Today is October 15th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Teresa of Avila.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Hurricane Omar strengthened to a Category 3 hurricane as it neared the U. S. and U. S. Virgin Islands.

2003: China launched Shenzhou 5, its first manned space mission.

1997: The first supersonic land speed record was set by Andy Green in ThrustSSC (U. K.), exactly 50 years and 1 day after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Earth's atmosphere.

1987: The Great Storm of 1987 hit France and England. It was responsible for the deaths of at least 22 people in England and France combined.

1965: The National Coordinating Committee to End the War in Vietnam staged the first public burning of a draft card in the U. S. to result in arrest under a new law.

1964: It was announced that Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev had been removed from office. Leonid I. Brezhnev succeeded him as premier by Alexei N. Kosygin and as Communist Party secretary.

1951: The situation comedy "I Love Lucy" premiered on CBS.

1946: Hermann Göring poisoned himself the night before his execution.

1938: The District of Columbia formally adopted a design for its flag.

1917: At Vincennes outside of Paris, Dutch dancer Mata Hari was executed by firing squad for spying for the German Empire.

1878: The Edison Electric Light Company began operation.

1860: Eleven-year-old Grace Bedell of Westfield, N.Y., wrote a letter to presidential candidate Abraham Lincoln, suggesting he could improve his appearance by growing a beard.

1815: Napoleon I of France began his exile on Saint Helena in the Atlantic Ocean.

1764: Edward Gibbon observed a group of friars singing in the ruined Temple of Jupiter in Rome, which inspired him to begin work on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

0533: Byzantine general Belisarius made his formal entry into Carthage, having conquered it from the Vandals.

Births:
70 BCE: Virgil [Publius Vergilius Maro] (Roman poet) [the Eclogues (or Bucolics), the Georgics, the Aeneid]

1701: Saint Marie-Marguerite d'Youville (French Canadian nun) Founded the Order of Sisters of Charity of Montreal and was the first native Canadian canonized.

1711: Elisabeth Teresa of Lorraine (Queen of Sardinia)

1825: Marie (Queen of Prussia)

1920: Mario Puzo (American novelist) [The Godfather ]

1931: Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam (President of India)

1959: Sarah Ferguson (British personality/Duchess of York)

Deaths:
0912: Abdullah ibn Muhammad (Emir of Córdoba)

1730: Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (French explorer)

1917: Mata Hari [Margaretha Geertruida "Grietje" Zelle] (Dutch dancer/spy)

1946: Hermann Göring (German air force commander)

1964: Cole Porter (American composer) [Kiss Me, Kate, Fifty Million Frenchmen, Anything Goes, "Night and Day", "I Get a Kick out of You", "I've Got You Under My Skin"]


Word of the Day: fetor \FEE-tuhr; FEE-tor\
Etymology: From Latin foetor, from foetere, "to stink."
(noun)
1. A strong, offensive smell; stench.
Usage: "Inside it's pitch black & the air is hot & wet with the sweet fetor of rotting grass."


Mistfox - who is getting her furnace inspected today so she won't have to experience the fetor of gas

Today is October 16th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Gerard Majella, Saint Hedwig, Saint Fortunatus of Casei, and Saint Silvanus of Ahun.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: A second bomb blast hit a gas pipeline in northern British Columbia near the town of Dawson Creek.

1995: A vast throng of black men gathered in Washington for the "Million Man March" led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

1987: Hurricane force winds hit much of the South of England killing 23 people.

1982: Halley's Comet was observed on its 30th recorded visit to Earth, first detected using the 5-m (200-in) Hale Telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory.

1978: the Roman Catholic Church’s College of Cardinals elected Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla pope. He took the name John Paul II.

1970: In response to the October Crisis terrorist kidnapping, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada invoked the War Measures Act.

1968: U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were kicked off the U.S.A.'s team for participating in the 1968 Olympics Black Power salute.

1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis between the U.S. and Cuba began.

1949: Nikolaos Zachariadis, leader of the Communist Party of Greece, announced a "temporary cease-fire", effectively ending the Greek Civil War.

1934: Chinese Communists began the Long March. It ended a year and four days later, by which time Mao Zedong had regained his title as party chairman.

1916: Margaret Sanger founded Planned Parenthood by opening the first U.S. birth control clinic.

1908: Samuel Cody, an American, who built his own machines and by trial and error took to the air at Farnborough, made the first aeroplane flight in England.

1859: Abolitionist John Brown, hoping to start an anti-slavery rebellion, led 21 men in a raid on a federal armory at Harpers Ferry in present-day West Virginia. (The raid was put down and Brown was executed for treason.)

1846: American dentist, Dr William Thomas Green Morton made the first public demonstration of the administration of ether anesthetic.

1793: Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI, was guillotined at the height of the French Revolution.

1781: George Washington captured Yorktown, Virginia after the Siege of Yorktown.

Births:
1751: Frederika Louisa of Hesse-Darmstadt (Queen of Prussia)

1758: Noah Webster (American lexicographer)

1854: Oscar Wilde (Irish playwright/poet/author) [The Importance of Being Earnest, The Picture of Dorian Gray]

1886: David Ben-Gurion (First Prime Minister of Israel)

1890: Michael Collins (Irish patriot)

1914: Mohammed Zahir Shah (Shah of Afghanistan)

Deaths:
1793: John Hunter (Scottish surgeon) The founder of pathological anatomy in England and early advocate of investigation and experimentation.

1893: Patrice MacMahon [Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de Mac-Mahon], duc de Magenta (French general/President of France)

1981: Moshe Dayan (Israeli general)

2004: Pierre Salinger (American White House Press Secretary/news correspondent/U.S. Senator)


Word of the Day: novation \noh-VAY-shuhn\
Etymology: From Late Latin novatio, novation-, from Latin, "a renewing", from novatus, past participle of novare "to make new", from novus "new".
(noun)
1. The replacing of an obligation, a contract, or a party to an agreement with a new one.
Usage: "They are essentially contracts meant to be honoured subject only to agreed changes by novation."


Mistfox - who is late getting this out because her dh was off today

Today is October 17th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, Saint Richard Gwyn, Saint Catervus, and Saint Marguerite Marie Alacoque.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The United Nations General Assembly elected Turkey, Austria, Japan, Mexico and Uganda to the Security Council. Iran and Iceland failed in their bids.

2003: The pinnacle was fitted on the roof of Taipei 101, a 101-floor skyscraper in Taipei, allowing it to surpass the Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur by 50 meters (165 feet) and become the World's tallest highrise.

1989: The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake (7.1 on the Richter scale) hit the San Francisco Bay Area and caused 57 deaths directly (and 6 indirectly).

1979: Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

1970: Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte were murdered by members of the FLQ (Front de Libération du Québec) terrorist group.

1945: A massive number of people, headed by CGT (the General Confederation of Labour of the Argentine Republic) and Evita, gathered in the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina to demand Juan Peron's release. This is known to the Peronists as the Día de la lealtad (day of loyalty). It's considered the birthday of Peronism.

1933: Physicist Albert Einstein arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Nazi Germany.

1888: Thomas Edison filed a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1800: England took control of the Dutch colony of Curaçao.

1777: British forces under Gen. John Burgoyne surrendered to American troops in Saratoga, N.Y., in a turning point of the Revolutionary War.

