<> Tomorrow's food holidays(s):
* 'National Pastry Day'.
- From Wikipedia (Pastry):
'Pastry is a dough of flour, water and shortening that may be savoury or
sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as bakers' confectionery.
The word Pastries suggests many kinds of baked products made from
ingredients such as flour, sugar, milk, butter, shortening, baking powder,
and eggs. Small tarts and other sweet baked products are called pastries.
The French word pâtisserie is also used in English (with or without the
accent) for the same foods. Common pastry dishes include pies, tarts,
quiches and pasties.
Pastry can also refer to the pastry dough, from which such baked products
are made. Pastry dough is rolled out thinly and used as a base for baked
products.
Pastry is differentiated from bread by having a higher fat content, which
contributes to a flaky or crumbly texture. A good pastry is light and airy
and fatty, but firm enough to support the weight of the filling. When
making a shortcrust pastry, care must be taken to blend the fat and flour
thoroughly before adding any liquid. This ensures that the flour granules
are adequately coated with fat and less likely to develop gluten. On the
other hand, overmixing results in long gluten strands that toughen the
pastry. In other types of pastry such as Danish pastry and croissants, the
characteristic flaky texture is achieved by repeatedly rolling out a dough
similar to that for yeast bread, spreading it with butter, and folding it
to produce many thin layers.
The European tradition of pastry-making is often traced back to the
shortcrust era of flaky doughs that were in use throughout the
Mediterranean in ancient times.
In the ancient Mediterranean, the Romans, Greeks and Phoenicians all had
filo-style pastries in their culinary traditions. There is also strong
evidence that Egyptians produced pastry-like confections which were made by
dipping a baked flour cake in honey and serving with desert nuts as
toppings. They had professional bakers that surely had the skills to do so,
and they also had needed materials like flour, oil, and honey. In the plays
of Aristophanes, written in the 5th century BC, there is mention of
sweetmeats, including small pastries filled with fruit. The Roman cuisine
used flour, oil and water to make pastries that were used to cover meats
and fowls during baking in order to keep in the juices, but the pastry was
not meant to be eaten. A pastry that was meant to be eaten was a richer
pastry that was made into small pastries containing eggs or little birds
and that were often served at banquets. Greeks and Roman both struggled in
making a good pastry because they used oil in the cooking process, and oil
causes the pastry to lose its stiffness.
In the medieval cuisine of Northern Europe, pastry chefs were able to
produce nice, stiff pastries because they cooked with shortening and
butter. Some incomplete lists of ingredients have been found in medieval
cookbooks, but no full, detailed versions. There were stiff, empty pastries
called coffins or 'huff paste', that were eaten by servants only and
included an egg yolk glaze to help make them more enjoyable to consume.
Medieval pastries also included small tarts to add richness.
It was not until about the mid-16th century that actual pastry recipes
began appearing. These recipes were adopted and adapted over time in
various European countries, resulting in the myriad pastry traditions known
to the region, from Portuguese pastéis de nata in the west to Russian
pirozhki in the east. The use of chocolate in pastry-making in the west, so
commonplace today, arose only after Spanish and Portuguese traders brought
chocolate to Europe from the New World starting in the 16th century. Many
culinary historians consider French pastry chef Antonin Carême (1784–1833)
to have been the first great master of pastry making in modern times.
Pastry-making also has a strong tradition in many parts of Asia. Chinese
pastry is made from rice, or different types of flour, with fruit, sweet
bean paste or sesame-based fillings. The mooncakes are part of Chinese Mid
Autumn Festival traditions, while cha siu bao, steamed or baked pork buns,
are a regular savory dim sum menu item. In the 19th century, the British
brought western-style pastry to the far east, though it would be the
French-influenced Maxim in the 1950s that made western pastry popular in
Chinese-speaking regions starting with Hong Kong. Still, the term western
cake is used to differentiate between the automatically assumed Chinese
pastry Other Asian countries such as Korea prepare traditional
pastry-confections such as tteok, hangwa, and yaksik with flour, rice,
fruits, and regional specific ingredients to make unique desserts. Japan
also has specialized pastry-confections better known as mochi and manju.
