April 30 - Having a Ball

Having a Ball

Overheard

[D has just gotten out a bag of pretzels]

E: Ooh! My favorite!

[beat]

What are those?

This Day In History

1006

SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus.

1492

Spain gives Christopher Columbus his commission of exploration.

1789

On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States.

1803

The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France for $15 million, more than doubling the size of the young nation.

1812

The Territory of Orleans becomes the 18th U.S. state under the name Louisiana.

1900

Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to make up time on the Cannonball Express.

1904

The Louisiana Purchase Exposition World's Fair opens in St. Louis, Missouri.

1927

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

1939

NBC inaugurates its regularly scheduled television service in New York City, broadcasting President Franklin D. Roosevelt's N.Y. World's Fair opening day ceremonial address.

1943

Operation Mincemeat: HMS Seraph surfaces in the Mediterranean off the coast of Spain to deposit a dead man planted with false invasion plans and dressed as a British military intelligence officer.

1967

The Aldene Connection opens in Roselle Park, NJ, shutting down the CNJ's Jersey City waterfront terminal and transferring commuters to Newark Penn Station.

1980

Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

1993

CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free.

Famous Birthdays

1651

Jean-Baptiste de La Salle, French educational reformer, Catholic saint (d. 1719)

1662

Queen Mary II of England (d. 1694)

1770

David Thompson, Canadian explorer (d. 1857)

1777

Carl Friedrich Gauss, German mathematician (d. 1855)

1812

Kaspar Hauser, German mystery boy (d. 1833)

1870

Franz Lehár, Austrian composer (d. 1948)

1896

Hans List, Austrian inventor (d. 1996)

1908

Eve Arden, American actress (d. 1990)

1916

Claude E. Shannon, American engineer and mathematician (d. 2001)

1933

Willie Nelson, American musician

1938

Larry Niven, American science fiction author

1961

Isiah Thomas, American basketball player

1982

Kirsten Dunst, American actress

April 29 - Hopscotch

Hopscotch

Family Birthdays

Uncle Joe Lacovara

This Day In History

1770

James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.

1882

The "Elektromote" – forerunner of the trolleybus – is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin.

1953

The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast showed an episode of Space Patrol on Los Angeles ABC affiliate KECA-TV.

2004

Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production.

2011

Wedding of Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and Kate Middleton.

Famous Birthdays

1727

Jean-Georges Noverre, French dancer, founder of modern ballet (d. 1810)

1769

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Anglo-Irish statesman (d. 1852)

1854

Henri Poincaré, French mathematician and physicist (d. 1912)

1875

Rafael Sabatini, Italian/British writer (d. 1950)

1899

Duke Ellington, American jazz pianist and bandleader (d. 1974)

1908

Jack Williamson, American science fiction writer (d. 2006)

1917

Celeste Holm, American actress

1925

Iwao Takamoto, American animator, producer and film director (d. 2007)

1931

Frank Auerbach, German-born British painter

1951

Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (d. 2001)

1955

Kate Mulgrew, American actress

1957

Daniel Day-Lewis, British-Irish actor

1960

Robert J. Sawyer, Canadian science fiction writer

1970

Andre Agassi, American tennis player
Uma Thurman, American actress

April 28 - Cupcake

Cupcake

Overheard

After dinner:
E: Can he (W) have some of my cupcake?

This Day In History

1503

The Battle of Cerignola is fought. It is noted as the first battle in history won by small arms fire using gunpowder.

1611

Establishment of the Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomas, The Catholic University of the Philippines, the largest Catholic university in the world.

1789

Mutiny on the Bounty: Lieutenant William Bligh and 18 sailors are set adrift and the rebel crew returns to Tahiti briefly and then sets sail for Pitcairn Island.

1910

Frenchman Louis Paulhan wins the 1910 London to Manchester air race, the first long-distance aeroplane race in England.

1930

The first night game in organized baseball history takes place in Independence, Kansas.

1947

Thor Heyerdahl and five crew mates set out from Peru on the Kon-Tiki to prove that Peruvian natives could have settled Polynesia.

1948

Igor Stravinsky conducted the premier of his American ballet, Orpheus, in New York City at New York City Center.

2001

Millionaire Dennis Tito becomes the world's first space tourist.

