TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
When I was young and it would rain while the sun was shining, someone might say, “The Devil is beating his wife.” Where did this saying come from?
We think that the saying originated in Hungary, and in the United States it was used primarily in the Deep South. Others have called this weather phenomena “a monkey’s wedding” (South Africa) or have used the saying “The witch is making butter” (Poland) to describe it. Whatever expression you use, it’s a pretty nifty thing to see.
Advice of the Day
Drink rosemary tea to enhance your memory.
Home Hint of the Day
If you need a hole in a piece of wood and don’t have a drill bit handy, put a nail in the drill’s chuck (the part of the drill that tightens around the bit). It will work nearly as well as a drill bit.
Word of the Day
Friggatriskaidekaphobia
The fear of Friday the 13th.
Puzzle of the Day
What is that which when thrown out, you may always catch without hands?
A hint
Born
- Arcangelo Corelli (composer) – 1653
- Dorothy Canfield Fisher (author) – 1879
- Marjorie Lawrence (opera singer) – 1909
- Michiaki Takahashi (virologist best know for inventing first chickenpox vaccine ) – 1928
- Rene Russo (actress) – 1954
- Richard Karn (actor, game show host) – 1956
- Michael Jordan (basketball player) – 1963
- Jerry O’Connell (actor) – 1974
- Jason Ritter (actor) – 1980
- Paris Hilton (heiress) – 1981
- Ed Sheeran (musician) – 1991
Died
- Geronimo (Chiricahua Apache leader) – 1909
- Wilfred Laurier (8th Prime Minister of Canada) – 1919
- Lee Strasberg (actor and director) – 1982
- Thelonious Monk (jazz pianist) – 1982
Events
- Myles Standish appointed commander of Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts– 1621
- Tie broken: Thomas Jefferson to be U.S. president; Aaron Burr, Vice President– 1801
- Baron Karl von Drais de Sauerbrun patented draisine (bicycle precursor)– 1818
- Confederate H. L. Hunley was first submarine to sink a warship (USS Housatonic)– 1864
- Columbia, South Carolina, burned by Union Army (U.S. Civil War)– 1865
- First sardines canned in Maine– 1876
- The National Congress of Mothers, later known as the PTA, founded– 1897
- Marcel Duchamp’s painting, Nude Descending a Staircase, outraged viewers– 1913
- First publication of Newsweek magazine– 1933
- Elvis Presley awarded his first gold album for Elvis”“– 1960
- 9-pound 6-ounce chain pickerel caught near Homerville, Georgia– 1961
Weather
- McIntosh, South Dakota, recorded a low temperature of -58 degrees F– 1936
- The temperature dipped to -60F in Esker, Labrador – 1973
- Record low of 60 degrees below zero F, Labrador– 1973
- Blizzard dumped more snow in Boston than any other storm in the state’s history— including the Blizzard of 1978—Logan International Airport measured 27.5 inches– 2003
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