Pastry-confections that originate in Asia are clearly distinct from those
that originate in the west, which are generally much sweeter'.
[The Hankster says] I have a dream of being sealed inside a large pastry and having to eat my way out. I wonder what type of filling would best sustain life for the time it would take me to break out? I'll get back with statistics.
<> Other holidays / celebrations
* 'Christmas Card Day'.
Celebrates the creator of the first commercial Christmas Card in England in
1843, by Sir Henry Cole (1818 - 1874),
- From Wikipedia (Henry Cole):
'Sir Henry Cole (15 July 1808 – 18 April 1882) was an English civil servant
and inventor who facilitated many innovations in commerce and education in
19th century Britain. Cole is credited with devising the concept of sending
greetings cards at Christmas time, introducing the world's first commercial
Christmas card in 1843'.
* 'Weary Willie Day'.
Celebrates the life of Emmett Leo Kelly.
- From Wikipedia (Emmett Kelly):
'Emmett Leo Kelly (December 9, 1898 – March 28, 1979) was an American
circus performer, who created the memorable clown figure Weary Willie,
based on the hobos of the Depression era.
Kelly began his career as a trapeze artist. By 1923, Emmett Kelly was
working his trapeze act with John Robinson's circus when he met and married
Eva Moore, another circus trapeze artist. They later performed together as
the Aerial Kellys with Emmett still performing occasionally as a whiteface
clown.
He started working as a clown full-time in 1931, and it was only after
years of attempting to persuade the management that he was able to switch
from a white face clown to the hobo clown that he had sketched ten years
earlier while working as a cartoonist.
Weary Willie was a tragic figure: a clown, who could usually be seen
sweeping up the circus rings after the other performers. He tried but
failed to sweep up the pool of light of a spotlight. His routine was
revolutionary at the time: traditionally, clowns wore white face and
performed slapstick stunts intended to make people laugh. Kelly did perform
stunts too—one of his most famous acts was trying to crack a peanut with a
sledgehammer—but as a tramp, he also appealed to the sympathy of his
audience.
From 1942–1956 Kelly performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and
Bailey Circus, where he was a major attraction, though he took the 1956
season off to perform as the mascot for the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team.
He also landed a number of Broadway and film roles, including appearing as
himself in his Willie persona in Cecil B. DeMille's The Greatest Show on
Earth (1952). He also appeared in the Bertram Mills Circus'.
[The Hankster says] A clown, my kind of guy.
* 'Techno Day'.
The focus is on Techno music.
- From Wikipedia (Techno):
'Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit,
Michigan, in the United States during the mid-to-late 1980s. The first
recorded use of the word techno in reference to a specific genre of music
was in 1988. Many styles of techno now exist, but Detroit techno is seen as
the foundation upon which a number of subgenres have been built.
In Detroit, techno resulted from the melding of African American music
including Chicago house, funk, electro, and electric jazz with electronic
music by artists such as Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder, and Yellow Magic
Orchestra. Added to this is the influence of futuristic and fictional
themes relevant to life in American late capitalist society, with Alvin
Toffler's book The Third Wave being a notable point of reference.
