Daily Calendar for Sunday, October 27, 2024
Question of the Day
When was DDT banned in the United States, and how long had it been used?
DDT, or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, was recognized as a potential pesticide in 1939 by the Swiss chemist Paul Muller. It was first widely used during World War II and thereafter throughout the world to combat yellow fever, typhus, elephantiasis, and other diseases carried by insects. DDT helped reduce the number of malaria cases worldwide and increased crop and livestock yields in developing countries. It came under scrutiny with the 1962 publication of Silent Spring, a book in which American marine biologist Rachel Carson asserted that DDT was destroying other animal life by entering the food chain. The United States banned DDT in 1972 except for in cases of extreme health emergencies. Many other nations also have banned it or placed it under strict control.
Advice of the Day
The more red berries seen in the hedgerows, the more frost and snow in the coming winter.
Home Hint of the Day
To remove ugly stains on clothing from car batteries, make a paste of dry starch and cold water, apply the paste to the stain, and let the fabric sit for a while. Then rinse with water.
Word of the Day
Apogee
The point in the Moon’s orbit that is farthest from Earth.
Puzzle of the Day
When is a clock guilty of a misdemeanor?
When it strikes one.
Born
- James Cook (naval captain & explorer) –
- Niccolo Paganini (composer, violinist) –
- Isaac Singer (inventor) –
- Kenyon Cox (painter) –
- Theodore Roosevelt (26th U.S. president) –
- Stamen Gigov Grigorov (Bulgarian physician, microbiologist) –
- Enid Bagnold (author) –
- Leif Erickson (actor) –
- Dylan Thomas (poet) –
- Nanette Fabray (actress) –
- Sylvia Plath (poet) –
- John Cleese (actor) –
- Maxine Hong Kingston (author) –
- Fran Lebowitz (writer) –
- Simon Le Bon (musician) –
Died
- James M. Cain (novelist) –
- Rod Roddy (the flamboyantly dressed announcer on The Price is Right whose booming voice invited audience members to Come on down!” for nearly 20 years”) –
- Betsy Drake (actress) –
Events
- Massachusetts Bay Colony, having outlawed Quakers, hung two who defiantly returned to the colony. They were the first Quakers to be hanged in America. –
- Harvard expedition observed solar eclipse in British-occupied Penobscot Bay, Maine –
- The Treaty of San Lorenzo was signed between the United States and Spain, giving the United States the right to navigate the Mississippi River –
- Macy’s Department store opened in N.Y.C. –
- U.S. president-to-be Theodore Roosevelt married Alice Hathaway Lee –
- At 16, Jascha Heifetz made his American debut at Carnegie Hall –
- Dupont announced the invention of nylon –
- 32-pound bull trout caught in Lake Pend Oreille, Idaho –
- Saturn I first launched –
- Last performance of opera singer Beverly Sills –
- The Boston Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years, beating the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0 in a four-game sweep –
- 16-foot Burmese python caught in the Florida Everglades –
Weather
- A storm deposited snow and sleet on Mississippi –
- Eighty-three degrees F in Boston, Massachusetts –
- -3 degrees Fahrenheit in Jump River, Wisconsin –