Daily Calendar for Tuesday, December 19, 2023
Question of the Day
Is there anything I can do to stop the stairs in my house from squeaking?
There is. Find the offending step (or steps) and sprinkle some talcum powder into the noisy joint between the tread and the riser. For a more permanent solution, if you can get at the back of your stairs, you can repair them by driving nails from underneath through the riser and into the tread at an angle; this will make them hold better.
Advice of the Day
When bubbles in your coffee collect in the center of the cup, expect fair weather. If they form a ring or cling to the sides, expect rain.
Home Hint of the Day
If you’re nailing into knotty or tough wood, first make a pilot hole. Drill a hole slightly smaller in diameter than the nail before inserting and hammering it in.
Word of the Day
Homichlophobia
The fear of fog or clouds
Puzzle of the Day
Why is a dog dressed more warmly in summer than he is in winter?
Because in winter he wears a fur coat, and in summer he wears a fur coat and pants.
Died
- Emily Brontë (writer) –
- Walter Williams (age 117: last known Civil War vet) –
- Hope Lange (actress) –
Born
- Joe "King" Oliver (jazz musician) –
- Fritz Reiner (conductor) –
- Cicely Tyson (actress) –
- Tim Reid (actor) –
- Jennifer Beals (actress) –
- Criss Angel (illusionist) –
- Alyssa Milano (actress) –
- Jake Gyllenhaal (actor) –
- Marla Sokoloff (actress) –
Events
- Fictional Robinson Crusoe left island after 28 years. Daniel Defoe’s story is based on an actual person, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, who was found on an island where he had been stranded for 52 months. (He was rescued on Feb. 1, 1709)–
- Mark Twain received a patent for suspenders–
- The National Hockey League began its first professional season with four teams–
- Robert Ripley’s column, Believe It or Not!, first appeared in The New York Globe–
- The first known radio broadcast from outer space was transmitted when President Eisenhower’s recorded voice issued a holiday greeting for the whole world from the Atlas satellite which was launched the previous day–
- New transatlantic submarine cable, CANTAT-1, between Britain and Canada (first link in a proposed around-the-world Commonwealth system) is inaugurated by a telephone conversation between Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Diefenbaker of Canada–
- Intelsat III F-2 communications satellite launched–
Weather
- Louisiana Purchase explorer William Dunbar wrote, “… the e[a]ves of our cabin hang with beautiful icicles”–
- The temperature at Yellowstone National Park was -59 degrees F–
- It was so cold in Moosomin, Saskatchewan, that several children got stuck to their playground equipment and had to be thawed off. (It was -43F or -41.5C.)–