I'm In A Haunted Building

Ugg Boot

"How miserably things seem to be arranged in this world. If we have no friends, we have no pleasure, and if we have them, we're sure to lose them and be doubly pained by our loss."
Abraham Lincoln to his wife Mary


I'm sitting at work listening to Beethoven listening to the wind howl. I hear doors opening and closing although I am alone. Does this frighten me? Not in the least.

Today in History:
1314 - Jacques de Molay, the 23rd and the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, is burned at the stake.

1673 - John Berkeley, 1st Baron Berkeley of Stratton sells his part of New Jersey to some Friends (Quakers).

1766 - American Revolution: The British Parliament repeals the Stamp Act, which had been very unpopular in the British colonies.

1850 - American Express is founded by Henry Wells and William Fargo.

1865 - American Civil War: The Congress of the Confederate States of America adjourns for the last time.

1893 - Former Governor General Lord Stanley pledges to donate a silver challenge cup, later named after him, as an award for the best ice hockey team in Canada; originally presented to amateur champions, the Stanley Cup has been awarded to the top pro team since 1910, and since 1926, only to National Hockey League teams.

1906 - Traian Vuia flies a self-propelled heavier-than-air aircraft.

1909 - Einar Dessau uses a short-wave radio transmitter, becoming the first radio broadcaster.

1913 - King George I of Greece is assassinated in the recently liberated city of Thessaloniki.

1925 - The Tri-State Tornado hits the Midwestern states of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing 695 people.

1937 - The New London School explosion kills three hundred, mostly children.

1937 - The human-powered aircraft, Pedaliante, flies 1 kilometre (0.62 miles) outside Milan.

1944 - The eruption of Mount Vesuvius in Italy kills 26 and causes thousands to flee their homes.

1989 - In Egypt, a 4,400-year-old mummy is found in the Pyramid of Cheops.

1990 - In the largest art theft in US history, 12 paintings, collectively worth around $300 million, are stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

2003 - British Sign Language is recognised as an official British language.




Happy Birthday:
1496 - Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VII of England and queen consort of Louis XII of France (d. 1533)

1603 - Simon Bradstreet, Massachusetts Bay colonist (d. 1693)

1837 - Grover Cleveland, President of the United States (d. 1908)

1926 - Peter Graves, American actor

1938 - Charley Pride, American musician

1941 - Wilson Pickett, American singer (d. 2006)


Deaths on this day:
978 - King Edward the Martyr of England

1584 - Tsar Ivan IV of Russia (b. 1530)

2001 - John Phillips, American musician (The Mamas and the Papas) (b. 1935)