1660: The Nine Regicides, some of the men who signed the death warrant of Charles I, were hanged, drawn and quartered.

1346: During the Battle of Neville's Cross, King David II of Scotland was captured by Edward III of England at Calais, and imprisoned in the Tower of London for eleven years.

Births:
1253: Saint Ivo of Kermartin (French parish priest/patron saint of lawyers)

1902: Irene Ryan [Irene Noblette] (American actress) [The Beverly Hillbillies, Where's Raymond?, Pippin]

1941: Jim Seals American singer) [Seals and Crofts]

1942: Gary Puckett (American musician) [Gary Puckett & The Union Gap]

1948: Robert Jordan [James Oliver Rigney, Jr.] (American novelist) [The Wheel of Time fantasy series]

Deaths:
1660: Adrian Scrope (English regicide/soldier)

1849: Frédéric Chopin (Polish-French musician/composer)

1970: Pierre Laporte (Vice-Premier of Quebec)

1978: Giovanni Gronchi (President of the Italian Republic)


Word of the Day: passe-partout \pas-pahr-TOO\
Etymology: From French, literally, passes everywhere, from passer "to pass" + partout "everywhere", from par "through" + tout "all".
(noun)
1. Something, for example a master key, that enables unrestricted access.
2. An ornamental mat used to frame a picture.
3. An adhesive tape used to attach a picture to a mat, glass, backing, etc.
Usage: "She should not be used as a passe-partout to get at the museum."


Mistfox - who is enjoying a cup of coffee with Irish creme, yum

Today is October 18th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Luke the Evangelist and Saint Justus of Beauvais.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: NASA launched the Interstellar Boundary Explorer satellite that will study the edge of solar system.

1991: Azerbaijan declared independence from the USSR.

1977: Reggie Jackson of the New York Yankees became the second player to hit three home runs in a World Series game as he led New York to an 8-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the deciding Game 6.

1969: The U.S. federal government banned artificial sweeteners known as cyclamates because of evidence they cause cancer in laboratory rats.

1955: A new atomic subparticle called a negative proton (antiproton) was discovered at U.C. Berkeley.

1954: Texas Instruments announced the first Transistor radio.

1944: The Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia.

1922: The British Broadcasting Company (later Corporation) was founded by a consortium, to establish a nationwide network of radio transmitters to provide a national broadcasting service.

1851: Herman Melville's Moby-Dick was first published as The Whale by Richard Bentley of London.

1767: The Mason-Dixon line survey separating Maryland from Pennsylvania was completed.

1685: King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration the Protestant Huguenots.

1648: Boston shoemakers formed the first U.S. labor organization.

1356: The Basel earthquake, the most significant historic seismological event north of the Alps, destroyed the town of Basel, Switzerland.

1009: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church in Jerusalem, was completely destroyed by the Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah, who hacked the Church's foundations down to bedrock.

Births:
1831: Friedrich III (Emperor of Germany)

1873: Ivanoe Bonomi (Prime Minister of Italy)

1919: Pierre Elliott Trudeau (Prime Minister of Canada)

1939: Lee Harvey Oswald (U.S. Marine/defector/assassin of John F. Kennedy)

1961: Wynton Marsalis (American jazz musician)

Deaths:
1035: Sancho III (King of Navarre)

1541: Margaret Tudor (Queen of Scotland)

1865: Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1871: Charles Babbage (English mathematician) Pioneer of mechanical computations, including a small calculating machine able to compute squares.

1931: Thomas Edison (American inventor)


Word of the Day: vertigo \vur-ti-goh\
Etymology: From Middle English, from Latin vertigo "dizziness," originally "a whirling or spinning movement", from vertere, "to turn".
(noun)
1. a The sensation of dizziness.
b An instance of such a sensation.
2. A confused, disoriented state of mind.
Usage: "Vertigo is not the same as light-headedness. People with vertigo feel as though they are actually spinning or moving."


Mistfox - who hopes she won’t experience vertigo when she goes to help out another library this afternoon

Excellent Hitchcock movie too.

Today is October 19th. That means that it's the feast of Saints Jean de Brébeuf, Saint Isaac Jogues, and Saint Frideswide.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Cambodia agreed to release 13 Royal Thai Army soldiers captured during recent fighting in the 2008 Cambodian-Thai standoff.

2005: Saddam Hussein went on trial in Baghdad for crimes against humanity.

1987: In retaliation for Iranian attacks on ships in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy disabled three of Iran's offshore oil platforms.

1973: A U.S. Federal Judge signed his decision following a lengthy court trial, which declared the ENIAC patent invalid and belatedly credited physicist John Atanasoff with developing the first electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer or the ABC, built in 1937-42.

1959: The Scotch-Club in Aachen became the first dancing hall turned into a discothèque when the usual band was unable to play and a record player had to be used.

1951: President Harry S. Truman signed an act formally ending the state of war with Germany.

1944: The Navy announced that black women would be allowed into the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service).

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

1933: Germany withdrew from the League of Nations.

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

1872: A slab of slate in New South Wales, Australia, was found containing 82.11 kg of gold. Known as Holtermann's Nugget, it was largest mass of reef gold ever found.

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

1781: At Yorktown, Virginia, representatives of British commander Lord Cornwallis handed over Cornwallis' sword and formally surrendered to George Washington and the comte de Rochambeau.

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.

Births:
1810: Cassius Clay ["The Lion of White Hall"] (American abolitionist)

1862: Auguste Lumière (French inventor) With his brother, an early pioneer in cinematography.

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

Deaths:
0727: Saint Frideswide (English princess/abbess) Credited with establishing Christ Church in Oxford.

1945: Plutarco Elías Calles (President of Mexico)

1950: Edna St. Vincent Millay (American poet)

2008: Mr. [Richard] Blackwell (American fashion critic/fashion designer)


Word of the Day: pettifog \PET-ee-fog, -fawg\
Etymology: Back formation from pettifogger, equiv. to petty "of little or no importance or consequence" + fogger, from Middle Late German voger or Middle Dutch voeger "one who arranges things".
(intransitive verb)
1. To bicker or quibble over trifles or unimportant matters.
2. To carry on a petty, shifty, or unethical law business.
3. To practice chicanery of any sort.
Usage: "Let's not pettifog over pennies"


Mistfox - who can get up when she feels like it since she's a trip widow this week

Today is October 20th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Caprasius of Agen, Saint Irene of Tomar, and Saint Artemius.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae was awarded the $5m Mo Ibrahim Foundation Prize for Achievement in African Leadership for 2008.

1991: The Oakland Hills firestorm killed 25 and destroyed 3,469 homes and apartments, causing more than $2 billion in damage.

1977: A plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in Mississippi, killing lead singer Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Steve Gaines along with backup singer Cassie Gaines, the road manager, pilot, and co-pilot.

1973: In what has become known as "the Saturday Night Massacre", President Richard Nixon fired U.S. Attorney General Elliot Richardson and Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus after they refused to fire Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox, who was finally fired by Robert Bork.

1968: Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy married Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis.

1967: Patterson and Gimlin filmed a purported Bigfoot.

1947: The House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence in the motion picture industry.

