Daily Almanac for Thursday, September 14, 2023

Brenda June Temple

On this date in 2021, Roger Craig, a University of Delaware graduate student, won $77,000 on Jeopardy!. It was the show’s highest one-day total ever. (courtesy Jeopardy)

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Roger Alan Craig (born 1976/1977) is an American game show contestant and computer scientist. He held the record for highest single-day winnings on the quiz show Jeopardy! from September 14, 2010 (surpassing Ken Jennings) to April 9, 2019 (when James Holzhauer surpassed him). In 2011, Craig returned to win the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.

In 2014, he competed in the Battle of the Decades tournament, finishing third overall behind Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Holy Cross Day is also known as the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Triumph of the Cross, or Holyrood Day (“rood” meaning “cross”. It commemorates the recovery of the Holy Cross on which Jesus was crucified. (It had been taken from Jerusalem by the Persians in a war in A.D. 614. In A.D. 629, Byzantine Emperor Heraclius recovered and returned the Cross to Jerusalem.)

Holy Cross Day is one of four annual markers for the “Ember Days,” which occur on the first Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday following Holy Cross Day, Whit Sunday (Pentecost), the first Sunday in Lent, and St. Lucy Day. The Ember Days are special times for prayer, fasting, and the ordination of clergy in certain Christian denominations. The weather on each of the three Ember Days is supposed to foretell the weather for each of the three succeeding months. A Spanish proverb notes, “On Holy Cross Day / Vineyards are gay.”

Question of the Day

When was the planet Uranus discovered and by whom?

The seventh planet from the sun was discovered by William Herschel in 1781.

Advice of the Day

Chickens feeding outside in the rain foretell rain for several days.

Home Hint of the Day

Yellow carpenter’s glue is best for regluing a chair. Available at hardware stores, it sets up hard and fast. Assemble the pieces immediately after applying the glue.

Word of the Day

Spring Tide

A tide of increased range that occurs at times of syzygy each month. Named not for the season of spring but from the German springen (“to leap up”), a spring tide also brings a lower low water.

Puzzle of the Day

Everyone keeps me on hand, I’ve ever to labor bent; but twist me about and then I’m only an ornament. (What word fits the first clue, but when rearranged, fits the second?)

Finger – fringe

Born

  • Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (physiologist) – 
  • Margaret Higgins Sanger (founder of the birth control movement) – 
  • Douglas Kennedy (“Lone Ranger” actor) – 
  • Kate Millett (feminist writer) – 
  • Sam Neill (actor) – 
  • Michelle Stafford (actress) – 
  • Kimberly Williams-Paisley (actress) – 
  • Katie Lee Biegel (chef) – 

Died

  • Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin (architect) – 
  • Arthur Wellesley (1st Duke of Wellington) – 
  • Henry Bliss (first American automobile fatality) – 
  • William McKinley (25th U.S. president) – 
  • Princess Grace of Monaco (former actress Grace Kelly) – 
  • Mickey Hargitay (actor & world champion bodybuilder) – 
  • Patrick Swayze (actor) – 
  • Norm Macdonald (comedian) – 

Events

  • The first lighthouse in North America, Boston Light, was lit– 
  • Composer George Handel completed The Messiah– 
  • Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” – 
  • Typewriter ribbon patented– 
  • Sound-absorbing material patented– 
  • The world’s largest airship, Graf Zeppelin II, made its first flight– 
  • The first helicopter flight was made by Igor Sikorsky– 
  • Zond 5 was launched; 4 days later it became the first spacecraft to circle the Moon and return to Earth– 
  • The Waltons premiered on CBS– 
  • Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton, the first U.S. born saint, was canonized by Pope Paul VI– 
  • World Series was cancelled due to strike– 
  • Roger Craig, a University of Delaware graduate student, won $77,000 on Jeopardy!. It was the show’s highest one-day total ever.– 
  • Crayola announced crayon name “Bluetiful” – 

Weather

  • Seattle, Washington, had a high temperature of 92 degrees F– 

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