Christopher Robin's Birthday

On this day in 1920, Daphne Milne, wife of writer A.A. Milne, gives birth to a son, who the couple name Christopher Robin Milne. Christopher Robin will be immortalized in A.A. Milne's books Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.

A.A. Milne was born in London in 1882, the youngest of three sons. His parents were both schoolteachers; his father was headmaster at a school where H.G. Wells taught. His family claimed Milne taught himself to read at age two. He began writing humorous pieces as a schoolboy and continued at Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate paper. In 1903, he left Cambridge and went to London to write. Although he was broke by the end of his first year, he persevered and supported himself until 1906 with his writing. That year, he joined humor magazine Punch as an editor and wrote humorous verse and essays for the magazine for eight years, until World War I broke out. While atPunch, he wrote his first book-for adults, not children.

See more Here.

Theft of the Mona Lisa

August 21st 1911

An amateur painter sets up his easel near Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris, only to discover that the masterpiece is missing. The day before, in perhaps the most brazen art theft of all time, Vincenzo Perugia had walked into the Louvre, removed the famed painting from the wall, hid it beneath his clothes, and escaped. While the entire nation of France was stunned, theories abounded as to what could have happened to the invaluable artwork. Most believed that professional thieves could not have been involved because they would have realized that it would be too dangerous to try to sell the world's most famous painting. A popular rumor in Paris was that the Germans had stolen it to humiliate the French.

Investigators and detectives searched for the painting for more than two years without finding any decent leads. Then, in November 1913, Italian art dealer Alfredo Geri received a letter from a man calling himself Leonardo. It indicated that the Mona Lisa was in Florence and would be returned for a hefty ransom. When Perugia attempted to receive the ransom, he was captured. The painting was unharmed.

Perugia, a former employee of the Louvre, claimed that he had acted out of a patriotic duty to avenge Italy on behalf of Napoleon. But prior robbery convictions and a diary with a list of art collectors led most to think that he had acted solely out of greed. Perugia served seven months of a one-year sentence and later served in the Italian army during the First World War. The Mona Lisais back in the Louvre, where improved security measures are now in place to protect it.

Source

Quote for the Day

"The pyramid of government-and a republican government may well receive that beautiful and solid form-should be raised to a dignified altitude: but its foundations must, of consequence, be broad, and strong, and deep. The authority, the interests, and the affections of the people at large are the only foundation, on which a superstructure proposed to be at once durable and magnificent, can be rationally erected."

--James Wilson, Legislative Department, 1804

Professional Football is Born

On this day in 1920, seven men, including legendary all-around athlete and football star Jim Thorpe, meet to organize a professional football league at the Jordan and Hupmobile Auto Showroom in Canton, Ohio. The meeting led to the creation of the American Professional Football Conference (APFC), the forerunner to the hugely successful National Football League.

Professional football developed in the 1890s in Pennsylvania, as local athletic clubs engaged in increasingly intense competition. Former Yale football star William "Pudge" Heffelfinger became the first-ever professional football player when he was hired by the Allegheny Athletic Association to play in a game against their rival the Pittsburgh Athletic Club in November 1892. By 1896, the Allegheny Athletic Association was made up entirely of paid players, making it the sport’s first-ever professional team. As football became more and more popular, local semi-pro and pro teams were organized across the country.

Read More Here

Quote for the Day

"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

--Declaration of Independence

Today in History

On this day in 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world's most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.

Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana, the speedway was started by local businessmen as a testing facility for Indiana's growing automobile industry. The idea was that occasional races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each other. After seeing what these cars could do, spectators would presumably head down to the showroom of their choice to get a closer look.

The rectangular two-and-a-half-mile track linked four turns, each exactly 440 yards from start to finish, by two long and two short straight sections. In that first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. The track's surface of crushed rock and tar proved a disaster, breaking up in a number of places and causing the deaths of two drivers, two mechanics and two spectators.

Read more Here.

Quote for the Day

"It is an unquestionable truth, that the body of the people in every country desire sincerely its prosperity. But it is equally unquestionable that they do not possess the discernment and stability necessary for systematic government. To deny that they are frequently led into the grossest of errors, by misinformation and passion, would be a flattery which their own good sense must despise."

--Alexander Hamilton, speech to the Ratifying Convention of New York, 1788

Falling Out of a Plane....No Problem

Not for these men at least.

Alan Magee Falls 22,000 feet and lives: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1071076/posts

Michael Homes Falls 14,000 feet and lives: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17113222/

James Boole ....6,000 Feet : http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5342032/Skydiver-survives-6000ft-fall-without-parachute.html

And I thought falling out of a tree was bad...

Quote for the Day

"I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education. This is the true corrective of abuses of constitutional power."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Charles Jarvis, 1820

Skydiver Survives 10,000-Foot Fall

A British skydiver has remarkably survived after a 10,000-foot plunge to the ground when his parachute failed to open, according to the Daily Mail.

Paul Lewis, 40, jumped from a plane on Friday like he had hundreds of other times, but something went terribly wrong as he was free-falling toward the ground.

His main parachute failed to open, and then his reserve parachute failed to work properly and Lewis plummeted through the air before crashing onto the roof of a hangar at Tilstock Airfield in Whitchurch, Shropshire.

Lewis, a freelance cameraman, was filming tandem jumps for the Parachute Center, a skydiving firm based at the airfield. Luckily, the roof of the hangar broke his fall and he escaped with only some head and neck injuries. Lewis is expected to make a full recovery.....

More here:http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/news/dpgo_Skydiver_Survives_10000_Foot_Fall_mb_08162009_2979733

Pray for Larry Pruit

Please pray for Larry Pruit.

He is a college student here at Golden State Baptist College. He was in a bad car accident early Saturday morning, and was in surgery most of that day.

Please pray for him as he goes through recovery; he may be in the hospital for another week or so.

Quote for the Day

Sorry, I missed a couple days last week.

"No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand, which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."

--George Washington, First Inaugural Address, April 30, 1789