Silent night, sexy night.
A
distinctive neural signature found in the brains of people with
dyslexia may explain why these individuals have difficulty learning to
read, according to a new study from MIT neuroscientists. The researchers
discovered that in … Read more
Keep ‘your fat mouth shut’: Dumbass Trump-backing school principal under fire for attacking Texas cuffed-mom| 376 | In Milan, Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, forces the emperor Theodosius to perform public penance for his massacre. | |
| 800 | The pope crowns Charlemagne emperor in Rome. | |
| 1066 | William I is crowned king of England. | |
| 1621 | The governor of New Plymouth prevents newcomers from playing cards. | |
| 1651 | The General Court of Boston levies a five shilling fine on anyone caught “observing any such day as Xmas.” | |
| 1776 | Patriot General George Washington crosses the Delaware River with 5,400 troops during the American Revolution. Washington hoped to surprise a Hessian force celebrating Xmas at their winter quarters in Trenton, New Jersey. | |
| 1861 | Stonewall Jackson spends Xmas with his wife; their last together. | |
| 1862 | John Hunt Morgan and his raiders clash with Union forces near Bear Wallow, Kentucky. | |
| 1862 | Lincoln and Mrs. Lincoln visit hospitals in the Washington D.C. area on this Xmas Day. | |
| 1912 | Italy lands troops in Albania to protect its interests during a revolt there. | |
| 1914 | German and British troops on the Western Front declare an unofficial truce to celebrate Xmas during World War I. | |
| 1918 | A revolt erupts in Berlin. | |
| 1925 | U.S. troops in Nicaragua disarm insurgents in support of the Diaz regime. | |
| 1927 | The Mexican congress opens land to foreign investors, reversing the 1917 ban enacted to preserve the domestic economy. | |
| 1939 | Finnish troops enter Soviet territory. | |
| 1941 | Free French troops occupy the French Islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon off the Canadian coast. | |
| 1944 | Prime Minister Winston Churchill goes to Athens to seek an end to the Greek civil war. | |
| 1946 | Chiang Kai-shek offers a new Chinese constitution in Nanking pledging universal suffrage. | |
| 1950 | Scottish nationalists steal the Stone of Scone from the British coronation throne in Westminster Abbey. The 485 pound stone was recovered in April 1951. | |
| 1962 | The Bay of Pigs captives, upon their return to the United States, vow to return to Cuba and topple Fidel Castro. | |
| 1965 | Entertainer Chris Noel gives her first performance for the USO at two hospitals in California; became a star on Armed Forces Radio and Television, entertaining troops in Vietnam; in 1984 Veterans Network honored her with a Distinguished Vietnam Veteran award. | |
| 1973 | U.S. astronauts onboard the Skylab space station take a seven-hour walk in space and photograph the comet Kohoutek. | |
| 1976 | Over 100 Muslims, returning from a pilgrimage to Mecca, die when their boat sinks. | |
| 1979 | Egypt begins major restoration of the Sphinx. | |
| 1991 | Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s first and last executive president, resigns. The Soviet Union no longer exists. | |
| 2006 | James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul”, dies at age 73. |
Heidi Klum is 43, and her boyfriend, art dealer Vito
Schnabel, is 30, but according to her that 13 year age difference
doesn’t make her a cougar. In a new interview with Ocean Drive
magazine, she says, “It’s not about age. We have an amazing connection,
we have fun together, and we love each other. It doesn’t matter what
people say. As long as you know when you close your door in your own
home, you have an amazing time together. That’s really all that
matters.” The supermodel and lingerie designer also explains her fondness for
going topless at the beach. “I grew up going to nude beaches with my
parents, so I’m a nudist. I have no problems with nudity at all. I’m
very free. When I go to the beach, it’s in a very remote place where
there are not a lot of people, and I like to go topless.”
Claghorn had an unshakable obsession with the South, and would proudly voice his disdain for the North in humorous ways. For instance, the Senator refused to ever wear a "Union suit" or drive through the Lincoln Tunnel when he visited New York City, and he claimed to drink only out of Dixie cups. The Senator even rebuked Allen for saying the word "no" in his presence, saying "N-O.. That's North abbreviated!!"Delmar, as Claghorn, starred in the 1947 movie It's a Joke, Son! which featured the above clip. The entire movie is available at YouTube. Later in his career, Delmar found that Warner Brothers had copyrighted Foghorn Leghorn, and he had to get their permission to perform as his Claghorn character.
