Today is September 25th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Finbarr.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: A young Canadian man was found guilty in the 2006 Toronto terrorism case of participating in a plot to storm the Parliament of Canada and behead the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper.

2001: Michael Jordan announced he was returning to basketball with the NBA's Washington Wizards.

1981: Sandra Day O'Connor became the 102nd Justice sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the U.S. and the first woman to hold the office.

1974: Scientists first reported that Freon gases released from aerosol spray cans were destroying the ozone layer.

1962: The People's Democratic Republic of Algeria was formally proclaimed. Ferhat Abbas was elected President of the provisional government.

1957: With 300 U.S. Army troops standing guard, nine black children were escorted to Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, days after unruly white crowds had forced them to withdraw.

1955: The Royal Jordanian Air Force was founded.

1915: The Second Battle of Champagne began.

1789: The U.S. Congress passed twelve amendments to the U.S. Constitution: the Congressional Apportionment Amendment, the Congressional Compensation Amendment, and the ten that are known as the Bill of Rights.

1690: Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick, the first newspaper to appear in the Americas, was published for the first and only time.

1513: Spanish explorer Vasco Núñez de Balboa reached what would become known as the Pacific Ocean.

0303: On a voyage preaching the gospel, Saint Fermin of Pamplona was beheaded in Amiens, France.

Births:
1738: Nicholas Van Dyke (American lawyer/President of Delaware)

1766: Armand-Emmanuel du Plessis, Duc de Richelieu (French-Russian statesman/cardinal)

1862: Billy Hughes (Prime Minister of Australia)

1897: William Faulkner (American writer) [The Sound and the Fury; As I Lay Dying; Light in August; Absalom, Absalom!]

1922: Hammer DeRoburt (First President of Nauru)

1930: Shel [Sheldon Alan] Silverstein ["Uncle Shelby"] (American author/poet/cartoonist/songwriter/playwright) [The Giving Tree, A Light in the Attic, Where the Sidewalk Ends , "A Boy Named Sue", "One's on the Way", "The Unicorn", "The Cover of the Rolling Stone", "Sylvia's Mother"]

1968: Will [Willard Christopher] Smith (American actor/rapper/film producer) [The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Men in Black, Independence Day, Seven Pounds]

Deaths:
0303: Saint Fermin of Pamplona (Roman Catholic bishop/martyr)

1960: Emily Post (American etiquette expert)

1999: Marion Zimmer Bradley (American writer) [The Mists of Avalon, Sword and Sorceress, The Winds of Darkover]

2005: Don Adams [Donald James Yarmy] (American actor/comedian/voice actor) [Get Smart, Tennessee Tuxedo, Inspector Gadget]



Word of the Day: grangerize \GRAYN-juh-ryz\
Etymology: After James Granger (1723-1776), an English clergyman whose Biographical History of England had blank leaves for illustrations, to be filled with pictures, clippings, etc. by the reader.
(transitive verb)
1. To mutilate a book by clipping pictures out of it.
2. To illustrate a book by adding pictures cut from other books.
Usage: "With the onset of internet pictures, students are less likely to grangerize books for their reports."


Mistfox - who is enjoying "better life through chemistry"

Today is September 26th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Swiss pilot and inventor Yves Rossy became the first person to fly a jet engine-powered wing across the English Channel.

2005: International weapons inspectors backed by Protestant and Catholic clergymen announced the Irish Republican Army's full disarmament.

1997: An earthquake struck the Italian regions of Umbria and the Marche, causing part of the Basilica of St. Francis at Assisi to collapse.

1969: The Beatles released their last studio album, Abbey Road.

1960: In Chicago, the first televised debate took place between presidential candidates Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy.

1957: The musical "West Side Story" opened on Broadway.

1934: The steamship RMS Queen Mary was launched.

1914: The Federal Trade Commission was established.

1820: Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson proved tomatoes weren't poisonous by eating several on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey.

1789: Thomas Jefferson was appointed the first U.S. Secretary of State, John Jay was appointed the first Chief Justice of the U.S., Samuel Osgood was appointed the first U.S. Postmaster General, and Edmund Randolph was appointed the first U.S. Attorney General.

1687: The Parthenon in Athens was partially destroyed by an explosion caused by the bombing from Venetian forces led by Morosini who were besieging the Ottoman Turks stationed in Athens.

1580: Sir Francis Drake finished his circumnavigation of the Earth.

0715: Ragenfrid defeated Theudoald at the Battle of Compiègne.

Births:
1329: Anna of Bavaria (Queen of the Romans)

1774: Johnny Appleseed [John Chapman] (American environmentalist/missionary)

1888: T. S. Eliot (American-born British writer/poet) [The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, The Waste Land, Ash Wednesday, Four Quartets, Murder in the Cathedral, The Cocktail Party, "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats".]

1932: Dr. Manmohan Singh (Prime Minister of India)

1948: Olivia Newton-John (English-born Australian singer/actress) [Grease]

Deaths:
1820: Daniel Boone (American frontiersman)

1945: Béla Bartók (Hungarian composer)

2008: Paul Newman (American actor/film director/entrepreneur/humanitarian/auto racing enthusiast) [The Color of Money, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Our Town, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting]


Word of the Day: maxim \MAK-sim\
Etymology: From Middle English maxime, from Old French, from Medieval Latin maxima, from maxima (propositio), "greatest (premise)", feminine of Latin maximus, "greatest".
(noun)
1. An expression of a general truth or principle, esp. an aphoristic or sententious one: the maxims of La Rochefoucauld.
2. A principle or rule of conduct.
Usage: "Nothing so comforts the military mind as the maxim of a great but dead general."


Mistfox - who forgot she hadn't gotten this done over lunch break until after dinner, sorry

Today is September 27th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul and St Adheritus.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: CNSA astronaut Zhai Zhigang became the first Chinese person to perform a spacewalk while flying on Shenzhou 7.

2005: Army reservist Lynndie England was sentenced to three years behind bars for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

1996: In Afghanistan, the Taliban captured the capital city Kabul after driving out President Burhanuddin Rabbani and executing former leader Mohammad Najibullah.

1979: The U.S. Department of Education received final approval from the U.S. Congress to become the 13th US Cabinet agency.

1964: The Warren Commission released its report, concluding that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, assassinated President John F. Kennedy.

1960: Europe's first "moving pavement", the travelator, opened at Bank Underground station.

1954: "Tonight!" (later The Tonight Show) hosted by Steve Allen, made its debut on NBC-TV.

1941: The SS Patrick Henry was launched becoming the first of more than 2,700 Liberty ships.

1938: The ocean liner RMS Queen Elizabeth was launched in Glasgow.

1928: the U.S recognized The Republic of China..

1905: The physics journal Annalen der Physik published Albert Einstein's paper "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", introducing the equation E=mc².

1892: Joshua Pusey of Lima, Ohio patented book matches. He subsequently sold the patent rights to the Diamond Match Company of Barberton, Ohio.

1825: The Stockton and Darlington Railway opened and began operation of the world's first service of locomotive-hauled passenger trains.

1669: The Venetians surrendered the fortress of Candia to the Ottomans, thus ending the 21-year long Siege of Candia.

