30 - Hawaii Becomes US Territory

1803: United States and France sign the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, "the letter that bought a continent."

1900: President McKinley signs the Organic Act, making Hawaii a territory of the United States.

1945: as Russian troops approached his Berlin bunker, Adolf Hitler commits suicide along with his wife of one day, Eva Braun.

1975: The Vietnam war ends, with the South surrendering to the North.

1997: ABC TV airs "coming out" episode in which Ellen DeGeneres's character "Ellen" acknowledges her homosexuality.

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Today's Birthdays:
Mathematician Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
Naturalist John Lubbock (1834–1913)
Economist Theodore Schultz (1902 -1998)
Actress Cloris Leachman (1926)
Musician Willie Nelson (1933)

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Something to Think About:
"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books." ~ John Lubbock

29 - Zipper Day

1429: Joan of Arc entered the besieged city of Orleans to lead a victory over the English.

1852: First edition of Peter Roget's Thesaurus published.

1913: Zipper Day: Modern zip fastener is patented.

1992: Los Angeles riots break out following the acquittal of four white police officers accused of beating black motorist Rodney King.

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Today's Birthdays:
Mathematician Henri Poincare (1854-1912)
Publisher William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951)
Bandleader Duke Ellington (1899-1974)
Emperor Hirohito of Japan (1901-1989)
Director Fred Zinnemann (1907-1997)
Actor Daniel Day Lewis (1957)
Actress Michelle Pfeiffer (1957)

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Something to Think About:

"I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil." ~ Truman Capote

28 - Mutiny on the HMS Bounty

Today is Kiss Your Mate Day. A lovely opportunity to pucker up and smack.

1789: Mutiny on the HMS Bounty--The crew of the British ship, led by Fletcher Christian, set Captain William Bligh and 18 sailors adrift in the South Pacific.

1914: W. H. Carrier patents air conditioner.

1947: To prove ancient South Americans sailed to Polynesia, Thor Heyerdahl and five crewmen leave Callao, Peru for a 101-day journey on a balsa-wood raft named the Kon-Tiki.

1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refuses to be inducted into the Army.

1988: Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 roof peeled back during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu, killing a flight attendant and injuring 61 people.

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Today's Birthdays:
U.S. President James Monroe (1758-1831)
Novelist Harper Lee (1926)
Iraq leader Saddam Hussein (1937-2006)
TV talk show host Jay Leno (1950)
Entertainer Ann-Margret (Olsson) (1941)
Actress Penelope Cruz (1974)
Actress Jessica Alba (1981)

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Something to Think About:
"Never forget 'Today, you have 100% of your life left.'" ~ Tom Hopkins

27 - Babe Ruth Day

1907: Over 2,000 Spanish immigrants arrive in Hawaii to work on plantations.

1937: The first U.S. social security checks are distributed.

1947: "Babe Ruth Day" held at Yankee Stadium to honor the ailing baseball star.

1950: Following the institution of apartheid in 1948, South Africa passes the Group Areas Act, formally segregating the country's racial groups.

Macaroni Self-Portrait Day

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Today's Birthdays:
Telegraph inventor Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872)
Civil War General & President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)
"Woody Woodpecker" animator Walter Lantz (1899-1994)
Activist Coretta Scott King (1927-2006)
Laugh-In Sock-it-to-me girl Judy Carne (1939)
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Herm Edwards (1954)
Singer Sheena Easton (1959)

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Something to Think About:
"We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." ~ Joseph Campbell

26 - Chernobyl Accident

1977 : Studio 54 nightclub opens in New York. Disco rules!

1986: Nuclear reactor accident occurred at the Soviet Union's Chernobyl plant.

1989: Beloved comedian Lucille Ball, star of "I Love Lucy," dies.

2000: Vermont Governor Howard Dean signed the nation's first bill allowing same-sex couples to form civil unions.