Pioneering producer Juan Atkins cites Toffler's phrase techno rebels as
inspiring him to use the word techno to describe the musical style he
helped to create. This unique blend of influences aligns techno with the
aesthetic referred to as afrofuturism. To producers such as Derrick May,
the transference of spirit from the body to the machine is often a central
preoccupation essentially an expression of technological spirituality. In
this manner: techno dance music defeats what Adorno saw as the alienating
effect of mechanisation on the modern consciousness
Stylistically, techno is generally repetitive instrumental music,
oftentimes produced for use in a continuous DJ set. The central rhythmic
component is most often in common time (4/4), where time is marked with a
bass drum on each quarter note pulse, a backbeat played by snare or clap on
the second and fourth pulses of the bar, and an open hi-hat sounding every
second eighth note. The tempo tends to vary between approximately 120 to
150 beats per minute (bpm), depending on the style of techno. The creative
use of music production technology, such as drum machines, synthesizers,
and digital audio workstations, is viewed as an important aspect of the
music's aesthetic. Many producers use retro electronic musical devices to
create what they consider to be an authentic techno sound. Drum machines
from the 1980s such as Roland's TR-808 and TR-909 are highly prized, and
software emulations of such retro technology are popular among techno
producers.
Music journalists and fans of techno are generally selective in their use
of the term so a clear distinction can be made between sometimes related
but often qualitatively different styles, such as tech house and trance'.
[The Hankster says] Disco will rise again.
<> Awareness / Observances:
o Animal and Pet:
* 'International Day of Veterinary Medicine'.
o Other:
* 'International Anti-corruption Day'. A U.N. recognition day since 2003.
- From Wikipedia (International Anti-Corruption Day):
'International Anti-Corruption Day has been observed annually, on 9
December, since the passage of the United Nations Convention Against
Corruption on 31 October 2003.
The Convention states, in part, that the UN is:
concerned about the seriousness of problems and threats posed by corruption
to the stability and security of societies, undermining the institutions
and values of democracy, ethical values and justice and jeopardizing
sustainable development and the rule of law
and delegates to the Convention the power to:
promote and strengthen measures to prevent and combat corruption more
efficiently and effectively... promote, facilitate and support
international cooperation and technical assistance in the prevention of and
fight against corruption… promote integrity, accountability and proper
management of public affairs and public property…'.
<> Historical events on December 9
* 'In 1851, The first YMCA in North America is established in Montreal. .
- From Wikipedia:
The Young Men's Christian Association (commonly known as YMCA or simply the
Y) is a worldwide organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than
57 million beneficiaries from 125 national associations. It was founded on
6 June 1844 by George Williams in London and aims to put Christian
principles into practice by developing a healthy body, mind, and spirit.
These three angles are reflected by the different sides of the (red)
triangle—part of all YMCA logos.
From its inception, it grew rapidly and ultimately became a worldwide
movement founded on the principles of Muscular Christianity. Local YMCAs
engage in a wide variety of charitable activities, including providing
athletic facilities, holding classes for a wide variety of skills,
proselytising Christianity, and humanitarian work. YMCAs continue to be
religious organisations many national or local organisations de-emphasise
this aspect, while others choose to prioritise its religious mission above
all others.
The different local YMCAs are voluntarily affiliated through their national
organisations. The national organisations in turn are part of both an Area
Alliance and the World Alliance of YMCAs. The World Alliance's main motto
is empowering young people.
'The first YMCA in North America opened in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on 9
December 1851.
The first YMCA in the United States opened on 29 December 1851, in Boston,
Massachusetts. It was founded in 1851 by Captain Thomas Valentine Sullivan
(1800–59), an American seaman and missionary. He was influenced by the
London YMCA and saw the association as an opportunity to provide a home
away from home for young sailors on shore leave. The Boston chapter
promoted evangelical Christianity, the cultivation of Christian sympathy,
and the improvement of the spiritual, physical, and mental condition of
young men. By 1853, the Boston YMCA had 1,500 members, most of whom were
merchants and artisans. Hardware merchant Franklin W. Smith was the first
elected president in 1855. Members paid an annual membership fee to use the
facilities and services of the association. Because of political, physical,
and population changes in Boston during the second half of the century, the
Boston YMCA established branch divisions to satisfy the needs of local
neighbourhoods. From its early days, the Boston YMCA offered educational
classes. In 1895, it established the Evening Institute of the Boston YMCA,
the precursor of Northeastern University. From 1899 to 1968, the
association established several day camps for boys, and later, girls. Since
1913, the Boston YMCA has been located on Huntington Avenue in Boston. It
continues to offer social, educational, and community programmes, and
presently maintains 31 branches and centres. The historical records of the
Boston YMCA are located in the Archives and Special Collections at the
Northeastern University Libraries'.
