Almanac for February 13th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 13th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-13-To-morrow-is-Saint-Valentines-day-S6S01AOJBZ

Friday the 13th at Aurora's Gin Joint blog: https://aurorasginjoint.com/2017/01/13/friday-foto-follies-superstitions/

Bummer February 13th

February 13, 1925: On or around this date, cave explorer Floyd Collins dies of exposure after becoming trapped in a narrow cave passage with a 26-pound rock crushing one of his legs. He has entered the cave system in Kentucky, now part of Mammoth Cave National Park, on January 30th. Collins’ brother discovers him trapped in the narrow passage on January 31st. Despite rescue attempts, when rescuers reach Collins on February 16th, he appears to have been dead for one or more days. Collins is 37 years old.

San Antonio (Texas) Light, November 13, 1925
Vernon Dalhart

February 13, 1931: German-American circus acrobat Lillian Leitzel falls to the ground while performing at Valencia Music Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark. The metal brace holding the rigging attached to her harness has snapped and broken away. Leitzel will die of her injuries two days later. 

February 13, 1945: U.S. and U.K. forces drop incendiary bombs on Dresden, Germany, causing fires with the intention of destroying munitions factories in that city. A second round of bombs is dropped in the early hours of February 14th, calculated to hamper the efforts of rescuers on the scene of the first round of bombings and fires. It’s estimated that between 22,000 and 25,000 Germans are killed, almost all of them civilians.

February 13, 1964: 22-year-old Ken Hubbs, who plays second base for the Chicago Cubs in the ‘63 season, is afraid of flying. To help himself get over his fear, he takes flying lessons and earns his pilot’s license in January 1964. The following month, the private plane he’s piloting near Provo, Utah, crashes, killing Hubbs.

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Almanac for February 12th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 12th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-12-Lincoln-and-Darwin-Share-a-Birthdate-N4N31AOJ8G

Beatles Trivia

February 12, 1964: The Beatles perform a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall.
Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Charles Darwin's birthday

Bummer February 12th

February 12, 1976: Rebel Without a Cause actor Sal Mineo is stabbed to death by an assailant who doesn’t know who he is and chooses him at random in an attempted robbery. The assailant is sentenced to 57 years in prison for the fatal stabbing and for a string of burglaries.

February 12, 1980: Two days after 34-year-old Patricia Frazier of Texas saw a CBS network TV broadcast of the movie The Exorcist, Frazier kills her 4-year-old daughter Khunji and cuts out her heart. According to Dr. Leon Morris, a psychologist who spoke with Frazier after the crime, Frazier believed Khunji was possessed by demons and trying to harm her (Patricia). A jury of her peers finds Patricia Frazier not guilty by reason of insanity.

Almanac for February 11th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 11th: 
https://ko-fi.com/Post/February-11-Over-the-River-and-Through-the-Woods-K3K21AOJ5M

Today's Observance: St. Gobnait's Day

I took this photo at the Nyack (NY) public library in October 2024.

Bummer February 11th

February 11, 1963: Poet Sylvia Plath, who struggles with clinical depression, dies by suicide, inhaling gas by placing her head inside an unlit gas stove. She is 30 years old.

February 11, 1989: George O’Hanlon, the voice actor portraying George Jetson, is recording his lines for Jetsons: The Movie. Just after finishing, he complains of a headache. He is taken to the hospital, where he dies of a stroke.

February 11, 2006: Then-U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney goes on a quail hunting trip near Corpus Christi, Texas. Failing to observe some safety rules, Cheney accidentally shoots his acquaintance Harry Milner Whittington in the face, neck, and chest with birdshot pellets. The pellets cause a collapsed lung and trigger a minor heart attack; Whittington is cared for in Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital’s intensive care unit. 

After being released from the hospital, Whittington issues a public statement saying that he knew hunting was an inherently risky activity, that he assumed the responsibility for that risk, and that he felt badly for the vice president. Cheney did not publicly apologize to Whittington for the shooting. Whittington passed away from an unrelated accident in 2023.

February 11, 2012: 48-year-old singer/actress Whitney Houston is found unresponsive in the bathtub of her room at the Beverly Hilton hotel. Paramedics attempted CPR but are unable to revive her. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office attributes her death to atherosclerotic heart disease, cocaine use, and drowning. 

What was Diane Meyer grateful for on February 11, 2024?

https://bottlecap.press/products/ordinarygratitude

friends that feel like family
birthdays
new necklace
enjoying good food
white chocolate brownies

sunlight!
blankets
reading before bed
country music
earl grey tea
loving my friends
latte art
pink
people watching in happy places
looking forward to little things

Almanac for February 10th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 10th: https://ko-fi.com/Post/February-10-Eira-M4M81AOJ3C

Bummer February 10th

February 10, 1897: Opera singer Armand Castelmary has a heart attack and dies on stage while performing at the New York Metropolitan Opera. At first the audience thinks his dramatic collapse is part of the show.

