Today is December 10, although if you write it “Dec 10” you might mean the PDP-10 computer from Digital Equipment Corp (“DEC”) back in the 70s. Like most of the computers back then, the DEC 10 was a mainframe that lived in its own (large) room that probably had its own air conditioning system. As… Continue reading

One of the shortcomings of growing up entirely in one culture is that you might never really understand some of the holidays celebrated in other cultures. December 9 might highlight something like that for those of us brought up outside of Sweden, where it’s Anna’s Day today. What that means in Sweden is a celebration… Continue reading

December 8 makes us pine for what we’ve lost to history. Back in the good old days, this whole modern practice of surnames wasn’t nearly as established, so people were able to identify their leaders the ways they wanted. That’s why we know that in the year 877, when the new king of Aquitaine was… Continue reading

On December 7, 1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the US Constitution. It didn’t take effect for two more years, on March 4, 1789 — a date that, oddly enough, isn’t celebrated (or even much remembered ) in the US. It can, of course, be amended, and has been 27 times. The US… Continue reading

“I think that I shall never see / A poem as lovely as a tree.” Many, if not most people remember that’s the first couplet of Trees, a poem by Joyce Kilmer. Not quite as many remember that in spite of the name, Joyce Kilmer was male. “Joyce” was actually his middle name. He wrote… Continue reading

Today is the anniversary of Flight 19, the five US Air Force bombers that disappeared in the Bermuda Triangle. They were on a training mission and reported that their compasses had stopped working and they’d gotten lost. Although they knew they were due east of Florida, where they’d taken off, for some reason they didn’t… Continue reading

As everybody knows, December 4, at least in the US, is National Cookie Day. December, of course, is well known for National Food Days; it all starts on the first, which is Eat a Red Apple Day. The next day takes a left turn away from healthy choices to be National Fritter Day. Then after… Continue reading

December 3, 1800, was the day that Aaron Burr nearly became the third president of the US. The 1800 election resulted in a tie between Burr and Thomas Jefferson, so it was up to the House of Representatives to hold a contingent election. After the first ballot, that was tied too, and it stayed that… Continue reading

It was December 2, 1823 that US President James Monroe delivered the State of the Union address where he announced what’s now called the Monroe Doctrine — the US was going to be neutral in all future European conflicts. The Monroe Doctrine lasted quite a while, although of course the US eventually got involved in… Continue reading

Everybody in the US has heard about Rosa Parks from Montgomery, Alabama, who refused to give up her bus seat just so a white-skinned person could sit in it. It was a seminal moment in the civil rights movement, and it happened on this date, December 1, in 1955. Parks probably didn’t choose the date,… Continue reading