Daily Calendar for Tuesday, July 16, 2024
Question of the Day
What’s the best way to clean my aluminum siding?
Aluminum with a faded, weathered look needs to be cleaned with a strong detergent solution, but you might want to test this solution in an inconspicuous spot on your house first. Washing may result in a color that is not uniform after it dries. If the color in your test area is consistent, it’s safe to clean the rest of the siding this way. To make a detergent solution, combine 1/3 cup laundry detergent, 2/3 cup trisodium phosphate (TSP), 1 quart household bleach (5 percent), and 3 quarts water. Avoid any abrasive cleaners; these will damage the finish. Clean your siding once a year with a strong spray of water from a hose. Use the detergent solution when the siding begins to look old and weathered.
Advice of the Day
Bees will not swarm before a near storm.
Home Hint of the Day
For relief from sunburn, take a vinegar sponge bath.
Word of the Day
Second Summer (also known as “Indian Summer”)
Second Summer (also known as “Indian Summer”) is a period of warm weather following a cold spell or a hard frost. It can occur between St. Martin’s Day (November 11) and November 20, although the Almanac adheres to the proverb, “If All Saints’ brings out winter, St. Martin’s brings out Indian summer.” As for the origin of the term, some say it comes from the Narragansett people, who believed that the condition was caused by a warm wind sent from the court of their southwestern god, Cautantowwit.
Puzzle of the Day
Let (Blank) (Blank) lie.(What’s the saying? Fill in the blanks!)
1) sleeping 2) dogs
Born
- Andrea del Sarto (painter) –
- Pierre Le Moyne (French-Canadian explorer) –
- Giuseppe Piazzi (Italian astronomer) –
- Mary Baker Eddy (religious leader) –
- Shoeless Joe Jackson (baseball player) –
- Barbara Stanwyck (actress) –
- Ginger Rogers (actress) –
- Michael Flatley (dancer & choreographer) –
- Phoebe Cates (actress) –
- Will Ferrell (actor) –
- Barry Sanders (football player) –
- Corey Feldman (actor) –
Died
- Anne of Cleves (fourth wife of King Henry VIII) –
- Mary Todd Lincoln (U.S. First Lady) –
- Harry Chapin (singer & songwriter) –
- John F. Kennedy, Jr. (died in a plane crash on his way to a cousin’s wedding on Martha’s Vineyard. His wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren, were also aboard) –
- Charles W. Sweeney (pilot of the U.S. bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan, in the last days of World War II) –
Events
- Congress established the District of Columbia on the Potomac River, voting to set up the permanent seat of the government of the U.S. there–
- Dr. Emily Howard Stowe, the first woman to practice medicine in Canada, received her medical license.–
- First parking meters installed, Oklahoma City, OK–
- Apollo 11 launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, to become the first manned space mission to land on the moon–
- 135 pilot whales beached at Point au Gaul, Newfoundland and Labrador–
- In the Philippines, an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter Scale killed over 1,600 people–
- The 6th book in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series sold 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours — averaging better than 250,000 sales per hour–
- A 3.6-magnitude earthquake struck about 20 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., in Maryland–
- 3.4 earthquake occurred near Germantown, Maryland–
- Bryan Cranston received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame–
- To mark the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11’s launch, U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, launched 5,000 model rockets simultaneously, breaking a Guinness world record–
Weather
- F2 tornado in Grafton County, New Hampshire–
- 15th to 16th: 22.22 inches of rain in 24 hours, Altapass, North Carolina–
- In Churdan, Iowa, a tornado touched down and moved northwest, opposite the normal pattern–