* 'In 1884, Levant Richardson patents ball-bearing skate. .
- From Wikipedia: '1876: William Brown in Birmingham, England, patented a
design for the wheels of roller skates. Brown's design embodied his effort
to keep the two bearing surfaces of an axle, fixed and moving, apart. Brown
worked closely with Joseph Henry Hughes, who drew up the patent for a ball
or roller bearing race for bicycle and carriage wheels in 1877. Hughes'
patent included all the elements of an adjustable system. These two men are
thus responsible for modern roller skate and skateboard wheels, as well as
the ball bearing race inclusion in velocipedes—later to become motorbikes
and automobiles. This was arguably the most important advance in the
realistic use of roller skates as a pleasurable pastime'.
* 'In 1888, Herman Hollerith, inventor of one of the first computing
devices and precursor to IBM, installs a computing device at the U.S. War
Department. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Herman Hollerith (February 29, 1860 – November 17, 1929)
was an American inventor who developed an electromechanical punched card
tabulator to assist in summarizing information and, later, accounting. He
was the founder of the Tabulating Machine Company that was consolidated in
1911 with three other companies to form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording
Company, later renamed IBM. Hollerith is regarded as one of the seminal
figures in the development of data processing. His invention of the punched
card tabulating machine marks the beginning of the era of semiautomatic
data processing systems, and his concept dominated that landscape for
nearly a century.
Hollerith had left teaching and begun working for the United States Census
Bureau in the year he filed his first patent application. Titled Art of
Compiling Statistics, it was filed on September 23, 1884 U.S. Patent
395,782 was granted on January 8, 1889.
Hollerith initially did business under his own name, as The Hollerith
Electric Tabulating System, specializing in punched card data processing
equipment. He built tabulators and other machines under contract for the
Census Office, which used them for the 1890 census. The net effect of the
many changes from the 1880 census: the larger population, the data items to
be collected, the Census Bureau headcount, the scheduled publications, and
the use of Hollerith's electromechanical tabulators, was to reduce the time
required to process the census from eight years for the 1880 census to six
years for the 1890 census.
In 1896 Hollerith founded the Tabulating Machine Company (in 1905 renamed
The Tabulating Machine Company). Many major census bureaus around the world
leased his equipment and purchased his cards, as did major insurance
companies. Hollerith's machines were used for censuses in England, Italy,
Germany, Russia, Austria, Canada, France, Norway, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and
the Philippines, and again in the 1900 census.
He invented the first automatic card-feed mechanism and the first keypunch.
The 1890 Tabulator was hardwired to operate on 1890 Census cards. A control
panel in his 1906 Type I Tabulator simplified rewiring for different jobs.
The 1920s removable control panel supported prewiring and near instant job
changing. These inventions were among the foundations of the data
processing industry and Hollerith's punched cards (later used for computer
input/output) continued in use for almost a century.
In 1911 four corporations, including Hollerith's firm, were consolidated to
form the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). Under the presidency
of Thomas J. Watson, it was renamed International Business Machines
Corporation (IBM) in 1924. By 1933 the The Tabulating Machine Company name
had disappeared as subsidiary companies were subsumed by IBM'.
* 'In 1907, The first Christmas Seals were sold in the U.S. (Wilmington Del
post office).
- From Wikipedia: 'Christmas seals are labels placed on mail during the
Christmas season to raise funds and awareness for charitable programs. They
have become particularly associated with lung diseases such as
tuberculosis, and with child welfare. Christmas seals are regarded as a
form of cinderella stamp in contrast with Christmas stamps used for
postage.