1590: Pope Urban VII died 13 days after being chosen as the Pope, making his reign the shortest papacy in history.

1331: The Battle of Plowce between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Order was fought.

Births:
823: Ermentrude of Orléans (Consort of Charles the Bald)

1389: Cosimo de Medici (Italian Patron of the Arts)

1601: Louis XIII (King of France)

1947: Meat Loaf [Michael Lee Aday] (American singer/actor) ["Bat Out Of Hell," "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth", "Two out of Three Ain't Bad", The Rocky Horror Picture Show]

1958: Shaun Cassidy (American actor/singer/writer/producer) [The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, Breaking Away]

Deaths:
1590: Pope Urban VII [Giovanni Battista Castagna]

1660: Vincent de Paul (French saint)

1917: Edgar Degas (French painter)

1996: Mohammad Najibullah (President of Afghanistan)


Word of the Day: xenon \ZEE-non, ZEN-on\
Etymology: From Greek, neuter of xenos, "foreign, strange", name introduced by William Ramsay, the element's discoverer.
1. A heavy, colorless, chemically inactive, monatomic gaseous element used for filling radio, television, and luminescent tubes. Symbol: Xe; atomic weight: 131.30; atomic number: 54.
Usage: "xenon occurs in the Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts."


Mistfox - who has to make a birthday dinner tonight for her baby

Shaun Cassidy.....he's dreamy......LOLOL

Today is September 28th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Leoba, Saint Wenceslas, Saint Lorenzo Ruiz, Saint Aaron of Auxerre, and Saint Paternus of Auch.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: SpaceX launched the first ever private spacecraft, the Falcon 1, into orbit.

2005: The U.S. Treasury unveiled the new $10 bill, which featured splashes of red, yellow and orange.

1978: Pope John Paul I died after just 33 days in office. His reign is among the shortest in papal history, resulting in the most recent Year of Three Popes. John Paul I was the first Pope born in the 20th century.

1972: Canada defeated the USSR in the eighth and final game of the ice hockey Summit Series.

1939: Warsaw surrendered to Nazi Germany during World War II. Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed on a division of Poland after their invasion.

1928: Sir Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.

1924: Two U.S. Army planes landed in Seattle, Washington, having completed the first round-the-world flight in 175 days.

1867: Toronto became the capital of Ontario.

1858: Donati's comet (discovered by Giovanni Donati) became the first to be photographed.

1850: Flogging was abolished as a form of punishment in the U.S. Navy.

1791: France became the first European country to emancipate its Jewish population.

1781: American forces backed by a French fleet began the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, during the American Revolutionary War.

1542: Navigator João Rodrigues Cabrilho of Portugal arrived at what is now San Diego, California, U.S..

1106: At the Battle of Tinchebrai, Henry I of England defeated his brother, Robert Curthose.

1066: William the Conqueror invaded England and the Norman Conquest began.

Births:
551 BCE: Confucius (Chinese philosopher)

1861: Amélie of Orléans (Queen of Portugal)

1867: Hiranuma Kiichiro (Prime Minister of Japan)

1925: Seymour R. Cray (American electronics engineer) He pioneered the use of transistors in computers and later developed massive supercomputers.

1961: Quentin Kawananakoa (Pretender to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii)

Deaths:
0235: Saint Pontianus (Roman Pope)

0876: Louis the German (King of Eastern Francia)

0935: Wenceslaus I (Duke of Bohemia/Saint)

1895: Louis Pasteur (French scientist)

1914: Richard Sears (American businessman) [Sears, Roebuck and Company]

1956: William [Wilhelm] Edward Boeing (American aviation pioneer/founder of the Boeing Co.)

1978: Pope John Paul I [Albino Luciani] (Italian pope)


Word of the Day: sinuous \ZEE-non, ZEN-on\
Etymology: From Latin sinuosus, from sinus, "curve".
(adjective)
1. Characterized by many curves or turns; winding.
2. Characterized by graceful curving movements.
3. Not direct; devious.
Usage: "The final 15 miles featured narrow and sinuous roads made even tighter by huge crowds lining the sides."


Mistfox - who has a lot to get done this morning, but just wants to go back to sleep

Today is September 29th. That means that it's the feast of St. Michael, St. Gabriel, and St. Raphael.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history.

2005: New York Times reporter Judith Miller was released from 85 days of federal detention after agreeing to testify in a criminal probe into the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity.

2004: The Burt Rutan Ansari X Prize entry SpaceShipOne performed a successful spaceflight, the first of two required to win the prize.

2001: The Syracuse Herald-Journal, a U.S. newspaper dating back to 1839, ceased publication.

1990: Washington National Cathedral was finished.

1972: Japan established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China after breaking official ties with the Republic of China.

1962: Alouette 1, the first Canadian satellite, was launched.

1954: New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays made a running catch with his back to home plate on a 450-foot blast by Cleveland Indians batter Vic Wertz in Game 1 of the World Series. It is widely considered to be the greatest catch ever made ("The Catch").

1918: Allied forces broke the Hindenburg Line during World War I. Bulgaria signed an armistice.

1914: A patent for a "Phonograph-Record" was granted to Thomas A. Edison

1907: The cornerstone was laid at Washington National Cathedral in the U.S. capital.

1850: The Roman Catholic hierarchy was re-established in England and Wales by Pope Pius IX.

1789: The U.S. War Department first established a regular army with a strength of several hundred men.

1364: At the Battle of Auray, English forces defeated the French in Brittany, ending the Breton War of Succession.

61 BCE: Pompey the Great celebrated his third triumph of victories over the pirates and the end of the Mithridatic Wars on his 45th birthday.

Births:
106 BCE: Pompey the Great [Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus] (Consul of Rome)

1571: Caravaggio [Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio] (Italian artist)

1895: J.B. [Joseph Banks] Rhine (American parapsychologist)

1936: Silvio Berlusconi (Prime Minister of Italy)

1938: Wim Kok (Dutch politician/Prime Minister of the Netherlands)

1943: Lech Walesa (President of Poland)

Deaths:
1642: René Goupil (French Catholic missionary/saint)

1987: Henry Ford II (President of Ford Motor Company)

1988: Charles Addams (American cartoonist) [The Addams Family]



Word of the Day: antipodal \an-TIP-uh-duhl\
Etymology: Via Latin from Greek antipodes "literally, those having the feet opposite", plural of antipous, from anti- "opposite" + pous "foot".
(adjective)
1. Situated on the opposite side of the earth (or another body).
2. Diametrically opposite or completely opposite.
Usage: "Paris was the starting point and the antipodal points I had to pass through were Madrid and Wellington."


Mistfox - who messed up a little with the Word of the Day yesterday, oops

Today is September 30th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Jerome.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Dutch food giant Unilever began recalling Lipton-brand milk tea powder in Hong Kong and Macau after they were found to contain traces of melamine.

2005: Controversial drawings of Muhammad were printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

2004: Merck & Co. pulled Vioxx, its heavily promoted arthritis drug, from the market after a study found it doubled the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

1994: The Aldwych tube station (originally Strand Station) of the London Underground was closed after eighty-eight years of service.

1982: The situation comedy "Cheers" premiered on NBC.

