Category Archives: Presidential History

October 25 is:

National Greasy Foods Day

Feast Day of Saints Crispin and Crispinian, patron saints of cobblers, curriers, tanners, and leather workers. It is said that they were brothers who spread Christianity during the day and made shoes at night to support themselves. They were tortured and thrown into the river with millstones around their necks. Though they survived, they were beheaded by the Emperor on October 25th, 285 or 286.

“St. Crispin’s Day” is referred to by William Shakespeare in Henry V describing the battle of Agincourt, from which we get the phrase “the band of brothers”.

Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember’d;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers

1825 Birthday of Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer. Compositions such as The Blue Danube helped establish Strauss as “the Waltz King” and earned him a place in music history.

Birthday of Georges Bizet (October 25, 1838), French composer whose most famous work is the opera “Carmen”. Carmen has since become one of the most popular and frequently performed operas in the classical canon; the “Habanera” from act 1 and the “Toreador Song” from act 2 are among the best known of all operatic arias.

The Habanera

Birthday of Pablo Ruiz Picasso (October 25, 1881), Spanish-born painter and sculptor; founder of the Cubist school and leader in the surrealistic movement in France. Please visit Wikiart for pictures of his work.

Birthday of Richard Evelyn Byrd (October 25, 1888), American naval officer and polar explorer who made five important expeditions to the Antarctic. He was a recipient of the Medal of Honor, the highest honor for valor given by the United States, and was a pioneering American aviator, polar explorer, and organizer of polar logistics.

Former First Lady,Carolyn Harrison, wife of Benjamin Harrison, died on this day in 1892 of tuberculosis. She was the second First Lady to die while her husband was President, the first one being Letitia Tyler in 1842.

1929 Former Interior Secretary Albert B. Fall was convicted of accepting $100,000 bribe in the Teapot scandal. He was the first US Cabinet member to go to jail.

Fall was appointed to the position of Secretary of the Interior by President Warren G. Harding in March 1921. He had been a U. S. Senator from New Mexico. Soon after his appointment, Harding convinced Edwin Denby, the Secretary of the Navy, that Fall’s department should take over responsibility for the Naval Reserves at Elk Hills, California, Buena Vista, California, and Teapot Dome, Wyoming. This last setting became the namesake of the scandal to erupt in April 1922 when The Wall Street Journal reported that Secretary Fall had decided that two of his friends, oilmen Harry F. Sinclair (Mammoth Oil Corporation) and Edward L. Doheny (Pan-American Petroleum and Transport Company), should be given leases to drill in parts of these Naval Reserves without open bidding. His acceptance of bribes for the leases resulted in the Teapot Dome scandal.

From Today in Science
Microwave oven
In 1955, the first domestic microwave oven was sold by Tappan. In 1947, Raytheon demonstrated the “Radarange,” the world’s first microwave oven. Ratheon’s commercial, refrigerator-sized microwave ovens cost between $2,000 and $3,000. In 1952, Raytheon entered into a licensing agreement with Tappan Stove Company which had a consumer distribution and marketing infrastructure. In 1955, Tappan introduced the first domestic microwave oven, a 220-volt more compact wall-unit the size of a conventional oven, but less powerful microwave generating system. It had two cooking speeds (500 or 800 watts), stainless steel exterior, glass shelf, top browning element and a recipe card drawer. However, at $1,300 sales were slow.

2001 Microsoft released the Windows XP operating system.

October 24 is:

National Bologna Day
Foodimentary.com says:

Bologna sausage, sometimes phonetically spelled as baloney, boloney or polony, is a sausage derived from the Italian mortadella, a similar looking finely ground pork sausage containing cubes of lard, originally from the Italian city of Bologna.
Bologna can alternatively be made out of chicken, turkey,beef, pork, venison or soy protein.
Occasionally a slice of bologna is heated up so, as the fat renders, the round slice takes the shape of a bowl which may be filled with cheese or other fillings.
Sometimes referred to as garlic bologna, German sausage differs from traditional bologna due to various seasonings, most typically garlic being added to the recipe.
Kosher or halal bologna is typically made with only beef, but sometimes made from turkey, chicken or lamb.