February 10, 1956: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) student Thomas Clark drowns after falling through the ice into a reservoir while taking part in a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity hazing ritual.

February 10, 2005: Playwright Arthur Miller dies of bladder cancer.

Almanac for February 9th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for Feb. 9th: https://ko-fi.com/Post/February-9-Mary-Star-of-the-Sea-R6R41AOIZY

Washington, D.C. Evening Star, February 1, 1926

Beatles Trivia
February 9, 1964: The Beatles play five songs on The Ed Sullivan Show. 

Bummer February 9th

February 9, 1963: In a racially-charged incident captured in song by Bob Dylan, 51-year-old Hattie Carroll is working as a bar server at the Emerson Hotel in Baltimore. The hotel is hosting an event called the Spinster’s Ball. One of the guests, Billy Zantzinger, who is white, is excessively drunk and physically and verbally abusing both his wife Jane and the African-American wait staff at the event.

Zantziger hurls racial slurs and other verbal abuse at Carroll, then strikes her in the neck/upper shoulder region with his cane. Carroll immediate begins feeling numbness in her arm, and her co-workers notice her speech is slurred. She’s taken to the hospital, where Carroll dies of a brain hemorrhage. Zantziger is convicted of manslaughter for Carroll’s death, but his sentence is a paltry six months in prison and a $500 fine, plus a fine of $125 for assaulting the other wait staff.

February 9, 1965: U.S. intervention in Vietnam begins in earnest when the U.S. sends the first ground troops to South Vietnam. An estimated 4 million Vietnamese citizens, most of them civilians, will be killed by the time the U.S. withdraws troops in 1973.

***

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Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/love-at-first-sight/id6758872010
Tolino: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1078180444
Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9798233740732_9798233740732_10020/love-at-first-sight

Almanac for February 8th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 8th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-8-James-Dean-W7W41AOIWJ

Happy Super Bowl Sunday to all who celebrate USA American football!
This is an affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4kjvM95

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: James Dean

Bummer February 8th

February 8, 1968: In what becomes known as the Orangeburg Massacre, the South Carolina state highway patrol opens fire on African-American college students protesting the segregation of a local bowling alley. Three young men are killed and more than 20 people are injured, including a pregnant woman who is beaten and suffers a miscarriage. The nine troopers who participated in the beatings and shooting were acquitted of all charges; one protestor serves seven months in prison for “rioting.”

February 8, 2007: 39-year-old model and reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith dies of multiple prescription drug intoxication complicated by multiple infections. The Hollywood, Florida, hotel in which Smith is found unresponsive contains multiple prescription bottles, all prescribed by the same doctor, but none of which are prescribed to Smith. She appears to have been taking over-the-counter cold medicine to counter the effects of skin and intestinal infections, which she may have gotten from giving herself improperly sterilized injections of a diet drug. The cold medicine may have amplified the sedative effects of the prescription drugs she used to help her sleep.

Sadly, Smith’s daughter Dannielynn is only five months old at the time of her mother’s death.

Anna Nicole Smith featured in advertising for H&M stores. Public domain.

Anna Nicole Smith at Dorothy Surrenders: https://dorothysurrenders.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-weekend-crush_09.html

Out now! Read St. James' Day (Pagan Spirits #3) here:

Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/st-james-day/id6445005544

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/st-james-day-pagan-spirits-3-erin-o-riordan/4f332dba51fb20ba?ean=9798215439876&next=t&digital=t

Everand (Scribd): https://www.everand.com/book/613027583/St-James-Day-Pagan-Spirits-3

Fable: https://fable.co/book/x-9798215439876

Kobo (Rakuten): https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/st-james-day

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1250919

Tolino: https://www.thalia.de/shop/home/artikeldetails/A1067302221

Vivlio: https://shop.vivlio.com/product/9798215439876_9798215439876_10020/st-james-day

Almanac for February 7th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for February 7th: https://ko-fi.com/post/February-7-The-Key-West-Diaries-E1E319Z9UC

This is an affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4k6qwW5

Artist Birthday: Charles Dickens

Bummer February 7th

February 7, 1497: On Shrove Tuesday in Florence, followers of the monk Girolamo Savonarola burn art, books, their cosmetics, fancy clothes, playing cards, and other cultural objects they associate with sin in the so-called Bonfire of the Vanities. Sadly, irreplaceable ancient art and manuscripts were lost to this religiously-fueled war on anything that represented luxury. 

Ironically, Savonarola will later be excommunicated and convicted of heresy by the Roman Catholic Church. As punishment, he is hanged and his body burned in the same plaza where the Bonfire of the Vanities occurred. It will be forbidden for any Christian to possess copies of Savonarola’s writings. 

February 7, 1904: A fire in Baltimore destroys more than 1,500 buildings, costing $150 million in damage in 1904 dollars and leaving 35,000 unemployed. Fortunately, no one is reported to have died from the fire.

February 7, 2008: A dust explosion at the Imperial Sugar refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, injures 36 people and kills 14.