15. To give up; surrender.
16. Building Trades. To cover (masonry) with a first coat of plaster.
17. To melt down; extract the impurities from by melting: to render fat.
18. To process, as for industrial use: to render livestock carcasses.
(intransitive verb)
19. To provide due reward.
20. To try out oil from fat, blubber, etc., by melting.
(noun)
21. Building Trades. A first coat of plaster for a masonry surface.
Usage: "Helmut, when he had finished rendering the pig of its lard, rendered his house with stucco, and rounded off the day by rendering Beethoven's Ninth on his ukulele."


Mistfox - who is getting the dh ready to fly off to Germany, which is why this is out late

Today is August 8th. That means that it's the feast of St. Dominic de Guzman, St. Cyriacus, St. Largus, St. Smaragdus, and St. Hormisdas.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The 2008 Summer Olympics started with the 2008 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony at the Beijing National Stadium.

2000: The Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley was raised to the surface after 136 years on the ocean floor.

1990: Iraq occupied Kuwait and the state was annexed to Iraq. This would shortly lead to the Gulf War.

1974: President Richard Nixon announced he would resign following damaging revelations in the Watergate scandal.

1973: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew branded as "damned lies" reports he had taken kickbacks from government contracts in Maryland and vowed not to resign.

1968: Richard M. Nixon was nominated for president at the Republican National Convention in Miami Beach and chose Maryland Gov. Spiro T. Agnew to be his running mate.

1949: Bhutan became independent.

1945: The United Nations Charter was signed by the U.S., which became the third nation to join.

1942: The Quit India resolution was passed by the Bombay session of the AICC, leading to the start of a civil disobedience movement across India.

1911: Public Law 62-5 set the number of representatives in the U.S. House of Representatives at 435. The law would come into effect in 1913.

1910: The U.S. Army installed the first tricycle landing gear on the Army's Wright Flyer.

1899: A.T. Marshall of Brockton, MA patented the refrigerator. It took quite a few more years for refrigerators to become common in households.

1863: Following his defeat in the Battle of Gettysburg, General Robert E. Lee sent a letter of resignation to Confederate President Jefferson Davis (which was refused upon receipt).

1815: Napoleon Bonaparte set sail for St. Helena, in the South Atlantic, to spend the remainder of his days in exile.

1793: The insurrection of Lyon occurred during the French Revolution.

1709: Father Bartolomeu de Gusmão made the first known ascent in a hot-air balloon in Portugal - indoors - as a demonstration before the Portuguese court.

1588: The Battle of Gravelines ended, ending the Spanish Armada's attempt to invade England.

1220: Estonian tribes defeated Sweden in the Battle of Lihula.

Births:
1824: Maria Alexandrovna [Marie of Hesse] (Tsarina of Russia)

1875: Artur da Silva Bernardes (President of Brazil)

1937: Dustin Hoffman (American actor) [The Graduate, Midnight Cowboy, Little Big Man, All the President's Men, Kramer vs. Kramer, Tootsie, Rain Man, Hook, Sleepers, Meet The Fockers]

1988: Beatrice of York (Princess of York/British princess)

Deaths:
1827: George Canning (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

2004: [Vina] Fay Wray (Canadian-American actress) [King Kong]


Word of the Day: mnemonic \ni-MON-ik\
Etymology: From Greek mnemonikos "of or pertaining to memory," from mnemon (gen. mnemonos) "remembering, mindful," from mnasthai "remember," from ProtoIndoEuropean base *men- "to think".
(adjective)
1. Assisting or intended to assist the memory.
2. Pertaining to mnemonics or to memory.
(noun)
3. Something intended to assist the memory, as a verse or formula.
4. Computers. A programming code that is easy to remember, as STO for “store.”
Usage: "Their conversation was a mnemonic tournament between the huge catalogs of remembered detail accumulated over their two disparate lives."


Mistfox - who needs lots of mnemonics to help her get everything ready for her trip

Today is August 9th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Firmus, Saint Rusticus, Saint Jean Vianney, Saint Nathy (David), Saint Romanus (Romanus Ostiarius), and Saint Secundianus.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russia launched a military operation to help peacekeepers stationed in the South Ossetia region under UN mandate since the early 1990s defend their position after 15 were killed during Georgian operations. He said they also were there to protect South Ossetians, many of whom held Russian citizenship. Russia's Foreign Ministry accused the Ukraine of encouraging Georgia to carry out "ethnic cleansing" in South Ossetia.

1999: The Diet of Japan enacted a law establishing the Hinomaru and Kimi Ga Yo as the official national flag and national anthem.

2004: Terry Nichols was sentenced to 161 consecutive life sentences on state murder charges in the Oklahoma City bombing.

2000: Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. announced it was recalling 6.5 million tires that had been implicated in hundreds of accidents and at least 46 deaths.