1980: Xerox, working with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation, published Ethernet specifications.

1977: Due to U.S. budget cuts and dwindling power reserves, the Apollo program's ALSEP experiment packages left on the Moon were shut down.

1968: The Boeing 747 was rolled out and shown to the public for the first time at the Boeing Everett Factory.

1947: The Islamic Republic of Pakistan joined the United Nations.

1938: At 2:00 am, Britain, France, Germany and Italy signed the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to occupy the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia.

1929: An early manned rocket-powered flight was made by German automaker Fritz von Opel. His Sander RAK 1 was a glider powered by sixteen 50 pound thrust rockets.

1927: Babe Ruth became the first baseball player to hit 60 home runs in a season.

1902: William H. Walker, Arthur D. Little and Harry S. Mork of Massachusetts jointly patented the “making of cellulose esters”. A month later, on Oct. 28, 1902, they also patented artificial silk. Viscose was an early name for the product. The term rayon was adopted by the textile industry in 1924 to replace "artificial silk" and similar names.

1882: The world's first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) began operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, U.S..

1846: Dentist Dr. William Morton used an experimental anesthetic, ether, for the first time on one of his patients at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for tooth extraction.

1791: The Magic Flute, the last opera composed by Mozart received its premiere performance at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria.

1788: The Pennsylvania Legislature elected the first two members of the U.S. Senate - William Maclay of Harrisburg and Robert Morris of Philadelphia.

1399: Henry IV was proclaimed King of England.

Births:
1861: William Wrigley, Jr. (American industrialist) [Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company]

1882: Hans Geiger (German physicist) He introduced the first successful detector (the Geiger counter) of individual alpha particles and other ionizing radiations.

1924: Truman Capote [Truman Streckfus Persons] (American author) [Breakfast at Tiffany's, In Cold Blood]

Deaths:
0420: Saint Jerome (Illyrian priest/translator of the Vulgate Bible)

0653: Saint Honorius (Gregorian missionary/Archbishop of Canterbury)

1572: Saint Francis Borgia (Spanish Jesuit priest)

1897: St Therese of Lisieux [Marie-Françoise-Thérèse Martin, "The Little Flower of Jesus"] (French nun/mystic)

1955: James Dean (American actor) [Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden, Giant]


Word of the Day: venery \VEN-uh-ree\
Etymology: From Middle English venerie, from Old French, from vener, "to hunt", from Latin venari.
(noun)
1. The practice or sport of hunting; the chase.
Usage: "The tradition of using collective nouns that are specific to certain kinds of animals stems from an English hunting tradition, dating back to at least the fifteenth century. Terms of venery were used by gentlemen to distinguish themselves from yeomen and others and formed part of their education."


Mistfox - who is mining Echo in the Bone for words for “Word of the Day”

Today is October 1st. That means that it's the feast of Saint Thérèse de Lisieux, Saint Bavo, Saint Remigius, Blessed Edward James, and Saint Nicetius.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Russia's supreme court declared the imperial dynasty victims of political repression, marking the official rehabilitation of the house of Romanov. The decision overturned a lower court ruling that classified the killings as plain murder, and exonerated Emperor Nicholas II and his family of the alleged crimes the Bolshevik regime used to justify their killing.

1994: National Hockey League team owners began a 103-day lockout of their players.

1979: The U.S. returned sovereignty of the Panama Canal to Panama.

1962: The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was first broadcast.

1957: The words "In God We Trust" first appeared on U.S. paper currency.

1949: The first deliveries were made of the first practical rectangular television tube made in the U.S.

1940: The Pennsylvania Turnpike, often considered the first superhighway in the U.S., opened to traffic.

1926: An oil field accident cost aviator Wiley Post his left eye, but he used the settlement money to buy his first aircraft.

1918: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence (a/k/a "Lawrence of Arabia") captured Damascus.

1908: Henry Ford introduced the Model T automobile to the market; each car cost $825.

1903: The Boston Americans played the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first game of the modern World Series.

1880: John Philip Sousa became leader of the U.S. Marine Band.

1854: The watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison relocated to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American System of Watch Manufacturing.

1847: Maria Mitchell, the first woman astronomer in the U.S. discovered a comet. She became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

1814: The Congress of Vienna opened, intended to redraw the Europe's political map after the defeat of Napoléon the previous spring.

1811: The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrived in New Orléans, Louisiana.

1795: France conquered Belgium.

0959: Edgar the Peaceable became king of all England.

331 BCE: Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela.

Births:
1577: Fidelis of Sigmaringen (Swiss friar/martyr/saint)

1881: William [Wilhelm] Boeing (American engineer/aviation pioneer) [The Boeing Company]

1896: Liaquat Ali Khan (First Prime Minister of Pakistan)

1903: Vladimir Horowitz (Ukrainian-American pianist)

1924: Jimmy Carter (President of the U.S.)

1935: Julie Andrews (British actress/singer/author) [Camelot, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, Victor/Victoria, The Princess Diaries]

Deaths:
1588: Blessed Edward James (British Catholic priest/martyr)

1942: Ants Piip (Estonian Prime Minister)

1959: Enrico de Nicola (First President of the Italian Republic)

1985: E. B. [Elwyn Brooks] White (American author) [Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little]


Word of the Day: expediency \ek-SPEE-dee-uhn-see\
Etymology: From Latin expedire "to make ready, to set the feet free", from ex- "out of" + ped- "foot".
(noun)
1. Consideration of what is advantageous or easy or immediate over what is right.
2. The quality of being suited for a purpose.
Usage: "Political expediency means that a lot of planning is still short term."


Mistfox - who wishes she had a day she could just sit and read without having to do anything else, pout

Today is October 2nd. That means that it's the feast of Saint Leodegar.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: A search team found the wreckage of the airplane flown by adventurer Steve Fossett in the mountains of Madera County, California, and what appeared to be some of his personal effects nearby. Fossett had disappeared on September 3, 2007. Fossett's remains were discovered later in the month.

2002: The Beltway sniper attacks began, extending over three weeks.

1967: Thurgood Marshall was sworn in as the first African-American justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

1950: Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz was first published

1944: Nazi troops crushed the two-month-old Warsaw Uprising, during which 250,000 people were killed.

1924: The Geneva Protocol was adopted as a means to strengthen the League of Nations.

1903: The first U.S. steam turbine of large capacity for commercial service was placed in service at the Fiske Street station of the Commonwealth Edison Co., Chicago, Illinois.

1836: Charles Darwin returned from his voyage on the HMS Beagle to the Pacific. It would be 23 years before he published Origin of Species.

1835: The Texas Revolution began with the Battle of Gonzales. Mexican soldiers attempted to disarm the people of Gonzales, Texas, but encountered stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia.

1780: John André, British Army officer of the American Revolutionary War, was hanged as a spy by American forces. For all of you reading An Echo in the Bone.

1187: Saladin captured Jerusalem after 88 years of Crusader rule.

Births:
1452: Richard III (King of England)

1538: Saint Charles Borromeo (Italian cardinal)

1852: Sir William Ramsay (Scottish chemist) Discovered the "inert gases", neon, krypton and xenon, and co-discovered argon, radon, calcium and barium.