1260 – The Cathedral of Chartres was dedicated in the presence of King Louis IX of France; the cathedral is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Chartres Cathedral, also known as the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres, is a Roman Catholic church in Chartres, France, about 80 km southwest of Paris and is the seat of the Bishop of Chartres. The cathedral is well-preserved for its age: the majority of the original stained glass windows survive intact.

The first transcontinental telegraph message was sent from California to President Abraham Lincoln in 1861. The U.S. transcontinental telegraph line linked the Atlantic and Pacific coasts by connecting the “Eastern connection” at Omaha, Nebraska with the “Western connection” at Carson City, Nevada.

The George Washington Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey was dedicated in 1931. The George Washington Bridge is the world’s busiest motor vehicle bridge, carrying over 103 million vehicles per year in 2016.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower pledged United States support to South Vietnam. in 1954.

From Today in Science
Nylon Stockings
In 1939, nylon stockings went on sale in the U.S. for the first time to employees at DuPont’s Wilmington, Delaware nylon factory. The modern materials revolution began in 1938 with DuPont’s commercialization of their nylon product, which was the first man-made fibre to be made exclusively from mineral sources. The company specifically intended to compete with silk in the women’s hosiery market. The fibre was strong, elastic, moth-proof and did not absorb moisture. Years of research led to enormous success. “Nylons,” as they were soon called, eventually replaced silk stockings. Covering only about two-thirds of a woman’s leg, from the feet to mid-thigh, stockings were fastened with garters and a belt.

October 23 is:

National Boston Cream Pie Day
Per Foodimentary.com
Boston Cream Pie was invented at Boston’s Parker House around 1912. Ho Chi Minh, the future Communist leader of North Vietnam, claimed to have been a dessert cook at the time.

A Boston cream pie is a cake that is filled with a custard or cream filling and frosted with chocolate.
Although it is called a Boston cream pie, it is in fact a cake, and not a pie.
Boston cream pie was created by Armenian-French chef M. Sanzian at Boston’s Parker House Hotel in 1856,
The Boston cream pie is the official dessert of Massachusetts, declared as such in 1996.
A Boston cream doughnut is a name for a Berliner filled with vanilla custard or crème pâtissière and topped with icing made from chocolate.

National Mole Day,an unofficial holiday celebrated among chemists, chemistry students and chemistry enthusiasts on October 23, between 6:02 AM and 6:02 PM, making the date 6:02 10/23 in the American style of writing dates. The time and date are derived from Avogadro’s number, which is approximately 6.02×10²³, defining the number of particles (atoms or molecules) in one mole of substance, one of the seven base SI (System of Units) units.

TV Talk Show Host Day : Comedian and talk show host Johnny Carson was born on October 23, 1925 in Corning, Iowa.

Feast Day of St. John of Capistrano: Swallows of Capistrano Day, the traditional day for swallows to leave the San Juan Capistrano Mission in California, to return on March 19. The American cliff swallow (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota) is a migratory bird that spends its winters in Goya, Argentina, but makes the 6,000-mile (10,000 km) trek north to the warmer climes of the American Southwest in springtime. According to legend, the birds, who have visited the San Juan Capistrano area every summer for centuries, first took refuge at the Mission when an irate innkeeper began destroying their mud nests (the birds also frequent the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo). The Mission’s location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest, as there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, and the young birds are well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church.

U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1861 suspended the writ of habeas corpus in Washington, D.C., for all military-related cases. Definition of habeas corpus = Medieval Latin meaning literally “that you have the body”) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, to bring the prisoner to court, to determine whether the detention is lawful.

1935 – Dutch Schultz, his accountant and two bodyguards were fatally shot at a saloon in Newark, New Jersey in what will become known as The Chophouse Massacre. Dutch Schultz (born Arthur Flegenheimer) was a New York City-area mobster of the 1920s and 1930s who made his fortune in organized crime-related activities, including bootlegging alcohol and the numbers racket. Weakened by two tax evasion trials led by prosecutor Thomas Dewey, Schultz’s rackets were also threatened by fellow mobster Lucky Luciano. In an attempt to avert his conviction, Schultz asked the Commission (governing body of the Mafia) for permission to kill Dewey, which they refused. When Schultz disobeyed them and attempted to kill him anyway, the Commission ordered his murder in 1935.

1941: The Disney animated classic Dumbo had its world premiere.