Hug an Australian Day

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Today's Birthdays:
Artist John James Audubon (1785)
Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 -1951)

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Something to Think About:
"Self respect is the cornerstone of all virtue." ~ John Hersche

25 - Suez Canal Construction

1947: United Airlines begins service to Hawaii.

1859: Construction began on Egypt's Suez Canal. After a deadly cholera epidemic which killed about 120,000 lives, the canal opened in 1869 and marks the border between Asia and Africa.

1961: West Germany pays the U.S. $587 million in partial World War II reparations.

2007: The Dow Jones industrial average topped 13,000 for the first time, ending the day at 13,089.89.

Today's Birthdays:
Leader Oliver Cromwell (1599)
Russian composer Peter Tchaikovsky (1840)
Inventor Guglielmo Marconi (1874 )
Journalist Edward R. Murrow (1908)
Jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996)
Actor Al Pacino (1940-)
Actress Renee Zellweger (1969)

24 - La Marseillaise Composed

1792: Captain Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle composed "La Marseillaise," the national anthem of France.

1800: U.S. Library of Congress established in Washington, D.C. Capitol building. The national research powerhouse moved to its own quarters in 1897.

1916: Easter Rising launched in Dublin by 1,600 Irish nationalists. Key sites seized. After seven days of fighting, British army suppressed insurrection.

1981: IBM introduces its first personal computer.

Born Today:
Painter Willem de Kooning (1904)
Writer Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)
Actress Shirley MacLaine (1934)
Novelist Sue Grafton (1940)
Entertainer Barbra Streisand (1942)
Singer Kelly Clarkson (1983)

23 - Shakespeare Born & Died

1564: William Shakespeare born; he died 52 years later, on this day. He used 24,000 different words and his 154 sonnets are considered to be unequaled in their expression of love and beauty.

1872: Charlotte E. Ray becomes first black woman lawyer, joining the District of Columbia Bar.

1954: Hank Aaron hit the first of his 755 major-league home runs.

1963: Bob Dylan performs his first major solo concert at New York City’s Town Hall.

1984: US Health Secretary Margaret Heckler announces the discovery of the AIDS virus.

1998: James Earl Ray, the convicted killer of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, dies in prison.

♥☼.¸.*¸.•*¨*.¸☼¸♥Today's Birthdays:
15th US president James Buchanan (1791-1868)
Scientist Max Planck (1858-1947)
Composer Sergei Prokofiev (1891 -1953)
Writer Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
Designer Halston (1932-1990)
Singer Roy Orbison (1936-1988)
Actor Dev Patel (1990)

♥☼.¸.*¸.•*¨*.¸☼¸♥Something to Think About:
"You don't drown by falling in water; you only drown if you stay there." ~ Zig Ziglar

22 - Earth Day

1509: Henry VIII became king of England.

1864: Congress authorizes use of the motto "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins because of increased religious sentiment during the Civil War.

1970: The first Earth Day is held internationally to promote environmental awareness and conservation of natural resources.

1993: Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C. is dedicated.

2004: Pro football player Pat Tillman, 27, who had traded in a multimillion-dollar contract to serve as an Army Ranger was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.

Today's Birthdays:
Queen Isabella I (Spain) (1451-1555)
Novelist Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
Philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
Diva Madame de Stael (1766-1817)
English poet Philip James Bailey (1816-1902)
Physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967)
Violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916 )
Actor Jack Nicholson (1937)

Something to Think About:
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit." ~ Nelson Henderson

21 - Battle of San Jacinto

1836: With the cries of "Remember the Alamo," the Texan army led by Sam Houston defeated the Mexicans in the Battle of San Jacinto.

1922: Hawaii Governor and Mrs. Wallace R. Farrington officially inaugurate Washington Place as the governor's residence.

1945: Russian Red Army enters outskirts of Berlin.

Today's Birthdays:
Naturalist John Muir (1838-1914)
Anthony Quinn (1915 -2001)
Queen Elizabeth II (1926-)
Musician Glen Campbell (1936)
Musician Peter Frampton (1950)

20 - Columbine Massacre

1959: Dolly Parton released her first single "Puppy Love."