Famous Birthdays

1758

James Monroe, 5th President of the United States (d. 1831)

1878

Lionel Barrymore, American actor (d. 1954)

1900

Jan Oort, Dutch astronomer (d. 1992)

1906

Kurt Gödel, Austrian mathematician (d. 1978)

1911

Lee Falk, American comic strip writer (d. 1999)

1922

Alistair MacLean, Scottish novelist (d. 1987)

1928

Eugene M. Shoemaker, American planetary scientist (d. 1997)

1948

Terry Pratchett, English author

1960

Ian Rankin, Scottish novelist

1971

Bridget Moynahan, American actress

1973

Elisabeth Röhm, German/American actress

1981

Jessica Alba, American actress

April 27 - Twinkle

Twinkle, Twinkle

E thought W looked sleepy, so she sang to him.

C'mon, Dad!

This Day In History

1521

Explorer Ferdinand Magellan is killed in the Philippines.

1667

The blind and impoverished John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.

1749

First performance of Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks in Green Park, London.

1810

Beethoven composes his famous piano piece, Für Elise.

1967

Expo 67 officially opens in Montreal, Canada with a large opening ceremony broadcast around the world.

1981

Xerox PARC introduces the computer mouse.

2002

Last successful reception of telemetry from the NASA space probe Pioneer 10.

2006

Construction begins on the Freedom Tower for the new World Trade Center in New York City.

Famous Birthdays

1737

Edward Gibbon, English historian (d. 1794)

1759

Mary Wollstonecraft, English author and feminist (d. 1797)

1791

Samuel F. B. Morse, American inventor (d. 1872)

1822

Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States (d. 1885)

1896

Rogers Hornsby, American baseball player (d. 1963)
1898
 Ludwig Bemelmans, Austrian writer and illustrator of children's books (d. 1962)

1899

Walter Lantz, American cartoonist (d. 1994)

1922

Jack Klugman, American actor
Sheila Scott, English aviatrix (d. 1988)

1927

Coretta Scott King, American civil rights activist (d. 2006)

1937

Sandy Dennis, American actress (d. 1992)

1954

Herman Edwards, American football player and coach

1963

Russell T Davies, Welsh television writer

1975

Pedro Feliz, Dominican baseball player

April 26 - That's My Baby

That's My Baby

Overheard

E(to D): Cookie Monster's not a Muppet, you silly goose!

Family Birthdays

Uncle Dan St. John

This Day In History

1564

Playwright William Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

1607

English colonists make landfall at Cape Henry, Virginia.

1803

Thousands of meteor fragments fall from the skies of L'Aigle, France; the event convinces European science that meteors exist.

1923

The Duke of York weds Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at Westminster Abbey.

1956

First container ship left Port Newark, New Jersey for Houston, Texas.

1958

Final run of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's Royal Blue from Washington, D.C., to New York City after 68 years, the first U.S. passenger train to use electric locomotives.

2003

Mommy & Daddy got married, Jersey City, NJ.

Famous Birthdays

1697

Adam Falckenhagen, German lutenist and composer (d. 1754)

1718

Esek Hopkins, Commander of the US Navy during the Revolutionary War (d. 1802)

1785

John James Audubon, French-American naturalist and illustrator (d. 1851)

1798

Eugène Delacroix, French painter (d. 1863)

1812

Alfred Krupp, German industrialist (d. 1887)

1822

Frederick Law Olmsted, American landscape architect (d. 1903)

1834

Artemus Ward, American comic writer (d. 1867)

1862

Edmund C. Tarbell, American artist (d. 1938)

1888

Anita Loos, American writer (d. 1981)

1897

Eddie Eagan, American sportsman (d. 1967)

1910

Tomoyuki Tanaka, Japanese movie producer and creator of Godzilla (d. 1997)

1912

A. E. van Vogt, Canadian science fiction writer (d. 2000)

1917

I.M. Pei, Chinese-born architect

1933

Carol Burnett, American actress, comedian, singer, dancer and writer

1938

Duane Eddy, American musician

1942

Bobby Rydell, American singer

1943

Gary Wright, American singer

1947

Warren Clarke, British actor

1960

Roger Taylor, British musician (Duran Duran)

1963

Li Lianjie/Jet Li, Chinese martial artist and actor

1974

Ivana Milicevic, Croatian-American actress

1978

Stana Katic, Canadian actress

April 25 - Reading Group

Reading Group

This Day In History

1792

La Marseillaise is composed by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle.

