Today is October 18 2014

National Chocolate Cupcake Day : More

• National Sweetest Day – Third Saturday in October: More
  
• Bridge Day: More
  Fayetteville, Fayette County, West Virginia,
• World Menopause Day: More
• Alaska Day: More
  Alaska state holiday
• National No Beard Day: More

• In 1648. Boston Shoemakers form the first U.S. labor organization.
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• In 1867. The U.S. formally acquires possession of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million. This day is known as Alaska Day and is a holiday in that state.
  From Wikipedia: 'Alaska is a U.S. state situated in the northwest extremity of the Americas. The Canadian administrative divisions of British Columbia and Yukon border the state to the east; its most extreme western part is Attu Island; it has a maritime border with Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas–the southern parts of the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area, the 3rd least populous and the least densely populated of the 50 United States. Approximately half of Alaska's residents (the total estimated at 738,432 by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015) live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaska's economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, and oil industries, resources which it has in abundance. Military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy.
  
  The United States purchased Alaska from the Russian Empire on March 30, 1867, for 7.2 million U.S. dollars at approximately two cents per acre ($4.74/km2). The area went through several administrative changes before becoming organized as a territory on May 11, 1912. It was admitted as the 49th state of the U.S. on January 3, 1959'.
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• In 1898, The U.S.A. takes possession of Puerto Rico. In 1917, the Jones Act made the island a United States territory, making the residents U.S citizens. In 1952 it was granted self-rule, as a commonwealth of the U.S.
  From Wikipedia: 'Puerto Rico (Spanish for "Rich Port"; Spanish: , locally also ), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit. "Free Associated State of Puerto Rico") and formerly known as and sometimes called Porto Rico, is the largest insular territory of the United States, and it is located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea. It is an archipelago that includes the main island of Puerto Rico and a number of smaller islands such as Mona, Culebra, and Vieques. The capital and most populous city is San Juan. The territory no longer observes daylight saving time, and its official languages are Spanish, which is predominant, and English. The island's population is approximately 3.4 million. Puerto Rico's rich history, tropical climate, diverse natural scenery, renowned traditional cuisine, and attractive tax incentives make it a popular destination for travelers from around the world.
  
  Originally populated by the aboriginal Taíno people, the island was claimed in 1493 by Christopher Columbus for the Kingdom of Spain, and it later endured several invasion attempts by the French, Dutch, and British. During the four centuries of Spanish rule, the island's ethnic, cultural and physical landscapes were transformed, as the island was settled overwhelmingly by Spanish settlers, primarily from the Canary Islands and Andalusia, continuing right up until the end of the 19th century, as a result of which it is an overwhelmingly Catholic and markedly Hispanic territory in terms of culture and language. In 1898, following the Spanish–American War, the United States annexed the island under the terms of the Treaty of Paris.
  
  Puerto Ricans are natural-born citizens of the United States. Puerto Rico does not have a vote in the United States Congress, which governs the territory with full jurisdiction under the Puerto Rico Federal Relations Act of 1950. As a U.S. territory, American citizens residing on the island are disenfranchised at the national level and may not vote for president and vice president of the United States. However, Congress approved a local constitution, allowing U.S. citizens on the territory to elect a governor.
  
  A 2012 referendum showed a majority (54% of the electorate) disagreed with "the present form of territorial status", with full statehood as the preferred option among those who voted for a change of status. Following the vote, the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico enacted a concurrent resolution to request the president and Congress of the United States to end its current status as an unincorporated U.S. territory and begin the process of admission to the union as a state'.
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• In 1924, Sports writer, Grantland Rice, coins the term 'The Four Horsemen' to describe the backfield of the Notre Dame football team.
  From Wikipedia: The Four Horsemen of Notre Dame comprised a winning group of American football players at the University of Notre Dame under coach Knute Rockne. They were the backfield of Notre Dame's 1924 football team. The players that made up this group were Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden.
  
  In 1924, a nickname coined by sportswriter Grantland Rice and the actions of a student publicity aide transformed the Notre Dame backfield of Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller, and Layden into the most fabled quartet in college football history, the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame.
  
  Quarterback Harry Stuhldreher, left halfback Jim Crowley, right halfback Don Miller, and fullback Elmer Layden had run rampant through Irish opponents' defenses since coach Knute Rockne devised the lineup in 1922 during their sophomore season. During the three-year tenure of the Four Horsemen, Notre Dame lost only two games; one each in 1922 and 1923, both to Nebraska in Lincoln before packed houses.
  