1974: As a direct result of the Watergate scandal, Richard Nixon became the first President of the U.S. to resign from office. His Vice President, Gerald Ford, became president.

1969: Members of a cult led by Charles Manson brutally murdered pregnant actress Sharon Tate (wife of Roman Polanski), coffee heiress Abigail Folger, Polish actor Wojciech Frykowski, men's hairstylist Jay Sebring, and recent high-school graduate Steven Parent.

1945: Nagasaki was devastated when the U.S. B-29 Bockscar dropped an atomic bomb, “Fat Man”. 70,000 people are killed instantly.

1944: The U.S. Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council released posters featuring Smokey Bear for the first time.

1936: Jesse Owens won his fourth gold medal at the Summer Olympic games, becoming the first American to win four medals in one Olympiad.

1910: Alva J. Fisher of Chicago, Illinois patented an electric washing machine.

1902: Edward VII was crowned king of England following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria in January, 1901.

1854: Henry David Thoreau published "Walden," which described his experiences living near Walden Pond in Massachusetts.

1842: The Webster-Ashburton Treaty was signed, establishing the U.S.-Canada border east of the Rocky Mountains.

1483: The Sistine Chapel was opened.

1173: Construction of the Tower of Pisa began, taking two centuries to complete.

48 BCE: Julius Caesar decisively defeated Pompey at Pharsalus and Pompey fled to Egypt.

Births:
1631: John Dryden (English Poet Laureate)

1669: Eudoxia Lopukhina (Tsarina of Russia)

1847: Maria Victoria al Pozzo della Cisterna (Queen of Spain)

1919: Joop den Uyl (Prime Minister of the Netherlands)

1939: Romano Prodi (Prime Minister of Italy/President of the European Commission)

1961: John Key (Prime Minister of New Zealand)

1968: Eric Bana [Banadinovic] (Australian actor) [Chopper, Black Hawk Down, Troy, Munich, The Other Boleyn Girl, Star Trek]

Deaths:
0803: Irene (Byzantine Empress)

1250: Eric IV (King of Denmark)

1919: Ruggiero Leoncavallo (Italian composer) [Pagliacci]

1969: Abigail Folger (American heiress)

1969: Jay Sebring (American hair stylist)

1969: Sharon Tate (American actress)


Word of the Day: decuman \DEK-yoo-muhn\
Etymology: From decumanus, variant of decimanus "of the tenth", from decimus "tenth", from decem "ten". The word was often applied to waves from the belief that every tenth wave is greater than the others. The word also referred to the main gate of a military camp in ancient Rome. This gate faced away from the enemy and the tenth cohort of the legion was stationed there.
(adjective)
1. Very large.
Usage: "The lover whose soul shaken is in some decuman billow of bliss."


Mistfox - whose pre-trip nerves are reaching decuman levels

. The feast of St. Firmus? For real? Wow. After reading A Duke of Her Own last night, I have to say; some firm men do deserve their own days.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!

Today is August 10th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Blane, Saint Deusdedit, Saint Lawrence, Saint Geraint of Dumnonia, and Saint Bessus.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Massive explosions at a propane facility just before 4 a.m. erupt in the Toronto, Canada community of Downsview, resulting in the evacuation of thousands of people. The explosions also caused the closure of Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, through that area of Toronto. At least 18 people are reported injured, one missing, and one firefighter has died in connection with the incident.

2006: Scotland Yard disrupted a major terrorist plot to destroy aircraft traveling from the U.K. to the U.S.. All toiletries were banned from commercial airplanes.

1995: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols were indicted for the Oklahoma City bombing. Michael Fortier pleaded guilty in a plea-bargain agreement for his testimony.

1993: Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the second female Supreme Court justice.

1990: The space probe Magellan arrived at its planned polar orbit around Venus.

1988: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, providing $20,000 payments to Japanese Americans who were either interned in or relocated by the U.S. during World War II.

1977: In Yonkers, New York, 24-year-old postal employee David Berkowitz ("Son of Sam") was arrested for a series of killings in the New York City area over the period of one year.

1969: A day after murdering Sharon Tate and four others, members of Charles Manson's cult killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca.

1949: U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act Amendment, streamlining the defense agencies of the U.S. government, and replacing the Department of War with the U.S. Department of Defense.

1944: American forces defeated the last Japanese troops on Guam.

1921: Franklin D. Roosevelt was stricken with polio at his summer home on the Canadian island of Campobello.

1920: Ottoman sultan Mehmed VI's representatives signed the Treaty of Sèvres, which divided up the Ottoman Empire between the Allies.

1904: The Battle of the Yellow Sea between the Russian and Japanese battleship fleets began.

1889: The skeleton of a thirty-six foot long and fifteen-foot high mammoth was found in St. James, Nebraska.

1885: America's first commercially operated electric streetcar began operation in Baltimore.

