FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Charles Gerard Conn (January 29, 1844 – January 5, 1931) was an entrepreneur, band instrument manufacturer, newspaper publisher, and U.S. Representative from Indiana for one term from 1893 to 1895.

LATER IN HIS CAREER

After his term in Congress, Conn resumed the manufacture of band instruments at Elkhart, Indiana, while also investing heavily in other businesses. In 1904 Conn constructed a powerhouse and provided electrical service as a competitor to the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company, who later bought out Conn’s service at a great loss to himself. This failed venture, the building of Conn’s third factory and its loss to fire, and Conn’s loss of a costly lawsuit filed against him by a former company manager resulted in Conn amassing a large amount of debt. In 1911, in an effort to bond Conn’s debts and secure working capital, Conn and his wife executed a trust deed for $200,000 covering all their possessions, with the longest bond to mature in ten years. The deed included, in addition to the horn factory, what was then known as the Angledile Scale Company, and The Elkhart Truth, some sixty descriptions of real estate in Elkhart and vicinity, various real estate mortgages, 125 shares of stock in the Simplex Motor Car Company of Mishawaka, Indiana, a seagoing yacht, a lake motor launch, and much valuable personal property. Conn also lost considerable face when he was ordered by a judge to publicly apologize for publishing inflammatory comments about J. W. Pepper. The Musical Courier picked up on the legal problems and reported about how Conn was knowingly making false statements about Pepper. In his published apology, Conn attributed his aberrant behavior on an addiction to tobacco.

In 1915 Conn’s growing debt crisis forced him to seek a buyer for his assets, and all of Conn’s holdings were bought by a group of investors led by Carl Dimond Greenleaf, whom Conn had met during his years in Washington, D.C., and invested in some grain mills in Ohio which Greenleaf owned. Initially Conn held onto ownership of The Elkhart Truth, but a few months after the sale of his other holdings, Conn sold The Elkhart Truth to Greenleaf and local entrepreneur Andrew Hubble Beardsley.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Lyndon B. Johnson’s Birthday

The 36th president of the United States was born on this day in 1908, in Texas. He became president on November 22, 1963, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On his watch, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation began its War on Poverty, the Department of Housing and Urban Development was created, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam expanded. In response to a public outcry after he was photographed lifting his dog by the ears, the crusty president said, My mother used to pull my ears, and it never did get that much attention.” In Texas, “Lyndon Baines Johnson Day” is an annual state holiday and a day off for the general population with schools and most businesses closed.”

Question of the Day

What is a brown dwarf?

A brown dwarf is like a star, only it is so small that it can’t quite work up the energy to shine as stars do. Brown dwarfs are at the lower end of the stellar family and are somewhere between the faint hydrogen-burning stars and the giant planets such as Jupiter. Stars vary considerably in size depending on where they were formed. Most are just a little smaller than our Sun, although some can be enormous. There is a limit, however, to how small a star can be in order to achieve the nuclear fusion that drives all stars. If a star is smaller than the minimum, it will glow dull red, a color that comes from its pressurized gases. This is how the brown dwarf was named. Because brown dwarfs are so small and dim, they have only recently been detected by astronomers with the help of infrared telescope technology.

Advice of the Day

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. — Mother Teresa

Home Hint of the Day

To get rid of skunks, put pieces of a solid laxative, such as Ex-Lax, where the skunks can find them. They will eat the laxative and leave. They won’t come back.

Word of the Day

Cumulus cloud

Fair-weather cloud with flat base and domeshaped top.

Puzzle of the Day

The Treasure State.(Name the U.S. state!)

Montana

Died

• Tomas Luis de Victoria (composer) – 1611
• Gracie Allen (actress & comedienne) – 1964
• Brian Epstein (manager of The Beatles) – 1967
• Margaret Bourke-White (American photographer) – 1971
• Stevie Ray Vaughan (blues musician) – 1990

Born

• Giuseppe Peano (mathematician) – 1858
• Theodore Dreiser (author) – 1871
• Carl Bosch (chemist) – 1874
• Katharine McCormick (women’s rights activist) – 1875
• Lyndon B. Johnson (36th U.S. president) – 1908
• Lester Young (jazz musician) – 1909
• Tom Ford (fashion designer) – 1961
• Chandra Wilson (actress) – 1969
• Sarah Chalke (actress) – 1976
• Aaron Paul (actor) – 1979
• Alexa Vega (actress who starred as Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids movie series) – 1988

Events

• The first English theatrical performance in the American colonies was held– 1665
• Town of York in Upper Canada founded (renamed Toronto in 1834)– 1793
• Edwin L Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the beginning of the commercial development of the American petroleum industry– 1859
• Charles Gerard Conn received a patent for an all metal clarinet– 1889
• First autogiro loop-the-loop performed in public, in Cleveland, Ohio– 1932
• Largest trade at the time in NBA history, 11 players, 3 teams– 1999

Weather

• Sea Islands Hurricane hit near Savannah, Georgia– 1893
• The temperature in Buffalo, New York, reached 99 degrees F– 1948
• Hurricane Cleo battered southern Florida– 1964
• Thunderstorms in North Dakota dropped 6 inches of rain on the town of Linton in 1 hour– 1989

COURTESY www.almanac.com