  The foursome needed some help from Grantland Rice, a sportswriter for the former New York Herald Tribune, to achieve football immortality. After Notre Dame's 13–7 upset victory over a strong Army team, on October 18, 1924, Rice penned "the most famous football lead of all-time":
  
  Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore their names are Death, Destruction, Pestilence, and Famine. But those are aliases. Their real names are: Stuhldreher, Crowley, Miller and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds this afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered down upon the bewildering panorama spread out upon the green plain below'.
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• In 1925, The Grand Ole Opry, birthplace and showcase for many great country artists through the decades, opens in Nashville, Tennessee.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country-music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, which was founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a division of Ryman Hospitality Properties, Inc.), it is the longest-running radio broadcast in US history, albeit not the longest-running one on a radio network. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of famous singers and contemporary chart-toppers performing country, bluegrass, folk, gospel, and comedic performances and skits. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio and Internet listeners.
  
  The Opry's current primary slogan is "The Show that Made Country Music Famous". Other slogans include "Home of American Music" and "Country’s Most Famous Stage".
  
  In the 1930s the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours; and WSM, broadcasting by then with 50,000 watts, made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. The Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, which became America's "country music capital". The Grand Ole Opry holds such significance in Nashville that its name is included on the city/county line signs on all major roadways. The signs read "Music City | Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County | Home of the Grand Ole Opry".
  
  Membership in the Opry remains one of country music's crowning achievements. Such country music legends as Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins, Roy Acuff, the Carter family, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells and Minnie Pearl became regulars on the Opry's stage. In recent decades, the Opry has hosted such contemporary country stars as Dolly Parton, Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, Reba McEntire, Josh Turner, Carrie Underwood, Brad Paisley, Rascal Flatts, Dierks Bentley, Kacey Musgraves, Blake Shelton and the Dixie Chicks. Since 1974, the show has been broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry House east of downtown Nashville, with an annual three-month winter foray back to the Ryman since 1999. Performances have been sporadically televised in addition to the radio programs.
  
  The Grand Ole Opry started as the WSM Barn Dance in the new fifth-floor radio studio of the National Life and Accident Insurance Company in downtown Nashville on November 28, 1925. On October 18, 1925, management began a program featuring "Dr. Humphrey Bate and his string quartet of old-time musicians." On November 2, WSM hired long-time announcer and program director George D. "Judge" Hay, an enterprising pioneer from the National Barn Dance program at WLS in Chicago, who was also named the most popular radio announcer in America as a result of his radio work with both WLS and WMC in Memphis, Tennessee. Hay launched the WSM Barn Dance with 77-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson on November 28, 1925, which is celebrated as the birth date of the Grand Ole Opry.
  
  Some of the bands regularly on the show during its early days included Bill Monroe, the Possum Hunters (with Dr. Humphrey Bate), the Fruit Jar Drinkers with Uncle Dave Macon, the Crook Brothers, the Binkley Brothers' Dixie Clodhoppers, Sid Harkreader, Deford Bailey, Fiddlin' Arthur Smith, and the Gully Jumpers.
  
  Judge Hay, however, liked the Fruit Jar Drinkers and asked them to appear last on each show because he wanted to always close each segment with "red hot fiddle playing". They were the second band accepted on Barn Dance, with the Crook Brothers being the first. When the Opry began having square dancers on the show, the Fruit Jar Drinkers always played for them. In 1926, Uncle Dave Macon, a Tennessee banjo player who had recorded several songs and toured the vaudeville circuit, became its first real star'.
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• In 1935, The song, I'm Getting Sentimental Over You, was recorded by Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra.
  From Wikipedia: '"I'm Getting Sentimental Over You" is a song recorded by Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra. The words were written by Ned Washington and the music was written by George Bassman. It was first performed in 1932. The original copyright is dated 1933 and issued to Lawrence Music Publishers, Inc. The copyright was assigned to Mills Music, Inc. in 1934. Noni Bernardi, a saxophonist with the Dorsey orchestra arranged this song.
  
  Dorsey was the featured trombone soloist when his orchestra played it. It was first recorded in September 1935. A second recording on October 18, 1935 is the exact arrangement that Tommy would henceforth feature. Frank Sinatra sang this song in the Dorsey Orchestra and also featured it in an album, I Remember Tommy, after Tommy Dorsey's death in 1956.
  
  This song was featured in an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Static", and in the movie Bart Got a Room.
  
  The tempo is considered a fox trot or swing'.
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• In 1941, The US general release of movie 'The Maltese Falcon'.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Maltese Falcon is a 1941 film noir directed by John Huston in his directorial debut. Huston's screenplay was based on the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. (Original publisher Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. in 1929.) The film stars Humphrey Bogart as private investigator Sam Spade and Mary Astor as his femme fatale client. Gladys George, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet co-star, with Greenstreet appearing in his film debut. The story follows a San Francisco private detective and his dealings with three unscrupulous adventurers, all of whom are competing to obtain a jewel-encrusted falcon statuette.
  