1972: Apollo 16 's manned lunar module lands safely on the moon after engine crisis.

1902: Marie Curie isolates radioactive element radium.

1999: Columbine High School massacre in Littleton, Colorado. Two students shot and killed 12 classmates and one teacher before taking their own lives.

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Born Today:
Napoleon III 1808-1873
Sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931)
Artist Joan Miro 1893
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)
Jazz Musician Lionel Hampton (1908-2002)

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Something to Think About:
"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." ~ Marie Curie

19 - First Boston Marathon

1775: American Revolutionary War began with the battles of Lexington and Concord.

1897: John J. McDermott wins the first Boston Marathon in 2:55:10.

1933: FDR announces the US will leave the gold standard.

1951: General Douglas MacArthur, relieved of his Far East command by President Truman, bid farewell in a Congress address in which he quoted a line from a ballad: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

1995: A truck bomb at the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, kills 168 and injures 500.

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Born Today:
Crime fighter Eliot Ness (1903-1957)
Sex symbol Jayne Mansfield (1933 -1967)

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Something to Think About:
"Optimism is the one quality more associated with success and happiness than any other." ~ Brian Tracy

18 - San Francisco Earthquake

1775: Paul Revere began his famous ride from Charlestown to Lexington, Mass., warning American colonists that the British were coming.

1861: Robert E. Lee turns down President Lincoln's offer of command of the Union Army.

1906: Devastating earthquake struck San Francisco, followed by raging fires; estimates of the final death toll range between 3,000 and 6,000.

1906: The Hawaii Promotion Committee suggests inviting Mark Twain to the Islands.

Born Today:
Ruthless Renaissance noblewoman Lucrezia Borgia (1480-1519)
Dramatist Thomas Middleton (1580-1627)
French ballet dancer Gaetano Vestris (1729-1808)
Psychologist George Henry Lewes (1817-1878)
Scopes "Monkey Trial" Attorney Clarence Darrow (1857–1938)
Spanish-American War Journalist Richard Harding Davis (1864-1916)
Painter, printmaker Max Weber (1881-1961)
Conductor Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977)
Australian operatic soprano Sylvia Fisher (1910-1996)
Actress Hayley Mills (1946)
Actor James Woods (1947)
US feminist, writer Susan Faludi (1959)
Television personality Conan O' Brien (1963)
Actor Robert Kelker-Kelly (1964)
Ugly Betty actress America Ferrera (1984)

"Science is the systematic classification of experience." ~ George Henry Lewes

17 - Ford Introduces Mustang

1951: Mickey Mantle makes his New York Yankee debut.

1964: Ford Motors introduces the Mustang at the New York World’s Fair ($2,368 base price). It was Lee Iacocca and Donald Frey idea to put a back seat in a sports car.

1969: Los Angeles jury convicts Sirhan Sirhan of assassinating Senator Robert F. Kennedy.

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Today's Birthdays:
Industrialist John P. Morgan (1837-1913)

Soviet Union leader Nikita S. Khrushchev (1894-1971)
Playwright Thornton Wilder (1897-1975)

Movie star William Holden (1918-1981)
Singer Liz Phair (1967)

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Something to Think About:

"If you are really thankful, what do you do? You share." ~ W. Clement Stone

16 - Roll Over Beethoven

1883: Paul Kruger becomes the first President of South Africa

1912: American pilot Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly across the English Channel.

1956: Chuck Berry records “Roll Over Beethoven” at Chess Studios in Chicago, blasting a guitar riff that forever changes the sound of rock & roll.

Today's Birthdays:

Writer Anatole France (1844-1924)
Aviation pioneer Wilbur Wright (1867-1912)
Silent film actor Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977)

Actor and novelist Peter Ustinov (1921-2004)
Actress Ellen Barkin (1955)

15 - Lincoln Assassinated

1850: The city of San Francisco is incorporated.

