Daily Almanac for Tuesday August 27, 2024

By Michelle Dumas

Today is the 36th birthday for actress, Alexa PenaVega, seen here in 2012 FX Ad Sales Upfront. By Joella Marano, CC BY-SA 2.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Alexa Ellesse PenaVega (née Vega; born August 27, 1988) is an American actress and singer. She is known for her roles as Carmen Cortez in the first four Spy Kids films and Julie Corky in the 2004 film Sleepover. In 2009, she starred as the title character Ruby Gallagher in the ABC Family series Ruby & the Rockits.

Vega was born in Miami, Florida. She spent some of her childhood years on a ranch in Ocala, Florida.

Her father, Baruch Vega, is a Colombian fashion photographer and student informer for the Central Intelligence Agency, and her mother, Gina Rue, is a former model.

Vega has six siblings, including actress Makenzie Vega. She moved with her family to California when she was four years old. As a teenager, she was homeschooled.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

The 36th president of the United States was born on this day in 1908, in Texas. He became president on November 22, 1963, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. On his watch, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the nation began its War on Poverty, the Department of Housing and Urban Development was created, and U.S. involvement in Vietnam expanded. In response to a public outcry after he was photographed lifting his dog by the ears, the crusty president said, My mother used to pull my ears, and it never did get that much attention.” In Texas, “Lyndon Baines Johnson Day” is an annual state holiday and a day off for the general population with schools and most businesses closed.”

Question of the Day

What is a brown dwarf?

A brown dwarf is like a star, only it is so small that it can’t quite work up the energy to shine as stars do. Brown dwarfs are at the lower end of the stellar family and are somewhere between the faint hydrogen-burning stars and the giant planets such as Jupiter. Stars vary considerably in size depending on where they were formed. Most are just a little smaller than our Sun, although some can be enormous. There is a limit, however, to how small a star can be in order to achieve the nuclear fusion that drives all stars. If a star is smaller than the minimum, it will glow dull red, a color that comes from its pressurized gases. This is how the brown dwarf was named. Because brown dwarfs are so small and dim, they have only recently been detected by astronomers with the help of infrared telescope technology.

Advice of the Day

Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls. — Mother Teresa

Home Hint of the Day

To get rid of skunks, put pieces of a solid laxative, such as Ex-Lax, where the skunks can find them. They will eat the laxative and leave. They won’t come back.

Word of the Day

Nimbostratus cloud

Dark, shapeless cloud layer containing rain, snow, and ice pellets.

Puzzle of the Day

The Silver State.(Name the U.S. state!)

Nevada

Died

  • Tomas Luis de Victoria (composer) – 
  • W.E.B. Du Bois (founder of the Niagara Movement, which eventually merged with the NAACP) – 
  • Gracie Allen (actress & comedienne) – 
  • Brian Epstein (manager of The Beatles) – 
  • Margaret Bourke-White (American photographer) – 
  • Stevie Ray Vaughan (blues musician) – 

Born

  • Giuseppe Peano (mathematician) – 
  • Theodore Dreiser (author) – 
  • Carl Bosch (chemist) – 
  • Katharine McCormick (women’s rights activist) – 
  • Lyndon B. Johnson (36th U.S. president) – 
  • Lester Young (jazz musician) – 
  • Tom Ford (fashion designer) – 
  • Chandra Wilson (actress) – 
  • Sarah Chalke (actress) – 
  • Aaron Paul (actor) – 
  • Alexa Vega (actress who starred as Carmen Cortez in the Spy Kids movie series) – 

Events

  • The first English theatrical performance in the American colonies was held– 
  • Town of York in Upper Canada founded (renamed Toronto in 1834)– 
  • Edwin L Drake drilled the first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania, the beginning of the commercial development of the American petroleum industry– 
  • Charles Gerard Conn received a patent for an all metal clarinet– 
  • First autogiro loop-the-loop performed in public, in Cleveland, Ohio– 
  • Largest trade at the time in NBA history, 11 players, 3 teams– 

Weather

  • Sea Islands Hurricane hit near Savannah, Georgia– 
  • The temperature in Buffalo, New York, reached 99 degrees F– 
  • Hurricane Cleo battered southern Florida– 
  • Thunderstorms in North Dakota dropped 6 inches of rain on the town of Linton in 1 hour– 

 

 

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