February 12, 2016

Plum Pudding Day
(Plum Pudding does not contain plums
see Quick Trivia below)

  Friday, February 12, 2016

The 43 day of the year

323 days left to go 

THIS WEEK IS

• Congenital Heart Defect Awareness Week
• Have A Heart for A Chained Dog Week
• International Hoof-Care Week
• Love Makes the World Go Round; But, Laughter Keeps Us From Getting Dizzy Week
• Celebration of Love Week
• Children of Alcoholics Week
• Jell-O Week
• Freelance Writers Appreciation Week
• National Secondhand Wardrobe Week
• Random Acts of Kindness Week
• Love a Mensch Week
• National Green Week
• Feeding Tube Awareness Week 

TODAY IS

• Lincoln's Birthday
• NAACP Day
• Oglethorpe Day
• Paul Bunyan Day
• Safety Pup Day
• Darwin Day 
• National Plum Pudding Day

ON THIS DATE...

1709: Alexander Selkirk, the Scottish seaman whose adventures inspired the story of "Robinson Crusoe," was taken off Juan Fernandez Island after four years of being marooned.

1793: Congress passed the first fugitive slave law, requiring all states, including those that forbade slavery, to forcibly return slaves who had escaped from other states to their original owners. (Read more)
1818: Chile gained independence from Spain.

1892: President Abraham Lincoln's birthday was declared a national holiday.




1909: the National Association For The Advancement Of Colored People, or NAACP for short, was founded. 
1915: the cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington, D.C.. 

1924: George Gershwin's "Rhapsody In Blue" premiered in New York.  



1924: explorers opened the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen, 15 months after it was discovered. 
1924: President Calvin Coolidge made the first presidential political speech on radio. 
1940: Mutual Radio presented the first broadcast of "Superman." 
1964: the Beatles concluded their first American tour with two concerts at New York's Carnegie Hall. 

1968: guitarist Jimi Hendrix was given an honorary high school diploma from Garfield High School.  He had dropped out of the school at the age of 14. (Read more)

1973: the state of Ohio became the first state to post metric distance signs.  
1973: the first group of U.S. prisoners of war were released from North Vietnam. 
1984: British skaters Torvill and Dean win the gold medal for pairs figure skating at the Winter Olympics.  They received perfect scores for quality. 

1993: the movie "Groundhog Day" opened in theaters (See Trailer)


1994: the 17th Winter Olympics opened in Lillehammer, Norway. 

1997: rocker David Bowie received a star on the Hollywood Walk-of-Fame. 


1999: the Senate acquitted President Clinton of perjury and obstruction of justice, ending a 13-month drama that began with the president's affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky and led to only the second presidential impeachment trial in history.  

2000: "Peanuts" cartoonist Charles M. Schulz died on this date at the age of 77. 


2001: a computer virus disguised as a digital photo of tennis star Anna Kournikova attacked e-mail servers in Europe and North America.  

2004: Mattel announced the split of Barbie and Ken.


2005: Led Zeppelin was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Grammy at a pre-Grammy luncheon ceremony held a day before the presentation of the Grammys.  Even though it was one of the biggest rock groups of the 1970's, Led Zeppelin never won a Grammy during their 12-year history. 
2006: The second Sydney Body Art Ride breaks a world record for the largest group of painted people, and raised more than $10,000 for Children's Cancer Institute of Australia.



HISTORY SPOTLIGHT

Reverend Dr. Henry Garnet addresses the House on slavery  (Source) 

The Rev. Dr. Henry Highland Garnet, the first African American to address the U.S. House of Representatives, delivers a sermon to a crowded House chamber. His sermon commemorated the victories of the Union army and the deliverance of the country from slavery.

Garnet, a former slave himself, was a pastor of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C. President Abraham Lincoln, with the unanimous consent of his Cabinet and the two congressional chaplains, had arranged for the special Sunday service to be held on February 12, the president's 56th birthday.

Garnet escaped to the North in 1824, where he became a prominent abolitionist, famous for his radical appeal to slaves to rise up against their masters. In 1881, he was appointed U.S. minister to Liberia but died only two months after his arrival in the African nation.



QUICK TRIVIA 

Plum Pudding (Source) 

Plum pudding is a steamed or boiled pudding frequently served at holiday times. Plum pudding has never contained plums. The name Christmas pudding is first recorded in 1858 in a novel by Anthony Trollope.

Why is Plum Pudding called Plum Pudding when there are no plums in it? In the 17th century, plums referred to raisins or other fruits. Plumb is another spelling of plum. Prune is actually derived from the same word as plum - the Latin word was pruna, which changed in the Germanic languages into pluma. But the terms were quite confused in the 16th and 17th centuries and people talked about growing prunes in their garden.



WORD OF THE DAY

myopia \mahy-OH-pee-uh\, noun: 
1. an abnormal eye condition in which only closeup objects are seen clearly
2. shortsightedness or lack of foresight 

"In a strange twist of fate, the evil cyclopse suffered from myopia" 





WORD FROM THE WORD 

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed. --John 8:31

Read today's "Our Daily Bread"