1944: General Douglas MacArthur fulfilled his promise to return to the Philippines when he commanded an Allied assault on the islands, reclaiming them from the Japanese during the Second World War.

1803: The United States Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

Births:
1632: Sir Christopher Wren (English architect)

1677: Stanislaus I Leszczynski (King of Poland)

1784: Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1935: "Jerry" [Jerome Bernard] Orbach (American actor) [Law & Order, Fantasticks, 42nd Street, Chicago]

1950: Tom Petty (American musician) [Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Traveling Wilburys, Mudcrutch]

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

1967: Yoshida Shigeru (Prime Minister of Japan)

1977: Cassie Gaines, Steve Gaines, Ronnie Van Zant (American musicians) [Lynyrd Skynyrd]


Word of the Day: prodigality \prod-i-GAL-i-tee\
Etymology: From Middle English prodigalite, from Old French, from Late Latin prodigalitas, from Latin prodigus, prodigal, from prodigere, "drive away, to squander".
(noun)
1. The quality or fact of being prodigal; wasteful extravagance in spending.
2. An instance of it.
3. Lavish abundance.
Usage: "It seems that prodigality is not opposite to covetousness."


Mistfox - who might go into the library to work on her genealogy stuff today

Today is October 21st. That means that it's the feast of Saint Ursula, Saint Hilarion, and Saint John of Bridlington.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: India won the second test match of the 2008-09 Border-Gavaskar cricket test series against Australia at Mohali by 320 runs.

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

1994: North Korea and the United States signed an agreement that required North Korea to stop its nuclear weapons program and agree to inspections.

1979: Moshe Dayan resigned from the Israeli government because of strong disagreements with Prime Minister Menachem Begin over policy towards the Arabs.

1967: More than 100,000 Vietnam 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 U.S. Marshals protecting the facility. Similar demonstrations occurred simultaneously in Japan and Western Europe.

1959: In New York City, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened to the public. Frank Lloyd Wright designed it.

1945: Argentine military officer and politician Juan Perón married actress Evita.

1925: The Westinghouse Electric and Mfg. Co. at the Electrical Show at Grand Central Palace in New York showed the first U.S. photocell or tube to be publicly demonstrated.

1921: George Melford's silent film, The Sheik, starring Rudolph Valentino, premiered.

1917: American soldiers first saw action in World War I on the front lines in France.

1879: Using a filament of carbonized thread, Thomas Edison tested the first practical electric incandescent light bulb (it lasted 13½ hours before burning out).

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

1824: In Yorkshire, England, Joseph Aspdin, a stonemason, patented Portland cement (made by burning finely pulverized lime and clay at high temperatures in kilns). Thus Aspdin had made a manufactured counterpart to natural or Roman cement - a crude formulation of lime and volcanic ash used as early as 27 BC.

1805: During the Battle of Trafalgar, a British fleet led by Admiral Lord Nelson defeated a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain under Admiral Villeneuve. It signaled the virtual end of French maritime power and left Britain navally unchallenged until the twentieth century.

1600: Tokugawa Ieyasu defeated the leaders of rival Japanese clans in the Battle of Sekigahara, which marked the beginning of the Tokugawa shogunate, who in effect ruled Japan until the mid-nineteenth century.

1512: Martin Luther joined the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg.

Births:
1772: Samuel Taylor Coleridge (British poet) [The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan]

1833: Alfred Nobel (Swedish chemist/inventor) Founded the Nobel Prize.

1917: "Dizzy" [John Birks] Gillespie (American musician)

1929: Ursula K. Le Guin (American author) [The Lathe of Heaven, A Wizard of Earthsea, The Left Hand of Darkness, Catwings, Dancing at the Edge of the World]

Deaths:
1775: Peyton Randolph (American president of the Continental Congress)

1969: Jack Kerouac (American novelist/poet) [The Town and the City, On the Road, San Francisco Blues]


Word of the Day: Bohemian \boh-HEE-mee-uhn\
Etymology: From French bohémien, from Bohême, Bohemia (from the unconventional lifestyle of Gypsies, erroneously supposed to have come from there).
(noun)
1. A native or inhabitant of Bohemia.
2. (usually lowercase) A person, as an artist or writer, who lives and acts free of regard for conventional rules and practices.
3. The Czech language, esp. as spoken in Bohemia.
4. A Gypsy.
(adjective)
5. Of or pertaining to Bohemia, its people, or their language.
6. (usually lowercase) Pertaining to or characteristic of the unconventional life of a bohemian.
7. Living a wandering or vagabond life, as a Gypsy.
Usage: "Bohemian Fashion is something of a contradiction in terms, because usually the bohemians dressed themselves in whatever they could scrounge up."


Mistfox - who knows she should have done a better search of the archives before asking her last Stupid Question

Today is October 22nd. That means that it's the feast of Saint Mary Salome, Saint Philip, Saint Severus, Saint Eusebius, Saint Hermes of Heraclea, Saint Donatus of Fiesole, and Saint Bertharius.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: India launched its first unmanned lunar mission Chandrayaan-1.

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.

1976: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned red Dye No. 4 after it was discovered that it caused tumors in the bladders of dogs. The dye is still used in Canada.

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

1964: Jean-Paul Sartre was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, but turned down the honor.

1962: U.S. President John F. Kennedy, after internal counsel from Dwight D. Eisenhower, announced that American reconnaissance planes had discovered Soviet nuclear weapons in Cuba, and that he had ordered a naval "quarantine" of the Communist nation.

1943: The RAF conducted an air raid on the city of Kassel (pop. 236,000) killing 10,000 and rendering 150,000 homeless. This was the second firestorm raid in Germany

1926: J. Gordon Whitehead sucker punched magician Harry Houdini in the stomach in Montreal.

1910: Dr. Crippen was convicted at the Old Bailey of poisoning his wife and was subsequently hanged at Pentonville Prison in London.

1883: The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City opened with a performance of Gounod's opera Faust.

1797: One thousand meters (3,200 feet) above Paris, André-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump.

1746: The College of New Jersey (later renamed Princeton University) received its charter.

0362: The temple of Apollo at Daphne, outside of Antioch, was destroyed in a mysterious fire.

Births:
1701: Maria Amalia of Austria (Holy Roman Empire Empress)

1734: Daniel Boone (American pioneer/explorer)

1811: Franz Liszt (Hungarian pianist/composer)

1935: Ann Rule (American true-crime writer) [The Stranger Beside Me, Empty Promises, Small Sacrifices]

1939: Joaquim Chissano (President of Mozambique)

Deaths:
1973: Pablo Casals (Catalan cellist/conductor)

2002: Geraldina (Queen of the Albanians)


Word of the Day: tare \tair\
Etymology: From Middle English, from Old French tare "wastage in goods, deficiency, imperfection", from Italian tara, ultimately from Arabic tarh, "rejection, subtraction", from taraha, "to throw away".
(noun)
1. The weight of the wrapping, receptacle, or conveyance containing goods.
2. A deduction from the gross weight to allow for this.
3. The weight of a vehicle without cargo, passengers, etc.
4. A counterweight used in chemical analysis to balance the weight of a container.
5. A word formerly used in communications to represent the letter T.
(transitive verb)
6. To ascertain, note, or allow for the tare of.
Usage: "The tare weight is subtracted from the gross or ending weight to determine the Net Weight of the load. "


Mistfox - who wishes she could have slept in later, since she couldn't get to sleep last night

Today is October 23rd. That means that it's the feast of Saint Giovanni da Capistrano, Saint Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, Saint Anthony Mary Claret, and Saint Ignatius of Constantinople.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The New York City Council voted 29–22 in favor of extending the term limit on the office of the Mayor to three consecutive four-year terms from two consecutive four-year terms. This allowed then current Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for office again in the next mayoral election in November 2009.

