Today is December 24 2014

Egg Nog Day: More

• Christmas Eve : More
  

• In 1814, The Treaty of Ghent is signed ending the War of 1812.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Treaty of Ghent (8 Stat. 218), signed on December 24, 1814 in the city of Ghent, was the peace treaty that ended the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom. The treaty restored relations between the two nations to status quo ante bellum — that is, it restored the borders of the two countries to the lines before the war started in June 1812'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1889, Daniel Stover and William Hance patent a bicycle with back pedal brake.
  From Wikipedia: 'Karl Drais included a pivoting brake shoe that could be pressed against the rear iron tyre of his 1817 Laufmaschine. This was continued on the earliest bicycles with pedals, such as the boneshaker, which were fitted with a spoon brake to press onto the rear wheel. The brake was operated by a lever or by a cord connecting to the handlebars. The rider could also slow down by resisting the pedals of the fixed wheel drive.
  
  The next development of the bicycle, the penny-farthings, were similarly braked with a spoon brake or by back pedalling. During its development from 1870 to 1878, there were various designs for brakes, most of them operating on the rear wheel. However, as the rear wheel became smaller and smaller, with more of the rider's weight over the front wheel, braking on the rear wheel became less effective. The front brake, introduced by John Kean in 1873, had been generally adopted by 1880 because of its greater stopping power.
  
  The next development of the bicycle, the penny-farthings, were similarly braked with a spoon brake or by back pedalling. During its development from 1870 to 1878, there were various designs for brakes, most of them operating on the rear wheel. However, as the rear wheel became smaller and smaller, with more of the rider's weight over the front wheel, braking on the rear wheel became less effective. The front brake, introduced by John Kean in 1873, had been generally adopted by 1880 because of its greater stopping power.
  
  Some penny-farthing riders used only back pedalling and got off and walked down steep hills, but most also used a brake. Having a brake meant that riders could coast down hill by taking their feet off the pedals and placing the legs over the handlebars, although most riders preferred to dismount and walk down steep hills. Putting the legs under the handlebars with the feet off the pedals placed on foot-rests on the forks had resulted in serious accidents caused by the feet getting caught in the spokes.
  
  An alternative to the spoon brake for penny-farthings was the caliper brake patented by Browett and Harrison in 1887. This early version of caliper braking used a rubber block to contact the outside of the penny-farthing's small rear tyre.
  
  The 1870s and 1880s saw the development of the safety bicycle which roughly resembles bicycles today, with two wheels of equal size, initially with solid rubber tyres. These were typically equipped with a front spoon brake and no rear brake mechanism, but like penny-farthings they used fixed gears, allowing rear wheel braking by resisting the motion of the pedals. The relative fragility of the wooden rims used on most bicycles still precluded the use of rim brakes. In the late 1890s came the introduction of rim brakes and the freewheel.
  
  With the introduction of mass-produced pneumatic tyres by the Dunlop Tyre Company, the use of spoon brakes began to decline, as they tended to quickly wear through the thin casing of the new tyres. This problem led to demands for alternative braking systems. On November 23, 1897, Abram W. Duck of Duck's Cyclery in Oakland, California was granted a patent for his Duck Roller Brake (U.S. Patent 594,234). The duck brake used a rod operated by a lever on the handlebar to pull twin rubber rollers against the front tyre, braking the front wheel.
  
  In 1898, after the advent of freewheel coasting mechanisms, the first internal coaster brakes were introduced for the rear wheel. The coaster brake was contained in the rear wheel hub, and was engaged and controlled by backpedaling, thus eliminating the issue of tyre wear. In the United States, the coaster brake was the most commonly fitted brake throughout the first half of the 20th century, often comprising the only braking system on the bicycle'.
  - At IceBike.org More
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• In 1906, Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast, consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech. The transmission range was about 1 mile.
  From Wikipedia: 'In 1900 Fessenden left the University of Pittsburgh to work for the United States Weather Bureau, with the objective of proving the practicality of using a network of coastal radio stations to transmit weather information, thus avoiding the need to use the existing telegraph lines. The contract gave the Weather Bureau access to any devices Fessenden invented, but he would retain ownership of his inventions. The contract promised Fessenden $3,000 per year for his work. They also promised to give him work space, assistance, and housing. Fessenden quickly made major advances, especially in receiver design, as he worked to develop audio reception of signals. His initial success came from a barretter detector, which was followed by the electrolytic detector that consisted of a fine wire dipped in nitric acid, and for the next few years this later device would set the standard for sensitivity in radio reception. As his work progressed, Fessenden also evolved the heterodyne principle, which combined two signals to produce a third audible tone. However, heterodyne reception was not fully practical for a decade after it was invented, since it required a means for producing a stable local signal, which awaited the development of the oscillating vacuum-tube.
  
  The initial work took place at Rock Point, Maryland, located about 80 kilometers (50 mi) downstream from Washington, DC. While there, Fessenden, experimenting with a high-frequency spark transmitter, successfully transmitted speech on December 23, 1900 over a distance of about 1.6 kilometers (one mile), which appears to have been the first audio radio transmission. At this time the sound quality was too distorted to be commercially practical, but as a test this did show that with further technical refinements it would become possible to transmit audio using radio signals.
  
