Daily Calendar for Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Daily Calendar

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Fictional Robinson Crusoe left island after 28 years. Daniel Defoe’s story is based on an actual person, Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish sailor, who was found on an island where he had been stranded for 52 months. (He was rescued on Feb. 1, 1709) – 1686
The first Canadian telegraph messages were sent between Toronto and Hamilton. – 1846
Mark Twain received a patent for suspenders – 1871
The National Hockey League began its first professional season with four teams – 1917
Robert Ripley’s column, Believe It or Not!, first appeared in The New York Globe – 1918
The first known radio broadcast from outer space was transmitted when President Eisenhower’s recorded voice issued a holiday greeting for the whole world from the Atlas satellite which was launched the previous day – 1958
New transatlantic submarine cable, CANTAT-1, between Britain and Canada (first link in a proposed around-the-world Commonwealth system) is inaugurated by a telephone conversation between Queen Elizabeth II and Prime Minister Diefenbaker of Canada – 1961
Intelsat III F-2 communications satellite launched – 1968

Louisiana Purchase explorer William Dunbar wrote, “… the e[a]ves of our cabin hang with beautiful icicles” – 1804
The temperature at Yellowstone National Park was -59 degrees F – 1924
It was so cold in Moosomin, Saskatchewan, that several children got stuck to their playground equipment and had to be thawed off. (It was -43F or -41.5C.) – 1983