  The film premiered on October 3, 1941, in New York City, and was nominated for three Academy Awards. The Maltese Falcon was selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry in 1989.
  
  The Maltese Falcon is a part of Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" series and was cited by Panorama du Film Noir Américain as the first major film noir'.
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• In 1943, The radio show 'Perry Mason' was first broadcast on CBS Radio. The show went to TV in 1957. It starred Bartlett Robinson, Santos Ortega, Donald Briggs, John Larkin, Gertrude Warner, Joan Alexander. It ran for 300 ep. from October 18, 1943 to December 30, 1955.
  From Wikipedia: 'Perry Mason is a radio crime serial based on the novels of Erle Stanley Gardner. Broadcast weekdays on CBS Radio from 1943 to 1955, the series was adapted into The Edge of Night which ran on television for an additional 30 years'.
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• In 1954. The Transistor radio is first announced by Texas Instruments.
  From Wikipedia: 'A transistor radio is a small portable radio receiver that uses transistor-based circuitry. Following their development in 1954, made possible by the invention of the transistor in 1947, they became the most popular electronic communication device in history, with billions manufactured during the 1960s and 1970s. Their pocket size sparked a change in popular music listening habits, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went. Beginning in the 1980s cheap AM transistor radios were superseded by devices with higher audio quality, portable CD players, personal audio players, and boom boxes.
  
  Two companies working together, Texas Instruments of Dallas, Texas and Industrial Development Engineering Associates (I.D.E.A.) of Indianapolis, Indiana, were behind the unveiling of the Regency TR-1, the world's first commercially produced transistor radio. Previously, Texas Instruments was producing instrumentation for the oil industry and locating devices for the U.S. Navy and I.D.E.A. built home television antenna boosters. The two companies worked together on the TR-1, looking to grow revenues for their respective companies by breaking into this new product area. In May 1954, Texas Instruments had designed and built a prototype and was looking for an established radio manufacturer to develop and market a radio using their transistors. (The Chief Project Engineer for the radio design at Texas Instruments' headquarters in Dallas, Texas was Paul D. Davis, Jr., who had a degree in Electrical Engineering from Southern Methodist University. He was assigned the project due to his experience with radio engineering in World War II.) None of the major radio makers including RCA, Philco, and Emerson were interested. The President of I.D.E.A. at the time, Ed Tudor, jumped at the opportunity to manufacture the TR-1, predicting sales of the transistor radios at "20 million radios in three years". The Regency TR-1 was announced on October 18, 1954 by the Regency Division of I.D.E.A., was put on sale in November 1954, and was the first practical transistor radio made in any significant numbers. Billboard reported in 1954 that "the radio has only four transistors. One acts as a combination mixer-oscillator, one as an audio amplifier, and two as intermediate-frequency amplifiers." One year after the release of the TR-1 sales approached the 100,000 mark. The look and size of the TR-1 was well received, but the reviews of the TR-1's performance were typically adverse. The Regency TR-1 is patented by Richard C. Koch, US 2892931
  
  , former Project Engineer of I.D.E.A'.
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• In 1967, The Soviet probe Venera 4 reaches Venus and becomes the first spacecraft to measure the atmosphere of another planet.
  From Wikipedia: 'Venera 4, also designated 1V (V-67) s/n 310 was a probe in the Soviet Venera program for the exploration of Venus. It was the first successful probe to perform in-place analysis of the environment of another planet. It may also have been the first probe to land on another planet, with the fate of its predecessor Venera 3 being unclear. Venera 4 provided the first chemical analysis of the Venusian atmosphere, showing it to be primarily carbon dioxide with a few percent of nitrogen and below one percent of oxygen and water vapors. The station detected a weak magnetic field and no radiation field. The outer atmospheric layer contained very little hydrogen and no atomic oxygen. The probe sent the first direct measurements proving that Venus was extremely hot, that its atmosphere was far denser than expected, and that it had lost most of its water long ago'.
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• In 1997, The Women in Military Service for America Memorial, honoring U.S. servicewomen, past and present, was dedicated at Arlington National Cemetery.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Women in Military Service for America Memorial (WIMSA) is a memorial established by the U.S. federal government which honors women who have served in the United States Armed Forces. The memorial is located at the western end of Memorial Avenue at the entrance to Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, in the United States. The structure in which the memorial is housed was originally known as the Hemicycle, and built in 1932 to be a ceremonial entrance to the cemetery. It never served this purpose, and was in disrepair by 1986. Congress approved the WIMSA memorial in 1985, and the Hemicycle approved as the site for the memorial in 1988. An open design competition was won by New York City architects Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi. Their original design was leaked to the public, and caused significant controversy. Two years of fund-raising and design revision followed. A revised preliminary design was approved in July 1992, and the final design in March 1995. Ground was broken for the memorial in June 1995, and the structure dedicated on October 18, 1997.
  
