September 28 is:
Drink Beer Day
National Strawberry Cream Pie Day
This light-as-air pie has sweetened cream cheese, fresh whipped cream, and plenty of strawberries piled high on a graham cracker crust. Strawberries are one of the few fruits with seeds on the outside.
Believed to be the Birthday of Confucius about 551 B.C. Some quotes:
- “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”
- “Silence is the true friend that never betrays.”
- “Life is really simple, but men insist on making it complicated.”
- “In a country well governed, poverty is something to be ashamed of. In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of.”
- “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.”
(Good King) Saint Wenceslas was murdered by his brother, Boleslaus I of Bohemia on September 28, 935.
In 1779, American Revolution: Samuel Huntington was elected President of the Continental Congress. While not known for extensive learning or brilliant speech, Huntington’s steady hard work and unfailing calm manner earned him the respect of his fellow delegates. As a result, when John Jay left to become minister to Spain, Huntington was elected to succeed him as President of the Continental Congress on September 28, 1779 which is one reason why he is sometimes considered the first president.
Napoleon Bonaparte (16) graduated from the military academy in Paris in 1785 (42nd in a class of 51).
1850 – The U.S. Navy abolished flogging as a form of punishment.
1850 – U.S. President Millard Fillmore named Brigham Young the first governor of the Utah territory. In 1857, U.S. President James Buchanan removed Young from the position.
1889 – The first General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) defined the length of a meter as the distance between two lines on a standard bar of an alloy of platinum with ten percent iridium, measured at the melting point of ice.
King Camp Gillette (Jan 5, 1855-July 9, 1932, and William Emery Nickerson invented the safety razor. Their innovation was the thin, inexpensive, disposable blade of stamped steel. Gillette is widely credited with inventing the so-called razor and blades business model, where razors are sold cheaply to increase the market for blades, but in fact he only adopted this model after his competitors did.
To sell the product, Gillette founded the American Safety Razor Company on September 28, 1901 (changing the company’s name to Gillette Safety Razor Company in July 1902). Gillette obtained a trademark registration (0056921) for his portrait and signature on the packaging. Production began in 1903, when he sold a total of 51 razors and 168 blades. By 1910, King Gillette was a millionaire. His portrait was printed on every package of blades, which gained him great celebrity. Sadly, Gillette lost most of his fortune in the stock market crash of 1929.
He said “If I had been technically trained, I would have quit.” He spent eight frustrating years striving to invent and introduce his safety razor.
From Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing Company, 1981
In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming noticed a bacteria-killing mold growing in his laboratory, discovering what later became known as penicillin.
1937 – FDR dedicated Bonneville Dam on Columbia River (Oregon). Bonneville Lock & Dam, built and operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, was the first federal lock and dam on the Columbia and Snake rivers. The project’s first powerhouse, spillway and original navigation lock were completed in 1938 to improve navigation on Columbia River and provide hydropower to the Pacific Northwest.