Daily Almanac for Friday February 28, 2025

By Tatiana Ponil

Actress/Singer Bernadette Peters turns 77 today. Seen here in 2011 at 13th Annual Broadway Barks Benefit on July 9, 2011 at Shubert Alley in New York City. By Nick Stepowyj – https flickr.com photos, CC BY 2.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Bernadette Peters (née Lazzara; born February 28, 1948) is an American actress and singer. Over a career spanning more than six decades, she has starred in musical theatre, television and film, performed in solo concerts and released recordings. She is a critically acclaimed Broadway performer, having received seven nominations for Tony Awards, winning two (plus an honorary award), and nine Drama Desk Award nominations, winning three. Four of the Broadway cast albums on which she has starred have won Grammy Awards.

Regarded by many as the foremost interpreter of the works of Stephen Sondheim, Peters is particularly noted for her roles on the Broadway stage, including in the musicals Mack and Mabel (1974), Sunday in the Park with George (1984), Song and Dance (1985), Into the Woods (1987), The Goodbye Girl (1993), Annie Get Your Gun (1999), Gypsy (2003), A Little Night Music (2010), Follies (2011), and Hello, Dolly! (2018).[2] She has recorded six solo albums as well as many cast albums, and performs regularly in her own solo concert act.

Peters first performed on the stage as a child actress and then a teenager in the 1960s, and in film and television from the 1970s. She was praised for this early work and for appearances on, among other programs, The Muppet Show and The Carol Burnett Show, and for her roles in films including Silent Movie (1976), The Jerk (1979), Pennies from Heaven (1981, for which she won a Golden Globe Award), and Annie (1982). She has also acted in television shows such as Ally McBealSmash (2012–2013), Mozart in the Jungle (2014–2018), The Good Fight (2017–2018), Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist (2020–2021) and High Desert (2023).

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Ramadan begins at sundown. The exact timing is subject to the first sighting of the Moon. Beginning at age 12, all Muslims take part in the month-long sunrise-to-sunset fast that is the hallmark of Ramadan. Eating and drinking (including water) is prohibited during daylight hours, and the day’s abstinence is offset by a nightly meal known as iftar. The holiday honors the time when the angel Gabriel revealed the first verses of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, to a desert-wandering caravan trader named Muhammad. Muslims believe that fasting cleanses the body, and the practice reminds them of the suffering of the poor. Food is often shared with a poor family during Ramadan. At the end of the 30-day fast is Eid al-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast), replete with feasting and celebration. Read more about Ramadan.

Question of the Day

If rock salt lowers the temperature of the ice and keeps it from thawing when making ice cream, can it be used in a cooler to help keep the food colder longer? Also, if rock salt keeps the ice in an ice cream maker from thawing, how does it melt ice on the road?

It all has to do with the fact that rock salt lowers the freezing/melting point of ice. When you’re making ice cream, the rock salt doesn’t keep the ice from thawing. What it does is mix with the ice, melting it and lowering the freezing point of the liquid left behind. This brine has a temperature around 0 degrees Fahrenheit—cold enough to freeze ice cream. On roads, rock salt has a similar effect, melting the ice and lowering the temperature of the liquid left behind. But since the freezing point of the liquid is lower, not only has the salt gotten rid of the ice that formed previously, but much colder temperatures are now needed to turn the liquid that’s left back into ice.By the way, we don’t recommend using rock salt in a cooler.

Advice of the Day

Tap maple trees now.

Home Hint of the Day

Be sure to wear a mask to prevent inhaling the dust particles when sanding drywall joint compound — or anything else.

Word of the Day

Vanishing Tide

A mixed tide of considerable inequality in the two highs and two lows, so that the lower high (or higher low) may become indistinct or appear to vanish.

Puzzle of the Day

Why is a blacksmith the most dissatisfied of mechanics?

Because he is always striking for pay.

Born

  • Vincente Minnelli (film director) – 
  • Gavin MacLeod (actor) – 
  • Tommy Tune (choreographer) – 
  • Mario Andretti (race car driver) – 
  • Kelly Bishop (actress) – 
  • Bernadette Peters (actress & singer) – 
  • John Turturro (actor) – 
  • Robert Sean Leonard (actor) – 
  • Smarty Jones (Kentucky Derby winning horse) – 

Died

  • Henry James (writer) – 
  • Ruby Keeler (actress, singer, & dancer) – 
  • Daniel Boorstin (Pulitzer Prize-winning author and social historian who served as the librarian of Congress for 12 years) – 
  • Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. (Pulitzer Prize-winning historian) – 
  • Mike Smith (lead singer of Dave Clark Five) – 
  • Paul Harvey (radio broadcaster) – 

Events

  • Baltimore and Ohio railroad incorporated – 
  • Congress created the Territory of Colorado – 
  • Vincent Massey became the first Canadian born Governor General of Canada – 
  • James D. Watson and Francis H. C. Crick announced discovery of DNA’s chemical structure – 
  • Parliament created VIA Rail Canada Inc. – 
  • The last episode of M*A*S*H, Goodbye, Farewell and Amen, aired on television – 
  • The last episode of M*A*S*H aired on TV – 
  • Performer Natasha Veruschka swallowed 22.83-inch sword – 
  • Pope Benedict XVI stepped down as leader of the Roman Catholic church, becoming the first pope in about 600 years to retire – 

Weather

  • A record snowstorm brought 43 inches of snow to Rochester, New York – 
  • An area from Kansas to New York experienced record snowfalls – 
  • A sandstorm with hurricane-force winds derailed a train in western China – 

 

 

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