Traditionally played on Xmas Eve, players of Snapdragon must find themselves a broad, shallow bowl, and then prepare to risk their health. Into this bowl should be poured two dozen raisins. If raisins are hard to come by, almonds, grapes or plums will suffice. You should then pour a bottle of brandy into the bowl so that the raisins bob up and down like drowning flies. Place the bowl on a sturdy table, turn the lights down low, and then, with appropriate panache, ignite the brandy.That's only one game. Other Victorian parlor games involved falling over obstacles, drinking, punishments, and ghost stories. Read about them at Atlas Obscura.
To play Snapdragon, arrange your family and friends around the blazing bowl so that their faces are lit in a demonic fashion and then, one by one, take turns plunging your hands into the flames in order to try and grab a raisin. If you can accomplish this, promptly extinguish the flaming raisin by popping it into your mouth and eating it.
As one contemporary commenter wrote, the game “provided a considerable amount of laughter and merriment at the expense of the unsuccessful competitors.”
Xmas
poppers, figgy pudding and mince pies? They're some of the most common
Xmas traditions across the pond, but those words make almost no
sense to practically any American. Fortunately for those hoping to get a
better idea of what the Brits are doing for Xmas, Mental Floss has
collected a whole list of traditions in England that make no sense to
those living elsewhere. If you watch Doctor Who or other BBC shows with a Xmas special, it's a great way to understand what the heck they're up to.
Here's
a recipe so easy the kids can do it -and they need something to do
during Xmas break. Xmas Grinch Popcorn would also be perfect
to much on whirl watching How the Grinch Stole Xmas. The popcorn is
coated with green candy, and decorated with M&Ms, hearts (three
sizes too small, of course) and red Grinch eyes. Get the recipe and instructions at Kitchen Fun with My Three Sons.
In the last five years SantaCon
NYC has gone from being a fun Christmas-themed costume party in the
streets to a full blown night of drunken debauchery and mayhem that
would make Krampus proud.
When
she was born, keepers knew little about the animal's pregnancy so she
was born weeks earlier than expected. She was abandoned by her mom at
birth, so keepers learned a lot about gorillas as they had to raise her
by hand. Between giving birth to three babies and teaching keepers about
gorillas' lifespan, she has helped gorilla conservation efforts
considerably.If you want to see Colo in person, you can visit her
at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Ohio and if you want to learn more
about her, you can read about her at Yahoo.
| 1638 | The Ottomans under Murad IV recapture Baghdad from Safavid Persia. | |
| 1812 | Joel Barlow, aged 58, American poet and lawyer, dies from exposure near Vilna, Poland, during Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. Barlow was on a diplomatic mission to the emperor for President Madison. | |
| 1814 | A treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, ending the War of 1812, is signed at Ghent, Belgium. The news does not reach the United States until two weeks later (after the decisive American victory at New Orleans). | |
| 1861 | The USS Gem of the Sea destroys the British blockade runner Prince of Wales off the coast at Georgetown, S.C. | |
| 1862 | A Christmas present arrives a day early for the Federal troops at Columbus, Kentucky, in the way of artillery on board the USS New Era. | |
| 1914 | Over 577,000 Allied soldiers are to spend Christmas as prisoners in Germany. | |
| 1917 | The Kaiser warns Russia that he will use “iron fist” and “shining sword” if peace is spurned. | |
| 1943 | General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed the Allied Supreme Commander, even though almost everyone believed the position would go to American Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. | |
| 1947 | An estimated 20,000 communists, led by guerrilla General Markos Vafthiades proclaim the Free Greek Government in northern Greece. They issue a call to arms to establish the regime throughout the nation. | |
| 1956 | African Americans defy a city law in Tallahassee, Florida, and occupy front bus seats. | |
| 1963 | New York’s Idlewild Airport is renamed JFK Airport in honor of the murdered President Kennedy. | |
| 1964 | The U.S. headquarters in Saigon is hit by a bomb killing two officers. | |
| 1966 | A Soviet research vehicle soft-lands on the moon. | |
| 1967 | The Greek Junta frees ex-Premier Papandreou. | |
| 1968 | The first pictures of an Earth-rise over the moon are seen as the crew of Apollo 8 orbits the moon. | |
| 1970 | Nine GIs are killed and nine are wounded by friendly fire in Vietnam. | |
| 1972 | Hanoi bars all peace talks with the United States until U.S. air raids over North Vietnam stop. | |
| 1974 | An oil tanker’s spill pollutes 1,600 square miles of Japan’s Inland Sea. | |
| 1974 | Cyclone Tracy devastates Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, destroying more than 70 percent of the city’s buildings, including 80 percent of its houses. | |
| 2005 | Chad declares a state of war against Sudan in the wake of the Dec. 18 attack on the town of Adre, in which approximately 100 people were killed. |