1869: Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi [Mahatma Gandhi] (Indian politician/spiritual leader)

1890: "Groucho" [Julius Henry] Marx (American comedian/actor) [You Bet Your Life, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, Duck Soup, A Night at the Opera]

1951: Sting [Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner] (English musician/actor]

Deaths:
1764: William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1780: John André (British Army officer)

1985: Rock Hudson [Roy Harold Scherer, Jr.] (American actor) [Pillow Talk, Ice Station Zebra, McMillan and Wife, Dynasty]


Word of the Day: mortmain \MOHRT-mayn\
Etymology: From Anglo-Norman mortmayn, feminine of morte "dead" + main "hand", from Latin mortua manus "dead hand".
(noun)
1. The perpetual ownership of property by institutions such as churches.
2. The often stifling influence of the past on the present and the living.
Usage: "Martins felt that somehow this knowledge would pay the mortmain that memory levies on human beings."


Mistfox - who ended up pretty much just sitting and reading yesterday

Today is October 3rd. That means that it's the feast of Saint Mother Theodore Guérin and Saint Ewald.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Former football star O.J. Simpson was found guilty of robbing two sports-memorabilia dealers at gunpoint in a Las Vegas hotel room. (He was later sentenced to nine to 33 years in prison.)

2008: President Bush signed the $700 billion bailout bill for the US financial system.

2002: Five people were killed in random shootings in the Washington, D.C., area within a 14-hour period. Authorities began to search for the "Beltway Sniper."

1995: O. J. Simpson was acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

1981: The Hunger Strike by Provisional Irish Republican Army and Irish National Liberation Army prisoners at the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland ended after seven months and ten deaths.

1955: Captain Kangaroo debuted on the CBS television network. Too bad we don't have a "dropping ping-pong balls" smilie.

1947: After 11 years of grinding and polishing a 200-inch diameter telescope lens for the Mount Palomar Observatory was completed at the California Institute of Technology.

1942: The first successful launch of a V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany took place. It was the first man-made object to reach space.

1941: Adolf Hitler declared in a speech in Berlin that Russia had been "broken" and would "never rise again."

1929: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was renamed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, "Land of the South Slavs".

1863: The last Thursday in November was declared as Thanksgiving Day by President Abraham Lincoln as were Thursdays, November 30, 1865 and November 29, 1866.

1845: The U.S. Naval Academy was first opened.

1712: The Duke of Montrose issued a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor.

1283: Dafydd ap Gruffydd, prince of Gwynedd in Wales, became the first person executed by being hanged, drawn and quartered.

52 BCE: Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, surrendered to the Romans under Julius Caesar, ending the siege and Battle of Alesia.

Births:
1900: Thomas Wolfe (American author) [Look Homeward, Angel; Of Time and the River; You Can't Go Home Again]

1916: James Francis Pantridge (Irish cardiologist) Developed the life-saving portable defibrillator.

1916: James Herriot [James Alfred Wight] (English veterinarian/author) [All Creatures Great and Small, Every Living Thing)

1925: Gore Vidal [Eugene Luther Gore Vidal] (American author) [The City and the Pillar, Julian, Myra Breckinridge]


Deaths:
1226: Saint Francis of Assisi [Giovanni di Bernardone] (Italian friar/founder of the Order of Friars Minor]

1283: David ap Gruffydd (Welsh prince of Gwynedd)

1656: Myles Standish (English-born soldier)

1910: Lucy Beaman Taylor (American dentist) The first woman dentist in America to graduate from a dental college as a Doctor of Dental Surgery.

1929: Gustav Stresemann (Chancellor of Germany)

2003: William Steig (American cartoonist/children's author) [Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, Abel's Island, Doctor De Soto, Shrek]


Word of the Day: adjuvant \AJ-uh-vuhnt\
Etymology: From Latin adiuvans, adiuvant-, present participle of adiuvare, "to help".
(adjective)
1. Serving to help or assist; auxiliary.
2. Assisting in the prevention, amelioration, or cure of disease.
(noun)
3. A person or thing that aids or helps.
4. Anything that aids in removing or preventing a disease, esp. a substance added to a prescription to aid the effect of the main ingredient.
5. Immunology. A substance admixed with an immunogen in order to elicit a more marked immune response.
Usage: "Some people think the benefit of screening is huge, and others say that the reduction in death rates is due primarily to adjuvant therapy."


Mistfox - who is feeling lazy on her Saturday off, but has things that need to get done, sigh

Today is October 4th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Amun, and Saint Petronius of Bologna.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Mahir al-Zubaydi, senior commander for al Qaeda in Iraq for Bagdad east of the Tigris River, was killed by U.S. troops.

2004: SpaceShipOne won the Ansari X Prize for private spaceflight, by being the first private craft to fly into space.

2002: John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban," was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a federal judge in Alexandria, Va.

1991: The Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was opened for signature.

1965: Becoming the first Pope to ever visit the United States of America and the Western hemisphere, Pope Paul VI arrived in New York.

1958: The first trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner service was inaugurated by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) with flights between London Heathrow airport and New York Idlewild (now JFK) airport.

1957: Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth, was launched.

1931: The comic strip "Dick Tracy" by Chester Gould made its debut.

1910: A revolution deposed the Portuguese monarchy and the Portuguese Republic was declared. King Manuel II fled to the United Kingdom.

1830: The state of Belgium was created after separation from the Netherlands.

1777: During the Battle of Germantown, troops under George Washington were repelled by British troops under Sir William Howe.

1675, Dutch astronomer and physicist Christian Huygens patented a pocket watch.

1636: The Swedish Army defeated the armies of Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire at the Battle of Wittstock.

1537: The first complete English-language Bible (the Matthew Bible) was printed, with translations by William Tyndale and Miles Coverdale.

1363: The Chinese rebel forces of Zhu Yuanzhang defeated that of his rival, Chen Youliang, in one of the largest naval battles in history at the Battle of Lake Poyang.

Births:
1276: Margaret of Brabant (Queen of Germany)

1542: Robert Bellarmine (Italian cardinal/saint)

1822: Rutherford B. Hayes (President of the U.S.)

1861: Frederic Remington, American artist/author

1890: Dr. Alan L. Hart [Born Lucille Hart] (American radiologist/tuberculosis researcher/author) First known American female to male transsexual.

1926: Phar Lap (New Zealand racehorse)

1941: Anne Rice [Howard Allen O'Brien ] (American writer) [Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt]

Deaths:
1582: Teresa of Avila (Spanish saint)

1597: Sarsa Dengel (Emperor of Ethiopia)

1947: Max Planck (German physicist)

1989: Secretariat (American race horse)


Word of the Day: encumber \en-KUHM-ber\
Etymology: From Middle English encombren, from Old French encombrer, "to block up", from Late Latin incombrare, from in- "in" + combrus "barricade, obstacle," probably from Latin cumulus "heap."
(transitive verb)
1. To impede or hinder; hamper; retard: Red tape encumbers all our attempts at action.
2. To block up or fill with what is obstructive or superfluous: a mind encumbered with trivial and useless information.
3. To burden or weigh down: She was encumbered with a suitcase and several packages.
4. To burden with obligations, debt, etc.
Usage: "Encumbered by three suitcases and a purse, Lila was unable to climb the stairs"


Mistfox - who is going to see Rigoletto with the dh and dd this afternoon

One of the things I enjoyed while my girls were in Catholic school was the annual blessing of the animals near the feast day of Saint Francis. Regardless of your religious affiliation, this is a good day to let your pets know they are loved and appreciated. Here is one of the prayers used in some Blessing of the Pets ceremonies:

Today is October 5th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Faustina Kowalska, Blessed Francis Xavier Seelos, and Saint Thraseas.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany would explicitly guarantee the deposits in banks held by its citizens.

