Thought for Today

 History: 31 BC: Battle of Actium--Octavian defeats Cleopatra and Mark Antony 1666: Great Fire of London begins 1752: Great Britain and its colonies adopt the Gregorian calendar--skip 11 days so tomorrow is September 14 1789: US Treasury Department founded 1864: Sherman captures and burns Atlanta 1898: Machine gun first used in battle 1901: Teddy Roosevelt says "speak softly and carry a big stick" 1919: Communist Party of America organizes 1935: Labor Day hurricane hits Florida killing 423 1940: Great Smokey Mountains NP dedicated 1944: George HW Bush bails from a burning plane in the Pacific 1945: V-J Day 1960: Wilma Rudolph wins Olympic Gold in 100 meters 1974: ERISA signed into law--we called it "Every Rotten Idea Since Adam" 2021: 43 die as Hurricane Ida hits northeast Born: AG Spalding [HOF pitcher and founder of Spalding sporting goods], Adolph Rupp, Peter Ueberroth, John Thompson [coach], Terry Bradshaw, Mark Harmon, Jimmy Connors, Eric Dickerson, Keanu Reeve...

 History: 1803:First tract society in North America established--Massachusetts Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 1807: Aaron Burr acquitted of plotting to set up an empire 1836: Two missionary wives, Eliza Spalding and Narcissa Whitman are first white women to cross North America 1859: First Pullman sleeping car put into service 1898: First forestry school in America opens at Biltmore Estate 1914: Last passenger pigeon dies--Martha 1918: Battle of Megiddo--there will be another 1938: Mussolini cancels rights of Italian Jews 1939: Hitler orders killing of mentally ill 1941: Jews in Germany required to wear yellow Star of David 1954: Bear Bryant opens camp in Junction TX--The Junction Boys 1954: "Rear Window" released 1957: Billy Graham concludes NYC crusade attended by 2 million 1972: Bobby Fischer wins world title defeating Boris Spassky 1975: Last episode of Gunsmoke 1995: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame opens 2006: Roger Goodell becomes NFL Commissioner 2007: Appalachian...

 History: 1888: Mary Ann Nichols body found--1st victim of Jack the Ripper 1897: Edison patents kinetoscope camera--motion pictures 1919: Ukrainian army recaptures Kiev--sounds familiar 1925: Margaret Mead arrives i Samoa 1946: Foghorn Leghorn debuts in "Walky Talky Hawky" 1955: First sun powered car demonstrated 1965: HUD established 1972: Olga Korbut wins Olympic Gold in beam and floor exercise 1997: Princess Diana dies in car crash 2019: Gunman kills 7 and injures 22 in Odessa TX 2020: US Covid cases pass 6 million Born: Caligula, Maria Montessori, Fredric March, Arthur Godfrey, Pete Newell [Basketball HOF], Alan Jay Lerner [My Fair Lady], Buddy Hackett, James Coburn, Jean Beliveau [hockey HOF], Frank Robinson, Itzhak Perlman [violin], Richard Gere, Marcia Clark [OJ Simpson], Edwin Moses [hurdles], Padraig Harrington, Chris Tucker, Charl Swartzel, Larry Fitzgerald,  Died: John Bunyan [Pilgrim's Progress], Rocky Marciano, Sally Rand [dancer], Lionel Hampton, Jerry Reed,...

 History: 1146: Crossbow outlawed--intended to end war for all time 1835: Melbourne Australia founded 1862: Battle of Altamont TN 1890: First law requiring inspection of meat products 1927: Helen Wills Moody wins her 4th of 7 US Open titles 1939: Yamamoto named Commander in Chief of Japanese fleet 1954: Hurricane Carol kills 68 1956: Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opens 1961: James Parsons named first black US District Court Judge 1963: Kremlin-Pentagon hot line established 1967: Thurgood Marshall confirmed as first black Supreme Court Justice 1993: Late Show with David Letterman premiers 2020: Covid death toll at 843,000 Born: Mary Shelley, Shirley Booth, Roy Wilkins, Joan Blondell, Fred MacMurray, Ted Williams, Kitty Wells, Angelo Dundee [Ali], Warren Buffett, Bruce McLaren [racer], Jean-Claude Killy, Tug McGraw, Peggy Lipton [Mod Squad], Robert Parrish, Cameron Diaz, Andy Roddick Died: JJ Thomson [discovered the electron], Vera-Ellen [White Christmas], Charles Bronson, Glenn Ford, ...

 History: 1786: Shay's Rebellion in Massachusetts--against increased taxes 1831: Faraday demonstrates first electric trnasformer 1862: Second Battle of Bull Run/Manassas 1883: First Carnegie Library opens in Dunfermline Scotland--eventually 2,509 Carnegie Libraries 1896: Chop suey invented in NYC by chef of visiting Chinese Ambassador 1898: Goodyear Tire founded 1909: Glenn Curtiss wins first air race--Rheims France 1928: W.A. Criswell ordained 1945: MacArthur named Supreme Allied Commander in Japan 1954: San Francisco International Airport opens--many flights from there 1967: Final episode of "The Fugitive" on TV 1997: Netflix founded 2005: Katrina makes second and third landfalls 2017: Hurricane Harvey drops nearly 52 inches of rain in Cedar Bayou Born: John Locke, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. [Old Ironsides], Ingrid Bergman, Isabel Sanford [Jeffersons], Charlie "Bird" Parker, Richard Attenborough, John McCain, Elliott Gould, James Brady [Brady Law], Robin Leach,...

 History: 1883: Krakatoa erupts killing 36,000. Earth's temperature drops for a year. 1953: Roman Holiday released 1995: Guinness Book of World Records first published 1964: Mary Poppins premiers 2004: Argentina upsets USA in Olympic basketball 2008: Barack Obama nominated for President 2020: Hurricane Laura hits Louisiana Born: Charles Rolls [Rolls Royce], Ed Gein [serial killer], Lyndon Johnson, Martha Raye, Tuesday Weld, Barbara Bach, Pee-wee Herman, Bernhard Langer, Breanna Stewart,  Died: John Russell Pope [architect Jefferson Memorial], WEB Du Bois, Gracie Allen, Greg Morris [Mission Impossible], Lute Olson,  Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death of St. Augustine of Hippo. Thought: Yesterday, I looked at the rhetorical question, "Is anything too difficult for the Lord?" Today, I am thinking about another question posed in chapter 18 of Genesis--Will You [God] sweep away the righteous with the wicked.  .  .  . Shall not the Judge of all the earth de...

 History: 1682: Edmond Halley first observes Halley's Comet 1873: First free kindergarten in US begins in Missouri 1874: 16 blacks taken from jail in Trenton TN and lynched 1968: Beatles release "Hey Jude" single 2016: Colin Kaepernick kneels in protest during National Anthem Born: Antoine Lavoisier [father of modern chemistry],  Mary Ann Nichols [1st victim of Jack the Ripper], Albert Sabin [oral polio vaccine], Mother Teresa, Katherine Johnson [Hidden Numbers], Geraldine Ferraro, Will Shortz [NY Times Crossword], Branford Marsalis, Melissa McCarthy, Macaulay Culkin,  Died: Antonie van Leeuwenhoek [first to observe bacteria], Lon Chaney, Andrew Mellon, Ransom Olds, Charles Lindbergh, Ted Knight, Neil Simon,  Thought: Reading from Genesis 18 today. Focused on just a verse: 18:14--Is anything too difficult for the Lord? Have you ever thought about that? Is there something that God has insufficient power to handle? Is there something too complicated for God to figure o...