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.

1992: Emperor Akihito became the first Emperor of Japan to stand on Chinese soil.

1973: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon agreed to turn over subpoenaed audiotapes of his Oval Office conversations about the Watergate scandal.

1946: The United Nations General Assembly convened for the first time, at an auditorium in Flushing, Queens, New York City.

1942: All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner are killed when a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California struck it. Award-winning composer and songwriter Ralph Rainger was among the victims.

1915: In New York City, 25,000-33,000 women marched on Fifth Avenue to advocate their right to vote.

1850: The first National Women's Rights Convention was begun in Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.

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

1642: The first major battle of the First English Civil War was fought at the Battle of Edgehill.

1295: The first treaty forming the Auld Alliance between Scotland and France against England was signed in Paris.

42 BCE: Mark Antony and Octavian decisively defeated Brutus’s army at the Second Battle of Philippi. Brutus committed suicide.

Births:
1869: John Heisman (American football player/coach)

1925: Johnny Carson (American television host) [The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson ]

1942: [John] Michael Crichton (American writer) [Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Congo, Rising Sun, The Lost World, Timeline, Prey, State of Fear, Next]

1959: "Weird Al" [Alfred Matthew] Yankovic (American musical parodist) [UHF, "My Bologna", "Another One Rides the Bus", "Eat It", "Smells Like Nirvana"] [img]Now I'll be singing Weird Al songs in my head all day. “I met him in a swamp down on Degoba, where it bubbles all the time like a giant carbonated so-da.”[/img]

Deaths:
42 BCE: Marcus Junius Brutus (Roman senator)

1910: Chulalongkorn (King of Thailand)

1939: [Pearl] Zane Grey (American author) [Riders of the Purple Sage, The Lone Star Ranger, King of the Royal Mounted]

1942: Ralph Rainger [Ralph Reichenthal] (American composer/songwriter) ["Blue Hawaii", "Thanks for the Memory", "Love in Bloom", "Faithful Forever"]

Word of the Day: nudge/nooge/nudzh \nooj\
Etymology: From Yiddish nudyen, "to pester, bore", from Polish nudzic.]
(transitive verb)
1. To annoy with persistent complaints, criticisms, or pleas; nag.
(intransitive verb)
2. To nag, whine, or carp.
(noun)
3. A person who nudges; pest.
Usage: "He was always nudging his son to move to a better neighborhood. "


Mistfox - who gets to go have her eyes dilated again this morning. Joy. Not.

Today is October 24th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Anthony Mary Claret.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: "Bloody Friday" saw many of the world's stock exchanges experience the worst declines in their history, with drops of around 10% in most indices.

2002: Authorities arrested Army veteran John Allen Muhammad and teenager Lee Boyd Malvo in connection with the Washington-area sniper attacks. (Muhammad was later sentenced to death, Malvo to life in prison.)

1960: An R-16 ballistic missile exploded on the launch pad at the Soviet Union's Baikonur Cosmodrome space facility, killing over 100. Among the dead was Field Marshal Mitrofan Nedelin, whose death was reported to have occurred in a plane crash

1945: The United Nations charter took effect.

1930: A bloodless coup d'état in Brazil ousted Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa, the last President of the First Republic. Getúlio Dornelles Vargas was then installed as "provisional president."

1929: The "Black Thursday" stock market crash on the New York Stock Exchange occurred.

1911: Orville Wright remained in the air 9 minutes and 45 seconds in a Wright Glider at Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina.

1861: The First Transcontinental Telegraph line across the United States was completed, spelling the end of the 18-month-old Pony Express.

1648: The Peace of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years' War and, effectively, the Holy Roman Empire.

1590: John White, the governor of the second Roanoke Colony, returned to England after an unsuccessful search for the "lost" colonists.

1147: After a siege of 4 months crusader knights, led by Afonso Henriques, reconquered Lisbon.

Births:
1632: Anton van Leeuwenhoek (Dutch microbiologist)

1887: Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg (Queen of Spain)

1930: Sultan Ahmad Shah (King of Malaysia)

Deaths:
0996: Hugh Capet (King of France)

1260: Saif ad-Din Qutuz (Mamluk sultan of Egypt)

1537: Jane Seymour (Third wife of King Henry VIII of England)

1922: George Cadbury (British chocolate and cocoa manufacturer)

1948: Franz Lehár [Lehár Ferenc] (Hungarian-Austrian composer) [The Merry Widow, The Wandering Scholar, Alone at Last, Gypsy Love]



Word of the Day: phlebotomy \fluh-BOT-uh-mee\
Etymology: From Middle English flebotomie, from Old French flebothomie, from Late Latin phlebotomia, from Greek phlebotomia, from phlebotomos, "opening a vein" - phlebo-, phlebo- form of phléps "vein" + -tomos, "cutting".
(noun)
1. The act or practice of opening a vein for letting blood as a therapeutic measure.
Usage: " Increasingly junior doctors are not expected to do routine phlebotomy or administrative tasks such as finding beds, fetching radiographs and filing routine results."


Mistfox - who wishes she didn't have to work today

Today is October 25th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Chrysanthus, Saint Daria, Saint Crispin, Saint Crispinian, and Saint Minias of Florence.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Severe flooding in Yemen killed 58 people and displaced 20,000 more.

1999: Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan bolted the GOP to mount a bid for the Reform Party nomination.

1987: At Giza, Egypt, the second of Cheops' solar boats was first viewed using a specialized video camera. It was passed through a hole drilled one of the limestone slabs covering the pit in which the boat had lain undisturbed for 4,600 years.

1983: During Operation Urgent Fury, the U.S. and its Caribbean allies invaded Grenada, six days after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and several of his supporters were executed in a coup d'état.

1972: The Washington Post reported that White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman was the fifth person to control a secret cash fund designed to finance illegal political sabotage and espionage during the 1972 presidential election campaign.

1962: Adlai Stevenson showed photos at the UN proving Soviet missiles were installed in Cuba

1955: Tappan sold the first domestic microwave oven.

1944: Heinrich Himmler ordered a crackdown on the Edelweiss Pirates, a loosely organized youth culture in Nazi Germany that had assisted army deserters and others to hide from the Third Reich.

1854: The "Charge of the Light Brigade" took place during the Crimean War as an English brigade of more than 600 men, facing hopeless odds, charged the Russian army in the Battle of Balaclava and suffered heavy losses.

1760: George III became King of Great Britain.

1415: The army of Henry V of England defeated the French at the Battle of Agincourt.

1147: Seljuk Turks completely annihilated German crusaders under Conrad III at the Battle of Dorylaeum.

