On This Day

February 29

Many years ago today, our landlord’s daughter L was born.

And today — on this very day in 2008 — a friend of ours from AZ weds our daughter-in-law’s grandmother from MO. They’re both well past seventy.

1468 — Born: Pope Paul III, the pope who initiated the Counter Reformation.

1692 — The Salem witch trials begin when Sarah Good, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba are accused of using witchcraft.

1952 — The first “Walk/Don’t Walk” signs are installed in New York City.

1960 — Family Circus makes its debut.

The year 2008 has 366 days and started on a Tuesday. The last time that happened was 1980. The next time a year’s calendar matches this year’s will be 2036. I doubt I’ll still be in this present life by then.

December 17

OK, so on this day in 1903 the Wright brothers did the first successful manned, self-propelled airplane flights.

But what else happened on December 17 down through the years?

1777 — France recognized American independence.

1843 — Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was first published.

1862 — General Ulysses S. Grant issued General Order No. 11 expelling Jews from Tennessee, Kentucky, and Mississippi.

1944 — Japanese-Americans are released from detention camps.

1947 — The Arab League announced it will use force to resist partition of Palestine.

1948 — “Operation Magic Carpet” begn to take Yemenite Jews to Israel.

1969 — The US Air Force closed its Project “Blue Book” by concluding that there was no evidence of extraterrestrial spaceships behind thousands of UFO sightings.

1992 — US President H. W. Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari signed the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Is that all? Nope. There were nuclear tests hither and yon. And other stuff, including this strange one:

1967 — Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt disappeared while swimming near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.

Do your own search if you’re that interested in what else happened on December 17. 🙂

December 7

1431 — In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France. (Weird)

1787 — Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1917 — The United States declared war on Austria-Hungary. (Thankfully, that was the war to end all wars.)

1926 — The gas operated refrigerator was patented by The Electrolux Servel Corporation.

1941 — The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. Be sure to read today’s piece by Chuck Colson!

1972 — Apollo 17 was launched at Cape Canaveral. It was the last U.S. moon mission.

1992 — The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a Mississippi abortion law which required women to get counseling and then wait 24 hours before terminating their pregnancies.

1998 — The U.N. evacuated 14 peacekeepers that were trapped by fighting between army and rebel forces in central Angola. (“There’s no peace to keep here — get us out!”)

1998 — U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to seek an independent counsel investigation of President Clinton over 1996 campaign financing. (I wonder if Alberto Gonzalez ever thought of her “luck”?)

October 12

On this day….

539 — Army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon — that was B.C.

1492 — Columbus, mixed up about where he was, shows up in the Bahamas

1609 — Children’s rhyme Three Blind Mice published in London

1692 — Massachusetts Bay discontinues witch trials

1792 — Columbus Day is first celebrated

1892 — Pledge of Allegiance first recited in public schools

1915 — Theodore Roosevelt criticizes US citizens who identify themselves with dual nationalities

1973 — Nixon nominates Gerald Ford to replace Spiro Agnew as Vice President

1987 — Oscar Arias (President, Costa Rica) wins Nobel Peace Prize

1992 — Microwave Observing Project begins (seeking alien life)

1999 — Born: the proclaimed 6 billionth living human in the world

2000 — USS Cole bombed

2002 — Nearly 200 tourists murdered by Islamist terrorist bombs in Bali

2006 — Law passed in France makes denying the Armenian Genocide a crime

2007 — Former US VP Al Gore wins Nobel Peace Prize

Oh, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran might have special plans for today.

A Year Ago Today at Nickel Mines

A year ago today. Wow!

Among the Amish, a grace that endures

This time last year, many of those children were learning their lessons in a different one-room schoolhouse. Across the road and not far away, four trees are clustered oddly in a verdant meadow. They seem to be standing sentinel for something that no longer exists. Last October, the schoolhouse they once sheltered was demolished, banished like a bad memory. No trace survives of the West Nickel Mines Amish School. Lush grass covers the scars.

Other scars have not been so easy to erase.

A year ago Tuesday, Charles Carl Roberts IV, a local milk-truck driver, calmly entered that schoolhouse and bound and shot 10 girls before killing himself. Five of the girls survived. In suicide notes and last calls to his wife, Roberts, 32, said he was tormented by memories of molesting two young relatives 20 years ago, and that he had never recovered from the death of his first-born child, Elise.

Within hours of this terrible moment, an event that could have fostered despair became marbled with hope as the Amish relied on their traditions and faith to teach lessons of forgiveness, gratitude, resilience and grace.

Four of the five injured girls have been able to resume normal life. The fifth, Rosanna King, who was 6 when she was shot, suffered a severe head injury and is unable to talk. She uses a wheelchair and is dependent on others for basic functions.

Be sure to read the whole article!

And here are a couple of books on the subject:

Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy       Forgiveness: A Legacy of the West Nickel Mines Amish School

August 1

1980 — I married Ruby Yoder. We’re still married. That’s 27 years.

1988 — Rush Limbaugh launched his national show. It’s still going. That’s 19 years.

2005 — EduBlogs started. And it hasn’t stopped. That’s 2 years.

2006 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected a UN Security Council resolution that gave his nation until August 31 to suspend uranium enrichment. That’s been a whole year. What happened to the resolution? What happened to the enrichment?

2007 — A bridge collapsed into the Mississippi:

Bridge into Mississippi

WizBangBlog has quite a few updates.

Above all, love God!