Saturday, March 31, 2012

March 31 - Cake




Cake


Will's First Birthday!
Always nice to see a man enjoy his work.


This Day In History
1889
The Eiffel Tower is officially opened.
1903
Richard Pearse allegedly makes a powered flight in an early aircraft.
1906
The Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (later the National Collegiate Athletic Association) is established to set rules for college sports in the United States.
1951
Remington Rand delivers the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
1992
The USS Missouri, the last active United States Navy battleship, is decommissioned in Long Beach, California.
1994
The journal Nature reports the finding in Ethiopia of the first complete Australopithecus afarensis skull.


Famous Birthdays
1596
René Descartes, French philosopher, mathematician (d. 1650)
1685
Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (d. 1750)
1732
Joseph Haydn, Austrian composer (d. 1809)
1844
Andrew Lang, Scots poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology.
1922
Richard Kiley, American actor and singer (d. 1999)
1927
William Daniels, American actor
1928
Gordie Howe, Canadian ice hockey player
1932
John Jakes, American writer
1934
Shirley Jones, American singer and actress
1935
Herb Alpert, American trumpeter and band leader
1943
Christopher Walken, American actor
1971
Ewan McGregor, Scottish actor

Friday, March 30, 2012

March 30 - Happy Birthday, Will!




Happy Birthday, Will!






This Day In History
1842
Anesthesia is used for the first time, in an operation by the American surgeon Dr. Crawford Long.
1867
Alaska is purchased from Russia for $7.2 million, about 2 cent/acre ($4.19/km²), by United States Secretary of State William H. Seward.
1909
The Queensboro Bridge opens, linking Manhattan and Queens.
1954
The Yonge Street subway line opens in Toronto. It is the first subway in Canada.
1982
STS-3 Mission is completed with the landing of Columbia at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.


Famous Birthdays
1746
Francisco Jose de Goya, Spainish painter, etcher, and printmaker (d. 1828)
1811
Robert Bunsen, German chemist (d. 1899)
1820
Anna Sewell, British author (d. 1878)
1853
Vincent van Gogh, Dutch painter (d. 1890)
1913
Marc Davis, American animator (d. 2000)
1922
Turhan Bey, Turkish actor
1930
John Astin, American actor
1945
Eric Clapton, British guitarist
1950
Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor and comedian*

* I shouldn't have told you that.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

March 29 - Time for a Book




Time for a Book



Overheard
[While helping E get ready for a walk]
D: You know, pretty soon, you'll have to get dressed by yourself.
E (patiently): It's not a dress, it's just a jacket.
 
This Day In History
1638
Swedish colonists establish the first European settlement in Delaware, naming it New Sweden.
1806
Construction is authorized of the Great National Pike, better known as the Cumberland Road, becoming the first United States federal highway.
1871
The Royal Albert Hall is opened by Queen Victoria.
1882
The Knights of Columbus are established.
1886
Dr. John Pemberton brews the first batch of Coca-Cola in a backyard in Atlanta, Georgia.
1957
The New York, Ontario and Western Railway makes its final run, the first major U.S. railroad to be abandoned in its entirety.
1974
NASA's Mariner 10 becomes the first spaceprobe to fly by Mercury.


Famous Birthdays
1668
Thomas Coram, Founder of the Foundling Hospital (d. 1751)
1790
John Tyler, 10th President of the United States (d. 1862)
1867
Cy Young, American baseball player (d. 1955)
1913
R. S. Thomas, Welsh poet (d. 2000)
1917
Man o' War, American thoroughbred racehorse (d. 1947)
1918
Sam Walton, American businessman (d. 1992)
1941
Joseph Hooton Taylor, Jr., American astrophysicist, Nobel laureate
1943
Eric Idle, English actor, writer, and composer
1967
John Popper, American musician
1968
Lucy Lawless, New Zealand actress and singer

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

March 28 - 2.5




2.5


Nap? Who needs a nap?


Nap? Who needs a nap?


This Day In History
193
Roman Emperor Pertinax is assassinated by Praetorian Guards, who then sell the throne in an auction to Didius Julianus.
845
Paris is sacked by Viking raiders, probably under Ragnar Lodbrok, who collects a huge ransom in exchange for leaving.*
1802
Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers discovers 2 Pallas, the second asteroid known to man.
1910
Henri Fabre becomes the first person to fly a seaplane, the Fabre Hydravion, after taking off from a water runway near Martigues, France.
1979
Operators of Three Mile Island's Unit 2 nuclear reactor outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania fail to recognize that a relief valve in the primary coolant system has stuck open following an unexpected shutdown. As a result, enough coolant drains out of the system to allow the core to overheat and partially melt down.
1990
President George H. W. Bush posthumously awards Jesse Owens the Congressional Gold Medal.