Births:
1759: Maria Feodorovna [Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg] (Russian empress)

1825: Johann Strauss II (Austrian composer) [The Blue Danube, Tales from the Vienna Woods, the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, the Pizzicato Polka, Die Fledermaus]

1838: Georges Bizet (French composer) [Carmen]

1881: Pablo Picasso (Spanish painter/sculptor)

1910: William Higinbotham (American physicist) He invented the first video game, Tennis for Two, as entertainment for the 1958 visitor day at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

1944: Jon Anderson (English singer) [Yes]

Deaths:
1400: Geoffrey Chaucer (English poet) [The Canterbury Tales]

1760: George II (King of Great Britain)

1900: E. R. Squibb (U.S. chemist/pharmaceutical manufacturer) While a U.S. Navy medical officer, he convinced the Navy to manufacture their own drugs to ensure better quality. By 1858, he had his own business with 38 products, the start of a drug manufacturing enterprise that, by 1883, offered 324 products.

1921: "Bat" [William Barclay] Masterson (American journalist/lawman)

2002: Richard Harris (Irish actor) [Camelot, Cromwell, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, A Man Called Horse]


Word of the Day: fastidious \fa-STID-ee-uhs, fuh-\
Etymology: From Middle English, from Latin fastidiosus "disdainful, squeamish, exacting," from fastidium "loathing," most likely from fastu-taidiom, a compound of fastus "contempt, arrogance" and tædium "aversion, disgust." Meaning "squeamish, over-nice" emerged in Eng. 1612.
(adjective)
1. Excessively particular, critical, or demanding; hard to please.
2. Requiring or characterized by excessive care or delicacy; painstaking.
Usage: "She is a fastidious eater".


Mistfox - who isn't particularly fastidious

Today is October 26th. That means that it's the feast of St. Albinus, St. Alfred the Great, St. Cedd, St. Cuthbert of Canterbury, St. Demetrius (St. Dimitrios) of Thessaloniki, St. Fulk, and St. Quadragesimus.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Municipal elections took place in Chile. The conservative opposition Alliance for Chile reached 40% of the mayoral vote, winning an election for the first time in 50 years, in what was considered a barometer for the 2009 presidential election.

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

2001; The United States passed the USA PATRIOT Act (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001) into law, giving authorities unprecedented ability to search, seize, detain or eavesdrop in their pursuit of possible terrorists.

1994; The National Football League announced that the Carolina Panthers would become the league's 29th franchise.

1972: National security adviser Henry Kissinger declared "peace is at hand" in Vietnam.

1965; The Beatles were appointed Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs).

1958; Pan American Airways made the first commercial flight of the Boeing 707 from New York City to Paris, France.

1948; Killer smog settled into Donora, Pennsylvania.

1912; During the First Balkan War, the capital city of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, was unified with Greece on the feast day of its patron Saint Demetrius. On the same day, Serbian troops captured Skopje.

1881; The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place at Tombstone, Arizona.

1860; In Teano, Italy, Giuseppe Garibaldi, conqueror of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, gave it to King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy.

1775; King George III went before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.

1689; General Piccolomini of Austria burned down Skopje to prevent the spread of cholera. He died of cholera himself soon after.

0740: An earthquake struck Constantinople, causing much damage and many deaths.

Births:
1685; Domenico Scarlatti (Italian composer)

1869; Washington Luís Pereira de Sousa (President of Brazil)

1873; Thorvald Stauning (Prime Minister of Denmark)

1916; François Mitterrand (President of France)

1946; Pat Sajak (American game show host) [Wheel of Fortune]

1962; [Ivan Simon] Cary Elwes (British actor) [The Princess Bride; Robin Hood: Men in Tights; Hot Shots!; Glory; Liar, Liar; Saw; Twister]

Deaths:
0306; Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki (Roman soldier)

0899; Alfred the Great (King of Wessex)

1972; Igor Sikorsky (Russian-born U.S. inventor/pioneer in aircraft design) Best known for his successful development of the helicopter.

1979; Park Chung-hee (President of South Korea)

2008; Tony Hillerman (American writer) [The Blessing Way, Skinwalkers, Skeleton Man, Finding Moon]


Word of the Day: Byronic \by-RON-ik\
Etymology: After poet Lord Byron, who displayed such characteristics, as did his poetry, i.e. a flawed character marked by great passion who exhibits disrespect for social institutions and is self-destructive.
(adjective)
1. One who is melancholic, passionate, and melodramatic, and disregards societal norms.
Usage: "Zenovich casts Polanski, whose face repeatedly fills the screen with a Byronic luminosity, as a tragic figure, a child survivor of the Holocaust haunted by the murder of his wife, the actress Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson family".


Mistfox - who feels like she's coming down with a cold, yuck

Today is October 27th. That means that it's the feast of St. Abban of Magheranoidhe, St. Abban of New Ross, St. Elesbaan, and St. Frumentius,


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Two Neo-Nazi white supremacists were arrested for plotting to assassinate U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama.

2005: The SSETI (Student Space Exploration & Technology Initiative) Express microsatellite was successfully launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

1994: The U.S. prison population topped 1 million for the first time in American history.

1962: Major Rudolf Anderson of the United States Air Force became the only direct human casualty of the Cuban Missile Crisis when his U-2 reconnaissance airplane was shot down in Cuba by a Soviet-supplied SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile.

1958: General Ayub Khan, who had been appointed the enforcer of martial law by Mirza 20 days earlier, deposed Iskander Mirza, the first President of Pakistan, in a bloodless coup d’état.

1947: "You Bet Your Life," starring Groucho Marx, premiered on ABC Radio.

1938: Du Pont announced a name for its new synthetic fiber yarn: "nylon".

1936: Mrs. Wallis Simpson filed for the divorce that would eventually allow her to marry King Edward VIII of the United Kingdom, thus forcing his abdication from the throne.

1904: The first underground New York City Subway line opened; the system became the biggest in United States, and one of the biggest in world.

1870: Marshal François Achille Bazaine surrendered to Prussian forces at Metz along with 140,000 French soldiers in one of the biggest French defeats of the Franco-Prussian War.

1806: The French Army entered Berlin.

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.

1553: Condemned as a heretic, Michael Servetus was burned at the stake just outside Geneva.

0710: Saracens invaded Sardinia.

Births:
1466: Erasmus [Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus] (Dutch humanist/theologian)

1782: Niccolò Paganini (Italian violinist/composer)

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

1914: Dylan Thomas (Welsh poet)

1939: John Cleese (British actor/writer) [Monty Python's Flying Circus, Fawlty Towers, A Fish Called Wanda, The World Is Not Enough, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]

Deaths:
0939: Athelstan I (King of England)

1553: Michael Servetus (Spanish theologian/doctor)



Word of the Day: Orwellian \or-WEL-ee-uhn\
Etymology: After George Orwell, pen name of Eric Blair, whose novel Nineteen Eighty-Four depicted a futuristic totalitarian state.
(adjective)
1. Of or relating to a totalitarian state in which citizens' activities are tightly controlled.
Usage: "Military satellites designed to guide nuclear missiles are being used to monitor prison parolees and probationers in a technological advance designed to reduce the nation's skyrocketing prison population. But critics say it also raises the specter of an Orwellian future".


