On November 14, 1703, England was battered by an unusual storm.  “Featuring hurricane strength winds, the storm killed somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people. Hundreds of Royal Navy ships were lost to the storm, the worst in Britain’s history. “The unusual weather began on November 14 as strong winds from the Atlantic Ocean battered the… Read More »

The 2024 Olympics took place in Paris from July 26-August 11.  It was watched by 145,000 spectators1 and the opening ceremony was watched by an estimated 28.6 million viewers.2  An estimated 10,500 athletes from 206 countries were expected to compete in 32 sports and 339 events.  Did you watch any of it? A lot of… Read More »

November 22, 1963.  The 35th President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas as he waved from his limousine in the motorcade travelling down the streets.  It was 12:30 p.m. when the shots rang out from the rifle of Lee Havey Oswald. “In an interview with “Frontline,” investigative journalist Gerald… Read More »

There is a man buried in Westminster Abbey among kings, queens, and other notables of British history.  While everyone buried there would not necessarily be an honorable person in God’s estimation, this man definitely doesn’t deserve such a prestigious burial place. This man followed upon the “science” of his grandfather and a French scientist named… Read More »

The Saturday before Thanksgiving has been designated as National Adoption Day.  It’s a day to acknowledge those who have been adopted, their adoptive families, or those going through the tedious process of adoption.  Just consider where things are in our own nation. “Of the more than 440,000 children in foster care in the United States, there are… Read More »

Today is National Substitute Teacher Day.  In the more modern PC era, it’s National Substitute Educator’s Day, capping off a weeklong celebration of American educators and administration.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 376,340 elementary and secondary education subs1 to teach in the nation’s 97,568 public schools2 and 32,461 private schools3.  There… Read More »

On this day in 1980, we found out “who shot J.R.”  Younger readers have no idea what I’m talking about but those who grew up in this time period know all about it, even if you never watched the show. Dallas was a nighttime soap opera featuring Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing, a womanizing oil… Read More »

United States Patent No. 1,475,074 was granted on this day in 1923 to Garrett Morgan.  While we’ve probably never heard of this man, we see and use his invention every day.  First, let’s get some perspective on the identity of this man. “Morgan, the child of two formerly enslaved people, was born in Kentucky in 1877. When… Read More »

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on… Read More »

There are a lot of things we just take for granted and never think about.  One of those is something celebrated on this day and has been with us precisely since noon, 1883.  It’s time zones. Traveling a distance often took weeks or months.  Historians tell us that prior to this day, time was relative… Read More »