All 12 passengers and crewmen aboard an American Airlines DC-3 airliner were killed when it was struck by a U.S. Army Air Forces bomber near Palm Springs, California on this date in 1942. Among the victims was award-winning composer and songwriter Ralph Rainger (“Thanks for the Memory”, “Love in Bloom”, “Blue Hawaii”).

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

2001 Apple Computer Inc. introduced the iPod portable digital music player.

October 20 is:

World Osteoporosis Day

World Statistics Day

National Brandied Fruit Day
Foodimentary.com says:

Brandy is distilled from fruits such as grape, apple, blackberry, apricot and so on.
Based on the region and the fruit, brandy can be divided into several categories: Cognac, Armagnac, American Brandies, and fruit brandies.
The word brandy originally comes from the Dutch word brandewijn, which means burnt wine.
Long before the 16th century, wine was a popular product for trading in European region. In the early 16th century, a Dutchman trader invented the way to ship more wine in the limited cargo space by removing water from the wine. Then he could add the water back to the concentrated wine at the destination port in Holland.
Most brandy is 80 proof (40% alcohol/volume) and has been enjoyed for centuries as a cocktail and cooking ingredient.

Birthday of Sir Christopher Wren (October 20, 1632), English architect.

His greatest public building was Saint Paul’s Cathedral. Its construction, completed in Wren’s lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding program in the City after the Great Fire of London. It serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London for the Anglican Church. Services held at St Paul’s have included the funerals of Admiral Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher; jubilee celebrations for Queen Victoria; peace services marking the end of the First and Second World Wars; the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer; the launch of the Festival of Britain; and the thanksgiving services for the Silver, Golden and Diamond Jubilees and the 80th and 90th birthdays of Queen Elizabeth II.

1803 – The U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase with a vote of twenty-four to seven The Louisiana Territory was vast, stretching from the Gulf of Mexico in the south to Rupert’s Land in the north, and from the Mississippi River in the east to the Rocky Mountains in the west. Acquiring the territory doubled the size of the United States, at a sum of less than 3 cents per acre.

The Convention of 1818 signed between the United States and the United Kingdom which, among other things, settled the Canada – United States border on the 49th parallel for most of its length.

Birthday of John Dewey (October 20, 1859), American educator and philosopher whose watchword was “learn by doing”. He self-identified as a “democratic socialist”.

1882-Birthday of Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor best remembered for portraying Count Dracula in 1931.

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

Death of Herbert Clark Hoover in 1964, thirty-first President of the United States. He died at New York City at age 90. He died of massive gastrointestinal bleeding believed to be from a malignant tumor.

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

Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, was officially opened in 1973.

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October 18 is:

National Chocolate Cupcake Day
Per Foodimentary.com

Cupcake liners do more than make it easy to remove them from the pan. Traditionally, sides of tins are greased for easy removal, but also floured because the batter needs to have something to cling to. A cupcake liner takes care of both.
On August 15, 2009 GourmetGiftBaskets.com broke the world record for largest cupcake ever made. The cupcake was 1,224 pounds, 4 foot tall by 10 foot wide, and had 2 million calories.
The first mention of a cupcake recipe goes as far back as 1796. Amelia Simms wrote a recipe in “American Cookery” which referenced, “a cake to be baked in small cups”.
However, it wasn’t until 1828 that the actual word cupcake was used by Eliza Leslie in her cookbook “Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats”.

“Persons Day” in Canada.
From Status of Women in Canada

In Canada, the British North America Act (BNA Act) of 1867 set out the powers and responsibilities of the provinces and of the federal government. The Act used the word “persons” when referring to more than one person and “he” when referring to one person. Many argued the Act implicitly stated that only a man could be a person, which prevented women from participating fully in politics or affairs of state.

Governments also used the “persons” argument to keep women out of important positions. If the word “person” applied only to men, then the stipulation that only “qualified persons” could be appointed to the Senate of Canada meant that only men could be appointed.

In 1927, five women – who have since become known as the Famous Five – launched a legal challenge that would mark a turning point for equality rights in Canada. Emily Murphy, Nellie McClung, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby and Henrietta Muir Edwards were journalists, politicians, reformers and activists from Alberta who asked the Supreme Court of Canada to answer the following question: Does the word “person” in Section 24 of the BNA Act include female persons? After five weeks of debate, the Supreme Court decided that the word “person” did not include women.

