When told by Roman officials to surrender the church’s valuables, St. Lawrence brought the city’s poor and sick. “Here is the church’s treasure,” he said. Rome didn’t find this amusing, and legend says he was put to death in A.D. 258 by being roasted on a grate, although some scholars say he was more likely beheaded. In either case, folks in southern Europe still mark this day. It is customary there to eat only cold meat in recognition of the reputed manner of his death. Fair weather on St. Lawrence’s Day presages a fair autumn.
Question of the Day
How long is the solar cycle?
The solar cycle is the periodic change in the number of sunspots. (Sunspots are a big factor in The Old Farmer’s Almanac annual weather forecasts.) The cycle is the interval between successive minima (periods of low sunspot activity) and is about 11.1 years. During the cycle, solar flares, sunspots, and other magnetic phenomena move from intense activity to relative calm and back again.
Advice of the Day
Place violets in your bedroom to help you sleep.
Home Hint of the Day
To repoint a chimney, scrape out all the loose mortar from the outside of the joints. Then mix up masonry cement by combining 3 parts sand, 1 part cement, and enough water to make it workable. Apply this new mortar to the joints with a trowel.
Word of the Day
Pyrheliometer
An instrument that measures direct solar radiation.
Puzzle of the Day
The Centennial State.(Name the U.S. state!)
Colorado
Born
James Wilson Morrice(artist)–
Herbert Hoover(31st U.S. president)–
Wolfgang Paul(physicist)–
Jimmy Dean(actor, singer, & businessman)–
Bobby Hatfield(one of the Righteous Brothers)–
Betsy Johnson(designer)–
Ian Anderson(musician)–
Rosanna Arquette(actress)–
Antonio Banderas(actor)–
Angie Harmon(actress)–
Died
Otto Lilienthal(German aviator whose work made a significant contribution to the success of the Wright Brothers)–
Robert Goddard(rocket scientist)–
Isaac Hayes(singer & songwriter)–
Events
Missouri, the second state to be created from the Louisiana Purchase, was admitted to the Union as the 24th state–
The Smithsonian Institution was established at the bequest of James Smithson; the reason for the bequest remains unknown–
Alexander Graham Bell received the first long-distance phone call in Brantford, Ontario, from his father who was 8 miles away in Paris, Ontario–
The Canadian Bill of Rights was enacted–
President Ronald Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988–
Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg was sworn in as the 107th justice of the US Supreme Court–
First Earth/Space wedding. Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, aboard the International Space Station (ISS), married Ekaterina Dmitriev, on Earth–
For the first time in Canada, a court ordered a man to give his ex-wife monthly support payments for their dog. The man was told to pay $200 a month in alimony towards the upkeep of the couples’ St. Bernard–
Weather
A tornado hit Coney Island, New York, causing extensive damage–
Frost was reported in Iowa and Chicago–
101.3 degrees F in Kent, England–
-136 degrees F (-93.2 degrees C) recorded at the East Antarctic Plateau in Antarctica, making it the coldest temperature on Earth on record at the time–