1846: The U.S. Congress chartered the Smithsonian Institution after scientist James Smithson gave $500,000 for such a purpose.

1821: Missouri was admitted as the 24th U.S. state.

1792: During the French Revolution, the Tuileries Palace was stormed . Louis XVI of France was arrested and taken into custody.

1270: Yekuno Amlak tool the imperial throne of Ethiopia, restoring the Solomonic dynasty to power after a 100-year interregnum.

0991: The English, led by Bryhtnoth, confronted a band of inland-raiding Vikings near Maldon in Essex. The English were defeated and the story was immortalized in a well-known poem.

Births:
1810: Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour (Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia)

1874: Herbert Clark Hoover (President of the U.S.)

1894: V. V. Giri (Fourth President of India)

1909: Leo [Clarence Leonidas] Fender (Greek-American inventor/guitar maker)

1947: Ian Anderson (Scottish singer/songwriter. musician) [Jethro Tull]

Deaths:
0258: Saint Lawrence (Roman deacon)

1945: Robert H. Goddard (American physicist/rocket scientist)

1969: Leno LaBianca (American businessman)

1969: Rosemary LaBianca (American housewife)

2008: Isaac Hayes (American singer-songwriter, actor and musician) [Shaft, South Park]


Word of the Day: moot \moot\
Etymology: From Middle English, "meeting", from Old English mot, gemot. Originally a legal term going back to the mid-16th century. It derives from the noun moot, in its sense of a hypothetical case argued as an exercise by law students. Consequently, a moot question is one that is arguable or open to debate. But in the mid-19th century people also began to look at the hypothetical side of moot as its essential meaning, and they started to use the word to mean "of no significance or relevance."
(adjective)
1. Open to discussion or debate; debatable; doubtful: a moot point.
2. Of little or no practical value or meaning; purely academic.
3. Chiefly Law. Not actual; theoretical; hypothetical.
(transitive verb)
4. To present or introduce (any point, subject, project, etc.) for discussion.
5. To reduce or remove the practical significance of; make purely theoretical or academic.
6. Archaic. To argue (a case), esp. in a mock court.
(noun)
7. An assembly of the people in early England exercising political, administrative, and judicial powers.
8. An argument or discussion, esp. of a hypothetical legal case.
9. Obsolete. A debate, argument, or discussion.
Usage: "The nominee himself chastised the White House for failing to do more to support him, but his concerns became moot when a number of Republicans announced that they, too, would oppose the nomination."


Mistfox - who wonders if Betty saw St. Largus the day before

Why no, I missed St Largus day--in so many many ways.

Today is August 11th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Attracta, Saint Fiacre, Saint Gaugericus (Géry), Saint Taurinus, Saint Tiburtius, Saint Chromatius, Saint Susanna, Saint Clare of Assisi, and Saint Philomena.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Georgian attacks left 2000 dead in South Ossetia, most of which was the civilian population of Tskhinvali. The breakaway republic of Abkhazia launched an attack on Georgian forces in the Kodori Valley, the region of Abkhazia under control of Georgians, where the parallel Tbilisi-backed "Government of the Autonomous Republic of Abkhazia in exile" was situated.

2003: NATO took over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history.

2002: US Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

1999: The last total eclipse of the millennium occurred. Because it traveled across many populated areas, it was perhaps the most-watched eclipse of all time, seen by possibly 350 million people.

1997: President Bill Clinton made the first use of the line-item veto approved by Congress, rejecting three items in spending and tax bills. (The Supreme Court later struck down the line-item veto as unconstitutional.)

1972: The last United States ground combat unit departed South Vietnam.

1965: Race riots begin in the Watts area of Los Angeles, California.

1934: The first civilian prisoners arrived at Federal prison on Alcatraz Island.

1929: Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 500 home runs in his career with a home run at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio.

1909: The liner S.S. Arapahoe was the first ship to use the S.O.S. radio distress call.

1898: American troops entered the city of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

1786: Captain Francis Light established the British colony of Penang in Malaysia

480 BCE: The Persians achieved a naval victory over the Greeks in an engagement fought near Artemisium, a promontory on the north coast of Euboea.

3114 BCE: The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Colombian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, began.

Births:
1863: Gaston Doumergue (President of the French Third Republic)

1912: Thanom Kittikachorn (Prime Minister of Thailand)

1933: Jerry Falwell (American televangelist/conservative commentator)

Deaths:
1253: Saint Clare of Assisi (Italian follower of Francis of Assisi)

1259: Möngke Khan (Great Khan of the Mongol Empire)

1596: Hamnet Shakespeare (Son of William Shakespeare)

1919: Andrew Carnegie (Scottish-born industrialist/philanthropist)

2006: Mike Douglas [Michael Delaney Dowd, Jr.] (American singer/talk show host)


Word of the Day: ort \ort\
Etymology: From Low German ort, or-, privative prefix, + etan "to eat."
(noun)
1. A scrap of food left after a meal.
Usage: "On the table in front of him was a plate, a few orts of supper nosed round by a pair of cats."


