Founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Born in Grafton, Massachusetts, nine years before the start of the American Revolution, Thomas was brought up on a farm in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He was fascinated by science and at age 16 read Ferguson’s Astronomy, which he came across in his father’s library. He later wrote that “it was from the pleasing study of this work I first imbibed the idea of calculating an almanack.” With this dream in mind, he became a bookseller, taught school, built a store and bindery near the family farm, and studied astronomy in his spare time. In early 1792, he went to Boston to study mathematics under the tutelage of another almanac maker, Osgood Carlton, and that fall delivered the copy for the first edition of what he called The Farmer’s Almanac to printers Joseph Belknap and Thomas Hall. With its format and contents established, it was ready for the longest publishing tenure in American history. Although Thomas died more than 150 years ago and 12 Almanac editors have followed him, no other name but his has ever appeared on the cover of The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Read more about the life and times of Robert B. Thomas.
Daily Calendar for Monday, April 24, 2023
Question of the Day
What is a hot posset? I know it is a drink from the medieval times, but that is all.
Posset is a Middle English word of uncertain origin, but there’s no uncertainty about what it is. It’s a drink composed of hot milk curdled with ale, wine, or other liquor, with sugar and spices sometimes added. It was (and still is) popular not only as a delicacy but also as a remedy for colds and other infections.
Advice of the Day
Ivy will flourish with an occasional drink of cold tea instead of water.
Home Hint of the Day
To get scuff marks off any hardwood floor, mop the floor with a solution of 1/4 cup of TSP (or other product containing trisodium phosphate) and 2 gallons of hot water.
Word of the Day
Skyscraper
A skysail of a triangular form. A name for the one of the fancy sails alleged to have been sometimes set above the skysail. Hence, anything usually large, high, or excessive.
Puzzle of the Day
What is a shark’s favorite sandwich?
Peanut butter and jellyfish.
Born
- Robert B. Thomas (founder of The Old Farmer’s Almanac) –
- Robert Penn Warren (poet) –
- Shirley MacLaine (actress) –
- Jill Ireland (actress) –
- Barbra Streisand (singer & actress) –
- Kelly Clarkson (singer) –
Died
- Reverend Eleazar Wheelock (founded Dartmouth College) –
- Lucy Maud Montgomery (author) –
- Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov (became the first person to die during a space mission) –
- Bud Abbott (comedian & actor) –
- Estée Lauder (started a kitchen business blending face creams and built it into a multimillion-dollar international cosmetics empire) –
- Elizabeth Post (etiquette expert) –
Events
- La Marseillaise composed–
- U. S. Library of Congress established–
- The soda fountain was patented–
- Joshua Slocum left Boston on his 37-foot sloop named Spray. He arrived in Newport, Rhode Island, on June 27, 1898, becoming the first sailor to have circumnavigated the globe alone–
- Spain declared war on the United States (Spanish-American War)–
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II–
- Hubble space telescope launched–
- Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger inaugurated as Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. He took the name Pope Benedict XVI–
Weather
- A local windstorm blew down commercial buildings and damaged ships in Galveston, Texas–