Happy Birthday, purrsia!!

On This Day: Sunday October 29, 2006

This is the 302nd day of the year, with 63 days remaining in 2006.

Fact of the Day: Appetizers and Hors d'Oeuvres

An appetizer (from Latin appetitiare "to cause to want food") is any savory foodstuff taken to create an appetite for the main meal. (The aperitif is the drink equivalent of this.) The term hors d'oeuvre means "outside the (main) work" because these appetizers are outside the principal task of preparing the meal. Hors d'oeuvres are described by the Larousse gastronomique as the first dish to be served at a meal and are, literally, "additional to the menu"; however, they can also be served in between the courses of a meal to whet the appetite or clear the palate. All appetizers and hors d'oeuvres are supposed to be light and delicate, stimulating the appetite for the heavier dishes to follow. There are two main types: hot and cold. The word antipastic means "pertaining to appetizers or hors d'oeuvres or the eating of them." The plural of hors d'oeuvre can be hors d'oeuvres or hors d'oeuvre.

Holidays

• Turkey: Republic Day/National Day.
• Feast day of the Martyrs of Douay, St.. Theuderius or Chef, St. Colman of Kilmacduagh, and St. Narcissus of Jerusalem.

Events

• 1682 - William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, landed at what is now Chester, Pennsylvania.
• 1787 - Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" was first performed, in Prague.
• 1863 - International Red Cross was founded by Swiss philanthropist Henri Dunant.
• 1901 - President William McKinley's assassin, Leon Czolgosz, was electrocuted.
• 1923 - Republic of Turkey was proclaimed. Mustafa Kemal, later known as Kemal Ataturk, was the first president.
• 1940 - Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson drew the first number in America's first peacetime military draft.
• 1956 - The Suez Canal Crisis began when, in response to Egypt's nationalization of the canal and barring of Israeli shipping, Israel launched an attack on Egypt and its Arab allies.
• 1964 - The union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar was announced and the country became Tanzania.
• 1964 - Thieves stole jewels, including the Star of India and DeLong ruby, from the Museum of Natural History in New York. The jewels were later recovered and the thieves caught.
• 1966 - National Organization for Women was founded.
• 1969 - The Internet was created when the first connection was made between computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute. That connection, ARPANET, was the precursor to the Internet developed by the Department of Defense.
• 1994 - Francisco Martin Duran fired more than two dozen shots at the White House. He was later convicted of trying to assassinate President Bill Clinton and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
• 1998 - U.S. Senator John Glenn, age 77, went to space aboard the shuttle Discovery, 36 years after his last flight as an astronaut.
• 1998 - South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission condemned apartheid and violence committed by the African National Congress.
• 2004 - Osama bin Laden, in a videotaped statement, directly admitted for the first time that he'd ordered the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S.
• 2004 - European Union leaders signed the EU's first constitution.

Births

• 1740 - James Boswell, Scottish biographer (notably of Samuel Johnson) and diarist.
• 1891 - Fanny Brice (Borach), American actress and comedienne.
• 1947 - Richard Dreyfuss, Oscar-winning American actor.
• 1974 -purrsia, web-mistress extraordinaire and one really...really mad cat...and, of course I say that in the most affectionate way possible ^.^

Deaths

• 1618 - Sir Walter Raleigh, English adventurer, writer, and favorite courtier of Queen Elizabeth I, beheaded for conspiracy against King James I.
• 1911 - Joseph Pulitzer, American newspaper editor and publisher.
• 1957 - Louis Burt Mayer, American film producer generally cited as the creator of the star system within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years.
• 1987 - Woodrow Charles "Woody" Herman, American jazz clarinetist, alto and soprano saxophonist, singer, and big band leader.