Daily Calendar for Saturday, January 18, 2025

Question of the Day

I’ve got a small scratch in a maple end table from the 1950s. The table isn’t worth much, but I love it. Can the scratch be covered somehow?
Some scratches can be concealed with a paste of instant coffee and water, although this is not recommended for fine antiques. Put some instant coffee in a small bowl, then sprinkle just enough water on the coffee to make a thick paste. Rub the mixture into the scratch.

Advice of the Day

Wash your dog’s paws after a walk on salted roads.

Home Hint of the Day

Prevent unauthorized use of your power tools by fitting a tiny padlock throught the small hole in one of the prongs of the tool’s electrical plug.

Word of the Day

Keelhaul
To haul under the keel of a ship, by ropes attached to the yardarms on each side. It was formerly practiced as a punishment in the Dutch and English navies.

Puzzle of the Day

Why is there a difference of only two letters of the alphabet between an accepted and a rejected love?
One kisses his miss, and the other misses his kiss.

Born

  • Daniel Webster (statesman)
  • Ruben Dario (poet)
  • A. A. Milne (author)
  • Oliver Hardy (comedian)
  • Cary Grant (actor)
  • Danny Kaye (actor)
  • Curt Flood (baseball player)
  • Bobby Goldsboro (singer)
  • Kevin Costner (actor)
  • Karan Brar (actor)

Died

  • John Tyler (10th U.S. president)
  • Rudyard Kipling (author)
  • Curly Howard (actor, best known as one of The Three Stooges)
  • Robert B. Parker (author of mysteries; Mr. Parker died at his writing desk, working on a book)
  • Glenn Frey (musician; founding member of The Eagles)
  • David Crosby (singer, songwriter )

Events

  • The play entitled Gorboduc, written by Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, was presented before Queen Elizabeth I. It was the first real English tragedy.
  • John Winthrop documented the first known unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings in North America
  • Two lights formed a manlike shape and arose out of the water in Boston
  • Eugene Ely proved that planes could land safely on ships
  • Ice in the in the Weddell Sea trapped Antarctic explorer E. Shackleton’s ship Endurance until she sank on November 21
  • The first session of the Paris Peace Conference to end WWI was held
  • NY Daily Mirror columnist Walter Winchell debuted on radio
  • First around-the-world, nonstop flight by jet concluded
  • The Dow Jones industrial stock average first passed the 1,000 mark
  • Yellowknife became capital of the Northwest Territories
  • The cause of Legionnaires’ disease (Legionellosis) identified as bacteria
  • 211-pound striped marlin caught near Red Hill, Hawaii
  • 4-lb. 8-oz. Heller’s barracuda caught, Molokai, Hawaii
  • A half pound meteorite crashed through the office of Dr. Frank Ciampi, Lorton, Virginia
  • A 0.66-pound meteorite crashed through a doctors’ office in Lorton, Virginia

Weather

  • Ice in the in the Weddell Sea trapped Antarctic explorer E. Shackleton’s ship Endurance until she sank on November 21
  • Twenty-seven degrees below zero F, Watts, Oklahoma
  • 95 degrees F in Los Angeles and Palm Springs, California
  • Twenty-nine degrees below zero F in Concord, New Hampshire
  • Fifty-four degrees below zero F in Embarrass, Minnesota
  • NASA and NOAA announced that 2016 was hottest year globally on record