Although shocked by the Court’s decision, the Famous Five did not give up the fight and took their case to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council of Great Britain in London, which was then Canada’s highest court of appeal.

On October 18, 1929, Lord Sankey, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, announced the decision:

“The exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours. And to those who would ask why the word ‘person’ should include females, the obvious answer is, why should it not?”

With this milestone victory, the Famous Five not only won the right for women to serve in the Senate, but also helped pave the way for women to participate equally in all aspects of life in Canada.

International Newspaper Carrier Day

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, lies in the northwest quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, reputed to have been built on the site of the crucifixion of Jesus. Constantine the Great first built a church on the site. It was dedicated about 336 CE, burned by the Persians in 614, restored by Modestus (the abbot of the monastery of Theodosius, 616–626), destroyed by the caliph al-Ḥākim bi-Amr Allāh about October 18, 1009, and restored by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomachus. In the 12th century the Crusaders carried out a general rebuilding of the church. Since that time, frequent repair, restoration, and remodeling have been necessary. The present church dates mainly from 1810.

United States took possession of Alaska in 1867 after purchasing it from Russia for $7.2 million. Celebrated annually in the state as Alaska Day.

The US took control of Puerto Rico on this date in 1898.
Columbus named the island San Juan Bautista, in honor of Saint John the Baptist, while the capital city was named Ciudad de Puerto Rico (“Rich Port City”). The island’s name was changed to Porto Rico by the United States after the Treaty of Paris of 1898. The anglicized name was used by the U.S. government and private enterprises. The name was changed back to Puerto Rico by a joint resolution in Congress in 1931.
During the Spanish–American War, the U.S. invaded Puerto Rico with a landing at Guánica. After the U.S. victory in the war, Spain ceded Puerto Rico, along with the Philippines and Guam, then under Spanish sovereignty, to the U.S. under the Treaty of Paris.

1919 Birthday of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Liberal Prime Minister of Canada 1968-1979, 1980-1984 and father of current Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau.

1939 Birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of President John F Kennedy in 1963.

1961: The acclaimed musical film West Side Story, an adaptation of a Broadway play, was released in American theaters; it won 10 Academy Awards, including that for best picture. It starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, and George Chakiris. The music was composed by Leonard Bernstein, with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim.

In 1982, former First Lady Bess Truman died in October 1982 of congestive heart failure at the age of 97 and is the longest-lived First Lady in U.S. history. Elizabeth Virginia Wallace was born on February 13, 1885 in Independence, MO. She first met Harry S. Truman in Sunday School when she was 5 and he was 6.

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October 15 is:

White Cane Safety Day, a national observance in the United States, celebrated on October 15 of each year since 1964. The date is set aside to celebrate the achievements of people who are blind or visually impaired and the important symbol of blindness and tool of independence, the white cane.

Red Wine Day One bottle of wine contains the juice of about 3 pounds of grapes
Per Foodimentary.com
The top three imported wines sold in the U.S. are Yellowtail (Australia), Cavit (Italy), and Concha y Toro (Chile).
The term bouquet refers to the total scent of the wine. Aroma is the scent of the grapes. When wine tasters want to describe the bouquet and the aroma together, they use the term nose.
In 2008, the top five wine-producing states in the U.S. were California (3.4 million tons of grapes crushed for wine), Washington (145,000 tons), New York (45,000 tons), Oregon (40,000 tons), and Pennsylvania (13,200 tons).
According to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, there are 100 calories in a 5-ounce glass of wine (compared to 150 calories in a 12-ounce beer).
The ancient Greeks had a wine glass to ensure the drinker’s moderation. If wine was poured above a certain level, the cup spilled its entire contents out of the bottom.

Birthday of Virgil; (October 15, 70 BC), Roman poet, author of “The Aeneid”, the national epic of Rome.

From Today in Science.com:
In 1783, Frenchman Jean Pilâtre de Rozier (1754-1785) made a tethered balloon ascent, in the gardens of La Muette. The Montgolfier-made balloon, Aerostat Reveillon, carrying Pilâtre, first man to leave the earth, rose to the end of its 250- ft tether. It stayed aloft for 15 minutes, then landed safely nearby.

