On this date in 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown awarded an honorary knighthood to U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy.

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party and the prominent political Kennedy family, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died. He is ranked fifth in United States history for length of continuous service as a senator. Kennedy was the younger brother of President John F. Kennedy and U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator Robert F. Kennedy. He was the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.

After attending Harvard University and earning his law degree from the University of Virginia, Kennedy began his career as an assistant district attorney in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. Kennedy was 30 years old when he first entered the Senate, winning a November 1962 special election in Massachusetts to fill the vacant seat previously held by his brother John, who had taken office as the US president. He was elected to a full six-year term in 1964 and was later re-elected seven more times. The Chappaquiddick incident in 1969 resulted in the death of his automobile passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. He pleaded guilty to a charge of leaving the scene of an accident and later received a two-month suspended sentence. The incident and its aftermath hindered his chances of ever becoming president. He ran in 1980 in the Democratic primary campaign for president, but lost to the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter.

Kennedy was known for his oratorical skills. His 1968 eulogy for his brother Robert and his 1980 rallying cry for modern American liberalism were among his best-known speeches. He became recognized as “The Lion of the Senate” through his long tenure and influence. Kennedy and his staff wrote more than 300 bills that were enacted into law. Unabashedly liberal, Kennedy championed an interventionist government that emphasized economic and social justice, but he was also known for working with Republicans to find compromises. Kennedy played a major role in passing many laws, including the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, the National Cancer Act of 1971, the COBRA health insurance provision, the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the Ryan White AIDS Care Act, the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Mental Health Parity Act, the S-CHIP children’s health program, the No Child Left Behind Act, and the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. During the 2000s, he led several unsuccessful immigration reform efforts. Over the course of his Senate career, Kennedy made efforts to enact universal health care, which he called the “cause of my life”. By the later years of his life, Kennedy had come to be viewed as a major figure and spokesman for American progressivism.

On August 25, 2009, Kennedy died of a malignant brain tumor (glioblastoma) at his home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at the age of 77. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery near his brothers John and Robert.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

How can I make my nearly pot-bound clivia bloom? It’s about 12 years old and has never flowered.

If the plant hasn’t bloomed in 12 years, it may be impossible to get it to do so, but we’d certainly try. Keep the plant cool; it likes temperatures around 45 degrees Fahrenheit. Water it sparingly, and don’t worry about fertilizer. Clivias like to be root-bound, so repot it only when absolutely necessary. Should you get the plant to flower (which will occur toward the beginning of summer), place it outside, where it can enjoy the sunshine and heat (water it well), then bring it back inside in the fall and follow the low-water, cool-temperature routine. If you’d like to experiment, try dividing the plant. We don’t know if this will help it flower, but it’s worth a shot. Read more about caring for clivias.

Advice of the Day

If you forget to wash the spider (frying pan), it’s a sure sign of company coming.

Home Hint of the Day

Sharpening your garden tools can make a difference in how well they work. Sharpen a shovel by filing the inside edge — the one that holds the soil — in the direction that’s away from the handle. Then turn it over and lightly file the burr off the back.

Word of the Day

Diurnal Tide

A tide with one high water and one low water in a tidal day of approximately 24 hours.

Puzzle of the Day

Why ought the stars to be good astronomers?

Because they have studded (studied) the heavens for thousands of years.

Born

• Antonio Vivaldi (composer) – 1678
• Benjamin Waterhouse (physician) – 1754
• Knute Rockne (football coach) – 1888
• John Garfield (actor) – 1913
• Alan Sillitoe (novelist) – 1928
• Alice Mitchell Rivlin (government official) – 1931
• Miriam Makeba (singer) – 1932
• Barbara McNair (singer) – 1934
• Kay Lenz (actress) – 1953
• Catherine O’Hara (actress) – 1954
• Patricia Heaton (actress) – 1958
• Jason Sellers (country singer) – 1971
• Landon Donovan (soccer player) – 1982
• Andrea Bowen (actress) – 1990

Died

• John Candy (comedian) – 1994
• Minnie Pearl (comedienne & singer) – 1996
• George Pake (computer pioneer) – 2004
• Horton Foote (playwright & screenwriter) – 2009
• Luke Perry (actor) – 2019

Events

• William Penn was given a charter for lands in the New World by King Charles II– 1681
• The first Congress met in NY– 1789
• Vermont became the 14th state of the Union– 1791
• George Washington was inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States in Philadelphia; John Adams became Vice President. George Washington’s second inaugural address was the shortest on record—135 words. It took him only two minutes to read it.– 1793
• John Adams was inaugurated as the second U.S. President; Thomas Jefferson became Vice President– 1797
• Thomas Jefferson became the first president to be inaugurated in the new U.S. capital of Washington, D.C.; Aaron Burr became Vice President– 1801
• James Madison inaugurated as 4th U.S. President– 1809
• James Monroe inaugurated as 5th U.S. President– 1817
• John Quincy Adams inaugurated as 6th U.S. President– 1825
• Granite Railway was chartered, Quincy, Massachusetts – 1826
• Andrew Jackson inaugurated as the 7th U.S. President– 1829
• John Quincy Adams returned to the House of Representatives. He was the first former president to do so and served for nine consecutive terms– 1831
• Martin Van Buren inaugurated as the 8th U.S. President– 1837
• William H. Harrison inaugurated as 9th U.S. President; upon his death a month later, the vice president, John Tyler, became the 10th U.S. President– 1841
• James Polk inaugurated as 11th U.S. President– 1845
• Franklin Pierce became the 14th U.S. President– 1853
• James Buchanan became the 15th U.S. President– 1857
• Abraham Lincoln became the 16th U.S. President– 1861
• Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated for a second term as U.S. President; Vice President, Andrew Johnson– 1865
• Ulysses S. Grant became the 18th U.S. President– 1869
• Benjamin Harrison was sworn in as the 23rd U.S. President– 1889
• Rep. Jeanette Rankin became first woman in Congress– 1917
• In his first inaugural speech, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt told his fellow Americans that, … the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, referring to the Great Depression.– 1933
• Nuclear-power plant began operation in Antarctica– 1962
• Earthquake destroyed parts of Bucharest Romania, and nearby area, leaving 1,500 dead– 1977
• Voyager I spacecraft revealed rings of Jupiter– 1979
• Bertha Wilson became the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada– 1982
• Machinists strike Eastern Airlines. Pilots and flight attendants honor picket lines– 1989
• British Prime Minister Gordon Brown awarded an honorary knighthood to U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy– 2009

Weather

• Southern New Hampshire received four feet of snow in nine days– 1717
• Deadly avalanche occurred at Rogers Pass in British Columbia– 1910
• Snow in Oahu, Hawaii– 1953
• Blizzard hit Cape Cod, Massachusetts– 1960

COURTESY www.almanac.com