Daily Calendar for Thursday, March 9, 2023
Question of the Day
I know why the colors of a rainbow refract in the order they do (ROYGBIV), but why do rainbows bend, and why is red always on the bottom? Also, is there really an end of a rainbow (with a pot of gold)?
The first definition of a rainbow (by Descartes) was based on tracing the path of a light ray falling on a transparent sphere. If the Sun is at the horizon, the rainbow is an arc of 180 degrees, but it cannot appear if the Sun is high in the sky. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet (ROYGBIV) are the colors of a rainbow, but these are not necessarily the sequence of colors an observer sees. Since the color sequence of a rainbow is the result of refraction, the color order depends on the viewer’s angle of perception. As for the end of a rainbow, it seems always to elude us. However, here at The Old Farmer’s Almanac, we firmly believe that there’s a pot of gold waiting for the person lucky enough to find a rainbow’s end.
Advice of the Day
The more you smoke (or sunbathe), the more wrinkled your face is apt to be.
Home Hint of the Day
To clean gold jewelry, fill a small container with dishwashing liquid and 1 teaspoon of ammonia. Soak the jewelry in this strong solution for a few minutes, then clean with an old toothbrush. Rinse and pat dry.
Word of the Day
Cornscateous Air
First used by the old almanac makers, this term signifies warm, damp air. Though it signals ideal climatic conditions for growing corn, it also poses a danger to those affected by asthma, pneumonia, and other respiratory problems.
Puzzle of the Day
Why are dudes no longer imported into this country from England?
Because a Yankee dude’ll do (Yankee doodle doo).
Born
- Amerigo Vespucci (merchant & navigator) –
- Edwin Forrest (Shakespearean actor) –
- Will Geer (actor) –
- Samuel Barber (composer) –
- Mickey Spillane (author) –
- Yuri Gagarin (first human to travel in space) –
- Raul Julia (actor) –
- Mark Lindsay (musician; member of Paul Revere & the Raiders ) –
- Bobby Fischer (champion chess player) –
- Charles Gibson (journalist) –
- David Hume Kennerly (photographer) –
- Juliette Binoche (actress) –
- Emmanuel Lewis (actor) –
- Lil' Bow Wow (rapper, actor) –
- Sunisa Suni" Lee" (Olympic gymnast) –
Died
- Charles Bukowski (poet) –
- Fernando Rey (actor) –
- George Burns (comedian & actor) –
- Chris LeDoux (country musician) –
- Brad Delp (musician) –
- Doris Granny D" Haddock" (political activist) –
Events
- Napoleon Bonaparte married Josephine de Beauharnais in Paris—he arrived two hours late for the wedding–
- President James Monroe’s daughter, Maria, became the first daughter of a president to be married in the White House–
- A patent for artificial teeth was granted to Charles Graham of New York–
- Abraham Lincoln announced he was running for his first political office. He failed for his bid for a seat in the Illinois legislature–
- First Japanese Ambassador to U.S. arrived in San Francisco, CA–
- Battle of U.S.S. Monitor and U.S.S. Merrimack (renamed C.S.S. Virginia) ended in a draw–
- First V-8 Ford was built by Ford Motor Company–
- The Hundred Days began. President FDR pushed sweeping social and economic reforms of the New Deal through Congress within the next 100 days–
- Journalist Edward R. Murrow accused Sen. McCarthy of misleading the U.S. public and persecuting Congressional witnesses–
- Celebrity premiere of East of Eden, the film version of John Stienbeck’s novel–
- Barbie doll debuted–
- The first animal to return from space was a dog whose Russian name translated as Blackie, aboard the Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 9–
- The Smothers Brothers’ television show was cancelled after they refused to censor a comment made by Joan Baez. She wanted to dedicate her song to her husband, David, who was about to go to jail for objecting to the draft–
- Work began on the 789-mile Alaskan oil pipeline, the largest private construction project in U.S. history–
- Health and Welfare Canada banned saccharin as a food additive–
- Anne M. Burford was forced to resign as head of the EPA following a dispute with Congress over the agency’s enforcement of toxic waste regulations–
- Paul McCartney, John Lennon, Carole King, Gerry Goffin, and Carole Bayer Sager were inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame–
- President George H. W. Bush’s nominee for defense secratary, John Tower, lost Senate ratification vote–
- Chris Bertish, a South African surfer, paddleboarded across the Atlantic solo. The 4,050 trek took him 93 days.–
Weather
- Twelve-inch snowstorm in narrow band from Louisville, Kentucky, into Virginia and North Carolina’s mountains–
- Southern Indiana received up to 9 inches of snow–