2005: Defying the White House, the Senate voted 90-9 to approve an amendment that would prohibit the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" against anyone in U.S. government custody.

2001: Robert Stevens became the first victim in the 2001 anthrax attacks.

1990: A jury in Cincinnati acquitted an art gallery and its director of obscenity charges stemming from an exhibit of sexually graphic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe.

1981: Raoul Wallenberg was made an honorary U.S. citizen.

1969: The first episode of the comedy show Monty Python's Flying Circus aired on BBC. And now, for something completely different.

1966: Near Detroit, Michigan, there was a partial core meltdown at the Enrico Fermi demonstration nuclear breeder reactor.

1962: The Beatles' first hit, "Love Me Do," was released in the United Kingdom.

1945: A six month strike by Hollywood set decorators turned into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios, known as "Hollywood Black Friday".

1931: Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon completed the first nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean, arriving in Washington state about 41 hours after leaving Japan.

1914: The first World War I aerial combat resulting in a kill took place.

1877: Chief Joseph surrendered his Nez Perce band to General Nelson A. Miles.

1665: The University of Kiel, in Germany, was founded.

0610: Byzantine Emperor Heraclius was crowned.

Births:
1338: Alexios III (Emperor of Trebizond)

1829: Chester A. Arthur (President of the U.S,)

1882: Robert Goddard (American rocket scientist)

1936: Václav Havel (Czech playwright/President of the Czech Republic)

Deaths:
1214: Alfonso VIII (King of Castile)

1285: Philip III (King of France)

1813: Tecumseh (Shawnee leader)

1938: Saint Faustina [Mary Faustina Kowalska, Helena Kowalska] (Polish nun/mystic)

1941: Louis D. Brandeis (American Supreme Court Justice) The first Jewish member of the Supreme Court.



Word of the Day: ecru \EK-roo, AY-kroo\
Etymology: From French écru "raw, unbleached", from Latin crudus "raw".
(adjective)
1. Of a pale brown color, like raw silk or unbleached linen; beige.
Usage: "This blouse is different because it's ecru, not taupe."


Mistfox - who enjoyed seeing Rigoletto and going out to dinner afterwards

Today is October 6th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Bruno, Saint Faith, Saint Mary Frances of the Five Wounds of Jesus, and Saint Sagar.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Harald zur Hausen of Germany for his discovery of the human papilloma viruses that can cause cervical cancer in women, and Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier of France for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV.

2000: Argentine vice president Carlos Álvarez resigned.

1981: Anwar al-Sadat, the President of Egypt, was assassinated.

1976: A coalition of right-wing paramilitary and government forces massacred students gathering at Thammasat University in Bangkok, Thailand to protest the return of ex-dictator Thanom, triggering the return of the military to government.

1966: LSD was declared illegal in the U.S.

1956: Dr. Albert Sabin developed the oral Polio vaccine.

1945: Billy Sianis and his pet billy goat are ejected from Wrigley Field during Game 4 of the 1945 World Series, leading to "The Curse of the Billy Goat".

1927: The Jazz Singer, the first prominent talking movie, debuted.

1908: Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1893: Millers in North Dakota created Cream Of Wheat, a hot cereal.

1889: The Moulin Rouge cabaret opened in Paris.

1854: The Great fire of Newcastle and Gateshead started shortly after midnight, leading to 53 deaths and hundreds injured.

1683: William Penn brought 13 German immigrant families to the colony of Pennsylvania, marking the first immigration of German people to America.

1600: Jacopo Peri's Euridice, the earliest surviving opera, received its première performance in Florence, signifying the beginning of the Baroque Period

105 BCE: At the Battle of Arausio, the Cimbri inflicted the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus.

Births:
1767: Henri Christophe (King of Haiti)

1846: George Westinghouse (American engineer/inventor/industrialist)

1908: Carole Lombard [Jane Alice Peters] (American actress) [My Man Godfrey, Vigil in the Night, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, To Be or Not to Be]

Deaths:
0877: Charles the Bald (Holy Roman Emperor/King of West Francia0

1101: Saint Bruno of Cologne (German priest/founder of the Carthusian order)

1892: Alfred Lord Tennyson (British poet)

1951: Will Keith Kellogg (American industrialist/philanthropist) Founded the W.K. Kellogg Company to manufacture cereal products as breakfast foods.

1981: Anwar Sadat (President of Egypt)

1989: "Bette' [Ruth Elizabeth] Davis, American actress) [The Man Who Played God, Of Human Bondage, Dangerous, Dark Victory, The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex, All About Eve]


Word of the Day: russet \RUS-it\
Etymology: From Old French rousset, diminutive of rous "red", from Latin russus, from ruber "red".
(adjective)
1. A moderate to strong brown.
2. Any of various articles in this shade: a homespun cloth, apple, potato, etc.
Usage: "Vieux Lyon is a mass of red, russet, and gray tiled roofs."


Mistfox - who is going in for her bi-annual mammogram today. Have you had a mammogram lately? October IS Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Today is October 7th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Justina, Saint Osyth, and Pope Saint Mark.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The Federal Reserve announced a radical plan to buy massive amounts of short-term debt, known as commercial paper, to get credit markets moving again.

2004: Cambodia's King Norodom Sihanouk abdicated because of poor health.

2001: The U.S. invasion of Afghanistan started with an air assault and covert operations on the ground.

1982: Cats opened on Broadway and ran for nearly 18 years before closing on September 10, 2000.

1958: President of Pakistan Iskander Mirza, with the support of General Ayub Khan and the army, suspended the 1956 constitution, imposed martial law, and canceled the elections scheduled for January 1959.

1954: IBM displayed a large all-transistor calculator needing only 5% of the power of comparable electronic ones.

1952: The bar code was patented.

1933: Air France was inaugurated, after being formed from a merger of 5 French airlines.

1931: The first U.S. short-exposure infrared photograph taken of a large group of people in apparently total darkness was taken in Rochester, NY at the Eastman Kodak Research Laboratories.

1916: Georgia Tech defeated Cumberland University 222-0 in the most lopsided college football game in American history.

1868: Cornell University held its opening day ceremonies. Initial student enrollment was 412, the highest at any American university to that date.

1777: The Americans defeated the British in the Second Battle of Saratoga, also known as the Battle of Bemis Heights.

1765: The Stamp Act Congress convened in New York to draw up colonial grievances against England.

1571: The Battle of Lepanto was fought, and the Holy League (Spain and Italy) destroyed the Turkish fleet.

0336: Pope Mark died, leaving the papacy vacant.

