FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (December 24, 1905 – April 5, 1976) was an American business magnate, investor, record-setting pilot, engineer, film director, and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and financially successful individuals in the world. He first became prominent as a film producer, and then as an important figure in the aviation industry. Later in life, he became known for his eccentric behavior and reclusive lifestyle—oddities that were caused in part by his worsening obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), chronic pain from a near-fatal plane crash, and increasing deafness.

As a film tycoon, Hughes gained fame in Hollywood beginning in the late 1920s, when he produced big-budget and often controversial films such as The Racket (1928), Hell’s Angels (1930), and Scarface (1932). He later took over the RKO Pictures film studio in 1948, recognized then as one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood’s Golden Age, although the production company struggled under his control and ultimately ceased operations in 1957.

Through his interest in aviation and aerospace travel, Hughes formed the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932, hiring numerous engineers, designers, and defense contractors. He spent the rest of the 1930s and much of the 1940s setting multiple world air speed records and building the Hughes H-1 Racer (1935) and H-4 Hercules (the Spruce Goose, 1947), the latter being the largest flying boat in history and having the longest wingspan of any aircraft from the time it was built until 2019. He acquired and expanded Trans World Airlines and later acquired Air West, renaming it Hughes Airwest. Hughes won the Harmon Trophy on two occasions (1936 and 1938), the Collier Trophy (1938), and the Congressional Gold Medal (1939) all for his achievements in aviation throughout the 1930s. He was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1973 and was included in Flying magazine’s 2013 list of the 51 Heroes of Aviation, ranked at No. 25.

During his final years, Hughes extended his financial empire to include several major businesses in Las Vegas, such as real estate, hotels, casinos, and media outlets. Known at the time as one of the most powerful men in the state of Nevada, he is largely credited with transforming Vegas into a more refined cosmopolitan city. After years of mental and physical decline, Hughes died of kidney failure in 1976. His legacy is maintained through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Howard Hughes Corporation.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

Late summer always brings black spot to my roses. Any suggestions?

Try a homemade solution. Combine 1 tablespoon baking soda and 1 gallon water in a spray bottle. Spray the plants regularly, and always after a rainstorm, to keep them constantly coated with baking soda. To help with next year’s crop, be sure to rake up all your rose leaves in the fall and compost or dispose of them. Black spot likes to spend the winter on fallen leaves and then resurface the following spring.

Advice of the Day

To avoid dying, never drive a nail after sunset.

Home Hint of the Day

To remove stubborn brown stains on old china, rub on a solution of equal parts vinegar and salt, then rinse.

Word of the Day

October

From the Latin word octo, “eight,” because this had been the eighth month of the early Roman calendar.

Puzzle of the Day

My first is female; my second the same; my whole is much dreaded; pray what is its name?(What’s the word? Each clue is a syllable!)

Ma-lady

Born

• John Calvin (theologian) – 1509
• Camille Pissarro (painter) – 1830
• Jan Neruda (poet) – 1834
• James McNeill Whistler (painter) – 1834
• Adolphus Busch (brewery executive) – 1839
• Marcel Proust (novelist) – 1871
• Carl Orff (composer) – 1895
• Mildred Wirt Benson (original author, under the pen name Carolyn Keene, of the Nancy Drew mystery books) – 1905
• Joe Shuster (cartoonist, co-creator of Superman comic) – 1914
• David Brinkley (reporter & commentator) – 1920
• Eunice Kennedy Shriver – 1921
• Jake LaMotta (boxer) – 1921
• Fred Gwynne (actor) – 1926
• Arthur Ashe (tennis player) – 1943
• Virginia Wade (tennis player) – 1945
• Arlo Guthrie (folk singer) – 1947
• Roger Craig (football player) – 1960
• Jessica Simpson (singer) – 1980
• Adam Petty (NASCAR driver) – 1980

Died

• Henry II of France – 1559
• Jelly Roll Morton (jazz musician) – 1941
• Arthur Fiedler (orchestra conductor) – 1979
• Mel Blanc (voice of Bugs Bunny and other characters) – 1989
• Aaron Lapin (businessman) – 1999
• Omar Sharif (actor) – 2015
• Roger Rees (actor) – 2015

Events

• Vice President Millard Fillmore was inaugurated as the 13th President of the United States following the death of Zachary Taylor– 1850
• Wyoming admitted into the Union as the 44th state– 1890
• His Master’s Voice trademark (showing the dog Nipper and a gramophone) was registered in the United States– 1900
• George Hodgson became Canada’s first double Olympic gold medalist for swimming– 1912
• Howard Hughes set a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world– 1938
• Telstar, an experimental communications satellite privately owned and developed by AT&T, was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL– 1962
• The Bahamas gained full independence within the British Commonwealth– 1973
• At a Sotheby’s auction, Peter Paul Rubens’ painting The Massacre of the Innocents sold for $76.2 million– 2002

Weather

• Greenland Ranch, Death Valley, California, recorded a temperature of 134 degrees F– 1913
• Thunderstorms brought severe weather to Bullfrog, Utah, where 3 boats sank on Lake Powell– 1988
• The northeastern U.S. was hit by 17 tornadoes– 1989
• Homer, Alaska, experienced a record high temperature of 81 degrees F due to offshore winds– 1994

COURTESY www.almanac.com