Mistfox - who is skipping aqua fit because she's hacking her lungs out and plans on going back to bed

Today is October 28th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Abdias of Babylon, Saint Abgar V of Edessa, St. Eadsin, St. Fidelis of Como, Saint Faro, Saint Godwin, Saint Job of Pochayiv, Saint Jude Thaddaeus, and St. Simon the Zealot.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: At its Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft delivered a pre-beta release of Windows 7 to developers, and announced plans to release a full Windows 7 beta early in 2009.

1992: Scientists using sonar to map Scotland's Loch Ness made contact with a mysterious object, but declined to speculate what that implies about whether the legendary monster "Nessie" exists.

1986: The centenary of the dedication of the Statue of Liberty was celebrated in New York Harbor.

1965: Pope Paul VI promulgated Nostra Aetate, the “Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions” of the Second Vatican Council. It absolved the Jews of the alleged killing of Jesus, reversing Innocent III's 760 year-old declaration.

1942: The Alaska Highway (Alcan Highway) was completed through Canada to Fairbanks, Alaska.

1936: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt rededicated the Statue of Liberty on its 50th anniversary.

1918: Czechoslovakia was granted independence from Austria-Hungary marking the beginning of independent Czechoslovak state, after 300 years.

1885: The first porcelain toilet was built.

1793: Eli Whitney applied for a patent for his cotton gin, which was granted the following March.

1636: A vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony established the first college in what would become the United States, today known as Harvard University.

1516: During the Battle of Yaunis Khan, Turkish forces under the Grand Vizier Sinan Pasha defeated the Mameluks near Gaza.

0312: At the Battle of Milvian Bridge, Constantine I defeated Maxentius, becoming the sole Roman Emperor.

Births:
1697: Canaletto [Giovanni Antonio Canal ] (Italian artist)

1767: Marie Sophie of Hesse-Kassel (Queen of Denmark and Norway)

1914: Jonas Salk (American biologist/physician)

1938: Anne Perry [Juliet Marion Hulme] (English-born novelist/convicted murderer) [The Cater Street Hangman, The Face of a Stranger, No Graves As Yet, A Dish Taken Cold]

Deaths:
1312: Elisabeth of Tirol (German queen)

1708: Prince George of Denmark (Consort of Queen Anne of England)

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



Word of the Day: Manichean or Manichaean \man-i-KEE-uhn\
Etymology: After Manes/Mani (216-276 CE), Persian founder of Manichaeism, an ancient religion espousing a doctrine of a struggle between good and evil.
(adjective)
1. Of or relating to a dualistic view of the world, dividing things into either good or evil, light or dark, black or white, involving no shades of gray.
Usage: "The most crucial feature of neoconservatism is its Manichean worldview, wherein the Earth is pitted in an urgent struggle between purely good and purely evil nations."


Mistfox - who is tired of this cold already

Today is October 29th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Narcissus of Jerusalem, Saint Abraham of Rostov, Saint Maximillian, and Saint Gaetano Errico.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Delta Air Lines merged with Northwest Airlines, creating the world's largest airline and reducing the number of U.S. legacy carriers to 5.

1998: Space Shuttle Discovery blasted off on STS-95 with 77-year old John Glenn on board, making him the oldest person to go into space.

1969: The Internet had its beginnings when the first host-to-host connection was made on the Arpanet - an experimental military computer network - between UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, Calif.

1964: A collection of irreplaceable gems, including the 565 carat (113 g) Star of India, was stolen by a group of thieves (among them "Murph the surf") from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

1956: Israeli forces invaded the Sinai Peninsula and pushed Egyptian forces back toward the Suez Canal.

1945: The first ballpoint pen in the U.S. went on sale at Gimbels Department Stores for $12.95.

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

1929: The New York Stock Exchange crashed in what would be called the Crash of '29 or "Black Tuesday", ending the Great Bull Market of the 1920s and beginning the Great Depression.

1923: Turkey became a republic following the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.

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

1863: Eighteen countries meeting in Geneva agreed to form the International Red Cross.

1811: The first Ohio River steamboat left Pittsburgh for New Orleans.

1787: Mozart's opera Don Giovanni received its first performance in Prague.

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

1675: Leibniz made the first use of the long s as a symbol of the integral in calculus.

1618: English adventurer, writer, and courtier Sir Walter Raleigh was beheaded for allegedly conspiring against James I of England.

539 BCE: Cyrus the Great entered the city of Babylon and detained Nabonidus.

Births:
1740: James Boswell (Scottish biographer of Samuel Johnson)

1875: Marie of Edinburgh (Queen of Romania)

1897: Joseph Goebbels (Nazi Minister of Propaganda)

1942: Bob Ross (American artist/television host) [The Joy of Painting] "Happy little trees"

Deaths:
1618: Sir Walter Raleigh (English explorer)

1911: Joseph Pulitzer [Politzer József] (Hungarian-born newspaper publisher)

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



Word of the Day: minx \mingks\
Etymology: Probably from mynx "pet dog," later "pert girl, hussy", of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortening of minikin "girl, woman," from Middle Dutch minnekijn "darling, beloved," from minne "love".
(noun)
1. A girl or young woman who is considered pert, flirtatious, or impudent.
2. (Obsolete) A promiscuous woman.
Usage: "He considered the child a pert minx."


Mistfox - who is seriously debating whether or not to go to aqua fit this morning, again

Today is October 30th. That means that it's the feast of St. Alonso Rodríguez, St. Artemas, St. Herbert, St. Marcellus the Centurion, St. Saturninus, and St. Serapion of Antioch.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new Cabinet was sworn in after the October 14 federal election.

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.

1996: Odwalla company officials withdrew their products from over 4,600 stores after an outbreak of E. Coli in their apple juice, which in the end sickened over 60 people and killed one.

1975: Prince Juan Carlos became Spain's acting head of state, taking over for the country's ailing dictator, Gen. Francisco Franco.

1970: In Vietnam, the worst monsoon to hit the area in six years caused large floods, killed 293, left 200,000 homeless and virtually halted the Vietnam War.

1950: Pope Pius XII witnessed "The Miracle of the Sun" while at the Vatican.

1922: Benito Mussolini was made Prime Minister of Italy.

1905: Czar Nicholas II of Russia granted Russia's first constitution, creating a legislative assembly.

1894: Daniel M. Cooper of Rochester, N.Y. received the first U.S. patent for a time clock.

1501: Cesare Borgia held a banquet in the Papal Palace where fifty prostitutes or courtesans are in attendance for the entertainment of the guests (the Ballet of Chestnuts).

0758: Arab and Persian pirates sacked Guangzhou.

Births:
1735: John Adams (President of the U.S.)

1873: Francisco I. Madero (President of Mexico)

1945: Henry Winkler (American actor/director/producer/author) [Happy Days, Arrested Development, Hank Zipzer books]

Deaths:
1816: Frederick I (King of Württemberg)

1910: Jean Henry Dunant (Swiss businessman/social activist) Founded the Red Cross,

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

2007: Washoe (Chimpanzee trained in American Sign Language)



Word of the Day: vainglory \VAYN-glor-ee; vayn-GLOR-ee\
Etymology: From Middle English vein glory, ultimately from Latin vana gloria, "empty pride," from vana, "empty" and gloria, "glory, pride."
(noun)
1. Excessive pride in one's achievements, abilities, qualities, etc.
2. Vain display.
Usage: "Spurred by the vainglory of being the first person in recent memory to catch a Solovki canal trout on a fly, I fished with newfound intensity."


