Daily Almanac for Sunday October 27, 2024

By Sabrina Mason

Duran Duran star Simon Le Bon is 65 today! Here he is performing live at the O2 Arena in 2023. By Raph_PH – DuranO2_1, CC By 2.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Simon John Charles Le Bon MBE (born 27 October 1958) is a British singer. He is best known as the lead vocalist and lyricist of the new wave band Duran Duran and its offshoot Arcadia. Le Bon has received three Ivor Novello Awards from the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, including the award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. He also received an MBE from King Charles III in 2024.

Le Bon was born on 27 October 1958, on his father’s birthday, in Bushey Maternity Hospital in Bushey, Hertfordshire, the first of three boys for John and Ann-Marie Le Bon, followed by his younger brothers, David and Jonathan. His mother encouraged his artistic talent when he was six years old by entering him in a screen test for a Persil washing powder TV advertisement, which proved successful. He was a member of the local church choir from a young age, and was trained as an actor.

Le Bon was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2024 Birthday Honours for services to music and charity.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

When was DDT banned in the United States, and how long had it been used?

DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was recognized as a potential pesticide in 1939 by the Swiss chemist Paul Muller. It was first widely used during World War II and thereafter throughout the world to combat yellow fever, typhus, elephantiasis, and other diseases carried by insects. DDT helped reduce the number of malaria cases worldwide and increased crop and livestock yields in developing countries. It came under scrutiny with the 1962 publication of Silent Spring, a book in which American marine biologist Rachel Carson asserted that DDT was destroying other animal life by entering the food chain. The United States banned DDT in 1972 except for in cases of extreme health emergencies. Many other nations also have banned it or placed it under strict control.

Advice of the Day

The more red berries seen in the hedgerows, the more frost and snow in the coming winter.

Home Hint of the Day

To remove ugly stains on clothing from car batteries, make a paste of dry starch and cold water, apply the paste to the stain, and let the fabric sit for a while. Then rinse with water.

Word of the Day

Apogee

The point in the Moon’s orbit that is farthest from Earth.

Puzzle of the Day

When is a clock guilty of a misdemeanor?

When it strikes one.

Born

James Cook (naval captain & explorer) – 1728
Niccolo Paganini (composer, violinist) – 1782
Isaac Singer (inventor) – 1811
Kenyon Cox (painter) – 1856
Theodore Roosevelt (26th U.S. president) – 1858
Stamen Gigov Grigorov (Bulgarian physician, microbiologist) – 1878
Enid Bagnold (author) – 1889
Leif Erickson (actor) – 1911
Dylan Thomas (poet) – 1914
Nanette Fabray (actress) – 1920
Sylvia Plath (poet) – 1932
John Cleese (actor) – 1939
Maxine Hong Kingston (author) – 1940
Fran Lebowitz (writer) – 1950
Simon Le Bon (musician) – 1958

Died

James M. Cain (novelist) – 1977
Rod Roddy (the flamboyantly dressed announcer on The Price is Right whose booming voice invited audience members to Come on down!” for nearly 20 years”) – 2003
Betsy Drake (actress) – 2015

Events

Massachusetts Bay Colony, having outlawed Quakers, hung two who defiantly returned to the colony. They were the first Quakers to be hanged in America.– 1659
Harvard expedition observed solar eclipse in British-occupied Penobscot Bay, Maine– 1780
The Treaty of San Lorenzo was signed between the United States and Spain, giving the United States the right to navigate the Mississippi River– 1795
Macy’s Department store opened in N.Y.C.– 1858
U.S. president-to-be Theodore Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee– 1880
At 16, Jascha Heifetz made his American debut at Carnegie Hall– 1917
Dupont announced the invention of nylon– 1938
32-pound bull trout caught in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho– 1949
Saturn I first launched– 1961
Last performance of opera singer Beverly Sills– 1980
The Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in a four-game sweep– 2004
16-foot Burmese python caught in the Florida Everglades– 2011

Weather

A storm deposited snow and sleet on Mississippi– 1843
Eighty-three degrees F in Boston, Massachusetts– 1963
-3 degrees Fahrenheit in Jump River, Wisconsin– 1976

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