1865: President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated while attending the comedy "Our American Cousin" at Ford's Theater, Washington, DC.

1912: British luxury liner, RMS Titanic, sinks less than three hours after hitting an iceberg, killing 1,517.

1947: Jackie Robinson put on his first Brooklyn Dodgers uniform (number 42) and breaks Major League Baseball "color line."

Today's Birthdays:
Artist Leonardo da Vinci (1492-1519)
Realism writer Henry James (1843-1916)
Civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph (1889-1979)
Actress Claudia Cardinale (1938)
Novelist Jeffrey Archer (1940)
Actor, comedian Seth Rogen (1982)

Something to Think About:
"A life is not important, except in the impact it has on other lives." ~ Jackie Robinson

14 - Apollo 13 Crippled

1775: Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush organize the first American society for the abolition of slavery.

1939: John Steinbeck's great novel, The Grapes of Wrath, was first published.

1956: Ampex Corporation demonstrated the first successful commercial videotape recorder, the VRX-1000 (later renamed the Mark IV), at the National Association of Radio and Television Broadcasters Convention in Chicago.

1970: Apollo 13 is crippled when a liquid oxygen tank explodes on board about 200,000 miles from Earth. Astronauts manage to return safely.

1986: French feminist author Simone de Beauvoir died in Paris at age 78.

♥☼.¸.*¸.•*¨*.¸☼¸♥Today's Birthdays:
Teacher Anne Sullivan (1866-1936)
Architect Peter Behrens (1868-1940)
Philosopher Moritz Schlick (1882-1936)
Actress Sarah Michelle Gellar (1977)

♥☼.¸.*¸.•*¨*.¸☼¸♥Something to Think About:
"It is the nature of man to rise to greatness if greatness is expected of him. " ~ John Steinbeck

13 - Happy Birthday, Thomas Jefferson

1742: Handel's "Messiah" was first performed publicly (in Dublin, Ireland).

1829: The British Parliament passes the Catholic Emancipation Act, granting freedom of religion.

1943: President Roosevelt dedicates the Jefferson Memorial.

1964: Sidney Poitier becomes first black performer in a leading role to win an Academy Award for "Lilies of the Field."

1992: Great Chicago Flood takes place as the city's century-old tunnel system and adjacent basements filled with water from the Chicago River.

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Today's Birthdays:
English rebel Guy Fawkes (1570-1606)
3rd U.S. President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
Businessman F.W Woolworth (1852-1919)
Butch Cassidy (Robert LeRoy Parker) (1866-1908)
Architect, game inventor (Scrabble) Alfred Butts (1899- 1993)
French industrialist Philippe de Rothschild (1902-1988)
Writer Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
Writer Eudora Welty (1909-2001)
Russian world champion chess player Gary Kasparov (1963)

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Something to Think About:

"The soil is the gift of God to the living." ~ Thomas Jefferson

12 - American Civil War Begins

1861: American Civil War begins. Confederate forces fire on Fort Sumter in South Carolina for 34 hours.

1912: Hawaii's Queen Lili'uokalani lays the cornerstone for Lili'uokalani School in Kaimuki.

1934: "Tender Is the Night," by F. Scott Fitzgerald was first published.

1945: President Franklin Roosevelt, 63, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage in Warm Springs, Georgia. He was succeeded by Vice President Harry S. Truman.

1955: Salk vaccine against polio is declared safe and effective.

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Today's Birthdays:
Orator/statesman Henry Clay (1777-1852)
Typewriter inventor John T. Underwood (1857-1937)
Photographer Imogen Cunningham (1883-1976)
Nobel Prize winner Jan Tinbergen (1903-1994)
Opera singer Lily Pons (1904-1976)
Austrian-born sculptor Felix de Weldon (1907-2003)
American scientist Benjamin Libet (1916-2007)
American writer Beverly Cleary (1916)
Sri Lankan Politician Lakshman Kadirgamar (1932)
Jazz musician Herbie Hancock (1940)
Heisman Trophy winner Mike Garrett (1944)
Talk show host David Letterman (1947)
American author Tom Clancy (1947)
American writer Scott Turow (1949)
Finnish architect Kari Palaste (1950)
Teen heartthrob David Cassidy (1950)
Cuban-born actor Andy Garcia (1956)
Actress Shannen Doherty (1971)
Actress Claire Danes (1979)

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Something to Think About:

"It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory." ~ W. Edwards Deming

11 - Napoleon Abdicates

1689: William III and Mary II were crowned as joint sovereigns of Britain.