  As the experimentation expanded, additional stations were built along the Atlantic Coast in both North Carolina and Virginia. However, in the midst of promising advances, Fessenden became embroiled in disputes with his sponsor. In particular, he charged that Bureau Chief Willis Moore had attempted to gain a half-share of the patents. Fessenden refused to sign over the rights, and his work for the Weather Bureau ended in August, 1902. This incident recalled F. O. J. Smith, a member of the House of Representatives from Maine, who had managed to gain a one-quarter interest in the Morse telegraph'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1968, During the Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.
  From Wikipedia: 'Apollo 8, the second human spaceflight mission in the United States Apollo space program, was launched on December 21, 1968, and became the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach the Earth's Moon, orbit it and return safely to Earth. The three-astronaut crew—Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders—became the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit, the first to see Earth as a whole planet, the first to directly see the far side of the Moon, and then the first to witness Earthrise. The 1968 mission, the third flight of the Saturn V rocket and that rocket's first manned launch, was also the first human spaceflight launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, located adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.
  
  The mission was originally planned as Apollo 9, to be performed in early 1969 as the second test of the complete Apollo spacecraft, including the Lunar Module and the Command/Service Module in an elliptical medium Earth orbit. But when the Lunar Module proved unready to make its first test in a lower Earth orbit in December 1968, it was decided in August to fly Apollo 8 in December as a more ambitious lunar orbital flight without the Lunar Module. This meant Borman's crew was scheduled to fly two to three months sooner than originally planned, leaving them a shorter time for training and preparation, thus placing more demands than usual on their time and discipline.
  
  Apollo 8 took three days to travel to the Moon. It orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast where they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the Northern Pacific Ocean. The crew was named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1979, The first European Ariane rocket is launched.
  From Wikipedia: 'Ariane 1 was the first rocket in the Ariane launcher family. Ariane 1 was designed primarily to put two telecommunications satellites at a time into orbit, thus reducing costs. As the size of satellites grew, Ariane 1 gave way to the more powerful Ariane 2 and Ariane 3 launchers'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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• In 1980, Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called 'Britain's Roswell'.
  From Wikipedia: 'In late December 1980, there were a series of reported sightings of unexplained lights near Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, which have become linked with claims of UFO landings. The events occurred just outside RAF Woodbridge, which was used at the time by the U.S. Air Force. USAF personnel including deputy base commander Lieutenant Colonel Charles I. Halt claimed to see things they described as a UFO sighting.
  
  The occurrence is the most famous of claimed UFO events to have happened in Britain, ranking among the best-known reported UFO events worldwide. It has been compared to the Roswell UFO incident in the United States and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's Roswell". The Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated the event posed no threat to national security, and it therefore never was investigated as a security matter. The sightings have been explained as a misinterpretation of a series of nocturnal lights – a fireball, the Orford Ness lighthouse and bright stars.
  
  A comprehensive 2009 evaluation by scientific skeptic author Brian Dunning concluded there was, in fact, nothing other-worldly about the incident'.
  - At Wikipedia: More
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Tomorrow's food holiday will be 'Egg Nog Day'.

Tomorrow is, of course 'Christmas Eve'.
[The Hankster says] Get those stockings hung up. I hang a whole leotard myself. I also monitor it with a hidden camera, to avoid a lump of coal, rocks and last years Christmas party tie.

Benjamin Franklin once said 'You may delay, but time will not.'
[The Hankster says] On this post, we snub the passage of time. We can always look back at a stationary day in the past, perhaps December 24.

In 1906, Reginald Fessenden transmits the first radio broadcast, consisting of a poetry reading, a violin solo, and a speech. The transmission range was about 1 mile and few people had radios.

In 1968, During the Apollo program: The crew of Apollo 8 enters into orbit around the Moon, becoming the first humans to do so. They performed 10 lunar orbits and broadcast live TV pictures that became the famous Christmas Eve Broadcast, one of the most watched programs in history.

In 1979, The first European Ariane rocket is launched.

In 1980, Witnesses report the first of several sightings of unexplained lights near RAF Woodbridge, in Rendlesham Forest, Suffolk, England, United Kingdom, an incident called 'Britain's Roswell'.

No. 1 song

• I Feel Fine - The Beatles: More
  'Ringo' has been displaced by 'I Feel Fine', which will hold the no. 1 spot until December 26 1964, when 'Come See About Me (The Supremes)', takes over.

Top movie

• Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte More
  Having displaced 'Father Goose', it will be there until the weekend box office of December 27 1964 when, 'My Fair Lady', takes over.

• FamousBirthdays.com: December 24 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: December 24 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 24th December More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 24th December More
• On-This-day.com history 24th December More
• On-This-day.com music history 24th December More
• Wikipedia.com: History December 24 More

Food:
Buckwheat Month
Tomato and Winter Squash Month
Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
National Egg Nog Month
National Fruit Cake Month
Root Vegetables Month
Other:
World Aids Month
National Write A Business Plan Month
Safe Toys and Gifts Month
National Tie Month Universal Human Rights Month
National Drunk and Drugged Driving (3D) Prevention Month
Colorectal Cancer Education and Awareness Month National Tie Month

December is:

December origin (from Wikipedia): ' December gets its name from the Latin word decem (meaning ten) because it was originally the tenth month of the year in the Roman calendar, which began in March. The winter days following December were not included as part of any month. Later, the months of January and February were created out of the monthless period and added to the beginning of the calendar, but December retained its name. '

' December is the first month of meteorological winter in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, December is the seasonal equivalent to June in the Northern hemisphere, which is the first month of summer. D ecember is the month with the shortest daylight hours of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest daylight hours of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. '

December 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
  RSS: More

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