Famous Birthdays
1472
Fra Bartolommeo, Italian artist (d. 1517)
1515
Teresa of Avila, Spanish Carmelite nun and saint (d. 1582)
1793
Henry Schoolcraft, American geographer and geologist (d. 1864)
1811
Saint John Nepomucene Neumann, Bohemian-born American bishop and Roman Catholic saint (d. 1860)
1836
Frederick Pabst, American brewer (d. 1904)
1899
August "Gussie" Anheuser Busch, Jr., American brewer and baseball executive (d. 1989)
1944
Ken Howard, American actor
1955
Reba McEntire, American singer and actress
1972
Nick Frost, English comedian and actor
1981
Julia Stiles, American actress

* - Pillage, then burn.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

March 27 - New Vest




New Vest


Little Guy in Chris Woven Yoke Sweater

Man walks down the street in a vest like that, folks know he's not afraid of anything.


This Day In History
1613
The first English child born in Canada at Cuper's Cove, Newfoundland to Nicholas Guy.*
1794
The United States Government establishes a permanent navy and authorizes the building of six frigates.
1841
First US steam fire engine tested in New York City.
1851
First reported sighting of the Yosemite Valley by Europeans.
1871
The first international rugby football match, England v. Scotland, is played in Edinburgh at Raeburn Place.
1915
Typhoid Mary, the first healthy carrier of disease ever identified in the United States, is put in quarantine, where she would remain for the rest of her life.
1976
The first 4.6 miles of the Washington Metro subway system opens.
2004
HMS Scylla (F71), a decommissioned Leander class frigate, is sunk as an artificial reef off Cornwall, the first of its kind in Europe.


Famous Birthdays
1760
Ishmail Spicer, American composer (d. 1832)
1813
Nathaniel Currier, American illustrator (d. 1888)
1845
Wilhelm Röntgen, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1923)
1863
Sir Henry Royce, English automobile pioneer (d. 1933)
1868
Patty Smith Hill, American educator, author, and songwriter (Happy Birthday To You) (d. 1946)
1886
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, German architect (d. 1969)
1905
Elsie MacGill, Canadian aeronautical engineer (d. 1980)
1927
Mstislav Rostropovich, Russian cellist and conductor (d. 2007)
1942
Michael York, English actor
Michael Jackson, English writer (d. 2007)
1952
Dana Stabenow, American mystery and science fiction author
1963
Quentin Tarantino, American director, writer, and producer
1969
Pauley Perrette, American actress, photographer, poet, writer
1971
Nathan Fillion, Canadian actor


* - Well. Presumably to Mrs. Guy. Even in Newfoundland.


Monday, March 26, 2012

March 26 - Awake




Awake


What? I'm awake.

(More or less.)


This Day In History
1484
William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables.
1839
The first Henley Royal Regatta is held.
1845
Joseph Francis of New York City patents a corrugated sheet-iron lifeboat
1958
The United States Army launches Explorer 3.
1976
Queen Elizabeth II sends the first royal email, from the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment.
1979
Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C..
1982
A groundbreaking ceremony for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial is held in Washington, D.C..


Famous Birthdays
1773
Nathaniel Bowditch, American mathematician and navigator (d. 1838)
1859
Alfred Edward Housman, English poet (d. 1936)
1874
Robert Frost, American poet (d. 1963)
1879
Othmar Ammann, Swiss-born American bridge engineer (d. 1965)
1904
Joseph Campbell, American author (d. 1987)
1911
Tennessee Williams, American dramatist (d. 1983)
1931
Leonard Nimoy, American actor and director
1968
Kenny Chesney, American singer
1985
Keira Knightley, English actress

Sunday, March 25, 2012

March 25 - Play & Learn




Play & Learn


IMG_4431


This Day In History
421
Venice is founded at twelve o'clock noon, according to legend.
1306
Robert the Bruce becomes King of Scotland.
1634
The first settlers arrive in Maryland.
1655
Saturn's largest moon, Titan, is discovered by Christiaan Huygens.
1807
The Swansea and Mumbles Railway, then known as the Oystermouth Railway, becomes the first passenger carrying railway in the world.
1882
First demonstration of pancake making takes place in a New York City department store.
1913
The Palace Theatre, the home of vaudeville, opens in New York City.
1958
Canada's Avro Arrow makes its first flight.
1979
The first fully functional space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F. Kennedy Space Center to be prepared for its first launch.