Mistfox - this will be my last On This Day until Aug. 25 - we'll be cruising around England tomorrow

Today is August 25th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Genesius of Arles, Saint Louis IX of France, and Saint Joseph Calasanz.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Israel released 199 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture to the President of the Palestinian National Authority Mahmoud Abbas as the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the area.

1997: Egon Krenz, the former East German leader, was convicted of manslaughter of those Germans attempting to escape the communist regime over the Berlin Wall.

1991: Belarus declared its independence from the Soviet Union

1975: The album "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen was released.

1950: President Harry Truman ordered the U.S. Army to seize control of the nation's railroads to avert a strike.

1944: The Allies liberated Paris.

1916: The U.S. National Park Service was created.

1898: The Turks killed 700 Greeks and 15 Englishmen in Heraklion, Greece.

1875: Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim across the English Channel, traveling from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in 22 hours.

1814: Washington, D.C. was burned and British forces destroyed the White House during the War of 1812.

1718: Hundreds of French colonists arrived in Louisiana, with some of them settling in present-day New Orleans.

1609: Galileo Galilei demonstrated his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers.

1537: The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, was formed.

1258: Regent George Mouzalon and his brothers were killed during a coup headed by the aristocratic faction, paving the way for its leader, Michael VIII Palaiologos, to ultimately usurp the throne of the Empire of Nicaea.

Births:
1530: Ivan IV (Tsar of Russia)

1836: [Francis] Bret Harte (American writer) ["The Outcasts of Poker Flat", "The Luck of Roaring Camp"]

1921: Monty Hall [Monte Halperin] (Canadian-born game show host/producer/actor/singer/sportscaster) [Let's Make a Deal]

1930: [Thomas] Sean Connery (Scottish actor) [Dr. No, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, The Rock, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]

1949: Gene Simmons [Chaim Witz] (Israeli-born musician) [Kiss]

1954: Elvis Costello [Declan Patrick MacManus] (English musician) ["Less Than Zero," "Pump It Up," "Oliver's Army"]

1958: Tim Burton (American film director) [Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas]

Deaths:
1282: Thomas Cantilupe (English saint/prelate)

1776: David Hume (Scottish philosopher/historian) [History of England]

1967: Stanley Bruce (Prime Minister of Australia)

1984: Truman Capote [Truman Streckfus Persons] (American author) [Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood]

2006: Noor Mohamed Hassanali (President of Trinidad & Tobago)


Word of the Day: baroque \buh-ROHK\ Fr. \ba-RAWK\
Etymology: From French barroco, from Portuguese barroca "irregularly shaped pearl", probably conflated with Middle Latin baroco invented word for a kind of obfuscating syllogism. May also be from Italian painter Federigo Barocci.
(adjective)
1. (often initial capital letter) Of or pertaining to a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17th century and variously prevalent in Europe and the New World for a century and a half, characterized by free and sculptural use of the classical orders and ornament, by forms in elevation and plan suggesting movement, and by dramatic effect in which architecture, painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts often worked to combined effect.
2. (sometimes initial capital letter) Of or pertaining to the musical period following the Renaissance, extending roughly from 1600 to 1750.
3. Extravagantly ornate, florid, and convoluted in character or style.
4. Irregular in shape: baroque pearls.
(noun)
5. (often initial capital letter) The baroque style or period.
6. Anything extravagantly ornamented, esp. something so ornate as to be in bad taste.
7. An irregularly shaped pearl.
Usage: "The baroque prose of the novel's more lurid passages was often confusing."


Mistfox - who had to remember how she usually puts this together after being gone for 2 weeks

Today is August 26th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Adrian of Nicomedia, Saint Alexander of Bergamo, Saint David Lewis, Saint Ninian, Saint Simplicius, Saint Constantius, Saint Victorinus, and Saint Zephyrinus.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Russia unilaterally recognized the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

2003: The Columbia Accident Investigation Board released its final reports on the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster. Investigators concluded that NASA's overconfident management and inattention to safety doomed the space shuttle Columbia as much as damage to the craft did.

1978: Sigmund Jähn became the first German cosmonaut on board the Soyuz 31 spacecraft.

1971: The U.S. Congress declared August 26th as an annual Women's Equality Day.

1970: The new feminist movement, led by Betty Friedan, led a nation-wide Women's Strike for Equality.

1957: The USSR announced the successful test of an ICBM – a "super long distance intercontinental multistage ballistic rocket ... a few days ago," according to the Soviet news agency, ITAR-TASS.

1939: Major league baseball was televised for the first time when experimental station W2XBS broadcast a doubleheader between the visiting Cincinnati Reds and the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field, in Brooklyn, New York.

