Interrogatories
Were you ever bullied in school? Regularly? Did you ever bully anyone?
What superpowers would best suit your priorities in life?
Do you often see people where you live with weapons in public (not counting police officers)?
Do you own any guns? Can you hit a target?
The Twitter Emitter
On This Day
In 1542, the Spanish explorer Cabrillo stumbled upon what he called San Salvador and is now known as Santa Catalina Island, though the natives who lived there knew it as Pimugna.
In 1691, William and Mary of England issued a royal charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay.
In 1868, Cornell University opened its doors.
In 1985, the Italian-based cruise ship MS Achille Lauro was hijacked by the Palestine Liberation Front.
In 1998, gay college student Matthew Shepard was found tied to a fence in a remote part of Wyoming, having been tortured and left to die by two homophobes.
In 1996, on the darkest of dark days, our country's slide to ruin began as the Fox News Channel began airing.
In 2001, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan began.
In 2003, California governor Gray Davis was recalled and Gubernator Ahhhnold Schwarzenegger installed in his place.
Born on This Day
1589 – Archduchess Maria Maddalena of Austria (d. 1631)
1675 - Rosalba Carriera, Venetian pastelist and painter (d. 1757)
1769 – Solomon Sibley, American politician and jurist, 1st Mayor of Detroit (d. 1846)
1798 – Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, French luthier, businessman and inventor (d. 1875)
1849 – James Whitcomb Riley, American poet (d. 1916)
1850 - Léon Herbo, Belgian genre painter (d. 1907)
1856 - John White Alexander, painter (d. 1915)
1859 – Gustav Wentzel, Norwegian painter (d. 1927)
1879 – Joe Hill, American poet and activist (d. 1915)
1888 – Henry A. Wallace, American politician, 33rd Vice President of the United States (d. 1965)
1894 – Del Lord, American director (d. 1970)
1911 – Jo Jones, American drummer (d. 1985)
1914 – Sarah Churchill, English actress (d. 1982)
1917 – June Allyson, American actress (d. 2006)
1926 – Diana Lynn, American actress (d. 1971)
1927 – R. D. Laing, Scottish psychiatrist and author (d. 1989)
1931 – Desmond Tutu, South African archbishop and activist, Nobel Prize laureate
1942 – Joy Behar, American talk show host and actress
1945 – Kevin Godley, English singer-songwriter and director
1951 – John Mellencamp, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor
1952 – Vladimir Putin, Russian politician, 4th President of Russia
1955 – Yo-Yo Ma, French-American cellist (Silk Road Project)
1959 – Simon Cowell, English businessman and producer
1967 – Toni Braxton, American singer-songwriter, producer, and actress
1967 – Luke Haines, English singer-songwriter, musician, and author (The Auteurs, The Servants, and Black Box Recorder)
1968 – Thom Yorke, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (Radiohead)
1975 – Damian Kulash, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (OK Go)
Died on This Day
336 – Pope Mark
929 – Charles the Simple, French king (b. 879)
1772 – John Woolman, American preacher and abolitionist (b. 1720)
1817 - Pierre-Louis de Larive, Swiss painter and illustrator (b. 1735)
1849 – Edgar Allan Poe, American author and poet (b. 1809)
1894 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American physician, author, and poet (b. 1809)
1931 - Charles Ricketts, English painter and illustrator (b. 1866)
1939 – Harvey Williams Cushing, American surgeon (b. 1869)
1940 - Maurice Leloir, French painter and illustrator (b. 1853)
1946 - Christopher R. W. Nevinson, English futurist painter (b. 1889)
1953 - Emil Filla, Czech cubist painter (b. 1882)
1959 – Mario Lanza, American tenor and actor (b. 1921)
1966 – Smiley Lewis, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1913)
1991 – Leo Durocher, American baseball player and manager (b. 1905)
2001 - Herbert Lawrence Block “Herblock”, U.S political cartoonist (b. 1909)
2009 – Irving Penn, American photographer (b. 1917) See Tipple Jar
2012 – Mersad Berber, Bosnian painter (b. 1940)
Today is
National Frappe Day (wrongly reported as being last week, apparently)
Bald and Free Day
World Day of Bullying Prevention
You Matter to Me Day
World Habitat Day
Child Health Day