Interrogatories
It's Drink Wine Day. What kind of wine will you celebrate with?
What period and place in history do you find most fascinating, and why?
Are you a joiner? Do you belong to many groups or organizations that actually engage in real-life activities?
The Twitter Emitter
On This Day
In 1885, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain was published.
In 1930, Pluto was discovered in a photograph by Clyde W. Tombaugh at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, AZ.
In 1970, five of the Chicago Seven defendants were found guilty of intent to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. (The convictions were later overturned.)
In 1972, the California Supreme Court struck down the state's death penalty (temporarily).
In 1988, Anthony M. Kennedy was sworn in as a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 2001, veteran FBI agent Robert Hanssen was arrested, accused of spying for Russia for more than 15 years. (Hanssen pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison without parole.)
In 2006, American Shani Davis won the men's 1,000-meter speedskating in Turin, becoming the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal in Winter Olympic history.
In 2006, a Hamas-dominated Palestinian parliament was sworn in.
In 2010, software engineer A. Joseph Stack III crashed his single-engine plane into a building containing IRS offices in Austin, Texas, killing one person besides himself.
Born on This Day
1404 – Leon Battista Alberti, Italian architect and philosopher (d. 1472)
1602 - Pieter Meulener, Dutch painter (d. 1654)
1609 – Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, English historian (d. 1674)
1751 - Adolf Ulrik Wertmuller, Swedish painter (d. 1811)
1755 - Nicolas-Didier Boguet, French landscape painter (d. 1839)
1780 - Alexey Venetsianov, Russian painter (d. 1847)
1815 - Henri Leys, Belgian painter (d. 1869)
1817 - Johannes Bosboom, Dutch architectural painter (d. 1891)
1838 – Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist (d. 1916)
1844 - Willem Maris, Dutch landscape painter (d. 1910)
1848 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American glass artist (d. 1933)
1853 - Charles William Wyllie, British marine painter (d. 1923)
1857 - Max Klinger, German Symbolist painter, sculptor and engraver (d. 1920)
1859 – Sholom Aleichem, Russian Yiddish humorist (d. 1916)
1860 - Anders Zorn, Swedish painter (d. 1920)
1862 - Albert Welti, Swiss painter (d. 1912)
1890 – Edward Arnold, American actor (d. 1956)
1890 – Adolphe Menjou, American actor (d. 1963) See Tipple Jar
1892 – Wendell Willkie, American politician (d. 1944)
1894 - Paul R. Wiliams, architect, and the first African-American member of the AIA. He designed many iconic building and many movie star homes (now endangered). (d.1980)
1906 – Hans Asperger, Austrian pediatrician (d. 1980)
1915 – Phyllis Calvert, British actress (d. 2002)
1919 – Jack Palance, American actor (d. 2006)
1922 - Alexander Mikhailovich Semionov, Russian painter (d. 1984)
1927 – John Warner, American politician, 61st United States Secretary of the Navy and American politician
1930 – Gahan Wilson, American cartoonist
1931 – Toni Morrison, American writer, Nobel laureate
1933 – Yoko Ono, Japanese-born American singer and performance artist
1933 – Mary Ure, Scottish actress (d. 1975)
1941 – Herman Santiago, American singer and songwriter (The Teenagers)
1941 – Irma Thomas, American singer
1950 – John Hughes, American film director (d. 2009)
1952 – Randy Crawford, American jazz and R&B singer
1953 – Robbie Bachman, Canadian drummer (Bachman–Turner Overdrive)
1954 – John Travolta, American actor
1964 – Matt Dillon, American actor
1964 – Paul Hanley, British musician (The Fall and Tom Hingley and the Lovers)
1965 – Dr. Dre, American record producer and rapper (World Class Wreckin' Cru and N.W.A)
1968 – Molly Ringwald, American actress
Died on This Day
1294 – Kublai Khan, Mongol Emperor (b. 1215)
1455 – Fra Angelico, Italian artist (b. 1395)
1478 – George, Duke of Clarence, brother of Kings Edward IV of England and Richard III of England (b. 1449)
1546 – Martin Luther, German religious reformer (b. 1483)
1564 – Michelangelo, Italian artist and sculptor (b. 1475)
1682 - Pierre Dupuis, French still life painter (b. 1610)
1683 – Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, Dutch painter (b. 1620)
1902 - Albert Bierstadt, German-American landscape painter (b. 1830)
1917 - Carolus-Duran, French painter (b. 1847)
1967 – J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (b. 1904)
1978 – Maggie McNamara, American actress (b. 1928)
1999 - Andreas Feininger, French born American photographer (b. 1906)
2001 – Balthus, Polish-born painter (b. 1908)
2001 – Dale Earnhardt, American race car driver (b. 1951)
2012 – Matt Lamb, American painter (b. 1932)
2013 – Kevin Ayers, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Soft Machine and The Wilde Flowers) (b. 1944)
Today is
Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day
Drink Wine Day
National Battery Day
President's Day