1775: Last recorded execution for witchcraft takes place.

1814: Napoleon Bonaparte abdicate as emperor of France and is banished to the island of Elba.

1906: Einstein introduces his Theory of Relativity.

1951: President Truman relieves General Douglas MacArthur of his commands during the Korean War after the general publicly criticized the administration's war policy.

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Today's Birthdays:
Missionary David Zeisberger (1721-1808)
Poet Christopher Smart (1722-1771)
Educator & Orator Edward Everett (1794-1865)
Pianist Charles Halle (1819-1895)
Art collector Lizzie P. Bliss (1864-1931)
Vaudeville star Lou Holtz (1893-1980)
Dean G. Acheson (1893-1971)
Scientist Percy Julian (1899-1975)
Cartoonist Dale Messick 1906
Humorist Leo Rosten (1908-)
1st black woman Yale law School grad Jane Bolin (1908)
Masura Ibuka, industrialist (1908)
Fashion designer Oleg Cassini (1913)
Ethel Kennedy (1928)
Vaudeville star Bill Irwin (1950)
Joss Stone, English Musician (1987)

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Something to Think About:
"Our greatest happiness in life does not depend on the condition of life in which chance has placed us, but is always the result of good conscience, good health, occupation, and freedom in all-just pursuits." ~ Thomas Jefferson

10 - Beatles Break Up

1866: American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is incorporated by activist Henry Bergh.

1919: Mexican revolutionary Zapata is shot dead by government forces.

1925: "The Great Gatsby," by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is first published.

1963: the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher fails to surface off Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.

1970: Hawaii Senator Daniel K. Inouye says the United States should admit it made a tragic mistake in Vietnam and should propose an immediate and complete cease-fire.

1970: Paul McCartney announces the break-up of the Beatles and says that he doesn’t know “whether the break will be temporary or permanent.”

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Today's Birthdays:

English writer William Hazlitt (1778)
Commodore Matthew Perry (1794)
Ben Hur novelist Lew Wallace 1827
Salvation Army founder William Booth (1829)
Journalist Joseph Pulitzer (1847)
Educator Frances Perkins (1880)
Clare Boothe Luce 1903
Football coach/broadcaster John Madden (1936)
Football player/broadcaster Don Meredith (1938)
Producer Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds (1958)
American musician Brian Setzer (1959)
Activist Afrika Bambaataa (1960)
American singer/actress Mandy Moore (1984)

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Something to Think About:

"Life is magic, the way nature works seems to be quite magical." ~ Jonas Salk

9- Civil War Ends

1865: The American Civil War ends as Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.

1667: First ever public art exhibition opens in Paris.

1682: French explorer Robert La Salle reaches the Mississippi River.

1939: Singer Marian Anderson performs a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, after she was denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

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Today's Birthdays:


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Something to Think About:

8 - Venus de Milo

1513: Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon discovers Florida.

1789: The U.S. House of Representatives meets for the first time.

1820: The marble Greek statue, Venus de Milo is discovered on Melos, an Aegean island.

1867: The first World's Fair is inaugurated in Paris.

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Today's Birthdays:
Indian religious leader Guatama Buddha (563-483 BC)
Harvey Cushing (pioneer of brain surgery) (1869-1939)
Ray Knight "Father of Canadian Rodeo" (1872-1947)
Actress and studio founder Mary Pickford (1893-1979)

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Something to Think About:
"Beauty without grace is the hook without the bait." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson