Today's Trivia and What Happened on February 23

What did the beaver say to his son?

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"Close the dam door", to which his son responded, "I can't, it sticks open!"

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Quote: The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. - Tom Waits

Quote: The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering. - Tom Waits Close Large View

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What Happened On

Jesus Makes the Top 100 go to Video for Jesus Makes the Top 100

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Jesus Makes the Top 100

February 23, 1974

Sister Janet Mead's recording of The Lord's Prayer makes it onto the Billboard Top 100. It charted for 13 weeks, reaching #4 and going gold. Since the lyrics came from the teachings of Jesus in the Bible, it is the only song to hit the Top 10 in which the lyrics are attributed to Jesus Christ. Mead donated her earnings to charity.

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Salk administering the vaccine Salk administering the vaccine

Salk administering the vaccine Salk administering the vaccine
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Polio Vaccine

February 23, 1954

Inoculation of children with Jonas Salk's polio vaccine begins in Pittsburgh. Nation wide testing began two months later. It was the first successful vaccine for the dreaded disease.
Before the vaccine, there were about 15,000 cases of paralysis and 1,900 deaths annually from polio in the U.S.
Salk chose to not patent the vaccine in order to maximize its distribution. When asked who owned the patent, Salk replied, "Well, the people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?" It is estimated the patent would have been worth billions had it been patented.

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First flag raising (left) and the second raising photographed by Rosenthal First flag raising (left) and the second raising photographed by Rosenthal

First flag raising (left) and the second raising photographed by Rosenthal First flag raising (left) and the second raising photographed by Rosenthal
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Battle of Iwo Jima - Raising of the Flag

February 23, 1945

The famous raising of the flag on Mt. Suribachi. There were two American flag raisings on Mount Suribachi that day. Joe Rosenthal's famous Pulitzer-winning photo was of the second flag-raising in which a larger replacement flag was raised by a second group of Marines.
With more than 7,000 U.S. troops killed, the Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the costliest battles of World War II. The battle lasted from February 19th to March 26th.

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Major Walter Clopton Wingfield Major Walter Clopton Wingfield

Major Walter Clopton Wingfield Major Walter Clopton Wingfield
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Tennis

February 23, 1874

The game of Tennis is patented by its inventor Major Walter Clopton Wingfield of Great Britain.

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"Termination" of Christianity

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"Termination" of Christianity

February 23, 303

Roman Emperor Diocletian ordered that the Christian church at Nicomedia be razed, its scriptures burned, and its treasures seized. This would be the day they would "terminate" Christianity, in celebration of the feast of the Terminalia, for Terminus, the god of boundaries. Despite these efforts, Christianity became the empire's preferred religion in A.D. 324 under emperor Constantine I.

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Supernova SN1987a

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Supernova SN1987a

February 23, 1987

The light from this supernova in Large Magellanic Cloud reaches Earth. It was 164,000 light years away. The near simultaneous arrival of neutrinos and antineutrinos from the supernova provided the first empirical evidence that matter, antimatter, and photons all react similarly to gravity.

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Easy Divorce

February 23, 1915

Nevada passes its "easy" divorce bill requiring only six months residence.

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Civil War

February 23, 1861

Texas becomes the 7th state to secede from the Union.

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Birthdays

Johnny Winter Photo Credit: JohnKadvany

Johnny Winter Photo Credit: JohnKadvany
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Johnny Winter (John Dawson Winter III)

Born February 23, 1944 d. 2014

American Blues Hall of Fame blues singer/guitarist. He and his younger brother musician Edgar Winter were both born with albinism.
Winter also produced three Grammy Award-winning albums for blues singer and guitarist Muddy Waters.
Music: Silver Train (1973).

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Peter Fonda

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Peter Fonda

Born February 23, 1940 d. 2019

American actor. Film: Easy Rider (1969, producer, co-writer, and as Captain America), Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (1974), and Ulee's Gold (1997). He is the son of actor Henry Fonda and the brother of actress Jane Fonda.

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Elston Gene Howard

Born February 23, 1929 d. 1980

American baseball player. American League 1963 MVP and the first to use a baseball bat with a weight on the end to warm up in the on-deck circle (1969).

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Victor Fleming

Born February 23, 1889 d. 1949

American director. Film: The Wizard of Oz (1939) and Gone with the Wind (1939, Oscar).

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Casimir Funk Photo Credit: Ragesoss

Casimir Funk Photo Credit: Ragesoss
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Discovered Vitamins

Casimir Funk

Born February 23, 1884 d. 1967

Polish-born American chemist. He discovered vitamins (1912) calling them "vital amines," which later became "vitamins."
After reading that persons who ate brown rice were less vulnerable to beri-beri than those who ate only fully milled rice, Funk isolated the substance responsible, which become known as vitamin B3 (niacin).
Funk believed that more vitamins existed, and proposed the existence of at least four vitamins: one preventing beriberi ("antiberiberi"); one preventing scurvy ("antiscorbutic"); one preventing pellagra ("antipellagric"); and one preventing rickets ("antirachitic").

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Karl Jaspers

Born February 23, 1883 d. 1969

German philosopher, promoter of the philosophy of existentialism.

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W. E. B. DuBois

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W. E. B. DuBois (William Edward Burghardt DuBois)

Born February 23, 1868 d. 1963

American educator. Co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP, 1909). He was the first black to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard (1895).
Quote: "Either the United States will destroy ignorance or ignorance will destroy the United States."

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César Ritz

Born February 23, 1850 d. 1918

Swiss hotelkeeper. "Hotelier to Kings." He founded the world famous Ritz hotels in London, Paris, New York, etc.

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George Frederick Handel

Born February 23, 1685 d. 1759

German composer. Music: The Messiah (1742).

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Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville

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Jean Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville

Born February 23, 1680 d. 1767

French governor of Louisiana (1701-13, 1717-18, 1724-28, 1733-43) and founder of New Orleans (1718) and co-founder of Mobile, Alabama (1711). In 1717, after Bienville found a crescent bend in the Mississippi River which he felt was safe from tidal surges and hurricanes he was given permission the following year to build the new capital of the colony there naming it New Orleans.

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Paul II

Born February 23, 1417 d. 1471

Italian religious leader, 211th Pope (1464-71).

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Deaths

Stan Laurel

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Stan Laurel (Arthur Stanley Jefferson)

Died February 23, 1965 b. 1890

English comedian, actor. He made over 100 films with his partner Oliver Hardy, whom he worked with from 1926 till Hardy's death in 1957.
Moments before his death, Laurel told his nurse that he'd like to go skiing. The nurse replied that she was not aware that he was a skier. "I'm not," said Laurel, "I'd rather be doing that than this!"

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Mabel Normand

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First Movie Pie Thrown in the Face

Mabel Normand

Died February 23, 1930 b. 1892

American actress. She tossed the first pie ever thrown in a movie (1913, the silent film A Noise From the Deep, hitting Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle in the face with a custard pie).

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Photograph of John Quincy Adams taken in 1843 Photograph of John Quincy Adams taken in 1843

Photograph of John Quincy Adams taken in 1843 Photograph of John Quincy Adams taken in 1843
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John Quincy Adams

Died February 23, 1848 b. 1767

American politician. 6th U.S. President (1825-29), U.S. House of Representatives (1831-48, Massachusetts), 8th United States Secretary of State (1817-25), U.S. Senator (1803-08, Massachusetts), son of the 2nd president John Adams. According to legend, Adams stored an alligator for the Marquis de Lafayette in the bathroom of the White House's East Room for several months.
His is the oldest existing photograph of a U.S. President. It was taken in 1843, after he left office.
James K. Polk was the first U.S. President of whom a photo still exists that was taken while in office (1849).
William Henry Harrison was the first U.S. president photographed while in office, posing for a photo after delivering his 1841 inaugural speech. However, that photo has been lost.

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Katherine Helmond go to Video for Katherine Helmond

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Katherine Helmond

Died February 23, 2019 b. 1929

American actress. TV: Soap (1977-81, Jessica Tate), Who's the Boss? (1984-92, Mona), and Everybody Loves Raymond (1996-2004, Debra's mother). Film: Brazil (1985).

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Philip Abbott

Died February 23, 1998 b. 1924

American actor. TV: The FBI (Arthur Ward).

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All Creatures Great and Small

James Herriot (James Alfred Wight)

Died February 23, 1995 b. 1916

Scottish veterinarian. His book All Creatures Great and Small (1972) was the basis for the popular BBC series.

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John F. Mahoney

Died February 23, 1957 b. 1889

American physician. He developed penicillin treatment for syphilis (1943). This virtually eliminated tertiary syphilis of the brain, once a leading cause of insanity throughout the world.

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Sir Edward Elgar

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Pomp and Circumstance

Sir Edward Elgar

Died February 23, 1934 b. 1857

English composer. Famous for his "Pomp and Circumstance" marches, the first four of which were published between 1901 and 1907.

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Karl Friedrich Gauss

Died February 23, 1855 b. 1777

German mathematician, astronomer. The magnetic unit of flux density "Gauss" is named for him. He also devised the method of least squares used in statistics.

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John Keats

Died February 23, 1821 b. 1795

English poet. Writings: Endymion (1818) and Eve of St. Agnes (1820).

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Eugene IV

Died February 23, 1447 b. ????

Italian religious leader, 207th Pope (1431-47).

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