February 21, 2019
Dearest Readers,
Some interesting tidbits in The Almanac, as On This Date spend some time with the Carolina parakeet and we go to the moon with the Soviets, and Top of the Charts has the #1 hits from this date in 1976.
Philosophy 101 talks about aiming high and straining nerves.
Good wishes for a good day.
xoxoxo
Kaitlyn
THE ALMANAC
On This Date:
In 1918 – The last Carolina parakeet dies, in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo. One of only two parrots ever native to the United States, the other being the thick-billed parrot, which now flourishes in Mexico., the Carolina parakeet was done in by deforestation and hunting for its colorful feathers, though it didn’t help the bird had a tendency to flock to where others of their ilk had or were dying, allowing it to be slaughtered in large numbers.
In 1972 – The Soviet Union reaches the moon for the sixth time when the unmanned Luna 20 lands. It collects samples from the lunar surface, the second of three Luna missions to return samples to Earth, the last one being Luna 24 in 1976. The Soviet space program had its accomplishments. They were the first to put a spacecraft and a human into space, the first to reach the moon (1959) and another planet (Venus), but they were never able to pull off a manned lunar landing. Only America has done that.
Top of the Charts
#1 songs on this date in 1976:
Hot 100 – 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover…Paul Simon (3rd of three weeks)
Soul Chart – Sweet Thing…Rufus featuring Chaka Khan (1st of two weeks)
Country Chart – Good Hearted Woman…Waylon and Willie (1st of three weeks)
Album Chart – Desire…Bob Dylan (3rd of five weeks)
– Chart data courtesy of Billboard.
Numbers Racket
10,653: the continuous number of days the US has been at war.
22.028: the number of dollars, in trillions, of America’s national debt. – Source: usdebtclock.org
628: days until Election Day 2020.
Philosophy 101
…his life seemed to prove that the valorous were the favorites of fortune. He was simply inviting the Convention to do what he had done repeatedly – to aim as high as possible and to strain every nerve to attain the goal.
John C Miller
Alexander Hamilton: Portrait in Paradox
Fortune favoring the brave is an old military saying and its true for us civilians, too: those that get on this world are those who try to accomplish things, who realize success and failure are mere imposters and neither exists without the other and make the complete utilization of their talents their life’s work.
We must aim as high as possible and strain every nerve to attain our goal. If we are not doing that we are merely marking time while on this planet and are not doing anyone – you, me, your aunt in Leadville – and good. Now, circumstantially, these goals will differ from person to person: we were all issued assorted talents and ambitions at birth. Intrinsically, however, there is only one goal: making our time serve us by living the life we were meant to live. The way we do that is by living in harmony with what our hearts are telling us to do and how our instincts are telling us how to get there because our hearts and our instincts will never fail to show us where we were meant to go. When we are doing that, the life we were meant to live will present itself.
John C Miller is an American writer.