Interrogatories
Did you ever participate in a Science Fair? What was your entry?
What food do you love most that does not love you back?
What do you find relaxing? Do you just kick back, or do you actually do something?
The Twitter Emitter
On This Day
In 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed.
In 1936, the United Auto Workers union staged their first sit-down strike.
In 1940, California's first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway, connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened.
In 1965, Ferdinand Marcos became President of the Philippines.
In 1977, Ted Bundy escaped from his cell in a Colorado prison.
In 1986, in Britain, canaries were phased out in mining pits and replaced with hand held gas detectors.
In 1994, a gunman shot up two Massachusetts clinics where abortions were performed (the press called them abortion clinics, but that is vastly overstating things), killing two women.
Born on This Day
1724 – Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, French painter (d. 1805)
1746 - François-André Vincent, French painter (d. 1816)
1788 - Édouard Pingret, French painter (d. 1875)
1819 – John W. Geary, 1st Mayor of San Francisco (d. 1873) and street namesake, he was also a governor of the Kansas territory and 16th governor of Pennsylvania. He really got around, didn't he?
1865 – Rudyard Kipling, English writer, Nobel laureate (d. 1936)
1865 - Émile Fabry, Belgian symbolist painter (d. 1966)
1903 - Cândido Portinari, Brazilian painter (d. 1962)
1906 – Carol Reed, English film director (d. 1976)
1910 – Paul Bowles, American composer and author (d. 1999)
1911 – Jeanette Nolan, American actress (d. 1998)
1917 - Nancy Coleman, American actress (d. 2000)
1914 – Bert Parks, American television host (d. 1992)
1914 – Jo Van Fleet, American actress (d. 1996)
1918 - W. Eugene Smith, US photographer (d. 1978)
1920 – Jack Lord, American actor (d. 1998)
1928 – Bo Diddley, American singer and musician (d. 2008)
1934 – Del Shannon, American singer (d. 1990)
1934 – Russ Tamblyn, American actor, dancer, and singer
1935 – Sandy Koufax, American baseball player
1937 – Noel Paul Stookey, American folk singer (Peter, Paul & Mary)
1942 – Michael Nesmith, American singer, songwriter, actor, and musician (The Monkees)
1945 – Davy Jones, English singer, songwriter and actor (The Monkees)(d. 2012)
1946 – Patti Smith, American singer and poet
1947 – Jeff Lynne, English musician (ELO)
1950 – Bjarne Stroustrup, Danish computer scientist, creator of C++
1959 – Tracey Ullman, English actress and singer
1961 – Sean Hannity, American wingnut talk radio and television host and lyin' sack of shit.
1964 – Duglas T. Stewart, Scottish musician (BMX Bandits)
1969 – Jay Kay, English musician (Jamiroquai)
1975 – Tiger Woods, American golfer
1980 – Eliza Dushku, American actress
Died on This Day
1672 - Hendrick Bloemaert, Dutch painter (b. 1601)
1788 - Francesco Zuccarelli, Italian rococo painter (b. 1702)
1839 - William Hilton the Younger, English painter (b. 1786)
1909 - Walter Shirlaw, British painter (b. 1838)
1911 - Grigoriy Myasoyedov, Russian painter (b. 1834)
1915 - Hugo Wilhelm Kauffmann, German painter (b. 1844)
1947 – Hans van Meegeren, Dutch painter, portraitist and art forger (b. 1889) (See Tipple Jar)
1969 - William Russell Flint, British painter (b. 1880)
1970 – Sonny Liston, American boxer (b. 1932)
1979 – Richard Rodgers, American composer (b. 1902)
1993 – Irving "Swifty" Lazar, American Hollywood talent agent (b. 1907)
1994 – Maureen Starkey, former wife of Ringo Starr (b. 1946)
1996 – Lew Ayres, American actor (b. 1908)
2002 – Mary Brian, American actress (b. 1906)
2004 – Artie Shaw, American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1910)
2006 – Saddam Hussein, former Iraqi Dictator, (executed for war crimes) (b. 1937)
2009 – Rowland S. Howard, Australian guitarist (The Birthday Party) (b. 1959)
Today is
National Bicarbonate of Soda Day
Relaxation Day
Festival of Enormous Changes at the Last Minute