Daily Calendar for Friday, October 17, 2025
Question of the Day
Can I use pine needles as a plant cover in my garden throughout the winter?
Pine needles are great for insulation. They make a wonderful mulch for perennials, strawberries, and any shrubs and trees that like acid conditions. They also can prevent problems with shallow-rooted plants caused by freezing and thawing.
Advice of the Day
Spare well and have well.
Home Hint of the Day
Basic tools to outfit a home workshop — Part IV: 2-foot framing square, adjustable wrench (about 10 inches long), fine (1/16 inch) nail set, hacksaw with coarse and fine blades, coping saw and blades, and bevel square.
Word of the Day
Celestial equator
The circle around the celestial sphere that is halfway between the celestial poles. It can be thought of as the plane of Earth’s equator projected out onto the sphere.
Puzzle of the Day
What small animal is turned into a large one by taking away part of its name?
Fox (ox)
Died
- Frederic Chopin (composer) –
- Laura Secord (Canadian heroine) –
- Julia Ward Howe (author) –
- S. J. Perelman (writer) –
- Joan Hickson (actress) –
- Betty Hill (the woman known as the first lady of UFOs.” Hill and her late husband had the first publicized and best-documented UFO experience”) –
- Ray Boone (baseball player) –
- Joey Bishop (comedian) –
- Levi Stubbs (lead singer of The Four Tops) –
Born
- Buck Ewing (first catcher to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame) –
- Arthur Miller (author) –
- Rita Hayworth (actress) –
- Tom Poston (actor) –
- Jimmy Breslin (columnist) –
- Evel Knievel (stunt motorcyclist) –
- Michael McKean (actor) –
- Margot Kidder (actress) –
- George Wendt (actor) –
- Mae Jemison (astronaut, physician, professor) –
- Alan Jackson (country musician) –
Events
- Charles II of England sold Dunkerque to France for 40,000 pounds –
- Sam Patch, the Yankee Leaper, jumped 120 feet from a platform atop Niagara Falls into the river below. He survived. –
- Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion by a federal court in Chicago and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 1939. –
- Physicist Albert Einstein arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Nazi Germany –
- Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Donald Duck’s nephews) first appeared in a comic strip –
- An earthquake 50 miles out at sea shook eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island –
- Mother Teresa of India was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta. –
- Frank Giannino completed his run across the United States. It took him 46 days, 8 hours, and 36 minutes. –
- A meteorite chunk struck a house in the San Francisco Bay Area –
- Ashrita Furman balanced 100 ice cream scoops on cone –
Weather
- Three inches of snow fell on Huntertown, Indiana –
