Tuesday

Aug. 20, 1996

Hippopotamothalamium

by John Hall Wheelock

TUESDAY 8/20

Today's Reading: "Hippopotamothalamium" by John Hall Wheelock from THE GARDENER AND OTHER POEMS, published by Charles Scribner & Sons.

It was on this day in 1940 that radar was used for the first time by British military during World War II.

It was on this day in 1940 that one of the leaders of the Russian Revolution, Leon Trotsky, was stabbed to death near Mexico City by a Spanish communist who was working as an agent for Josef Stalin.

In 1913 Adolphe Pegond baled out of an airplane at the height of 700 feet in France and became the first person to parachute from a plane safely to the ground.

The sociologist who coined the terms "population explosion" and "zero population growth," Kingsley Davis, was born today in Tuxedo, Texas, 1908.

It's the birthday of self-taught trombonist, Jack Teagarden, born in Vernon, Texas, 1905.

The Abbey Theatre was established on this day in Dublin, 1904, when an Englishwoman named Annie Horniman, a friend of W. B. Yeats, paid to fix up an old theater.

Science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft was born today in Providence, Rhode Island, 1890.

Naval officer Oliver Hazard Perry was born today in South Kingston, Rhode Island, in 1785. He is remembered for his official report of the British surrender at the Battle of Lake Erie (War of 1812): "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.®

 

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