1793 – Queen Marie-Antoinette of France was tried and convicted in a swift, pre-determined trial in the Palais de Justice, Paris, and condemned to death the following day.

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

Birthday of Friedrich Nietzsche (October 15, 1844), German philosopher, quoted as having said “God is dead.”
Other quotes include:

“The doctrine of equality! There exists no more poisonous poison: for it seems to be preached by justice itself, while it is the end of justice.”; and

“Everything in woman hath a solution. It is called pregnancy.”

Birthday of John Lawrence Sullivan (October 15, 1858 – February 2, 1918), known simply as John L. among his admirers, and dubbed the “Boston Strong Boy” by the press, was an American boxer recognized as the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing, de facto reigning from February 7, 1882, to September 7, 1892. He is also generally recognized as the last heavyweight champion of bare-knuckle boxing under the London Prize Ring Rules, being a cultural icon of the late 19th century America, arguably the first boxing superstar and one of the world’s highest-paid athletes of his era. Newspapers’ coverage of his career, with the latest accounts of his championship fights often appearing in the headlines, and as cover stories, gave birth to sports journalism in the United States and set the pattern internationally for covering boxing events in media, and photodocumenting the prizefights.

Birthday of Edith Bolling Galt Wilson (October 15, 1872), second wife of Woodrow Wilson; first lady 1915-1921. Following Wilson’s stroke in 1919, Edith Wilson took over many routine duties and details of the Executive branch of the government.

October 15, 1917 – Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed for espionage in France.

In 1951, the first episode of I Love Lucy, an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley, aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). The series ran until 1957.

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October 14 is:

Be Bald and Free Day
national lowercase day

Columbus Day: Celebrated on October 14 in 2024.

On October 12, 1492 – Christopher Columbus reached the Caribbean. It has been reported that from the monarch’s investment of $6000 in Columbus’ first voyage, Spain had a return of $1,750,000 in gold after only one century.

…from Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing, 1981

Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Thanksgiving has its roots in the European Harvest Festivals where people celebrated an abundant harvest and shared their food within their community.

National Dessert Day
The five most popular desserts in the U.S. are:

• Fudge
• Chocolate cake
• Chocolate chip cookies
• Brownies
• Ice cream

October 14, 1066 – The Battle of Hastings resulted in William the Conqueror taking over England.

Birthday of William Penn (October 14, 1644), Founder of Pennsylvania and famed leader of the Society of Friends (Quakers). William Penn and his wife, Hannah, are two of only eight people who have been made honorary citizens of the U.S.

Massachusetts Bay Colony enacted the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in 1656. The marriage of church-and-state in Puritanism makes them regard the Quakers as spiritually apostate and politically subversive. In all, from 1656 to 1661, at least forty Quakers came to New England to protest Puritan religious domination and persecution. During those five years, the Puritan persecution of Quakers continued, with beatings, fines, whippings, imprisonment, and mutilation.

American Revolutionary War: The United Kingdom’s East India Company tea ships’ cargo were burned at Annapolis, Maryland on this date in 1773.

Birthday of David Dwight Eisenhower (October 14, 1890), thirty-fourth president of the United States. Since his father was named David, the future president had always been called “Dwight”. He changed his name officially – some sources say in high school, some say at West Point.

The loblolly pine tree on the left side of the fairway at the 17th hole at Augusta National Golf Club is known as the Eisenhower Tree. He put his ball in the tree so many times he campaigned to have it removed. It stands to this day. The membership built a cabin for Eisenhower, one of 12 on the course. The cabin, built to Secret Service specifications, still stands on the course and is adorned with an eagle on the front porch.

1912 – While campaigning in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the former President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was shot and mildly wounded by John Schrank, a mentally-disturbed saloon keeper. With the fresh wound in his chest, and the bullet still within it, Mr. Roosevelt still carried out his scheduled public speech.

The children’s book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, was first published in 1926.

1947: American test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to break the sound barrier.

The Cuban Missile Crisis began in 1962: A U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance plane and its pilot flew over the island of Cuba and took photographs of Soviet missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads being installed and erected in Cuba.

1964: Baptist minister and social activist Martin Luther King, Jr., was named the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace, cited for his work involving civil rights and social justice.