Births:
1885: Niels Bohr (Danish physicist)

1931: Desmond Tutu (South African archbishop)

1955: Yo-Yo Ma (French-born American cellist/composer)

Deaths:
0336: Pope Saint Mark (Roman pope)

1849: Edgar Allan Poe (American writer/poet) [Tamerlane and Other Poems, "The Raven", "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", "The Tell-Tale Heart"]

1919: Alfred Deakin (Prime Minister of Australia)


Word of the Day: burgeon \BUR-juhn\
Etymology: From Middle English burgeonen, from Old French borjoner, from burjon, "a bud".
(intransitive verb)
1. To grow or develop quickly; flourish.
2. To begin to grow or blossom.
(transitive verb)
3. To put forth, as buds.
(noun)
4. A bud; sprout.
Usage: "He often brought her seeds and young plants for her garden, which was beginning to burgeon with color."


Mistfox - who hopes she doesn't have to have her eyes dilated today

Today is October 8th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Palatia and Saint Laurentia.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Voters went to the polls in the Maldivian presidential election, the first democratic elections held in the Maldives, with six candidates including incumbent Maumoon Abdul Gayoom.

2001: U.S. President George W. Bush announced the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.

1974: Franklin National Bank collapsed due to fraud and mismanagement. At the time it was the largest bank failure in the history of the U.S.

1970: Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was named winner of the Nobel Prize for literature.

1969: The opening rally of the Days of Rage riot occurred, organized by the Weather Underground in Chicago, Illinois.

1958: Dr Åke Senning implanted the first internal heart pacemaker at the Karolinska Institute of Stockholm.

1956: New York Yankees's Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in a World Series; one of only 18 perfect games in MLB history.

1918: In the Argonne Forest in France, U.S. Corporal Alvin C. York led an attack that killed 25 German soldiers and captured 132.

1906: Karl Ludwig Nessler, a German, demonstrated the first "permanent wave" for hair, in his beauty salon in Oxford Street, London, to an invited audience of hair stylists.

1895: Queen Min of Joseon, the last empress of Korea, was assassinated and her corpse burnt by the Japanese in Gyeongbok Palace during the Eulmi incident.

1871: Four major fires broke out on the shores of Lake Michigan in Chicago; Peshtigo, Wisconsin; Holland, Michigan; and Manistee, Michigan including the Great Chicago Fire, and the much deadlier Peshtigo Fire.

1860: The telegraph line between Los Angeles and San Francisco was opened.

1806: Forces of the British Empire laid siege to the port of Boulogne in France by using Congreve rockets, invented by Sir William Congreve.

1600: San Marino adopted its written constitution.

1200: Isabella of Angoulême was crowned Queen of England.

0451: At Chalcedon, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor, the first session of the Council of Chalcedon began.

Births:
1890: Edward ["Eddie"] Rickenbacker (American pilot)

1895: Juan Perón (President of Argentina)

1920: Frank Herbert (American writer) [Dune]

1943: R. L. [Robert Lawrence] Stine (American author0 [Goosebumps, Fear Street]

Deaths:
0976: Jelena of Zadar (Croatian queen)

1793: John Hancock (American merchant/revolutionary)

1869: Franklin Pierce (President of the U.S.)

1895: Myeongseong [Queen Min] (Empress of Korea)

1967: Clement Attlee (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1992: Willy Brandt (Chancellor of Germany)


Word of the Day: umber \UM-buhr\
Etymology: Via French from Latin umbra "shade, shadow", which also gave us the words umbrella, umbrage, adumbrate, and somber. Umbria, a region of ancient Italy, has also been suggested as an origin for this term. The color burnt umber is made by roasting umber.
(noun)
1. A natural brown earth, used as a pigment; a reddish-brown color.
Usage: "'Seeing the red, blue, umber and yellow palettes,' Ms. Ross said, 'is like seeing an old familiar black-and-white movie suddenly, strangely colorized.'"


Mistfox - who not only had her eyes dilated, but had fluorescein pumped into her, yuck

Today is October 9th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Denis, Saint Ghislain, Saint John Leonardi, and Saint Louis Bertrand.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Montenegro and Macedonia recognized Kosovo, bringing the total number of United Nations members recognizing Kosovo to fifty.

2006: North Korea announced that it had conducted its first nuclear weapons test, drawing condemnation from around the world.

1986: The musical The Phantom of the Opera had its first performance at Her Majesty's Theatre in London.

1970: The Khmer Republic was proclaimed in Cambodia.

1967: A day after being captured, Marxist revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara was executed for attempting to incite a revolution in Bolivia.

1946: The Simmons Company of Petersburg, Va., manufactured the first electric blanket. Its price was $39.50.

1941: A coup in Panama declared Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango the new president.

1930: Laura Ingalls became the first woman to fly across the U.S. as she completed a nine-stop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, Calif.

1919: The Cincinnati Reds "won" the World Series because of what became known as "The Black Sox scandal".

1888: The Washington Monument officially opened to the general public.

1837: A meeting at the U.S. Naval Academy established the U.S. Naval Institute.

1820: Guayaquil declared independence from Spain.

1776: Father Francisco Palou founded Mission San Francisco de Asis in what is now San Francisco, California.

1635: The founder of Rhode Island, Roger Williams, was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a religious dissident after he spoke out against punishments for religious offenses and giving away Native American land.

1604: Johannes Kepler and other observers saw the appearance of a "new" star in the constellation of Ophiuchus in the western sky, rivaling the brilliance of the nearby planets.

1003: Leif Erikson landed in L'Anse aux Meadows, Canada, becoming the first known European to reach North America.

Births:
1835: Charles-Camille Saint-Saëns (French composer/organist/conductor/pianist) [The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre, Samson and Delilah]

1873: Charles Walgreen (American pharmacist/entrepreneur0

1954: Scott Bakula (American actor) [Quantum Leap, Star Trek: Enterprise]

Deaths:
1273: Elisabeth of Bavaria (Queen of Germany)

1581: Saint Louis Bertrand (Spanish Dominican/missionary)

1897: Jan Heemskerk (Prime Minister of the Netherlands)

1967: "Che" [Ernesto] Guevara (Argentine physician/revolutionary/guerrilla leader)

1982: Anna Freud (Austrian psychoanalyst) Founder of child psychoanalysis and one of its foremost practitioners.

1995: Alec Douglas-Home (Prime Minister of the U.K.)


Word of the Day: sorrel \SOR-uhl\
Etymology: From Old French sorel, from sor "yellowish brown".
(noun)
1. A light reddish-brown color.
2. A horse of this color.
Usage: "The horse, a sorrel color male temporarily named Wildfire, is small and might make a good pasture companion for another horse."


Mistfox - who would gladly have stayed curled up under her electric blanket this morning if she had a choice

Today is October 10th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Thomas of Villanuevam, Saint Paulinus of York, Saint Viktor of Xanten, and Saint Cerbonius.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled that gay and lesbian couples have the right to marry in Connecticut.

2006: The Greek city of Volos floods in one of the prefecture's worst recorded floods.

1979: Hall-of-Famer Wayne Gretzky made his National Hockey League debut as the visiting Edmonton Oilers took on the Chicago Blackhawks.

