ON THIS DAY

On this date in 1770, Captain James Cook first saw Australia.
Being just off the coast, it wasn't that difficult.
He looked up and he saw down under.
He said, "Wait a minute-isn't Fosters Australian for beer?" The Australians replied, "Isn't Cook's inexpensive for Champagne?" And the drinking began.
He wasn't sure if he had the right shoes to go with their Perth.

In 1775, the American Revolutionary War began with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. If I remember my American history correctly, we won one of them, but lost the other in double overtime. CNN was there... of course, back then that stood for "Colonial Network News."

On this date in 1782 that The Netherlands officially recognized American independence. Up until then, we had worn a disguise. But when it came to financing the new country, they insisted that we go Dutch.

In 1897, the very first American marathon race was held in Massachusetts. However, after running all that distance, the guy's income tax returns were still marked as 'late.'

On this date in 1933, the United States abandoned the Gold Standard. Not sure which year we abandoned all the rest of our standards, but it was pretty recent. Or, sort of what we've done politically this year.

On this date in 1934, Shirley Temple's first movie debuted, "Stand Up and Cheer." It was followed with "Sit down, I'm trying to watch a movie here!"

In 1939, Connecticut finally approved the Bill of Rights -- 148 years after the rest of the country... and that inspired the creation of FEMA.

On this date in 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that spanking school children is not "cruel and unusual punishment." But if you walk on to a school and start randomly spanking children, it will probably get you arrested.

On this date in 1985, a record-setting 22-inch bubblegum bubble was blown. If only the guy hadn't gone for 23-inches, he'd probably have all the gum out of his hair by now.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Fall Book Discussion and Movie Series

Book discussion group to meet

City Page Survey