Not a real kick for him

November 6, 1869 -- First college football game played.

"To watch a football game is to be in prolonged neurotic doubt as to what you're seeing." -- Jacques Barzun.

At least we're great

Columbus Day.

"America is a mistake, a great mistake." -- Sigmund Freud.

That's actually St. Augustine's slogan

The first permanent "New World" settlement was established In St. Augustine, Florida on this day in 1565.

"Cities are the abyss of the human species." -- Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

Disguising the real issue, etc.

August 19, 1902: Poet Ogden Nash was born. Here's a verse:

They take a paper and they read the headlines,
So they've heard of unemployment and they've heard of breadlines,
And they philanthropically cure them all
By getting up a costume charity ball.



August 20, 1980: The first solo ascent of Mt. Everest was made on this date.

"Keep you down, and have breakfast while the asinine hunters after the picturesque go braying up the hill." -- Willam Makepeace Thackeray.



August 21, 1878: The American Bar Association was formed.

"Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished." -- Jeremy Bentham.

He's nuts, I should hope

First use of the atom bomb on this day in 1945.

"Cursed is every one who placeth his hope in man." -- St. Augustine.

Patently absurd

The first U. S. patent was issued on this day in 1790.

"Inventor, n.: A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization." -- Ambrose Bierce.

Moon of the Day

Man landed on the moon on this day in 1969.

"The sun and the moon and the stars would have long ago disappeared...had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands." -- Havelock Ellis.

Creeping along on all fours

The first commercial around-the-world flight began on this day in 1947. And on this day in 1972, the Watergate scandal was uncovered.

"The more humanity advances, the more it is degraded." -- Gustave Flaubert.

It's a real social vacuum

First U. S. spacewalk on this date in 1965.

"Outer space is no place for a person of breeding." -- Lady Violet Bonham Carter.

Cringe when I say that, Pilgrim

Sally Ride, the first U. S. astronaut, was born on this day in 1951.

"They (women) have a right to work wherever they want to--as long as they have dinner ready when you get home." -- John Wayne, born May 26, 1907.

"The Duke" also said:

"I don't feel like we did wrong by taking this great country away from them (the Indians). There were people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves."

Especially at night

The first cross-country automobile race was held on this day in 1923.

“Thanks to the Interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel from coast to coast without seeing anything.” -– Charles Kuralt.

There's something evil in the air

The first trans-Atlantic air service began on this day in 1939.

“The conquest of the air, so jubilantly hailed by general opinion, may turn out the most sinister event that ever befell us.” -– John Galsworthy.