Famous Birthdays
1347
Catherine of Siena, Italian saint (d. 1380).
1593
Saint Jean de Brébeuf, French Jesuit missionary (d. 1649)
1867
Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor, (d. 1957)
Gutzon Borglum, American sculptor (d. 1941)
1881
Béla Bartók, Hungarian composer (d. 1945)
1914
Norman Borlaug, American agriculturalist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 2009)
1920
Patrick Troughton, English actor (d. 1987)
1928
Jim Lovell, American astronaut
1947
Elton John, English singer and songwriter

Saturday, March 24, 2012

March 24 - Storage




Storage


2012-03-19_21-27-48_691

Daddy went to Ikea and got  us a jungle gym!


This Day In History
1603
James VI of Scotland becomes James I of England.
1707
The Acts of Union 1707 is signed, officially uniting the Kingdoms of England and Scotland to create the Kingdom of Great Britain.
1721
Johann Sebastian Bach dedicated six concertos to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, now commonly called the Brandenburg Concertos, BWV 1046-1051.
1896
A. S. Popov makes the first radio signal transmission.
1900
Mayor of New York City Robert Anderson Van Wyck breaks ground for a new underground "Rapid Transit Railroad" that would link Manhattan and Brooklyn.
1944
In an event later dramatized in the movie The Great Escape, 76 prisoners begin breaking out of Stalag Luft III.
1965
NASA spacecraft Ranger 9, equipped to convert its signals into a form suitable for showing on domestic television, brings images of the Moon into ordinary homes before crash landing.
1993
Discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9.


Famous Birthdays
1693
John Harrison, British clockmaker (d. 1776)
1834
John Wesley Powell, American explorer and environmentalist (d. 1902)
1874
Harry Houdini, (Erik Weisz), Hungarian-born magician (d. 1926)
1911
Joseph Barbera, American cartoonist (d. 2006)
1930
Steve McQueen, American actor (d. 1980)
1945
Robert T. Bakker, American paleontologist
1949
Nick Lowe, British musician
1974
Alyson Hannigan, American actress

Friday, March 23, 2012

March 23 - Friends




Friends


2012-03-22_10-38-40_78


This Day In History
1775
Patrick Henry delivers his speech – "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!" – at St. John's Church in Richmond, Virginia.
1806
After traveling through the Louisiana Purchase and reaching the Pacific Ocean, explorers Lewis and Clark and their "Corps of Discovery" begin their arduous journey home.
1857
Elisha Otis's first elevator is installed at 488 Broadway New York City.
1909
Theodore Roosevelt leaves New York for a post-presidency safari in Africa. The trip is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and National Geographic Society.
1962
NS Savannah, the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, is launched as a showcase for Dwight D. Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative.
1965
NASA launches Gemini 3, the United States' first two-man space flight (crew: Gus Grissom and John Young).
2001
The Russian Mir space station is deorbited, breaking up in the atmosphere before falling into the southern Pacific Ocean near Fiji.


Famous Birthdays
1645
William "Captain" Kidd, Scottish sailor (d. 1701)
1769
William Smith, English geologist and cartographer (d. 1839)
1887
Juan Gris, Spanish Cubist painter (d. 1927)
1904
H. Beam Piper, American science fiction author (d. 1964)
1910
Akira Kurosawa, Japanese film director (d. 1998)
1912
Wernher von Braun, German-born physicist and engineer (d. 1977)
1929
Sir Roger Bannister, English runner
1949
Ric Ocasek, American musician (The Cars)
1951
Ron Jaworski, American football player and analyst
1955
Moses Malone, American basketball player

Thursday, March 22, 2012

March 22 - Flight




Flight


2012-03-19_20-34-05_266


This Day In History
1638
Anne Hutchinson is expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony for religious dissent.
1888
In England, The Football League, the world's oldest professional Association Football league, is founded.
1960
Arthur Leonard Schawlow and Charles Hard Townes receive the first patent for a laser
1978
Karl Wallenda of The Flying Wallendas dies after falling off a tight-rope between two hotels in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
1982
NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center on its third mission, STS-3.
1993
The Intel Corporation ships the first Pentium chips (80586), featuring a 60 MHz clock speed, 100+ MIPS, and a 64 bit data path.

Famous Birthdays
1599
Anthony van Dyck, Flemish painter (d. 1641)
1846
Randolph Caldecott, British artist and illustrator (d. 1886)
1887
Chico Marx, American comedian and actor (d. 1961)
1908
Louis L'Amour, American author (d. 1988)
1930
Stephen Sondheim, American composer and lyricist
1931
William Shatner, Canadian actor
1946
1946 Rudy Rucker, American mathematician, computer scientist, science fiction author, and philosopher; one of the founders of the cyberpunk literary movement
1948
Andrew Lloyd Webber, English theatre composer
1976
Reese Witherspoon, American actress

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

March 21 - Shhh




Shhh...


2012-03-19_17-25-02_690

...people are reading.