They were introduced to the United States by Emily Bissell in 1907, after
she had read about the 1904 Danish Christmas seal in an article by
Danish-born Jacob Riis, a muckraking journalist and photographer. Bissell
hoped to raise money for a sanitarium on the Brandywine Creek in Delaware.
Bissell went on to design a Delaware local Christmas seal in 1908. Local
Christmas seals have existed alongside national issues in the US since
1907, and are catalogued by the Christmas Seal and Charity Stamp Society.
By 1908, Bissell's idea grew to a national program administered by the
National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT)
and the American National Red Cross. The seals were sold in post office
lobbies, initially in Delaware at 1 cent each. Net proceeds from the sales
would be divided equally between the two organizations. By 1920, the Red
Cross withdrew from the arrangement and sales were conducted exclusively by
the NASPT, then known as the National Tuberculosis Association (NTA).
Various promotional schemes were tried: in 1954 the small town of Saranac
Lake, New York (home of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium) won a nationwide
competition selling Christmas seals, the reward for which was hosting the
world premiere of the Paul Newman film The Silver Chalice the cast
participated in a parade in the town's annual winter carnival.
After World War II with the development of the antibiotic streptomycin TB
became a curable disease, although it would be decades before it could be
considered under control in developed countries. To reflect the expanding
scope of the organization's goals, the name was changed to the National
Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association in the late 1960s. The
NTRDA became the American Lung Association in 1973, though the 1974 seals
continue to show the NTRDA inscription on the sheet margin.
Today the Christmas seals benefit the American Lung Association and other
lung related issues. Tuberculosis was declining, but recently has been on
the rise. TB is still one of the most common major infectious diseases in
the world.
In 1987 the American Lung Association acquired a trademark for the term
Christmas Seals to protect their right to be the sole US national
fundraising Association to issue them. Of course, this trademark would not
apply to Christmas seals issued outside the US or local and regional
Christmas seals, used in the US by many organizations since 1907 when the
Kensington Dispensary in Philadelphia PA issued their own local Christmas
seal'.
* 'In 1935, The Downtown Athletic Club Trophy, later renamed the Heisman
Trophy, is awarded for the first time. The winner is halfback Jay Berwanger
of the University of Chicago. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially
as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman), is awarded annually to the most
outstanding player in college football in the United States whose
performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. Winners
epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard
work. It is presented by the Heisman Trophy Trust in early December before
the postseason bowl games.
The award was created by the Downtown Athletic Club in 1935 to recognize
the most valuable player east of the Mississippi. After the death in
October 1936 of the Club's athletic director, John Heisman, the award was
named in his honor and broadened to include players west of the
Mississippi. Heisman had been active in college athletics as a football
player a head football, basketball, and baseball coach and an athletic
director. It is the oldest of several overall awards in college football,
including the Maxwell Award, Walter Camp Award, and the AP Player of the
Year. The Heisman and the AP Player of the Year honor the most outstanding
player, while the Maxwell and the Walter Camp award recognizes the best
player, and the Archie Griffin Award recognizes the most valuable player.
The most recent winner of the Heisman Trophy is University of Alabama
running back Derrick Henry'.
* 'In 1960, The first episode of Coronation Street, the world's
longest-running television soap opera, is broadcast in the United Kingdom.
- From Wikipedia: 'Coronation Street (informally known as Corrie) is a
British soap opera created by Granada Television and shown on ITV since 9
December 1960. The programme centres on Coronation Street in Weatherfield,
a fictional town based on Salford, its terraced houses, café, corner shop,
newsagents, building yard, taxicab office, salon, restaurant, textile
factory and The Rovers Return pub. In the show's fictional history, the
street was built in the early 1900s and named in honour of the coronation
of King Edward VII.
The show typically airs five times a week Monday and Friday 7.30–8 pm and
8.30–9 pm and Wednesday 7.30–8 pm, however this occasionally varies due to
sport or around Christmas and New Year. From late 2017 the show will air 6
times a week.