1859

British and French engineers break ground for the Suez Canal.

1939

DC Comics publishes its second major superhero in Detective Comics #27; he is Batman, one of the most popular comic book superheroes of all time.

1953

Francis Crick and James D. Watson publish Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid describing the double helix structure of DNA.

1959

The St. Lawrence Seaway, linking the North American Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, officially opens to shipping.

1960

The U.S. Navy submarine USS Triton completes the first submerged circumnavigation of the globe.

1961

Robert Noyce is granted a patent for an integrated circuit.

1983

Pioneer 10 travels beyond Pluto's orbit.

2003

The Human Genome Project comes to an end two and a half years earlier than expected.

Famous Birthdays

1599

Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland (d. 1658)

1621

Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery, British soldier, statesman, and dramatist (d. 1679)

1710

James Ferguson, Scottish astronomer (d. 1776)

1874

Guglielmo Marconi, Italian inventor, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physics (d. 1937)

1900

Wolfgang Ernst Pauli, Austrian-born physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1958)

1908

Edward R. Murrow, American journalist (d. 1965)

1917

Ella Fitzgerald, American singer (d. 1996)

1932

Meadowlark Lemon, American basketball player

1933

Jerry Leiber, American composer

1940

Al Pacino, American actor

1945

Björn Ulvaeus, Swedish singer and songwriter (ABBA)

1950

Peter Jurasik, American actor

1964

Hank Azaria, American actor and voice actor

1969

Joe Buck, American sports broadcaster

Gina Torres, American actress

1970

Jason Lee, American actor

April 24 - Decisions

Decisions

This Day In History

1479 BC

Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut (according to the Low Chronology of the 18th Dynasty).

1704

The first regular newspaper in the United States, the News-Letter, is published in Boston, Massachusetts.

1800

The United States Library of Congress is established when President John Adams signs legislation to appropriate $5,000 USD to purchase "such books as may be necessary for the use of Congress".

1885

Sharpshooter Annie Oakley was hired by Nate Salsbury to be a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West.

1907

Hersheypark, founded by Milton S. Hershey for the exclusive use of his employees, is opened.

1913

The Woolworth Building skyscraper in New York City is opened.

1916

Ernest Shackleton and five men of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition launch a lifeboat from uninhabited Elephant Island in the Southern Ocean to organise a rescue for the ice-trapped ship Endurance.

1922

The first segment of the Imperial Wireless Chain providing wireless telegraphy between Leafield in Oxfordshire, England, and Cairo, Egypt, comes into operation.

1953

Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

1990

The Hubble Space Telescope is launched from the Space Shuttle Discovery.

2005

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI.

Famous Birthdays

1533

William I of Orange (d. 1584)

1581

Vincent de Paul, French saint (d. 1660)

1620

John Graunt, English statistician and founder of the science of demography (d. 1674)

1743

Edmund Cartwright, British inventor (d. 1823)

1815

Anthony Trollope, English novelist (d. 1882)

1882

Sir Hugh Dowding, commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain (d. 1970)

1900

Elizabeth Goudge, English writer (d. 1984)

1904

Willem de Kooning, Dutch painter (d. 1997)

1905

Robert Penn Warren, American poet (d. 1989)

1914

William Castle, American film director and producer (d. 1977)

Justin Wilson, American Cajun chef and humorist (d. 2001)

1923

Doris Burn, American children's books author and illustrator (d. 2011)

1930

Richard Donner, American film director and producer

1940

Sue Grafton, American author

1941

John Williams^*, Australian guitarist

1969

Melinda Clarke, American actress

* - Not that one.

April 23 - Ready for my Close-up

Ready for my Close-up

This Day In History

1014

Ard Rí na hÉireann Brian Boru defeats his enemies at Clontarf, but is killed in battle.

1348

The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St George's Day.

1910

Theodore Roosevelt made his The Man in the Arena speech.

1985

Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than 3 months.