1920: The 19th amendment to U.S. Constitution took effect, giving women the right to vote.

1909: Swiss paleontologist Otto Hauser discovered an almost perfectly preserved Cro-Magnon man skeleton.

1858: The first news dispatch by telegraph was sent.

1847: Liberia was proclaimed an independent republic.

1843: The first U.S. design of a typewriter that successfully typed was issued a patent. The patent was issued to Charles Thurber of Norwich, Conn. for a "machine for printing by hand by pressing upon keys which contain the type, called 'Thurber's Patent Printer.'"

1768: The HM Bark Endeavour expedition under Captain James Cook set sail from England.

1466: A conspiracy against Piero di Cosimo de' Medici in Florence, led by Luca Pitti, was discovered.

1346: The cannon, firing a round ball carved from rock, was first used in battle in France. Edward III of England reportedly used 22 cannon during the defeat of Philip VI of France at Crécy. The earliest cannons, having no more power than the trebuchet, could not bring down the walls by themselves.

1303: Ala ud din Khilji captured Chittorgarh in the Rajasthan state of western India..

Births:
1740: Joseph-Michel Montgolfier (French inventor) Co-inventor of the montgolfière style hot air balloon.

1743: Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier [The father of modern chemistry] (French chemist)

1819: Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Prince Consort of the U.K.)

1875: John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (Scottish novelist/Governor General of Canada) [The Thirty-Nine Steps]

1897: Yoon Boseon (President of South Korea)

1910: Mother Teresa [Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu ] (Macedonian-Indian Roman Catholic missionary)

Deaths:
1850: Louis-Philippe (King of France)

1974: Charles Lindbergh (American aviator)

1986: Ted Knight [Tadeusz Wladyslaw Konopka] (American actor) [The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Too Close for Comfort, Caddyshack]


Word of the Day: candid \KAN-did\
Etymology: From Latin candidus, "glowing, white, pure, guileless", from candere, "to shine".
(adjective)
1. Frank; outspoken; open and sincere: a candid critic.
2. Free from reservation, disguise, or subterfuge; straightforward: a candid opinion.
3. Informal; unposed: a candid photo.
4. Honest; impartial: a candid mind.
5. Archaic. White.
6. Archaic. Clear; pure.
(noun)
7. An unposed photograph.
Usage: "Candice, I wish you wouldn't be so candid when discussing our age!"


Mistfox - who has to actually go back to work tonight, sigh

Today is August 27th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Joseph Calasanctius, Saint Monica of Hippo, Saint Caesarius of Arles, Saint Rufus, Saint Carpophorus, and Saint Margaret the Barefooted.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Thousands of protesters stormed the Thai Prime Minister's office and other government buildings, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej.

2003: Mars made its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing 34,646,418 miles (55,758,005 km) distant.

2003: A granite monument of the Ten Commandments that became a lightning rod in a legal storm over church and state was wheeled from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building in Montgomery.

1993: The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, was completed.

1991: The European Community recognized the independence of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

1962: The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission was launched to Venus by NASA.

1956: Calder Hall, England became the world's first commercial nuclear power station supplying electricity to the national electricity grid, in preparation for the official opening on Oct. 17, 1956 by Queen Elizabeth II.

1952: West Germany and Israel concluded reparation negotiations in Luxembourg. West Germany agreed to pay 3 billion Deutsch Marks.

1928: The Kellogg-Briand Pact outlawing war was signed by the first fifteen nations to do so. Ultimately sixty-one nations would sign it.

1883: The island volcano Krakatoa erupted; the resulting tidal waves claimed some 36,000 lives on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra.

1859: Petroleum was discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well.

1789: The French National Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming that "men are born and remain free and equal in rights".

1776: In what is now Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington at the Battle of Long Island.

1172: Henry the Young King and Margaret of France were formally married and crowned as junior king and queen of England.

0410: The sacking of Rome by the Visigoths ended after three days.

Births:
1487: Anna of Brandenburg (Queen of Denmark)

1669: Anne Marie of Orléans (Queen of Italy)

1899: C. S. Forester [Cecil Louis Troughton Smith] (British author) [A Ship of the Line, Flying Colours, The African Queen, Captain Horatio Hornblower]

1904: Norah Lofts [Peter Curtis, Juliet Astley] (British author) [Silver Nutmeg, The Lute Player, Queen in Waiting, Pargeters]

1908: Lyndon B. Johnson (President of the United States)

1942: Daryl Dragon (American keyboardist) [Captain & Tennille]

1966: Juhan Parts (Prime Minister of Estonia)

Deaths:
0542: Saint Caesarius (Bishop of Arles)

1574: Bartolomeo Eustachi (Italian physician/anatomist) His name was given to the Eustachian tube.

