Fun Facts for Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Fun Facts for Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The 358 day of the year

7 days left in the year

THIS WEEK IS 

• It's About Time Week

TODAY IS

• Christmas Eve
• National Egg Nog Day

ON THIS DATE...
1814: the War of 1812 officially ended when the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium. 

1818: Germany's Franz Gruber composed the music for "Silent Night." 


1851 - Fire devastated the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., destroying around 2/3 of its collection, including 2/3 of Thomas Jefferson's personal library, sold to the institution in 1815.
1867: Macy's Department Store in New York City first stayed open until midnight in order to catch last minute shoppers. 
1871: Verdi's opera "Aida" premiered in Cairo, Egypt. 

1873: financier and philanthropist Johns Hopkins died at the age of 78.  He left large endowments in his will to found Johns Hopkins University and Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

1906: Professor Reginald A. Fessenden sent his first radio broadcast. 
1948: a midnight Mass was broadcast on television for the first time.  The Mass took place at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. 
1948: the first solar-heated house was occupied. 

1953: NBC's "Dragnet" became the first television program to be sponsored.  Fatima cigarettes was the show's sponsor. 

1968: the crew of the USS Pueblo walked across the Bridge of No Return following their release by North Korea.  The bridge is the area between North and South Korea.  The crew had been held captive for eleven months on charges of spying.  
1968: Apollo Eight reached the moon.  Astronauts James Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman would orbit the moon ten times before returning to Earth.  

1977: The Bee Gee's topped the pop singles chart with "How Deep is Your Love." 

Hear Song


1990: actor Tom Cruise married actress Nicole Kidman, his co-star in the movie "Days Of Thunder."  After a highly-publicized split, the couple officially divorced 2001.  
2009: a woman attacked Pope Benedict the 16th as the pontiff entered St. Peter's Basilica to conduct Christmas Eve mass in Vatican City.  Both Pope Benedict and a cardinal both fell to the marble floor.  Neither man was seriously injured.  The 82-year-old pontiff finished his Christmas Eve Mass despite the attack. The woman who breached a barricade was detained and questioned by police.  Father Federico Lombardi said the woman appeared to be, quote, "unstable." 

2012: veteran actor Jack Klugman died at the age of 90.  Klugman played Oscar Madison in the TV adaptation of Neil Simon's "The Odd Couple."  He also played the title role in the series "Quincy M.E."  The movies "12 Angry Men" and "Cry Terror" are also among his film credits. 



HISTORY SPOTLIGHT

Apollo 8 sends Earth a message on Christmas Eve (Taken from Link)

On Christmas Eve, 1968, millions around the world were watching and listening as the Apollo 8 astronauts - Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders - became the first humans to orbit another world.

As their command module floated above the lunar surface, the astronauts beamed back images of the moon and Earth and took turns reading from the book of Genesis, closing with a wish for everyone "on the good Earth."

Hear/see the broadcast  



QUICK TRIVIA 


Tracking Santa (Taken from Link) 



On December 24, 1955, engineers and navigators at the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, tracked the journey of Santa Claus for the first time. CONAD’s successor, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), continues the tradition every December.

Eggnog (Taken from Link) 

Many believe that eggnog is a tradition that was brought to America from Europe. This is partially true. Eggnog is related to various milk and wine punches that had been concocted long ago in the "Old World". However, in America a new twist was put on the theme. Rum was used in the place of wine. In Colonial America, rum was commonly called "grog", so the name eggnog is likely derived from the very descriptive term for this drink, "egg-and-grog", which corrupted to egg'n'grog and soon to eggnog. 

Other experts would have it that the "nog" of eggnog comes from the word "noggin". A noggin was a small, wooden, carved mug. It was used to serve drinks at table in taverns (while drinks beside the fire were served in tankards). It is thought that eggnog started out as a mixture of Spanish "Sherry" and milk. The English called this concoction "Dry sack posset". It is very easy to see how an egg drink in a noggin could become eggnog.

The true story might be a mixture of the two and eggnog was originally called "egg and grog in a noggin". This was a term that required shortening if ever there was one.


Alton Brown's Eggnog recipe


WORD FOR THE DAY
Impasse  [IHM pass]

Blocked path; dilemma with no solution. 



“In haste, the 2-year old  headed off to touch the shiny things in the china cabinet, but alas, as fate would have it, she reached an impasse; grandma had locked the china cabinet door”



INTRIGUING BIBLE FACT 

The baby Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes--or strips of cloth 

"While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them" (Luke 2:6-8).



WORD FROM THE WORD

He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation. —Ephesians 2:14



Read today's "Our Daily Bread"