Daily Calendar for Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Question of the Day
What is the average wind speed inside a tornado?
The Fujita-Pearson scale ranks tornadoes by wind speed. The rankings range from F0 (very weak) to F6 (inconceivable). F0 denotes wind speeds of 40 to 72 mph; F1, 73 to 112 mph; F2, 113 to 157 mph; F3, 158 to 206 mph; F4, 207 to 260 mph; F5, 261 to 318 mph; and F6, 319 to 379 mph.
Advice of the Day
Providing is preventing.
Home Hint of the Day
Sugar maple dries slowly and splits hard, but it burns hot and lasts a long time.
Word of the Day
Dog Days
These are the hottest and most unhealthy days of the year. Also known as Canicular Days, the name derives from the Dog Star, Sirius. The traditional timing of Dog Days is the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11, coinciding with the heliacal (at sunrise) rising of Sirius.
Puzzle of the Day
Which is swifter — heat or cold?
Heat, because you can catch cold.
Died
- King William III –
- Millard Fillmore (13th U.S. president) –
- William Howard Taft (27th U.S. president) –
- Joe DiMaggio (baseball player) –
- Elliott Jaques (scientist who coined the term midlife crisis”“) –
- Robert Pastorelli (actor) –
- John Inman (actor) –
- Victor Manuel Blanco (astronomer who helped build the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile) –
Born
- Simon Cameron (Pennsylvania political boss, U.S. senator, Secretary of War) –
- Oliver Wendell Holmes (Supreme Court justice) –
- Kenneth Grahame (author) –
- Joseph Lee (American philanthropist) –
- Sam Jaffee (journalist) –
- Johnny Dollar (country singer) –
- Lew DeWitt (singer, Statler Brothers) –
- Lynn Redgrave (actress) –
- Micky Dolenz (musician, actor, & director) –
- Jim Rice (baseball player) –
- Aidan Quinn (actor) –
- Kathy Ireland (model & actress) –
- Freddie Prinze Jr. (actor) –
- James Van Der Beek (actor) –
- Bob, Dave, & Clint Moffatt (musicians, of The Moffatts) –
- Devon Werkheiser (actor) –
Events
- First train crossed Niagara Railway Suspension bridge–
- Confederate ironclad frigate Virginia (formerly Merrimack) sunk Union ship Cumberland at Hampton Roads, Virginia (U.S. Civil War)–
- Everett Horton patented a fishing rod with telescoping metal tubes–
- The first state dog licensing law in the United States was passed in New York state–
- Yankee slugger Babe Ruth signed an $80,000 per year (2-year, $160,000) contract–
- U.S. Supreme Court ruled in McCollum v. Board of Education that religious instruction in public schools is unconstitutional–
- Whirlwind I’s Director, precursor to computer operating system, demonstrated–
- First U.S. ground combat troops arrived in Vietnam–
- First year free for students from Newfoundland at Memorial University, N.L.–
- Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali for the heavyweight boxing championship in New York–
- Meteorites fell in northeastern China, with the largest fragment, weighing about 3,902 pounds, falling in Jilin Province.–
- Daily artillery barrages between Christian and Syrian forces and their militia allies began in Beirut. At least 930 died before cease-fire took hold in September–
- Wheeled suitcase with collapsible towing handle patented–
- The body of actor-writer Spalding Gray was pulled from New York’s East River, two months after he walked out of his Manhattan apartment and disappeared–
Weather
- 1.6-inch-diameter hail fell in Erin, Ontario–
- A tornado in Arkansas killed 64 people–
- A winter storm brought high winds, heavy rains, and snow to southern British Columbia–
- Portsmouth, New Hampshire, had a record high temperature of 69 degrees Fahrenheit–