1964: Gracie Allen (American actress/comedienne)

1975: Haile Selassie I (Emperor of Ethiopia)



Word of the Day: felicity \fi-LIS-i-tee\
Etymology: From Middle English felicite, from Old French felicite, from Latin felicitatem "happiness," from felix "happy, fortunate".
(noun)
1. The state of being happy, esp. in a high degree; bliss: marital felicity.
2. An instance of this.
3. A source of happiness.
4. A skillful faculty: felicity of expression.
5. An instance or display of this: the many felicities of the poem.
6. Archaic. Good fortune.
Usage: "In places the writing may lack clarity and felicity of expression."


Mistfox - who turned out not to be on last night's schedule, but worked anyway

Today is August 28th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Augustine of Hippo.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Illinois Senator Barack Obama accepted the nomination of the Democratic Party at the INVESCO Field at Mile High in Denver, Colorado, becoming the first African American to be nominated by a major party for election as President of the U.S.

2003: An electricity blackout cut off power to around 500,000 people living in southeast England and brought 60% of London's underground rail network to a halt.

2002: Prosecutors indicted WorldCom executives Scott Sulivan and Buford Yates Jr. in connection with the company's collapse. Both later pleaded guilty to criminal fraud.

1991: Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1990: An F5 tornado hit Plainfield, Illinois, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 28 people.

1964: The Philadelphia race riot began.

1963: The longest floating pontoon bridge in the world (The Evergreen Point Floating Bridge) opened, connecting Seattle and Bellevue.

1943: In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation was started.

1917: Ten suffragists were arrested when picketing the White House.

1879: the British captured Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus.

1859: A geomagnetic storm caused the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it was seen clearly over parts of the U.S., Europe, and even as far away as Japan.

1640: King Charles I's English army lost to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn during the "Second Bishop's War".

1609: English sea explorer Henry Hudson and his ship, the Half Moon, reached present-day Delaware Bay.

0475: The Roman general Orestes forced western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna.

Births:
1582: Taichang (Emperor of the Ming dynasty of China)

1774: Elizabeth Ann Seton (American-born Catholic saint)

1925: Donald O'Connor (American singer/dancer/actor) [Singin’ in the Rain, Mister Big, Francis]

1999: Nikolai (Prince of Denmark)

Deaths:
0430: Augustine of Hippo (North African saint/theologian)

1903: Frederick Law Olmsted (American landscape architect) [Central Park, Prospect Park, Biltmore Estate]


Word of the Day: stalwart \STAWL-wert\
Etymology: From Middle English, alteration of stalworth, from Old English staelwierthe, "serviceable", probably alteration of statholwierthe, "steadfast", from stathol, "foundation" + wierðe "good, excellent, worthy"
(adjective)
1. Strongly and stoutly built; sturdy and robust.
2. Strong and brave; valiant: a stalwart knight.
3. Firm, steadfast, or uncompromising: a stalwart supporter of the U.N.
(noun)
4. A physically stalwart person.
5. A steadfast or uncompromising partisan.
Usage: "They counted on the party stalwarts for support in the off-year campaigns. "


Mistfox - who needs to get off her lazy a** and go out walking this morning

Today is August 29th. That means that it's the feast commemorating the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: John McCain picked Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his vice-presidential running mate for the Republican nomination for the U.S. presidential election.

2003: Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, was assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they left a mosque in Najaf.

1965: Gemini 5, carrying astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles "Pete" Conrad, splashed down in the Atlantic after eight days in space.

1958: The U.S. Air Force Academy opened in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

1944: American troops marched down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continued to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.

1943: German-occupied Denmark scuttled most of its navy. Germany dissolved the Danish government.

1930: The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St. Kilda island were voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.

1871: Emperor Meiji ordered the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration.

1866: A public demonstration was given of the first cog railway in the world to show the first half-mile of track at the base of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast U.S. The Mount Washington Cog Railway eventually ran to the summit of Mount Washington, N.H.

1833: The United Kingdom legislated the abolition of slavery in its empire.

1825: Portugal recognized the Independence of Brazil.

1655: Warsaw fell without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.

1521: The Ottoman Turks captured Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.

0708: Copper coins were minted in Japan for the first time.

Births:
1809: Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (American physician/poet/essayist) Coined the term "anesthesia". Was the father of the Supreme Court judge of the same name.

1811: Henry Bergh (Founder of American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)

1922: Mr. Blackwell [Richard Sylvan Selzer] (American fashion critic/journalist/television personality/artist/fashion designer)

1952: Karen Hesse (American author) [Out of the Dust, Letters From Rifka, Brooklyn Bridge]

Deaths:
1769: Edmund Hoyle (English author/teacher) [A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist, Mr. Hoyle's Games Complete]

1877: Brigham Young (American religious leader/western settler)

1904: Murad V (Ottoman Sultan)

1946: Adolphus Busch III (American brewing magnate/President and CEO of the Anheuser-Busch Company)

2003: Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim (Iraqi political leader)


Word of the Day: retort \ri-TAWRT\
Etymology: From Latin retortus, past participle of retorquere "turn back," from re- "back" + torquere "to twist".
(transitive verb)
1. To reply to, usually in a sharp or retaliatory way; reply in kind to.
2. To return (an accusation, epithet, etc.) upon the person uttering it.
3. To answer (an argument or the like) by another to the contrary.
(noun)
4. A severe, incisive, or witty reply, esp. one that counters a first speaker's statement, argument, etc.
5. The act of retorting.
Usage: "It brought a sharp retort from the teacher."


