December 8 - Who, Me?

Who, Me?

Overheard

[at preschool]
Miss Melanie: Will's so cute! Can I take him home?
E: [thinks for a minute] Only if you promise to bring him back.

This Day In History

1660

A woman (either Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall) appears on an English public stage for the first time, in the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare's play Othello.

1854

In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin.

1927

The Brookings Institution, one of the United States' oldest think tanks, is founded through the merger of three organizations that had been created by philanthropist Robert S. Brookings.

1953

United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers his "Atoms for Peace" speech, and the U.S. launches its "Atoms for Peace" program that supplied equipment and information to schools, hospitals, and research institutions around the world.

2010

With the second launch of the Falcon 9 and the first launch of the Dragon, SpaceX becomes the first privately held company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft.
The Japanese solar-sail spacecraft IKAROS passes the planet Venus at a distance of about 50,000 mi.

Famous Birthdays

65 BC

Horace, Roman poet (d. 8 BC)

1542

Mary, Queen of Scots (d. 1587)

1724

Claude Balbastre, French composer, organist and harpsichordist (d. 1799)

1765

Eli Whitney, American inventor (d. 1825)

1861

Aristide Maillol, French Catalan sculptor, painter, and printmaker (d. 1944)

1865

Jean Sibelius, Finnish composer (d. 1957)

1886

Diego Rivera, Mexican painter (d. 1957)

1894

James Thurber, American humorist and cartoonist (d. 1961)

1925

Sammy Davis Jr., American actor and singer (d. 1990)

1936

David Carradine, American actor (d. 2009)

1939

Sir James Galway, Northern Irish flautist

1946

John Rubinstein, American actor, composer, director
1959
Mark Steyn, Canadian writer and cultural critic
1964
Teri Hatcher, American actress
1976
Dominic Monaghan, English actor