1971: Sold, dismantled and moved to the United States, the London Bridge reopened in Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

1967: The Outer Space Treaty (Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies), signed on January 27 by more than sixty nations, came into force.

1963: The Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (LTBT), signed by Britain, America and the Soviet Union, came into operation.

1935: A coup d'état by the royalist leadership of the Greek Armed Forces took place in Athens. It overthrew the government of Panagis Tsaldaris and established a regency under military strongman Georgios Kondylis, effectively ending the Second Hellenic Republic.

1933: Procter & Gamble marketed Dreft, the first detergent with synthetic surfactants for home use.

1886: The tuxedo dinner jacket made its American debut at the autumn ball in Tuxedo Park, N.Y.

1845: In Annapolis, Maryland, the Naval School (later renamed the United States Naval Academy) opened with 50 midshipmen students and seven professors.

1580: After a three-day siege, the English Army beheaded over 600 Irish and Papal soldiers and civilians at Dún an Óir, Ireland.

0680: At the Battle of Karbala, forces under Caliph Yazid I decapitated Hussain bin Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Muslims commemorate this as Aashurah.

Births:
1684: Antoine Watteau (French painter)

1813: Giuseppe Verdi (Italian composer) [Rigoletto, La traviata]

1917: Thelonious Monk (American jazz pianist)

1942: Radu Vasile (Romanian Prime Minister)

1946: Mildred Grieveson [Anne Mather, Caroline Fleming, Cardine Fleming] (English writer) [The Millionaire's Virgin, The Greek Tycoon's Pregnant Wife, Long Nights Loving. The Devil in Velvet]

1950: Nora Roberts [Eleanor Marie Robertson, J.D. Robb] (American novelist) Do I really need to list titles she's written?

1955: David Lee Roth (American singer) [Van Halen]

1969: Brett Favre (American football player)

Deaths:
0019: Germanicus (Roman general)

0680: Husayn ibn Ali (Shi'a Imam/Muhammad's grandson)

1911: Jack Daniel (American Distiller) Founder of Jack Daniel's Tennessee whiskey distillery.

1913: Katsura Taro (Prime Minister of Japan)

1985: [George] Orson Welles (American director/actor) [Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Ambersons, The War of the Worlds]


Word of the Day: reverie \REV-uh-ree\
Etymology: From Middle English, revelry, from Old French, from rever, "to dream".
(noun)
1. A state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing.
2. A daydream.
3. A fantastic, visionary, or impractical idea.
4. Music. An instrumental composition of a vague and dreamy character.
Usage: "He was pulled out of his reverie by the buzzing of his cell phone."


Mistfox - who has teen bookclub today and wonders if anyone will show up

I'd have liked teen bookclub when I was a teen. Pity we didn't have any.

And yay for Connecticut!

Today is October 11th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Andronicus, Saint Probus, Saint Tarachus, Saint Alexander Sauli, Saint Damien of Molokai, and blessed Pope John XXIII.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Singapore Police Commissioner Khoo Boon Hui was elected the new president of Interpol.

2001: The Polaroid Corporation filed for federal bankruptcy protection.

1998: Pope John Paul II canonized the first Jewish-born saint of the modern era: Edith Stein, a Catholic nun killed at Auschwitz.

1986: U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev met in Reykjavík, Iceland, in an effort to continue discussions about scaling back their intermediate missile arsenals in Europe.

1975: The NBC sketch comedy/variety show Saturday Night Live debuted with George Carlin as the host and Andy Kaufman, Janis Ian and Billy Preston as guests.

1968: Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, was launched with astronauts Wally Schirra, Donn Fulton Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham aboard.

1962: Pope John XXIII convened the first ecumenical council (the Second Vatican Council) of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

1957: The Jodrell Bank radio telescope, the world's largest radio telescope, designed by Sir Bernard Lovell, began operating.

1954: The Viet Minh took control of North Vietnam during the First Indochina War.

1929: JC Penney opened store #1252 in Milford, Delaware, making it a nationwide company with stores in all 48 U.S. states.

1890: In Washington, DC, the Daughters of the American Revolution was founded.

1862: In the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart and his men looted Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during a raid into the north.

1809: Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis died under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder's Stand.

1727: George II and Caroline of Ansbach were crowned King and Queen of Great Britain.

1614: Adriaen Block and 12 Amsterdam merchants petitioned the States General for exclusive trading rights in the New Netherland colony (part of modern New England).

Births:
1335: Taejo of Joseon (Ruler of Korea)

1884: Eleanor Roosevelt (First Lady of the U.S./humanitarian)

Deaths:
1809: Meriwether Lewis (American soldier/explorer)

2007: Werner von Trapp (Member of the Trapp Family Singers)


Word of the Day: obtuse \uhb-TOOS, -TYOOS\
Etymology: From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin obtusus, past participle of obtundere, "to blunt".
(adjective)
1. Not quick or alert in perception, feeling, or intellect; not sensitive or observant; dull.
2. Not sharp, acute, or pointed; blunt in form.
3. (of a leaf, petal, etc.) Rounded at the extremity.
4. Indistinctly felt or perceived, as pain or sound.
Usage: "A teacher has been told not to use AWAD (Wordsmith.org) by an obtuse school administration."


Mistfox - who had three teens show up for bookclub, which isn't bad but she'd hoped for more

Today is October 12th. That means that it's the feast of St. Heribert and Saint Wilfrid. It's also Columbus Day in the U.S.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: Alphonsa Muttathupadathu, a nun from Kerala, became India's first female saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

2008: North Korea said it would resume dismantling its main nuclear facilities, hours after the United States removed the communist country from a list of states that sponsored terrorism.

1999: Pervez Musharraf took power in Pakistan from Nawaz Sharif through a bloodless coup.

1986: Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited the People's Republic of China.

1979: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the first of five books in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy comedy science fiction series by Douglas Adams, was published.

1976: The U.S. swine flu vaccinations were halted in nine states after three elderly people in the Pittsburgh area suffered heart attacks and died within hours of getting the shot.

1971: "Jesus Christ Superstar," a rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice, opened on Broadway.


1970: U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that the U.S. would withdraw 40,000 more troops from Vietnam before Christmas.

1960: Nikita Khrushchev pounded his shoe on a desk at a United Nations General Assembly meeting to protest a Philippine assertion of Soviet Union colonial policy being conducted in Eastern Europe

1892: Students in many U.S. public schools first recited the Pledge of Allegiance, as part of a celebration marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus's voyage.

1850: Classes began at the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania, the first medical school entirely for women.

1822: Peter [Pedro] I of Brazil was proclaimed the emperor of Brazil

1792: The first celebration of Columbus Day in the U.S. was held in New York.

1773: America's first insane asylum opened for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia.

1492: Christopher Columbus's expedition made landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in the Bahamas. The explorer believed he has reached South Asia.

1398: The Treaty of Salynas was signed between Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Teutonic Knights, who received Samogitia.