Mistfox - who got most of this done in the morning, but not quite enough to get off before she had to go to work, because her body clock's still messed up and she's waking up way too early

Today is August 30th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Felix and Saint Adauctus.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: New Orleans residents started evacuating the city as Hurricane Gustav was expected to make landfall west of the city.

2005: A day after Hurricane Katrina hit, floodwaters covered 80 percent of New Orleans, looting continued to spread and rescuers in helicopters and boats picked up hundreds of stranded people.

1993: "The Late Show with David Letterman" premiered on CBS.

1983: Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black American astronaut to travel in space, aboard the third flight of the shuttle Challenger.

1967: Thurgood Marshall was confirmed as the first African American Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1965: The album "Highway 61 Revisited" by Bob Dylan was released.

1963: The "Hot Line" communications link between the White House, Washington D.C. and the Kremlin, Moscow, went into operation to provide a direct two-way communications channel between the American and Soviet governments in the event of an international crisis.

1956: The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened.

1945: Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrived in Japan and set up Allied occupation headquarters.

1896: Eight provinces in the Philippines were declared to be under martial law by the Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco. The provinces of Batangas, Rizal, Cavite, Nueva Ecija were included, as well as nearby areas.

1862: Union forces were defeated in Second Battle of Bull Run.

1831: Michael Faraday demonstrated the first electrical transformer.

1800: Gabriel Prosser led a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia

1590: Tokugawa Ieyasu entered Edo Castle.

1363: The forces of two Chinese rebel leaders, Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang, were pitted against each other in what is one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.

Births:
1797: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (English writer) [Frankenstein]

1918: Ted [Theodore Samuel] Williams [The Kid, the Splendid Splinter, Teddy Ballgame, and The Thumper] (American baseball player)

1930: Warren Buffett (American entrepreneur/philanthropist]

1954: Alexander Lukashenko (President of Belarus)

Deaths:
1483: Louis XI (King of France)

1723: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (Dutch tradesman/scientist) ["the Father of Microbiology"]

1938: Max Factor [Maximilian Factorowitz] (Polish-American make-up artist/cosmetic manufacturer)

2003: Charles Bronson (American actor) [Once Upon a Time in the West, The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen, The Great Escape, The Evil That Men Do, Death Wish]


Word of the Day: interlocutor \in-ter-LOK-yuh-ter\
Etymology: From Latin interlocutus, variant of interloqui "interrupt," from inter- "between" and loqui "speak."
(noun)
1. Someone who takes part in a conversation, often formally or officially.
2. The performer in a minstrel show who is placed midway between the end men and engages in banter with them.
Usage: "Judge Richard Posner, of the appellate court in Chicago, has been the interlocutor for the contentious negotiations, which were raw with distrust on both sides, the sources said."


Mistfox - who is going to have a lazy Sunday, but will hopefully get more pictures up

Today is August 31st. That means that it's the feast of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne, Saint Abundius, and Saint Raymond Nonnatus.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Heavy rains in central Japan caused flooding in Okazaki city forcing evacuation of thousands of people.

2006: Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream was recovered from a raid by Norwegian police.

1997: Diana, Princess of Wales and her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul died as a result of a car crash in Paris.

1993: A skin test for Alzheimer's disease was announced from research led by Dr Daniel L. Alkon at the National Institutes of Health.

1991: Kyrgyzstan declared its independence from the Soviet Union.

1985: California's "Night Stalker" killer Richard Ramirez was captured by residents of an East Los Angeles neighborhood.

1957: The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gained its independence from the United Kingdom.

1955: The first solar-powered car was publicly demonstrated.

1948: Actor Robert Mitchum was arrested in a Hollywood drug raid. He would later be found guilty of criminal conspiracy to possess marijuana and was sentenced to 60 days in prison.

1939: Nazi Germany mounted a staged attack on Gleiwitz radio station, giving them an excuse to attack Poland the following day, starting World War II in Europe.

1909: Nobelist Paul Ehrlich began the first chemotherapy (a term he coined).

1888: Mary Ann Nichols was murdered. She is the first of Jack the Ripper's known victims.

1864: During the American Civil War, Union forces led by General William T. Sherman launched an assault on Atlanta, Georgia.

1842: The first U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was authorized by act of Congress.