The programme was conceived in 1960 by scriptwriter Tony Warren at Granada
Television in Manchester. Warren's initial kitchen sink drama proposal was
rejected by the station's founder Sidney Bernstein, but he was persuaded by
producer Harry Elton to produce the programme for thirteen pilot episodes.
Within six months of the show's first broadcast, it had become the
most-watched programme on British television, and is now a significant part
of British culture. The show has been one of the most financially lucrative
programmes on British commercial television, underpinning the success of
Granada Television and ITV.
Coronation Street is made by Granada Television at MediaCity Manchester and
shown in all ITV regions, as well as internationally. On 17 September 2010,
it became the world's longest-running TV soap opera in production. On 23
September 2015, Coronation Street was broadcast live to mark ITV's 60th
anniversary.
Coronation Street is noted for its depiction of a down-to-earth working
class community combined with light-hearted humour, and strong characters'.
* 'In 1962, The Petrified Forest National Park is established in Arizona.
The Petrified Forest area was designated a National Monument on December 8,
1906. The Painted Desert was added later, and on December 9, 1962, the
whole monument received National Park status. Today, the park covers
93,532.57 acres. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Petrified Forest National Park is a United States
national park in Navajo and Apache counties in northeastern Arizona. Named
for its large deposits of petrified wood, the fee area of the park covers
about 230 square miles (600 square kilometers), encompassing semi-desert
shrub steppe as well as highly eroded and colorful badlands. The park's
headquarters is about 26 miles (42 km) east of Holbrook along Interstate 40
(I-40), which parallels the BNSF Railway's Southern Transcon, the Puerco
River, and historic U.S. Route 66, all crossing the park roughly east–west.
The site, the northern part of which extends into the Painted Desert, was
declared a national monument in 1906 and a national park in 1962. About
800,000 people visit the park each year and take part in activities
including sightseeing, photography, hiking, and backpacking.
Averaging about 5,400 feet (1,600 m) in elevation, the park has a dry windy
climate with temperatures that vary from summer highs of about 100 °F (38
°C) to winter lows well below freezing. More than 400 species of plants,
dominated by grasses such as bunchgrass, blue grama, and sacaton, are found
in the park. Fauna include larger animals such as pronghorns, coyotes, and
bobcats, many smaller animals, such as deer mice, snakes, lizards, seven
kinds of amphibians, and more than 200 species of birds, some of which are
permanent residents and many of which are migratory. About half of the park
is designated wilderness.
The Petrified Forest is known for its fossils, especially fallen trees that
lived in the Late Triassic Period, about 225 million years ago. The
sediments containing the fossil logs are part of the widespread and
colorful Chinle Formation, from which the Painted Desert gets its name.
Beginning about 60 million years ago, the Colorado Plateau, of which the
park is part, was pushed upward by tectonic forces and exposed to increased
erosion. All of the park's rock layers above the Chinle, except
geologically recent ones found in parts of the park, have been removed by
wind and water. In addition to petrified logs, fossils found in the park
have included Late Triassic ferns, cycads, ginkgoes, and many other plants
as well as fauna including giant reptiles called phytosaurs, large
amphibians, and early dinosaurs. Paleontologists have been unearthing and
studying the park's fossils since the early 20th century.
The park's earliest human inhabitants arrived at least 8,000 years ago. By
about 2,000 years ago, they were growing corn in the area and shortly
thereafter building pit houses in what would become the park. Later
inhabitants built above-ground dwellings called pueblos. Although a
changing climate caused the last of the park's pueblos to be abandoned by
about 1400 CE, more than 600 archeological sites, including petroglyphs,
have been discovered in the park. In the 16th century, Spanish explorers
visited the area, and by the mid-19th century a U.S. team had surveyed an
east–west route through the area where the park is now located and noted
the petrified wood. Later, roads and a railway followed similar routes and
gave rise to tourism and, before the park was protected, to large-scale
removal of fossils. Theft of petrified wood remains a problem in the 21st
century'.