Mistfox - who is going to dress as a pirate wench for work today (since she's not working tomorrow)

Today is October 31st. That means that it's the feast of St. Arnulf, St. Bega, St. Quentin, St. Urban, and St. Wolfgang.
Happy Halloween!


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Libya paid $US1.5 billion in compensation for past terrorist attacks to the United States, clearing the way for normal diplomatic ties between the two countries.

2003: Mahathir bin Mohamad resigned as Prime Minister of Malaysia and was replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, marking an end to Mahathir's 22 years in power.

2001: Microsoft and the Justice Department reached a tentative agreement to settle the historic antitrust case against the software giant.

1992: The Vatican admitted erring for over 359 years in formally condemning Galileo Galilei for entertaining scientific truths such as the Earth revolves around the sun, which the Roman Catholic Church long denounced as anti-scriptural heresy.

1968: Citing progress with the Paris peace talks, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced to the nation that he had ordered a complete cessation of "all air, naval, and artillery bombardment of North Vietnam" effective November 1.

1959: Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to renounce his American citizenship at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, USSR.

1954: The Algerian National Liberation Front began a revolt against French rule in Algeria.

1941: Work on Mount Rushmore finally ended with the monumental heads of four U.S. presidents - Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt - carved on the face of a mountain near Keystone, S.D.

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.

1926: Magician Harry Houdini died of gangrene and peritonitis that developed after his appendix ruptured.

1917: The "last successful cavalry charge in history" took place at the Battle of Beersheba.

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

1587: Leiden University Library became operational, in the vault of the current Academy building at Rapenburg, after its founding in 1575.

0475: Romulus Augustulus was proclaimed Western Roman Emperor.

Births:
1795: John Keats (British poet)

1851: Lovisa of Sweden (Queen of Denmark)

1887: Chiang Kai-shek (Nationalist Chinese leader/Republic of China president)

1920: Dick [Richard Stanley] Francis (Welsh novelist/retired jockey) [Forfeit, Whip Hand, Come To Grief, Dead Heat, Silks]

1961: Peter Jackson (New Zealand film director) [The Lord of the Rings, King Kong, Heavenly Creatures, District 9]

Deaths:
1214: Leonora of England (Queen of Alfonso VIII of Castile)

1926: Harry Houdini [Erik Weisz] (Hungarian-born stage magician)

2002: Michail Stasinopoulos (Greek politician/president of Greece)


Word of the Day: perturb \per-TURB\
Etymology: From Middle English perturben, from Old French perturber, from Latin perturbare : per-, per- "through" + turbare, "to throw into disorder" (from turba, "confusion", perhaps from Greek turbe).
(transitive verb)
1. To disturb or disquiet greatly in mind; agitate.
2. To throw into great disorder; derange.
3. Astronomy. To cause perturbation in the orbit of (a celestial body).
Usage: "Fundamental Islamicists threaten to perturb the social order in Algeria and Egypt."


Mistfox - who hopes she'll get some trick or treaters tonight, even though she hasn't for the past couple of years, which is perturbing

Today is November 1st. That means that it's the feast of All Saints.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: India's first lunar mission, Chandrayaan-1, transmitted two pictures of the Earth while en route to the Moon.

2005: The first part of the Gomery Report, which discusses allegations of political money manipulation by members of the Liberal Party of Canada, was released in Canada.

1981: Antigua and Barbuda gained independence from the U.K.

1959: Montreal Canadiens goaltender Jacques Plante was struck in the face by a puck shot by Andy Bathgate of the New York Rangers. He was taken to the dressing room to receive stitches and refused to go back in the game unless he wore his mask. His coach, Hector "Toe" Blake, had no substitute goalie and he reluctantly permitted Plante to go back in the game with his legendary mask for the first time in an NHL game.

1950: Pope Pius XII claimed Papal Infallibility when he formally defined the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.

1945: Australia joined the United Nations.

1939: A rabbit conceived by artificial impregnation, was the first such animal in the U.S. to be displayed.

1936: In a speech in Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini described the alliance between his country and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Rome and Berlin.

1918: Western Ukraine gained its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1901: Dr. J.E. Gillman announced an X-ray treatment for breast cancer.

1896: A picture showing the unclad (bare) breasts of a woman appeared in National Geographic magazine for the first time.

1870: In the United States, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather Service) made its first official meteorological forecast.

1848: In Boston, Massachusetts, the first medical school for women, The Boston Female Medical School (which later merged with the Boston University School of Medicine), opened.

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

1604: William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello was presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1512: The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo, was exhibited to the public for the first time.

1179: Philip II was crowned King of France.

Births:
1526: Catherine Jagellonica of Poland (Queen of Sweden/duchess of Finland)

1782: Frederick John Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1815: Dr. Crawford W. Long (American physician) Was the first in the U.S. to use ether as anesthetic in surgery. Only if you don't believe Claire Frasier did it first.

1957: Lyle Lovett (American singer-songwriter/actor) ["Cowboy Man", "Stand by Your Man", "Don't Touch My Hat"]

Deaths:
1979: Mamie Eisenhower (First Lady of the U.S.)

1999: Walter ["Sweetness"] Payton (American football player)


Word of the Day: zeal \zeel\
Etymology: From Middle English zele, from Old French zel, from Late Latin zelus, from Greek zelos "zeal, ardor, jealousy," which is of uncertain origin.
(noun)
1. Fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor.
Usage: "Let a good man do good deeds with the same zeal that the evil man does bad ones."


Mistfox - who actually had two groups of trick or treaters last night

Today, November 1, is the beginning of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month).

Good luck to everyone participating!

My dd is participating and looking forward to it.

Today is November 2nd. That means that it's the feast of All Souls.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 Formula One Drivers' Championship, beating Felipe Massa by one point to become the youngest and first black Formula One World Champion in history.

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

2000: An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts became the first permanent residents of the international space station, at the start of their four-month mission.

1983: U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

1960: Penguin Books was found not guilty of obscenity in the Lady Chatterley's Lover case

1957: The Levelland UFO Case in Levelland, Texas, generated national publicity, and remains one of the most impressive UFO cases in American history.

1947: In California, designer Howard Hughes performed the maiden (and only) flight of the Spruce Goose; the largest fixed-wing aircraft ever built.

1936: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation was established.

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

1899: The Boers began their 118 day siege of British held Ladysmith during the Second Boer War.

1882: the Great Oulu Fire of 1882 decimated Oulu, Finland

1675: A combined effort by the Plymouth, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut colonies attacked the Great Swamp Fort, owned by the Narragansetts, during King Philip's War.

1410: The Peace of Bicêtre between the Armagnac and Burgundian factions was signed.

Births:
1739: Carl Ditters von Dittersdorf (Austrian composer)

1755: Marie Antoinette (Queen of France)

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

1844: Mehmed V (Ottoman Sultan)

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

Deaths:
1950: George Bernard Shaw (Irish writer/playwright) [Pygmalion, An Unsocial Socialist, Arms and the Man, Candida)

1961: James Thurber (American humorist) ["The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," "The Unicorn in the Garden," The Male Animal, My World--and Welcome To It]

2004: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (President of the United Arab Emirates)


Word of the Day: acnestis \AK-nist-uhs\
Etymology: From Greek aknestis "spine", from Ancient Greek knestis "spine, cheese-grater".
(noun)
1. The part of the body where one cannot reach to scratch.
Usage: "In what has to be the longest post-election season in living memory, the last five months have felt like an acnestis upon our collective soul; like that little patch of skin on our backs that we just can't reach to scratch ourselves. It's irritating. It's annoying. It's left us reaching and spinning around in circles."