Births:
0012: Gaius Caligula [Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus] (Roman Emperor)

1786: Michel-Eugène Chevreul (French chemist) He began the study of the chemistry of fats. He discovered fatty acids and named margarine.

1880: Wilhelmina I (Queen of the Netherlands)

1924: Buddy Hackett [Leonard Hacker] (American actor/comedian) [The Music Man, The Love Bug, The Little Mermaid, Paulie]

1945: Itzhak Perlman (Israeli violinist)

1949: Richard Gere (American actor) [American Gigolo, An Officer and a Gentleman, Pretty Woman, Primal Fear, Chicago]

Deaths:
0651: Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne (Irish bishop/missionary)

0683: Pacal II (Ruler of the Maya polity of Palenque)

1422: Henry V (King of England)

1974: Norman Kirk (New Zealand prime minister)


Word of the Day: diktat \dik-TAHT\
Etymology: From German, from Latin dictatum, neuter past participle of dictare, "to dictate." It is related to dictator.
(noun)
1. A harsh settlement unilaterally imposed on a defeated party.
2. An authoritative decree or order.
Usage: "Other important figures in the game said the problems would be better dealt with voluntarily than by diktat."


Mistfox - who can't believe it's the end of August already

Today is September 1st. That means that it's the feast of Saint Giles.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: U.S. Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin's 17 year old daughter Bristol was revealed to be five months pregnant.

2004: More than 1,100 people were taken hostage by heavily armed Chechen militants at a school in Beslan in southern Russia; more than 330 people, most of them children, were killed during the three-day ordeal.

1982: Canada adopted a Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms as part of its Constitution.

1969: A revolution in Libya brought Muammar al-Gaddafi to power, which was later transferred to the People's Committees.

1962: Channel Television launched to 54,000 households in the Channel Islands.

1939: Nazi Germany invaded Poland, beginning World War II in Europe.

1914: The last passenger pigeon, a female named Martha, died in captivity in the Cincinnati Zoo.

1905: Alberta and Saskatchewan became the eighth and ninth provinces of Canada.

1897: The Boston subway opened, becoming the first underground rapid transit system in North America.

1887: Emile Berliner filed for a patent for his invention of the lateral-cut, flat-disk gramophone (record player).

1865: Joseph Lister performed the first antiseptic surgery.

1836: Narcissa Whitman, one of the first English-speaking white women to settle west of the Rocky Mountains, arrived at Walla Walla, Washington.

1807: Former U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr was acquitted of treason.

1752: The Liberty Bell arrived in Philadelphia.

1644: The Marquess of Montrose defeated Elcho's Covenanters, reviving the Royalist cause at the Battle of Tippermuir.

Births:
1286: Elisabeth Richeza of Poland (Queen of Poland)

1818: José María Castro Madriz (First President of Costa Rica/founder of the republic)

1875: Edgar Rice Burroughs (American writer) [Tarzan of the Apes, A Princess of Mars, At the Earth's Core, The Outlaw of Torn, The Land That Time Forgot]

1906: Eleanor Burford Hibertt [Jean Plaidy, Victoria Holt, Philippa Carr, Eleanor Burford, Elbur Ford, Kathleen Kellow, Anne Percival, Ellalice Tate] (British author) [Royal Road to Fotheringhay, Madame du Barry, The Scarlet Cloak, Murder Most Royal, The Reluctant Queen, Devil on Horseback, Silk Vendetta, The Black Swan]

1933: Conway Twitty [Harold Lloyd Jenkins] (American singer) ["It's Only Make Believe", "Lonely Blue Boy", "Hello Darlin'", "You've Never Been This Far Before", "Don't Call Him a Cowboy"]

Deaths:
1715: Louis XIV (King of France)

1838: William Clark (American explorer) Part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

2008: Jerry Reed [Hubbard] (American musician/actor) ["Guitar Man"; "Amos Moses"; "When You're Hot, You're Hot"; "East Bound and Down", "Pretty Mary Sunlite"]


Word of the Day: wildcatter \WYLD-kat-uhr\
Etymology: Before currency was centrally issued in the U.S., each bank printed its own currency notes. Often these notes were not backed by capital and were risky. It's said that the notes by one of those banks featured a drawing of a wildcat. From there the term wildcat took the sense of anything risky, rash, or unreliable. It's now used in many senses allusively, such as a wildcat well: an exploratory oil well in an area not known to be productive; a wildcat strike: a rash strike not sanctioned by a union official.
(noun)
1. One who drills for oil speculatively.
2. One who promotes an unsafe or fraudulent enterprise.
3. A worker who takes part in a wildcat strike: a sudden strike not authorized by the labor union.
Usage: "The legendary wildcatter and corporate raider T. Boone Pickens has decided that drilling for more oil is not the answer to America's energy problems."


Mistfox - who is getting this out late because the dh flew out on a business trip this morning