* 'In 1965, Kecksburg UFO incident: A fireball is seen from Michigan to
Pennsylvania witnesses report something crashing in the woods near
Pittsburgh. In 2005 NASA admits that it examined the object. Known as
Pennsylvania's Roswell. NASA reports state that it was a Russian satellite
reentering the Earth's atmosphere. .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Kecksburg UFO incident occurred on December 9, 1965,
at Kecksburg, Pennsylvania. A large, brilliant fireball was seen by
thousands in at least six U.S. states and Ontario, Canada. It streaked over
the Detroit, Michigan – Windsor, Canada area, reportedly dropped hot metal
debris over Michigan and northern Ohio, starting some grass fires, and
caused sonic booms in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. It was generally
assumed and reported by the press to be a meteor after authorities
discounted other proposed explanations such as a plane crash, errant
missile test, or reentering satellite debris. However, eyewitnesses in the
small village of Kecksburg, about 30 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, claimed
something crashed in the woods. A boy said he saw the object land his
mother saw a wisp of blue smoke arising from the woods and alerted
authorities. Another reported feeling a vibration and a thump about the
time the object reportedly landed. Others from Kecksburg, including local
volunteer fire department members, reported finding an object in the shape
of an acorn and about as large as a Volkswagen Beetle. Writing resembling
Egyptian hieroglyphs was also said to be in a band around the base of the
object. Witnesses further reported that intense military presence, most
notably the United States Army, secured the area, ordered civilians out,
and then removed an object on a flatbed truck. The military claimed they
searched the woods and found absolutely nothing.
The Tribune-Review from nearby Greensburg which had a reporter at the scene
ran an article the next morning, Unidentified Flying Object Falls near
Kecksburg—Army Ropes off Area The article continued, The area where the
object landed was immediately sealed off on the order of U.S. Army and
State Police officials, reportedly in anticipation of a 'close inspection'
of whatever may have fallen ... State Police officials there ordered the
area roped off to await the expected arrival of both U.S. Army engineers
and possibly, civilian scientists. However, a later edition of the
newspaper stated that nothing had been found after authorities searched the
area.
The official explanation of the widely seen fireball was that it was a
mid-sized meteor. However speculation as to the identity of the Kecksburg
object (if there was one—reports vary) range from alien craft to debris
from Kosmos 96, a Soviet space probe intended for Venus but which failed
and never left the Earth's atmosphere.
Similarities have been drawn between the Kecksburg incident and the Roswell
UFO incident, leading to the former being referred to as Pennsylvania's
Roswell.'.
* 'In 1965, A Charlie Brown Christmas airs on television for the first of
many times. .
- From Wikipedia: 'A Charlie Brown Christmas is an animated television
special based on the comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz. Produced by
Lee Mendelson and directed by Bill Melendez, the program made its debut on
CBS on December 9, 1965. In the special, lead character Charlie Brown finds
himself depressed despite the onset of the cheerful holiday season. Lucy
suggests he direct a school Christmas play, but he is both ignored and
mocked by his peers. The story touches on the over-commercialization and
secularism of Christmas, and serves to remind viewers of the true meaning
of Christmas.
Peanuts had become a phenomenon worldwide by the mid-1960s, and the special
was commissioned and sponsored by The Coca-Cola Company. It was written
over a period of several weeks, and animated on a shoestring budget in only
six months. In casting the characters, the producers went an unconventional
route, hiring child actors. The program's soundtrack was similarly
unorthodox: it features a jazz score by pianist Vince Guaraldi. Its absence
of a laugh track (a staple in television animation in this period), in
addition to its tone, pacing, music, and animation, led both the producers
and network to wrongly predict the project would be a disaster preceding
its broadcast.