Famous Birthdays

1141

King Malcolm IV of Scotland (d. 1165)

1564

William Shakespeare, English writer and actor (d. 1616)

1725

Saint Gerard Majella, Catholic saint (d. 1755)

1775

J. M. W. Turner, English painter (d. 1851)

1792

John Thomas Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer and physicist (d. 1882)

1858

Max Planck, German physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1947)

1891

Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (d. 1953)

1895

Dame Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand crime writer (d. 1982)

1923

Avram Davidson, American science fiction, fantasy, and crime writer (d. 1993)

1928

Shirley Temple, American actress and politician

1932

Jim Fixx, American athlete and writer (d. 1984)

1936

Roy Orbison, American singer and musician (d. 1988)

1939

Lee Majors, American actor

1962

John Hannah, Scottish actor

1967

Melina Kanakaredes, American actress

1977

Kal Penn, American actor

April 22 - A Helping Hand

A Helping Hand

Overheard

At dinner:
M: We should give E a b-a-t-h tonight.
E: Does that spells bath?
M&D: [stunned silence]

This Day In History

1519

Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico.

1876

The first National League game is played in Philadelphia.

1889

At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Run of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.

1964

The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair opens for its first season.

1969

British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.

1993

Version 1.0 of the Mosaic web browser is released.

1998

Disney's Animal Kingdom opens at Walt Disney World near Orlando, Florida, United States.

Famous Birthdays

1451

Isabella I of Castile (d. 1504)

1592

Wilhelm Schickard, German mathematician who invented a calculating machine (d. 1635)

1724

Immanuel Kant, German philosopher (d. 1804)

1832

Julius Sterling Morton, Arbor Day founder (d. 1902)

1840

Odilon Redon, French painter (d. 1916)

1891

Laura Gilpin, American photographer (d. 1979)
Harold Jeffreys, English astronomer (d. 1989)

1899

Vladimir Nabokov, novelist, professor, lepidopterist [O.S. 10 April] (d. 1977)

1904

J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (d. 1967)

1922

Richard Diebenkorn, American artist (d. 1993)
Charles Mingus, American musician (d. 1979)

1923

Bettie Page, American model (d. 2008)

1926

James Stirling, British architect (d. 1992)

1936

Glen Campbell, American musician

1937

Jack Nicholson, American actor

1943

Janet Evanovich, American writer

1944

Steve Fossett, American adventurer (d. 2007)

1950

Peter Frampton, English musician
Zygi Wilf, owner of the Minnesota Vikings

1951

Paul Carrack, English musician

1959

Ryan Stiles, American actor

1966

Jeffrey Dean Morgan, American actor

1982

David Purcey, American baseball player

1984

Michelle Ryan, English actress

April 21 - John Muir's Birthday

John Muir's Birthday

This Day In History

1794

New York City formally declares coast of Ellis Island publically owned, so they can build forts to protect New York City from British

1895

In New York City, the Eidoloscope Projector (aka the Panoptikon) was demonstrated for the NY press - one of the first public exhibitions of motion pictures in the world.

1934

The "Surgeon's Photograph", the most famous photo allegedly showing the Loch Ness Monster, is published in the Daily Mail.

1964

The Seattle World's Fair (Century 21 Exposition) opens. It is the first World's Fair in the United States since World War II.

1970

The Hutt River Province Principality secedes from Australia.

1982

Rollie Fingers of the Milwaukee Brewers becomes the first pitcher to record 300 saves.

1994

The first discoveries of extrasolar planets are announced by astronomer Alexander Wolszczan.

Famous Birthdays

1729

Catherine II of Russia, known as 'Catherine the Great' (d. 1796)

1774

Jean-Baptiste Biot, French physicist (d. 1862)

1816

Charlotte Brontë, English author (d. 1855)

1838

John Muir, Scottish-born American environmentalist (d. 1914)

1870

Edwin S. Porter, American film pioneer (d. 1941)

1915

Anthony Quinn, Mexican-born American actor (d. 2001)

1923

John Mortimer, English barrister and writer (d. 2009)

1926

Elizabeth II, Queen of the Commonwealth realms

1935

Thomas Kean, American politician

1947

Barbara Park, American author of children's books

1958

Andie MacDowell, American actress

1959

Robert Smith, British musician