February 19, 2019
Dearest Readers,
Welcome aboard. We’re glad you made it.
Today we chronicle our fellow beings in The Almanac, which visits 1913 and 1942 while Top of the Charts is hovering over 1972 and Philosophy 101 is based on a quote from Minnesota Fats talking about the greatness in each of us.
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn
THE ALMANAC
On This Date:
In 1913 – Pedro Lascurain is the president of Mexico for less than an hour. He had woken up that morning as foreign secretary but assumed the presidency when President Francisco Madero was overthrown by General Victoriano Huerta. Huerta then directed Lascurain to appoint him interior secretary and then resign so Huerta could become president. Lascurain, no fool, followed orders. It remains the shortest presidency in history.
In 1942 – In another instance of racial enlightenment here in America, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs executive order 9066 allowing the military to set up internment camps throughout the country. Offically known as military zones, Japanese, Germans, Italians and some Jews were held. Most were Japanese, though, and about two-thirds of the Japanese interred – roughly 70,000 – were American citizens. Executive Order 9066 would be symbolically rescinded by President Ford on this date in 1976.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1972:
Hot 100 – Without You…Nilsson (1st of four weeks)
Soul Chart – Let’s Stay Together…Al Green (7th of nine weeks)
Country Chart – It’s Four in the Morning…Faron Young (1st of two weeks)
Album Chart – American Pie…Don McLean (5th of seven weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,651: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
22.024: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
630: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
Every living creature on this earth can do something great.
Minnesota Fats
We all have greatness inside. You, me, your aunt in Leadville. Every single one of us. It is of no particular consequence what you are great at, either. All that matters is it stems from something deep inside you. It may not gain you notoriety or make you rich or cause you to live down the ages or, then again, it might. It doesn’t really matter.
Whether it’s a work of art that future generations will be talking about or your very best quilt that takes top prize at the fair or a solo in the church choir that is the culmination of years of training and practice, if you are answering to something deep inside, it will be uniquely you.
Greatness is there for everyone. It isn’t easy, of course. It takes wisdom to know what you can be great at and what would merely waste your time. It is why I wrote this and am not out training for the high jump. Then it takes courage to go out and get the most out of the talents you were issued birth. And it takes patience to achieve the desired end.
But greatness is there for everyone. All we have to do is follow our hearts and trust our instincts and it will find us. We won’t have to search for it.
Minnesota Fats, born Rudolph Wonderone (1913-1996) was an American pool hustler.