Today is November 10th, 2022. Unlike most days, I don’t want to make a memory today. Hurricane Nicole has just made landfall in Southern Florida and is moving up the state on its way to Georgia. It’s not a monster storm but it’s still a hurricane. Today is Area Code Day, International Accounting Day, National Forget-Me-Not Day, National Vanilla Cupcake Day, Sesame Street Day, World Science Day for Peace and Development, and the United States Marine Corps Birthday. I’m sure that many of my Semper Fi (always faithful) friends will be eating cake today. Now let’s see what happened on this day in the past. In 1674 the Dutch formally cede New Netherlands (New York) to the English. In 1766 the Colonial governor of New Jersey signed the charter for Queen’s College which was later renamed Rutgers University. In 1775 the Continental Congress forms the Continental Marines, precursor to the USMC. In 1793 France ends forced worship of God. In 1801 Kentucky outlawed dueling. In 1885 Gottlieb Daimler unveiled the world’s first motorcycle. In 1908 the 1st Gideon Bible was put in a hotel room. In 1911 Andrew Carnegie formed the Carnegie Corporation for scholarly and charitable works. In 1933 the Black Blizzard dust storm rages from South Dakota to the Atlantic. In 1940 Walt Disney began serving as an informer for the FBI. His job was to report information on Hollywood subversives. In 1945 college football’s #1 Army beat #2 Notre Dame 48 to 0. In 1960 after Penguin Books was found Not Guilty of obscenity by a UK jury, the uncensored version of D.H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” went on sale and sold out in minutes. This is the day in 1982 that Leonid Brezhnev died. He said, “the trouble with free elections is, you never know who is going to win.” Next is Ken Kesey who died in 2001 who said, “since we don’t know where we’re going, we have to stick together in case someone gets there.” Last is the French poet Arthur Rimbaud who died in 1891. He said, “Life is a farce which everyone has to perform” and “Genius is the recovery of childhood at will.” I have to agree with that last one. Enough for today. Abide.
