By Mona Hatfield
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
William Francis Kemmler (May 9, 1860 – August 6, 1890) was an American peddler, alcoholic, and murderer, who, in 1890, became the first person in the world to be executed by electric chair. He was convicted of murdering Matilda “Tillie” Ziegler, his common-law wife, a year earlier. Although electrocution had previously been successfully used to kill a horse, Kemmler’s execution did not go smoothly.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
I’d like to start some pansies by seed. When is the best time to do that?
Do it now! August is a great time to sow pansies for next spring. Pansies are easy to grow and hardy. Sow the seeds in flats in a cool, shady place, and keep the soil moist at all times. When the plants are large enough, transplant them into frames. Cover them with a coarse material for winter protection, then set them out in permanent beds in the spring.
Advice of the Day
Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.
Home Hint of the Day
Old-timers finished their bare wood floors with boiled linseed oil, following these instructions: Put it on once a day for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year, then once a year for the rest of your life.
Word of the Day
Horse latitudes
Either of two belts of latitudes located over the oceans at about 30° to 35° north and south, having high barometric pressure, calms, and light, changeable winds.
Puzzle of the Day
The Grand Canyon State.(Name the U.S. state!)
Arizona
Died
- Anne Hathaway (Shakespeare’s wife) –
- Bix Beiderbecke (jazz musician) –
- Sir Cedric Hardwicke (actor) –
- Rick James (singer) –
- John Hughes (writer & director) –
Born
- Alfred Lord Tennyson (poet) –
- The Duke of Argyll, Marquess of Lorne (Canadian Governor General 1878 – 1883) –
- Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (U.S. First Lady) –
- Alexander Fleming (Scottish bacteriologist) –
- Scott Nearing (sociologist) –
- Lucille Ball (actress) –
- Robert Mitchum (actor) –
- Andy Warhol (artist) –
- M. Night Shyamalan (film director, writer, producer) –
Events
- At Auburn Prison, Auburn, NY, William Kemmler became the first man to be executed by electrocution–
- Baseball pitcher Cy Young made his major league debut–
- Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim the English Channel. She did it in record time, 14 hours and 31 minutes–
- The first atomic bomb, named Little Boy, was dropped out of an American B-29 bomber over the center of the city Hiroshima, Japan, during World War II.–
- Jamaica became independent–
- A miscalculation in a practice flight for an air show the following day caused a U.S. Blue Angel pilot to break the sound barrier. This, in turn, broke many windows in downtown Kelowna, British Columbia, and caused some injuries.–
- Microsoft and Apple agreed to share technology–
- Asteroids renamed to honor final Shuttle Columbia crew–
Weather
- Adair and Union counties in Iowa received 4 inches of hail–
- The temperature soared to 106 degrees F in Washington, D.C., and Maryland–
- Large hail, some softball size, struck areas of Colorado, including the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs. Although hail was not quite softball size there, it injured 14 people, killed a 4-year-old muscovy duck named Daisy and a 13-year-old Cape vulture named Motswari, injured other animals, and damaged windows and an estimated 400 cars. The storm also knocked out power to nearly 2,000 customers in the region.–
COURTESY www.alamanac.com
