Native Americans named October’s Moon the Hunter’s Moon because it was the time to hunt in preparation for winter. Other tribes called it the Travel Moon and the Dying Grass Moon. See Almanac.com/moon-october for more information!
Daily Calendar for Saturday, October 28, 2023
Question of the Day
The trees in our New Hampshire town are covered with ugly cocoonlike things that look as if they’re destroying the foliage. What are these?
Most likely you’re seeing the webs of fall webworms. These can appear from late July through October. The caterpillars are greenish yellow with lots of hair and black dots, and they feed on leaves. As feeding continues, their silken webs enlarge to cover the areas they plan to eat. This can indeed make it look as if the tree is being destroyed. Insecticides can control the worms, but each web must be penetrated for success. Infected branches also can be removed and the caterpillar webs destroyed. Bad as the webs may look, however, the damage they cause is usually minimal, and most leaves will return the following spring.
Advice of the Day
Neither fear to die nor refuse to live.
Home Hint of the Day
To clean rust from a woodstove, give it a good scrubbing with a dry wire brush.
Word of the Day
Conjunction
The time at which two or more celestial bodies appear closest in the sky. Inferior: Mercury or Venus is between the Sun and Earth. Superior: The Sun is between a planet and Earth.
Puzzle of the Day
How could the letter G surprise a farmer?
By changing oats into goats.
Died
- John Locke (philosopher) –
- Abigail Adams (U.S. First Lady) –
- Red Auerbach (basketball coach) –
- Porter Wagoner (country music singer) –
Born
- Francis Bacon (painter) –
- Dr. Jonas Salk (discovered polio vaccine) –
- Cleo Laine (singer) –
- Joan Plowright (actress) –
- Charlie Daniels (musician) –
- Lenny Wilkens (basketball player, coach) –
- Jane Alexander (actress) –
- Dennis Franz (actor) –
- Bill Gates (Microsoft founder) –
- Lauren Holly (actress) –
- Jami Gertz (actress) –
- Julia Roberts (actress) –
- Brad Paisley (country singer) –
- Joaquin Phoenix (actor) –
Events
- Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba and claimed it for Spain–
- Harvard College founded in Massachusetts–
- The Statue of Liberty was unveiled in the New York Harbor–
- The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor was dedicated by President Cleveland–
- St. Louis police became the first in the U.S. to use fingerprinting–
- The Jack Benny Show made its television debut–
- Ernest Hemingway was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature–
- An X17.2 solar flare occurred that, at the time, was the third most powerful ever recorded–
- The Boston Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies to win the World Series–
- Mike Lowell of the Boston Red Sox was named World Series MVP–
Weather
- Lander, Wyoming, received 27 inches of snow–
- The temperature at Big Piney, Wyoming, plunged to -15 degrees F–
- The Georgia mountains received five inches of snow–
- Cyclone 05B in the Indian Ocean became a Category 5–