Friday

Mar. 5, 1999

Two Ember Days in Alabama

by Andrew Hudgins

FRIDAY 3/5

Poem: "Two Ember Days in Alabama," by Andrew Hudgins, from The Never-Ending (Houghton, Mifflin).

PRESIDENT FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT ordered a four-day bank holiday on this day in 1933, an effort to curtail the devastating "bank runs" of the Great Depression when panicky investors withdrew their money from the banks.

It's the birthday in Wilmington, Delaware, 1853, of HOWARD PYLE, who's best known for the 1883 book The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, which he both wrote and illustrated.

It's the anniversary of the BOSTON MASSACRE, 1770, in which five men were killed in a skirmish with British soldiers.

It's the birthday of WILLIAM OUGHTRED, the mathematician and inventor of the slide rule, born in Buckinghamshire, England, 1574.

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

 

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