October 13 is:

International Skeptics Day
National M&M Day
National Peanut Festival

• Nuts are healthier in their raw form. The reason is that over 15% of the healthy oils are lost in the roasting process.
• Studies show that people who eat nuts regularly live 2-3 years longer than those who don’t.
• The nut allergy is among the most common food allergies.
• Roasted nutshells were used as a coffee substitute during the civil war.
• Half of the world’s nuts are inedible or poisonous to humans.

The many peanut classes grown around the United States are Spanish, Runner, Virginia, and Valencia. Peanut production is divided into three major areas: the southeastern United States region which includes Alabama, Georgia, and Florida; the southwestern United States region which includes New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; and the third region in the general eastern United States which includes Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.

Jimmy Carter, the 39th U. S. President (from 1977 to 1981), had a family peanut-growing business in his home state of Georgia.

54 – Roman Emperor Claudius was poisoned to death under mysterious circumstances. His 17-year-old stepson Nero succeeded him to the Roman throne.

1775 – The United States Continental Congress ordered the establishment of the Continental Navy (later renamed the United States Navy).

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

From Today in Science
Greenwich prime meridian
In 1884, Greenwich was adopted as the universal meridian. At the behest of the U.S. President Chester Arthur, 41 delegates from 25 nations met in Washington, DC, for the International Meridian Conference. At the Conference several important principles were established: a single world meridian passing through the principal Transit Instrument at the Observatory at Greenwich; that all longitude would be calculated both east and west from this meridian up to 180°; a universal day; and studies of the decimal system to the division of time and space. Resolution 2, fixing the Meridian at Greenwich was passed 22-1 (San Domingo voted against, France & Brazil abstained). Greenwich lies on the River Thames, a few miles from central London.

1925 Birthday of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of Great Britain 1979-1990.

Paddington Bear, a classic character from English children’s literature, made his debut October 13, 1958.

October 11 is:

It’s My Party Day

National Sausage Pizza Day
About 93% of Americans eat at least one pizza every month.
About 350 slices of pizza are consumed every second in the United States.
The most pizzas are delivered (and eaten) on New Year’s Day, New Year’s Eve, Halloween, Thanksgiving Eve, and Super Bowl Sunday.
The three dots in the Domino’s Pizza logo represent the first three Domino’s Pizza stores.
Pepperoni is the most popular pizza topping in the United States.

Don’t eat blackberries after October 11:
According to The Telegraph
The heat, the rain and a luminous Indian summer have brought forth a rich harvest of blackberry enthusiasm, only slightly tempered by this week’s news that we should not pick them after next Sunday. (Legend has it that Lucifer fell from heaven and landed in a blackberry bush on October 11. Infuriated, he contaminated the bush by either spitting or urinating on it. Thus, blackberries are not safe to eat after that date.)

In 1809 – Along the Natchez Trace in Tennessee, explorer Meriwether Lewis died under mysterious circumstances at an inn called Grinder’s Stand, about 70 miles southwest of Nashville, Tennessee. Referred to as “undoubtedly the greatest pathfinder this country has ever known”, Thomas Jefferson appointed Lewis as Governor of the Louisiana Territory. Lewis assumed the post in 1808. During his brief time in this office, however, Lewis proved himself a poor administrator. He quarreled with the territorial secretary and local leaders, and failed to keep his superiors in Washington informed of his policies and plans. In September 1809 Lewis set out for the nation’s capital to answer complaints about his actions as governor. While on this trip he died a violent but mysterious death. He suffered multiple gunshot wounds to the head and chest. Whether he committed suicide, as Jefferson believed, or was murdered, as his family maintained, remains uncertain even today.

Birthday of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1884), wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, First Lady from 1933 to 1945. She served as official United States delegate to the United Nations

In 1910, former President Theodore Roosevelt became the first U.S. president to fly in an airplane. He flew for four minutes with Arch Hoxsey in a plane built by the Wright Brothers at Kinloch Field (Lambert-St. Louis International Airport), St. Louis, Missouri.

