Friday

Jul. 18, 1997

Wrist-Wrestling Father

by Orval Lund

FRIDAY 7/18

Today's Reading:"Wrist-Wrestling Father" by Orval Lund from A DACOTAH TERRITORY CHAPBOOK, published by Moorhead State University (1996).

The Kansas City Blues and Jazz Festival gets underway today in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Kentucky State Championship Old-Time Fiddler's Contest starts today in Falls of Rough, Kentucky.

The ten-day Aquatennial begins today in Minneapolis, with parades, milk-carton boat races, music, and fireworks.

Today's the opening of the annual North Dakota State Fair in Minot.

It's the birthday today of journalist Hunter S. Thompson, born in Louisville, in 1939.

The Spanish Civil War started on this day in 1936 when Generalissimo Francisco Franco led army officers in a revolt against the Republican government. The war lasted three years.

Poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, a crusader for greater creative freedom for artists in the post-Stalin era, was born on this day in Zima, Russia, in 1933.

It's the birthday of singer, pianist and songwriter Screamin' Jay Hawkins ("I Put a Spell on You"), born in Cleveland, in 1929.

It's the birthday of South African revolutionary leader and president Nelson Mandella, born in Umtata, South Africa, on this day in 1918.

Dramatist Clifford Odets (WAITING FOR LEFTY; GOLDEN BOY) was born in Philadelphia on this day in 1906.

It's the birthday of short-story writer and novelist Jessamyn West (THE FRIENDLY PERSUASION), born near North Vernon, Indiana, in 1902.

On this day in 1877, inventor Thomas Edison recorded the human voice for the first time using a stylus-tipped carbon transmitter to make impressions on a strip of paraffin paper.

It's the birthday of English novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, born in Calcutta, India, in 1811.

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

 

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