Births:
1537: Edward VI (King of England)

1798: Pedro I [Pedro de Alcântara Francisco Antônio João Carlos Xavier de Paula Miguel Rafael Joaquim José Gonzaga Pascoal Cipriano Serafim] (First Emperor of Brazil/king of Portugal and the Algarves)

1968: Hugh Jackman (Australian actor/singer) [X-Men, Kate & Leopold, Van Helsing, The Prestige, Australia, The Boy from Oz]

Deaths:
1870: Robert E. Lee (American Confederate general)

1996: René Lacoste ["the Crocodile"] (French tennis player/businessman) He introduced the Lacoste tennis shirt in 1929.

2003: Willie Shoemaker (American jockey)



Word of the Day: curtilage \KUR-til-ij\
Etymology: From Old French courtillage, from courtil "garden", from cort "court".
(noun)
1. An area of land encompassing a dwelling and its surrounding yard, considered as enclosed whether fenced or not.
Usage: "Obtaining a licence to step out beyond the curtilage of the site was critical to the feasibility of this concept."


Mistfox - who is having a lazy start to the day since the dh is off for Columbus Day

Today is October 13th. That means that it's the feast of Saint Edward the Confessor and Saint Gerald of Aurillac.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.


2008: A second wildfire broke out in the hills above Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley prompting mandatory evacuations. Santa Ana winds caused an existing fire in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles to flare up resulting in the closure of two freeways.

1999: The JonBenet Ramsey grand jury was dismissed after 13 months; prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence to charge anyone in the 6-year-old's strangulation.

1981: Egyptians voted in a referendum to elect Vice President Hosni Mubarak the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

1976: Dr. F.A. Murphy, who was then working at the C.D.C, obtained the first electron micrograph of an Ebola viral particle..

1962: The Pacific Northwest experienced a cyclone the equal of a Cat 3 hurricane. Winds measured above 150mph at several locations and 46 people died.

1960: Richard M. Nixon and John F. Kennedy participated in the third televised debate of the presidential campaign, with Nixon in Hollywood, Calif., and Kennedy in New York.

1923: Ankara replaced Istanbul as the capital of Turkey.

1892: Edward Emerson Barnard discovered D/1892 T1, the first comet discovered by photographic means, on the night of October 13-14.

1860: The first successful aerial photograph in the U.S. was taken over Boston by James Wallace Black in a balloon, The Queen of the Air, with Samuel Archer King as navigator held by a cable 1,200 feet above the city.

1845: A majority of voters in the Republic of Texas approved a proposed constitution, which if accepted by the U.S. Congress, would make Texas a U.S. state.

1792: In Washington, D.C., the cornerstone of the United States Executive Mansion (known as the White House since 1818) was laid.

1777: After his defeat on October 7, 1777, General John Burgoyne's Army at The Battles of Saratoga become surrounded by superior numbers, setting the stage for its surrender — which feat of arms inspired the Kingdom of France to enter the American Revolutionary War against the British.

1307: Hundreds of Knights Templar in France were simultaneously arrested by agents of Phillip the Fair, to be later tortured into "admitting" heresy.

Births:
1162: Leonora of England (Queen of Castile)

1244: Jaques de Molay (Grand Master of the Knights Templar)

1925: Margaret Thatcher (Prime Minister of the U.K.)

1941: Paul Simon (American singer/musician) [Simon & Garfunkel]

Deaths:
0054: Claudius [Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus] (Roman Emperor)

1706: Iyasus the Great (Emperor of Ethiopia)

1955: Manuel Ávila Camacho (President of Mexico)

1974: Ed Sullivan (American television personality)


Word of the Day: soffit \SOF-it\
Etymology: From French soffite, from Italian soffitto, from Vulgar Latin suffictus, past participle of suffigere, "to fasten beneath".
(noun) Architecture
1. The underside of an architectural feature, as a beam, arch, ceiling, vault, or cornice.
Usage: "In popular use, soffit most often refers to the material bridging the gap between a home's siding and the roofline, otherwise known as the eaves."


Mistfox - who is leading a discussion of Angels Fall at the library this morning

Is it sacrilegious to want to substitute Saint Edward the Confessor with Saint Edward the Cullen?

just askin..

Today is October 14th. That means that it's the feast of Pope Saint Callistus I, Saint Angadrisma, and Saint Fortunatus of Todi.


See why I used this smilie last year HERE.

2008: Indian novelist Aravind Adiga won the Man Booker Prize for his debut The White Tiger.

2003: John Allen Muhammad pleaded innocent to murder in the Washington-area sniper case. (He was later convicted and sentenced to death.)

1994: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres received the Nobel Peace Prize.

1979: The first Gay Rights March on Washington, D.C., the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights, demanded "an end to all social, economic, judicial, and legal oppression of lesbian and gay people," and drew 200,000 people.

1968: The rebuilt Euston railway station in London opened.

1966: The city of Montreal inaugurated the Montreal Metro.

1960: Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kennedy suggested formation of a Peace Corps during a talk at the University of Michigan.

1958: The District of Columbia Bar Association voted to accept black Americans as members.

1947: Chuck Yeager, became the first human to fly faster than the speed of sound, breaking through the sound barrier in a rocket powered Bell XS-1 airplane over Murac Dry Lake, California.

1944: Athens was liberated by British troops entering the city and the Greek government-in-exile returned, with George Papandreou at its head

1912: While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, former president Theodore Roosevelt was shot by saloonkeeper John Schrank. With a fresh flesh wound and the bullet still in him, Roosevelt still delivered his scheduled speech.

1882: The University of the Punjab was founded in present day Pakistan.

1840: Maronite leader Bashir II surrendered to the British forces and went into exile in Malta.

1773: The United Kingdom's East India Company tea ships' cargo was burned at Annapolis, Maryland.

1656: Massachusetts enacted the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). They regarded the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive.

1066: On Senlac Hill in England, seven miles from Hastings, the forces of William the Conqueror defeated the English army and killed King Harold II of England.

Births:
1404: Marie of Anjou (Queen of France)

1643: Bahadur Shah I (Mughal Emperor of India)

1644: William Penn (English founder of Pennsylvania)

1890: Dwight D. Eisenhower (U.S. general/President of the U.S.)

1938: Farah Diba (Empress of Iran)

Deaths:
1066: Harold Godwinson (King of England)

1711: Tewoflos (Emperor of Ethiopia)

1959: Errol Flynn (Australian actor) [Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Dawn Patrol, Dodge City, The Sea Hawk]

1997: Harold Robbins [Harold Rubin] (American novelist) [The Dream Merchants, A Stone for Danny Fisher, The Carpetbaggers, Tycoon]


Word of the Day: barratry \BAR-uh-tree\
Etymology: From Anglo-French baraterie "deception", from barater "to cheat", from Vulgar Latin prattare, from Greek prattein "to do".
(noun)
1. The practice of stirring up of groundless lawsuits.
2. An unlawful act by a ship's master or crew that harms the owner of the ship.
3. The buying or selling of positions in church or state.
Usage: "A man with the same legal name as the lead character in the 1960s TV law show Perry Mason is charged with barratry. He allegedly tried to solicit former jail inmates for legal services."


Mistfox - who doesn’t think vampires can be saints because they have to be dead first (Besides, what’d he be saint of, stalkers?)

This is going to make me want to watch "The Right Stuff" now. Excellent movie.