1975 Bill Clinton wed Hillary Rodham in Arkansas. Per brides.com, According to the Clinton House Museum, Bill wanted an extravagant wedding bash, whereas Hillary didn’t even want an engagement ring (well, she did get a house out of the deal, so not a bad trade)! The compromise? An engagement party where Hillary met all of Bill’s friends—and then a small, intimate wedding and a big reception party to follow. As far as a wedding dress, it is noted by the historical society that Hillary didn’t even have a gown ready to go the night before, so her (horrified!) mother ran her over to Dillard’s in the Fayetteville Mall—Hillary purchased a $53 Jessica McClintock Victorian lace gown, one of the first that she saw. In contrast, their daughter Chelsea’s wedding is estimated to have cost between $2 million and $5 million.

2002: The U.S. Congress passed a bill (the War Powers Resolution), by a wide margin, granting U.S. President George W. Bush broad authority to use force against Iraq.

October 8 is:

National Fluffernutter Day

A Fluffernutter is a sandwich made with peanut butter and marshmallow creme, usually served on white bread.
Variations of the sandwich include the substitution of wheat bread and the addition of various sweet, salty and savory ingredients.
The term fluffernutter can also be used to describe other food items, primarily desserts, that incorporate peanut butter and marshmallow creme.
The sandwich was first created in the early 20th century after Marshmallow Creme, a sweet marshmallow-like spread, was invented in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. Archibald Query of Somerville, Massachusetts, invented a product he called Marshmallow Creme in 1917, and Emma and Amory Curtis of Melrose, Massachusetts, invented Snowflake Marshmallow Creme in 1913.
During World War I, Emma Curtis published a recipe for a peanut butter and marshmallow creme sandwich, which is the earliest known example of a Fluffernutter.

The Erie Canal
In 1823, the Erie Canal was inaugurated at Albany, NY, upon the occasion of the first passage of a boat into the canal, although the entire canal was not yet completed. Cannon were placed on the hill near the mansion of General Ten Broeck and fifty-four rounds were fired in honor of each county in the state. The steamboats and other crafts in the river were trimmed with bunting and decorated gaily. The first boat entered the lock with state and local officials, followed by other boats, one of which was filled with ladies. The masonic fraternity ceremoniously laid the cap stone of the lock. A bottle of sea water, brought by the New York committee, was emptied, and mingled with the waters of the lakes and the river. About 40,000 people were present.

The Erie Canal is a 363-mile waterway that connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean via the Hudson River in upstate New York. The channel, which traverses New York state from Albany to Buffalo on Lake Erie, was considered an engineering marvel when it first opened.

Death of Franklin Pierce (October 8, 1869), fourteenth President of the United States. He died at Concord, New Hampshire at age 64 from cirrhosis of the liver.

Fire Prevention Day According to legend, on October 8, 1871 Mrs. O’Leary was in her barn, milking her cow. The cow kicked over a lamp, which started the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. The fire burned for over 27 hours. When it was over, more than 300 people were killed, 100,000 people were left homeless, and over 17,000 structures were destroyed.
In 1997 the Chicago City Council looked into the evidence, both new and old, and passed a resolution exonerating Mrs. O’Leary and her cow. Many still believe the cow was guilty.

The Great Chicago fire sparked major efforts in fire prevention. Forty years later, the Fire Marshall’s Association of North America(FMANA) held the first Fire Prevention Day. In 1920 , President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed Fire Prevention Week.

Capt. E.V. “Eddie” Rickenbacker wearing the Congressional Medal of Honor. (U.S. Air Force photo)

From Today in Science
Permanent wave
In 1906, a German, Karl Ludwig Nessler, demonstrated the first “permanent wave” for hair, in his beauty salon in Oxford Street, London, to an invited audience of hair stylists. The hair was soaked with an alkaline solution and rolled on metal rods which were then heated strongly. However, this method had the disadvantages of being very lengthy (about 5 hours) and expensive for each application. Also the machine was large and cumbersome, and the client was obliged to wear a dozen brass curlers, each weighing 1-3/4 lb. With the outbreak of WW I, he moved to the United States and opened salons in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Palm Beach and Philadelphia with a peak of 500 employees. Nessler also invented artificial eyebrows.

1982: The Polish legislature dissolved the trade union Solidarity, which subsequently became an underground organization and played a key role in ending communist rule in Poland, with its various leaders, notably Lech Wałęsa, later holding important government posts.

2004: American domestic lifestyle innovator Martha Stewart reported to a federal prison in West Virginia to begin her five-month sentence for insider trading.

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