Mistfox - who is lucky she has a husband to scratch her acnestis

Today is November 3rd. That means that it's the feast of St. Acepsimas of Hnaita, St. Germanus, St. Hubert, St. Malachy O' More, St. Martin de Porres, and St. Winifred.

See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The Bangladeshi government scheduled general elections on December 18, 2008, which would end the rule of the one and half year military-backed interim government.

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.)

1997: The U.S.A, imposed economic sanctions against Sudan in response to its human rights abuses of its own citizens and its material and political assistance to Islamic extremist groups across the Middle East and Eastern Africa.

1986: The Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa reported that the U.S. had been secretly selling weapons to Iran in order to secure the release of seven American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon (the Iran-Contra Affair).

1975; Queen Elizabeth II opened the North Sea pipeline, Firth of Forth. The first oil was piped ashore from the North Sea at Peterhead, Scotland.

1970: Salvador Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile.

1969: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon addressed the nation on television and radio, asking the "silent majority" to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort and to support his policies.

1957: The Soviet Union launched Sputnik 2. On board was the first animal to enter orbit, a dog named Laika.

1911: Chevrolet officially entered the automobile market in competition with the Ford Model T.

1903: With the encouragement of the U.S., Panama proclaimed itself independent from Colombia. U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt had wanted the U.S. to build the Panama Canal, but was not willing to pay what Colombia asked.

1848: A greatly revised Dutch 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. This constitution is still in effect today.

1839: The first Opium War between China and Britain broke out.

1783: The American Continental Army was disbanded.

1664; Robert Hooke showed an advanced copy of his classic book Micrographia, or some Physiological Descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses with observations and inquiries thereupon to the Royal Society in London. It was history's first treatise on microbiology, and coined the word "cell" in the biological context.

1468: Charles I of Burgundy’s troops sacked Liège.

Births:
1801: Vincenzo Bellini (Italian composer) [La Sonnambula, Norma]

1845: Edward Douglass White (Chief Justice of the U.S.)

1901: Leopold III (King of Belgium0

Deaths:
0753: St. Pirminius (German abbot)

1926: Annie Oakley [Phoebe Ann Moses ] (American sharp-shooter)

1954: Henri Matisse (French artist)

1970: Peter II (King of Yugoslavia)


Word of the Day: quern \kwurn\
Etymology: From Middle English querne, from Old English cweorn "hand-mill, mill".
(noun)
1. A primitive, hand-operated mill for grinding grain.
Usage: "The true quern, a heavy device worked by slave or animal power, appeared by Roman times. "


Mistfox - who is really waffling about going to aqua fit this morning, but will probably go to see if she coughs her lungs out

Today is November 4th. That means that it's the feast of St. Charles Borromeo, St. Emeric, and St. Vitalis.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Barack Obama became the first African-American to be elected President of the U.S..

1994: The first conference that focused exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web was held in San Francisco.

1984: Dell Computers was founded as PC's Limited.

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

1946: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Constitution became effective.

1939: The U.S. modified its neutrality stance in World War II to allow "cash and carry" purchases of arms by belligerents, a policy favoring Britain and France.

1922: In Egypt, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his men found the entrance to King Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

1918: Austria-Hungary surrendered to Italy during World War I.

1879: James Jacob Ritty, with help from his brother John, invented the first cash register, intended to combat stealing by bartenders in the Pony House Restaurant, his Dayton, Ohio saloon.

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

1825: The Erie Canal was completed with Governor DeWitt Clinton performing the Wedding of The Waters ceremony in New York Harbor.

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

1429: Joan of Arc liberated Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier.

Births:
1879: Will Rogers (American cowboy/comedian/humorist/social commentator/actor)

1896: Carlos P. Garcia (President of the Philippines)

1916: Walter Cronkite (American news broadcaster)

1951: Traian Basescu (President of Romania)

Deaths:
1411: Khalil Sultan (Ruler of Transoxonia)

1847: Felix Mendelssohn (German composer)

2008: Michael Crichton (American author/producer/director/screenwriter) [ER, Jurassic Park, Disclosure, Andromeda Strain, Next, Pirate Latitudes]


Word of the Day: skulduggery/skullduggery \skul-DUG-uh-ree\
Etymology: Apparently an alteration of Scottish sculdudrie "adultery", sculduddery "bawdry, obscenity", a euphemism of uncertain origin.
(noun)
1. Devious, dishonest, or unscrupulous behavior or activity; also: an instance thereof.
Usage: "And then the inquests, and the coroner's reports, and the hints of diplomatic cover-ups, and skulduggery in high places."


Mistfox - who went to aqua fit, but didn't last the full hour

Today is November 5th. That means that it's the feast of St. Domninus, St. Galation, St. Magnus, and Pope St. Zachary.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: California Proposition 8, a referendum that amended the State Constitution, passed and defined marriage as being between a man and a woman, thus ending same-sex marriage in California.

2006: Saddam Hussein, former president of Iraq, and his co-defendants Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti and Awad Hamed al-Bandar were sentenced to death in the al-Dujail trial for the role in the massacre of the 148 Shi'as in 1982.

1995: André Dallaire attempted to assassinate Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of Canada. He was thwarted when the Prime Minister's wife locks the door.

1986: The USS Rentz, USS Reeves, and USS Oldendorf visited Qingdao (Tsing Tao) China, the first U.S. Naval visit to China since 1949.

1940: Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to a third term as President of the United States.

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

1872: In defiance of the law, suffragist Susan B. Anthony voted for the first time, and was later fined $100.

1831: Nat Turner, American slave leader, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Virginia.

1757: Frederick the Great defeated the allied armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire in the Battle of Rossbach during the Seven Years' War.

1530: The St. Felix's Flood destroyed the city of Reimerswaal in the Netherlands

Births:
1615: Ibrahim I (Ottoman Sultan)

1911: Roy Rogers [Leonard Franklin Slye] (American actor/singer) [The Roy Rogers Show]

1921: Fawzia of Egypt (Queen of Iran)

1941: Art Garfunkel (American musician) [Simon & Garfunkel]

Deaths:
1942: George M. Cohan (American musician/actor/dancer/writer/composer) ["Give My Regards to Broadway”, “The Yankee Doodle Boy", "You're a Grand Old Flag", "Over There"]

1989: Vladimir Horowitz (Russian pianist)

2006: Bülent Ecevit (Turkish Prime Minister/poet)


Word of the Day: lentiginous \len-TIJ-uh-nuhs\
Etymology: From Latin lentiginosus "freckled", from lentigo "freckle", from lens "lentil".
(adjective)
1. Covered with freckles.
Usage: "I realized that my freckly Celtic complexion wasn't a curse I had to endure for life, and my offensively lentiginous skin could be smoothed into picture-perfect ivory."


Mistfox - who was never as lentiginous as her mother (a red-head)