  The memorial is notable for its successful mixing of Neoclassical and Modern architecture. The memorial largely retained the Hemicycle, but added a widely praised skylight on the Hemicycle terrace that incorporates not only memorials to servicewomen but also acts as a transition to the memorial below. Construction of the memorial, however, generated a lawsuit when a nearby pylon (part of the gateway to the cemetery) was damaged. Raising funds to pay off the construction debt incurred by the memorial took several years'.
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Tomorrow's food holiday is 'National Chocolate Cupcake Day'. My favorite way to eat cake. You can eat it on the run, it has it's own crumb catcher, no fork or dish to wash and as you get older, it will only hold one candle on your birthday.

Along the same theme, tomorrow is 'National Sweetest Day'. Started by a rich candy manufacture. He and his group gave candy and small gifts to newspaper and shoe shine boys, street kids, and needy children and families They were not big gifts, but I am sure, gifts that were appreciated more , since they were not expected and gifts, of any kind, were few and far between, in their lives. Surprise someone tomorrow. Don't reach from your wallet, reach from your heart. Hey, a cupcake would be nice.

OK, tomorrow is your chance to legally do that Base Jump you have been dieing to do, no pun intended. Tomorrow is 'Bridge Day' in Fayetteville, Fayette County, West Virginia. You can legally, with some sensible restrictions and precautions, base jump from the New River Gorge Bridge. There have been 3 deaths in the past.

We have an awareness day tomorrow. It will b 'World Menopause Day'.

Just for you Alaskans, tomorrow will be 'Alaska Day'. an Alaska state holiday. It denotes official turnover, from Russia, of the Alaskan lands to the US in 1867. There is another holiday in May which commemorates the purchase of the land for 7.2 million dollars. That was the transaction they call 'Steward's Folly'. Who has the last laugh now?

Guys, get out a brand new razor blade for tomorrow mornings shave. It will be 'National No Beard Day'.

It was once said that 'Time gives good advice'. If we are going to accept time's advice, modify it, or reject it, we must remember it. So, let us remember October 18 in the past.

In 1922, The British Broadcasting Company (BBC, now the British Broadcasting Corporation) begins.

In 1924, Sports writer, Grantland Rice, coins the term 'The Four Horsemen' to describe the backfield of the Notre Dame football team.

In 1925, The 'Grand Ole Opry', opens in Nashville, Tennessee. On radio, it followed classical music and opera. The founder of the 'National Barn Dance' was hired and it was he that gave it the name: “For the past hour, we have been listening to music taken largely from Grand Opera. From now on we will present the Grand Ole Opry.”

In 1954, The Transistor radio is first announced by Texas Instruments. There were some prototypes by other companies, but this was the first demonstrated for the public.

No. 1 song

• Do Wah Diddy Diddy - Manfred Mann: More
  'Oh, Pretty Woman' has been displaced by 'Do Wah Diddy Diddy', which will hold the no. 1 spot until October 31 2014, when 'We'll Sing in the Sunshine', takes over.

Top movie

• Send Me No Flowers More
  Having displaced 'Fail-Safe', it will be there until the weekend box office of October 25 1964 when, 'Mary Poppins (regains the box office)', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: October 18 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: October 18 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 18th October More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 18th October More
• On-This-day.com history 18th October More
• On-This-day.com music history 18th October More
• Wikipedia.com: History October 18 More

Food: Apple Month, Rhubarb Month, Sausage Month, Spinach Lovers Month, National Chili Month, National Popcorn Poppin' Month, National Seafood Month Pear and Pineapple Month, , Vegetarian Month
Other
AIDS Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Bullying Prevention Month, Celiac Disease Awareness Month, Class Reunion Month, Down Syndrome Awareness Month, Dyslexia Awareness Month, National Book Month, National Dental Hygiene Month, National Down Syndrome Month, National Spina Bifida Awareness Month, National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Month

October is:

October origin (from Wikipedia): October is the tenth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian Calendars and one of seven months with a length of 31 days. The eighth month in the old Roman calendar, October retained its name (from the Greek meaning 'eight') after January and February were inserted into the calendar that had originally been created by the Romans. "
October is commonly associated with the season of autumn in the Northern hemisphere and spring in the Southern hemisphere, where it is the seasonal equivalent to April in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa.

October at Wikipedia: More

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

Best selling books of 1964 More

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
• NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
• Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
• NASA TV: (video feed) More
  NASA TV schedule: More
• Public Domain eBook Links

  Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

• Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
  Home page: More
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Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.

US Government Holidays

• 2014 Postal Holidays More
• 2014 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More