December 29 is:
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . five gold rings.
For the Catholic interpretation of the significance of each day of Christmas, see: crosswalk.com
National “Get on the Scales” Day
Pepper Pot Day
Birthday of Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808) 17th President of the United States. He became President upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Texas was admitted as the 28th U.S. state in 1845.
- Capitol: Austin
- Nickname: Lone Star State
- Bird: Mockingbird
- Flower: Bluebonnet
- Tree: Pecan
- Motto: Friendship
See our page Texas for more interesting facts and trivia about Texas.
U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House in 1848.
Bowling ball was invented in 1862.
Birthday of Henry P. DeForest (December 29, 1864),
According to Today in Science: Henry Pelouze deForest was an American gynecologist and surgeon who in 1902 established the first fingerprint file in the U.S., and invented the dactyloscope, a measuring device to analyze finger print patterns. Shortly after becoming its chief medical examiner, he was requested by the New York Civil Service Commission, to devise a system of personal identification to combat fraud at civil service examinations for police and fire department jobs. Hired stand-ins had been taking the test on behalf of candidates. A scandal resulted when a particular stand-in revealed he had taken the test for a dozen different candidates. DeForest first thought of utilizing the Bertillon anthropometric method, but instead adopted the simpler fingerprinting procedure used by Scotland Yard. This fingerprint file thus began for bureaucratic rather than criminal purposes. The first record was created on 19 Dec 1902.
December 29, 1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota killed by the US Army.
In 1896, “Lava” soap was trademarked by William Waltke & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri.
Christmas Music:
Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:
(by clicking the Windows Media Player icon button, a midi file will play [if it’s installed on your computer]. No music has been embedded.
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.)