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Monday October 20, 2014

  • Get Smart About Credit Day
  • Miss American Rose Day
  • Information Overload Day
  • National Brandied Fruit Day
  • Suspenders Day
  • National Call-In Day For Health Reform
  • Clean Your Virtual Desktop Day

  • Revolution Day-Guatemala
  • International Credit Union Day
  • Belgrade Day-Serbia
  • Kenyatta Day-Kenya
  • World Osteoporosis Day

  • On This Day
  • 1774 --- The new Continental Congress, the governing body of America’s colonies, passed an order proclaiming that all citizens of the colonies “discountenance and discourage all horse racing and all kinds of gaming, cock fighting, exhibitions of shows, plays and other expensive diversions and entertainment.” Since this proclamation included acting, dancing, singing, and the playing of music, all forms of entertainment and all theatre productions ceased.

  • 1811 --- Fulton’s steamboat, New Orleans, built in Pittsburgh, sailed down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. It was the first steamboat in western waters. Passage on the New Orleans was $30.

  • 1910 --- A baseball with a cork center was used in a World Series game for the first time. The Philadelphia Athletics (managed by Connie Mack) and the Chicago Cubs (managed by Frank Chance) played for the championship. (Philadelphia won the series 4 games to 1.)

  • 1927 --- The first Model A Ford was produced. First sale was on December 2, 1927.

  • 1930 --- One of the most memorable of all radio shows, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, was first heard on the NBC Red network. Its first entry, The Speckled Band, featured William Gillette in the role of the famous detective.

  • 1935 --- Just over a year after the start of the Long March, Mao Zedong arrives in Shensi Province in northwest China with 4,000 survivors and sets up Chinese Communist headquarters. The epic flight from Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, nearly twice the distance from New York to San Francisco.

  • 1944 --- Two liquid gas tanks explode in Cleveland, Ohio, killing 130 people. It took all of the city's firefighters to bring the resulting industrial fire under control.

  • 1947 --- The House Un-American Activities Committee opened hearings into alleged Communist influence in the motion picture industry.

  • 1952 --- The Mau Mau uprising against white settlers began in Kenya. 

  • 1953 --- Legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow found himself in a unique situation. On the CBS program, See It Now, Murrow focused on Lt. Milo Radulovich and sought to disprove the “guilty by association” position of Radulovich during the McCarthy hearings. The network and the program’s sponsors refused to promote the show because of the controversy. As a result, Murrow purchased his own ads to promote the program.

  • 1954 --- The musical "Peter Pan" opened. 
  • 1955 --- 'The Banana Boat Song (Day-O)' by Harry Belafonte was recorded.

  • 1962 --- 'The Monster Mash' by Bobby “Boris” Picket and the Crypt Kickers was number one on the music charts.

  • 1962 --- The White House press corps is told that President John F. Kennedy has a cold; in reality, he is holding secret meetings with advisors on the eve of ordering a blockade of Cuba. Kennedy was in Seattle and scheduled to attend the Seattle Century 21 World’s Fair when his press secretary announced that he had contracted an "upper respiratory infection." The president then flew back to Washington, where he supposedly went to bed to recover from his cold.

  • 1968 --- 21-year-old Oregonian Dick Fosbury wins gold—and sets an Olympic record—when he high-jumps 7 feet 4 1/4 inches at the Mexico City Games. It was the first American victory in the event since 1956. It was also the international debut of Fosbury’s unique jumping style, known as the "Fosbury Flop."

  • 1969 --- John Lennon released the song "Cold Turkey" as his second solo single.

  • 1973 --- Richard M. Nixon pulled out his presidential pistol and let ’em have it this night. Nixon was under heavy pressure to turn over some tape recordings he had made of conversations with various folks in the Oval Office. The taped conversations were regarding the break-in at the Watergate apartment/office complex in Washington DC. Special Watergate Prosecutor Archibald Cox, whom Nixon had appointed, was applying the pressure, thinking that there might be some interesting stuff on those tapes. So, the President asked U.S. 
    Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused, so Nixon fired Cox himself. Then, in protest, Richardson resigned. Nixon, a little peeved by now, fired Deputy Attorney General William D. Ruckelshaus, who also had refused to fire Cox. Unfortunately for the U.S. President, this Saturday Night Massacre, as it immediately came to be known, only made things worse. Nixon eventually did turn over those tapes; but since there were little pieces of dialogue mysteriously missing, suspicion about the President’s involvement in Watergate grew to the point where he resigned from office (August 9, 1974) rather than face (almost certain) impeachment.

  • 1973 --- "The Joker" was released by the Steve Miller Band.
  • 1973 --- After 15 years of construction, the Sydney Opera House is dedicated by Queen Elizabeth II. The $80 million structure, designed by Danish architect Jørn Utzon and funded by the profits of the Opera House Lotteries, was built on Bennelong Point, in Sydney, Australia. Famous for its geometric roof shells, the structure contains several large auditoriums and presents an average of 3,000 events a year to an estimated two million people.

  • 1977 --- Lynyrd Skynyrd vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines (Steve's sister) and road manager Dean Kilpatrick were killed when their plane crashed in Gillsburg, MS. The other four members of the band were seriously injured but survived the crash. 

  • 1984 --- The Monterey Bay Aquarium opened. Built on Cannery Row in Monterey, California on the site of an old sardine cannery, it is the world's largest.

  • 1995 --- Mallrats opened in U.S. theatres. It stars Jeremy London, Clair Forlani, Jason Lee, Shannon Doherty, Ethan Suplee, Joey Lauren Adams, Renee Humphrey, Ben Affleck, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes.

  • 2011 --- Moammar Gadhafi, Libya's dictator for 42 years, was killed as revolutionary fighters overwhelmed his hometown of Sirte and captured the last major bastion of resistance two months after his regime fell.

  • Birthdays
  • Bobby Seale
  • Arthur Rimbaud
  • Bela Lugosi
  • Mickey Mantle
  • Ellery Queen
  • Arlene Francis
  • Herschel Bernardi
  • Juan Marichal
  • Tom Petty
  • Viggo Mortensen
  • Snoop Doggy Dogg (Calvin Broadus Jr)
  • John Rausch

  • 293rd Day of 2014 / 72 Remaining
  • Winter Begins in 62 Days

  • Sunrise:7:23
  • Sunset:6:24
  • 10 Hours 1 Minute

  • Moon Rise:4:19am
  • Moon Set:4:48pm
  • Moon Phase:9%
  • Next Full Moon November 6 @ 2:22pm
  • Full Beaver Moon
  • Full Frosty Moon

This was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs. Another interpretation suggests that the name Full Beaver Moon comes from the fact that the beavers are now actively preparing for winter. It is sometimes also referred to as the Frosty Moon.

  • Tides:
  • High Tide:9:28am/9:42pm
  • Low Tide:3:02am/3:43pm