FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (/ləˈsæl/; November 22, 1643 – March 19, 1687), was a 17th-century French explorer and fur trader in North America. He explored the Great Lakes region of the United States and Canada, the Mississippi River, and the Gulf of Mexico. He is best known for an early 1682 expedition in which he canoed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico; there, on 9 April 1682, he claimed the Mississippi River basin for France after giving it the name La Louisiane. One source states that “he acquired for France the most fertile half of the North American continent”.

La Salle is sometimes credited with being the first European to traverse the Ohio River, and sometimes the Mississippi as well. Although Joliet and Marquette preceded him on the upper Mississippi in their journey of 1673–74, La Salle extended exploration, and France’s claims, all the way to the river’s mouth, while the existing historical evidence does not indicate that La Salle ever reached the Ohio/Allegheny Valley.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

What was the first export of produce made by the first American settlers, and for whom was it made?Merchantable timber was the first product exported by the settlers. As early as 1640 beams, masts, spars, and planks for shipbuilding, and all sizes of lumber were sawed and split in huge quantities, shipped mainly to Britain, but also to far distant ports.

Advice of the Day

Robins arrive now with this advice: “Cheer up, cheer up, cheer up.”

Home Hint of the Day

You can mix concrete by hand in a wheelbarrow, but be careful to mix it well. If you’re planning to mix more than a few wheeelbarrows of concrete, you’re better off renting a small gas-powered cement mixer from a rental company.

Word of the Day

Evening starA planet that is above the western horizon at sunset and less than 180° east of the Sun in right ascension.

Puzzle of the Day

What two words have the most letters?Post office.

Died

• Pope Benedict VIII – 1024
• Frank Lloyd Wright (architect) – 1959
• Harry Babbitt (sang with the Kay Kyser big band on such hits as The White Cliffs of Dover” and voiced the laugh of Woody Woodpecker”) – 2004

Born

• Theobald Boehm (inventor and musician, who perfected the modern flute) – 1794
• Eadweard Muybridge (photographer, motion picture pioneer) – 1830
• Hugh Hefner (editor & publisher) – 1926
• Carl Perkins (musician) – 1932
• Dennis Quaid (actor) – 1954
• Seve Ballesteros (golfer) – 1957
• Cynthia Nixon (actress) – 1966
• Keshia Knight Pulliam (actress) – 1979
• Jesse McCartney (actor & singer) – 1987
• Kristen Stewart (actress) – 1990
• Elle Fanning (actress) – 1998

Events

• Great Britain’s King Henry I was reprimanded in church for his long hair– 1105
• Explorer La Salle claimed the Mississippi basin for France, calling it Louisiana– 1682
• First tax-supported U.S. public library founded, Peterborough, New Hampshire– 1833
• Confederate general Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union general Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia– 1865
• Jumbo the circus elephant arrived in the U.S.– 1882
• Aerial Ferry Bridge opened in Duluth, Minnesota– 1905
• The Boston Red Sox played Harvard University in the first official baseball game at Fenway Park. (The Sox won 2-0.)– 1912
• Battle of Vimy Ridge (WWI) began in France– 1917
• The Boston Celtics became the first NBA team to sweep an NBA championship series– 1959
• NASA introduced first seven astronauts to press– 1959
• Golfer Arnold Palmer won his third Masters Tournament– 1962
• Sir Winston Churchill proclaimed an honorary U.S. citizen– 1963
• First baseball game in indoor stadium, Houston, Texas– 1965
• Nature magazine published the longest known scientific name, which was about 207,000 letters– 1981
• Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles– 2005
• Rare Bactrian camel born at Budapest Zoo.– 2014

Weather

• Dust storm in Colorado and Wyoming– 1895
• F5 tornado hit Glazier and Higgins, Texas, and Woodward, Oklahoma– 1947
• Texas experienced a bad dust storm– 1956
• Sixteen inches of snow fell in Eastport, Maine– 1971

COURTESY www.almanac.com