FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades.

Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own radio show, The Wayfaring Stranger, which popularized traditional folk songs. In 1942, he appeared in Irving Berlin‘s This Is the Army and became a major star of CBS Radio. In the 1960s, he successfully crossed over into country music, recording hits such as “A Little Bitty Tear” and “Funny Way of Laughin’“. Ives was also a popular film actor through the late 1940s and ’50s. His film roles included parts in So Dear to My Heart (1948) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), as well as the role of Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country (1958), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Ives is often associated with the Christmas season. He did voice-over work as Sam the Snowman, narrator of the classic 1964 Christmas television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Ives also worked on the special’s soundtrack, including the songs “A Holly Jolly Christmas” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer“, both of which continue to chart annually on the Billboard holiday charts into the 2020s.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas (whose feast day is December 6) was likely a fourth-century bishop of Myra in what is now Turkey. Known for his generosity, he is said to have given a purse filled with gold as a dowry to each of three destitute young ladies so that they could be married. St. Nicholas’s life eventually merged with folklore, and the legend of Santa Claus was born. Learn more about St. Nicholas Day here.

Question of the Day

Why is El Nino named for the Christ child?

The Spanish name El Nino (literally, “the son”) was coined by the fishermen of Ecuador and Peru to denote the warming of the coastal surface waters that often occurs in that area around Christmastime. Although this was a fairly regular seasonal event, the name later took on the larger meaning of any general warming trend and recently has come to mean the unseasonably warm weather patterns that occur two or three times a decade.

Advice of the Day

The wise understand half a word.

Home Hint of the Day

When sanding wood by hand, always sand with the grain of the wood, especially when using coarse sandpaper. Otherwise you’ll scratch or mar the surface.

Word of the Day

Nephelococcygia

Sometimes clouds look like other objects, such as dragons, elephants, letters, and even people. Cloud naming is called nephelococcygia.

Puzzle of the Day

What is the difference between 16 ounces and a small boy at the piano?

One weighs a pound, and the other pounds away.

Died

• Jefferson Davis (served as the first and only President of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War) – 1889
• Roy Orbison (musician) – 1988
• Don Ameche (actor) – 1993
• Phillip Berrigan (priest who fought Vietnam War and nuclear weapons) – 2002

Born

• Ira Gershwin (lyricist) – 1896
• Agnes Moorehead (actress) – 1906
• Steven Wright (comedian & actor) – 1955
• Nick Park (filmmaker & animator) – 1958
• Janine Turner (actress) – 1962

Events

• First international football game– 1873
• Monongah, West Virginia, coal mine disaster killed 362 men. One of the worst in U.S. history– 1907
• Ship explosion devastated Halifax, Nova Scotia– 1917
• The Anglo-Irish Treaty is signed, giving Ireland dominion status and establishing Irish Free State– 1921
• President Truman dedicated Everglades National Park in Florida.– 1947
• The Burl Ives narrated holiday classic Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer made its television debut– 1964
• Kitty Hambleton reached 512.71 mph land speed– 1976
• Gunman kills 14 women at University of Montreal– 1989

Weather

• 5” snow, Savannah, Georgia– 1740
• A windstorm on this day toppled the national Christmas tree on the grounds of the White House– 1970
• Strong storms spread 60 mph winds throughout northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio– 1998

COURTESY www.almanac.com