This Day In History
1413
Henry V becomes King of England.
1871
Journalist Henry Morton Stanley begins his trek to find the missionary and explorer David Livingstone.
1928
Charles Lindbergh is presented with the Medal of Honor for the first solo trans-Atlantic flight.
1946
The Los Angeles Rams sign Kenny Washington, making him the first African American player in American football since 1933.
1952
Alan Freed presents the Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, in Cleveland, Ohio.
1965
Martin Luther King, Jr. leads 3,200 people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.
1999
Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones become the first to circumnavigate the Earth in a hot air balloon.


Famous Birthdays
1685
Johann Sebastian Bach, German composer (d. 1750)
1839
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Russian composer (d. 1881)
1867
Florenz Ziegfeld, American theater producer (d. 1932)
1904
Forrest Mars Sr., American candymaker (d. 1999)
1946
Timothy Dalton, British actor
1948
Scott Fahlman, American computer scientist*
1958
Gary Oldman, English actor
1962
Matthew Broderick, American actor

*  :-)


Tuesday, March 20, 2012

March 20 - Neighborly




Won't You


2012-03-19_17-23-36_271

...be my neighbor?


This Day In History
1852
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin is published.
1888
The premiere of the very first Romani language operetta is staged in Moscow, Russia.
1914
In New Haven, Connecticut, the first international figure skating championship takes place.
1916
Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity.
1923
The Arts Club of Chicago hosts the opening of Pablo Picasso's first United States showing, entitled Original Drawings by Pablo Picasso, becoming an early proponent of modern art in the United States.
1985
Libby Riddles becomes the first woman to win the 1,135-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.
1999
Legoland California, the only Legoland outside of Europe, opens in Carlsbad, California.


Famous Birthdays
43 BC
Ovid, Roman poet (d. 17 AD)
1813
Ned Buntline, American publisher (d. 1886)
1828
Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian writer (d. 1906)
1926
Mitsumasa Anno, Japanese children's author and illustrator
1928
Fred Rogers, American TV host (d. 2003)
1948
John de Lancie, American actor
Pamela Sargent, American, feminist, science fiction author & editor
1979
Freema Agyeman, British actress

Monday, March 19, 2012

March 19 - On the Stoop




On the Stoop




This Day In History
1895
Auguste and Louis Lumière record their first footage using their newly patented cinematograph.
1918
The U.S. Congress establishes time zones and approves daylight saving time.
1954
Willie Mosconi sets a world record by running 526 consecutive balls without a miss during a straight pool exhibition at East High Billiard Club in Springfield, Ohio. The record still stands today.
1979
The United States House of Representatives begins broadcasting its day-to-day business via the cable television network C-SPAN.
2008
A cosmic burst (GRB 080319B) that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed.


Famous Birthdays
1721
Tobias Smollett, Scottish novelist (d. 1771)
1734
Thomas McKean, American lawyer and signatory (d. 1817)
1813
David Livingstone, Scottish missionary and explorer (d. 1873)
1821
Richard Francis Burton, British explorer, diplomat and author (d. 1890)
1848
Wyatt Earp, American marshall (d. 1929)
1883
Joseph Stilwell, American general (d. 1946)
1927
Richie Ashburn, American baseball player and broadcaster (d. 1997)
1936
Ursula Andress, Swiss actress
1947
Glenn Close, American actress
1955
Bruce Willis, American actor
1958
Andy Reid, American pro football coach
1979
Sheldon Brown, American football player

Sunday, March 18, 2012

March 18 - St. Patrick




Happy belated St. Patrick's Day


Almost got it...


Overheard
The other night:
W (around a bite of Mommy's gyro): Yum!

This Day In History
1673
John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers.
1850
American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.
1910
First opera by a US composer (Converse's The Pipe of Desire) performed at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
1959
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a bill into law allowing for Hawaiian statehood, which would become official on August 21.
1965
Cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov, leaving his spacecraft Voskhod 2 for 12 minutes, becomes the first person to walk in space.
1989
In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found near the Pyramid of Cheops.
1990
In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.


Famous Birthdays
1603
King John IV of Portugal, composer, patron of music and the arts, and musicologist (d. 1656)
1782
John C. Calhoun, 7th Vice President of the United States (d. 1850)
1837
Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States (d. 1908)
1844
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer (d. 1908)
1848
Nathanael Herreshoff, American naval architect (d. 1938)
1858
Rudolf Diesel, German inventor (d. 1913)
1926
Peter Graves, American actor (d. 2010)
1927
John Kander, American songwriter
1938
Charley Pride, American musician
1950
Brad Dourif, American actor
1951
Ben Cohen, American ice cream maker
1960
Richard Biggs, American actor (d. 2004)
1970
Queen Latifah, American singer and actress
1980
Sophia Myles, English actress
1981
Tora Berger, Norwegian biathlete