Interrogatories
Have you ever lacked a roof over your head?
How good are you at taking tests? At filling in questionnaires?
What's the most high-tech toy you had as a kid?
What is the oldest photograph you have?
The Twitter Emitter
On This Day
In 1818, Illinois was admitted as the 21st state.
In 1901, Teddy Roosevelt asked the House of Representatives, in the course of an interminable speech, to put curbs on the power of trusts "within reasonable limits". They probably eventually passed the laws they did in order to avoid another such speech.
In 1960, Camelot premiered on Broadway. It later somehow became associated with the Kennedy administration (though most of them couldn’t sing).
In 1964, police arrested more than 800 UC Berkeley students for taking over and conducting a sit-in at the University's administration building. They were protesting the UC Regents' decision to ban protests on UC property.
In 1967, in Cape Town, South Africa, a transplant team headed by Christiaan Barnard performed the first heart transplant on a human (53-year-old Louis Washkansky).
In 1984, at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, a methyl isocyanate leak killed more than 3,800 people immediately and injured between 150,000–600,000 others. (An estimated 6,000 of them later died from their injuries.) It was one of the worst industrial disasters in history. (But of course we don’t need regulations.)
In 1997, in Ottawa, Canada, The Ottawa Treaty, prohibiting manufacture and deployment of anti-personnel land mines, was signed by 121 nations. The three nations most in need of signing - the United States, the People's Republic of China, and Russia did not sign the treaty.
Born on This Day
1621 - Pieter Gysels (or Gheysels, Gyzens, Gysen, Gijsels), Flemish painter (d. 1690)
1755 – Gilbert Stuart, American painter (d. 1828)
1793 - Clarkson Frederick Stanfield, English painter (d. 1867)
1826 – George B. McClellan, American Civil War general (d. 1885)
1830 - Frederic Leighton, painter (d. 1896)
1838 – Octavia Hill, English activist (d. 1912)
1842 – Ellen Swallow Richards, American scientist. She was the first woman admitted to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and its first female instructor, the first woman in America accepted to any school of science and technology, and the first American woman to earn a degree in chemistry (d. 1911)
1843 - Daniele Ranzoni, Italian painter (d. 1889)
1851 - Gustav Schönleber, German Painter (d. 1917)
1875 – Max Meldrum, Scottish-born Australian painter (d. 1955)
1895 – Anna Freud, Austrian-born British psychoanalyst (d. 1982)
1908 - Anna Sten, Ukrainian actress (d. 1993)
1911 – Nino Rota, Italian composer (d. 1979)
1922 – Sven Nykvist, Swedish cinematographer, who worked extensively with Ingmar Bergman. (d. 2006)
1930 – Jean-Luc Godard, French film director
1947 – Patricia Krenwinkel, American killer
1948 – Jan Hrubý, Czech violinist and songwriter (Framus Five and Etc...)
1948 – Ozzy Osbourne, English singer
1960 – Julianne Moore, American actress (See Tipple Jar)
1963 – Scott Ian, American guitarist (Anthrax)
1963 – Joe Lally, American musician (Fugazi)
1963 – Terri Schiavo, American right to die figure (d. 2005)
1968 – Brendan Fraser, Canadian-American actor
1985 – Amanda Seyfried, American actress and singer
Died on This Day
1789 – Claude Joseph Vernet, French painter (b. 1714)
1806 - Jean-Baptiste Charpentier, French painter (b. 1728)
1888 – Carl Zeiss, German lens maker (b. 1816)
1890 - Carl Hilgers, German painter (b.1818)
1894 – Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish author and poet (b. 1850)
1910 – Mary Baker Eddy, Founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist (b. 1821)
1919 – Pierre-Auguste Renoir, French impressionist painter (b. 1841)
1941 – Pavel Filonov, Russian painter (b. 1883)
1949 – Maria Ouspenskaya, Russian-American actress (b. 1876)
1955 – Cow Cow Davenport, American pianist (b. 1894)
1956 – Alexander Rodchenko, Russian painter and photographer (b. 1891)
1972 – Bill Johnson, American musician (b. 1872)
1994 – Elizabeth Glaser, AIDS activist (b. 1947)
1999 – Madeline Kahn, American actress (b. 1942)
2003 – David Hemmings, English actor (b. 1941)
2006 – Logan Whitehurst, American musician (b. 1977)
2009 – Richard Todd, British actor (b. 1919)
Today is
International Day of Persons with Disabilities
National Apple Pie Day
National Peppermint Latte Day
National Roof over Your Head Day
Make a Gift Day