Contrary to that apprehension, A Charlie Brown Christmas received high
ratings and acclaim from critics. It has since been honored with both an
Emmy and Peabody Award. It became an annual broadcast in the United States,
and has been aired during the Christmas season traditionally every year
since its premiere. Its jazz soundtrack also achieved commercial success,
selling 4 million copies in the US. Live theatrical versions of A Charlie
Brown Christmas have been staged. ABC currently holds the rights to the
special, and broadcasts it at least twice during the weeks leading up to
Christmas'.
* 'In 1968, Douglas Engelbart gave what became known as 'The Mother of All
Demos', publicly debuting the computer mouse, hypertext, and the bit-mapped
graphical user interface using the oN-Line System (NLS). .
- From Wikipedia: 'The Mother of All Demos is a name given retrospectively
to Douglas Engelbart's December 9, 1968, computer demonstration at the
Association for Computing Machinery / Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (ACM/IEEE)—Computer Society's Fall Joint Computer
Conference in San Francisco. The live demonstration featured the
introduction of a complete computer hardware and software system called the
oN-Line System or more commonly, NLS. The 90-minute presentation
essentially demonstrated almost all the fundamental elements of modern
personal computing: windows, hypertext, graphics, efficient navigation and
command input, video conferencing, the computer mouse, word processing,
dynamic file linking, revision control, and a collaborative real-time
editor (collaborative work). Engelbart's presentation was the first to
publicly demonstrate all these elements in a single system. The
demonstration was highly influential and spawned similar projects at Xerox
PARC in the early 1970s. The underlying technologies influenced both the
Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows graphical user interface operating
systems in the 1980s and 1990s'.
* 'In 1979, The eradication of the smallpox virus is certified, making
smallpox the first and to date only human disease driven to extinction. .
- From Wikipedia: 'Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by either of
two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also
known by the Latin names variola or variola vera, derived from varius
(spotted) or varus (pimple). The disease was originally known in English as
the pox or red plague the term smallpox was first used in Britain in the
15th century to distinguish variola from the great pox (syphilis). The last
naturally occurring case of smallpox (Variola minor) was diagnosed on 26
October 1977.
Infection with smallpox is focused in small blood vessels of the skin and
in the mouth and throat before disseminating. In the skin it results in a
characteristic maculopapular rash and, later, raised fluid-filled blisters.
V. major produced a more serious disease and had an overall mortality rate
of 30–35 percent. V. minor caused a milder form of disease (also known as
alastrim, cottonpox, milkpox, whitepox, and Cuban itch) which killed about
1 percent of its victims. Long-term complications of V. major infection
included characteristic scars, commonly on the face, which occur in 65–85
percent of survivors. Blindness resulting from corneal ulceration and
scarring, and limb deformities due to arthritis and osteomyelitis were less
common complications, seen in about 2–5 percent of cases.
Smallpox is believed to have emerged in human populations about 10,000 BC.
The earliest physical evidence of it is probably the pustular rash on the
mummified body of Pharaoh Ramses V of Egypt. The disease killed an
estimated 400,000 Europeans annually during the closing years of the 18th
century (including five reigning monarchs), and was responsible for a third
of all blindness. Of all those infected, 20–60 percent—and over 80 percent
of infected children—died from the disease. Smallpox was responsible for an
estimated 300–500 million deaths during the 20th century. As recently as
1967, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 15 million people
contracted the disease and that two million died in that year.
After vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO
certified the global eradication of smallpox in 1979. Smallpox is one of
two infectious diseases to have been eradicated, the other being
rinderpest, which was declared eradicated in 2011'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
Monthly holiday / awareness days in December
Food
Buckwheat Month
Worldwide Food Service Safety Month
Health
Aids Awareness Month
National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month
National Impaired Driving Prevention Month
Safe Toys and Gifts Month
Animal and Pet
Operation Santa Paws
Other
National Tie Month
National Write A Business Plan Month
Universal Human Rights Month
Youngsters on The Air 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 1966 More
Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More