The first transcontinental telegraph

On October 24, 1861 the first transcontinental telegraph message was sent from California to President Abraham Lincoln. 

And yet, greater things are still to be done. 

What great things do you need to do?

President Kennedy announced on October 22, 1962 an air and naval blockade of Cuba.

 was in fifth grade, not quite 11. My brother was a first grader. It was a time when I knew all the words the adults were saying, yet sensed I was missing something. 

It was a time when all the girls brought a pair of long pants to leave in their lockers. Some parts of the country, the schools practiced duck under the desk drills. 

My home town was a Nike Missile Tracking Station. We practiced evacuation drills instead.

All the moms who didn’t work had Ciivil defense stickers on their wind shields. They were to drive to their assigned school where children would fill the cars as they came out of the school.  

There were so many things I didn’t understand about the plan, like how we would ever get back with our parents who worked in the city. The one thing I knew no one would keep me from getting into the same car with my brother. 

All those feelings come back to me when I read Richard Wilbur’s poem, The Boy At the WIndow. The last lines speak of those days for me, 

‘For the child at the bright pane surrounded by

Such warmth, such light, such love, and so much fear.’

Light changes everything

AP Highlight in History: 

On Oct. 21, 1879, Thomas Edison invented a workable electric light at his laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J.

In each of the last 2 winters I’ve gone through a multiple day power outage. There is not much you can do when the sun goes down. 

Light changes everything... 

Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.” 

John 8:12 The Message

October 16 - Another great day in history...

History shows on October 16th wars have started and ended in dramatic ways, 

• Marie Antoinette lost her head
• John Brow raided Harper’s Ferry
• The Cubian Crises began
• The ‘hapless expansion team the New York Mets beat the powerhouse Baltimore Orioles 4 games to one to win the World Series
• Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho negotiated a cease fire in Vietnam
• Desmond Tuti won the Nobel Peace Prize
• Louis Farrakhan led the Million Man March
• David Trimble and John Hume won the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering the peace accord in Northern Ireland
• President George W. Bush sign the congressional resolution authorizing the war in Iraq

I’m listening to Casting Crowns sing Courageous. Fitting isn’t it on a day when men have stood in courage for things they believed would make the world a better place. 

Here is a link to the song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkM-gDcmJeM&feature=related

What will you stand for today? 

What a remarkable day in history! - October 14

What a remarkable day in history! - October 14 

1890 - Dwight Eisenhower was born. (His presidency was the last time I slept soundly with a Republican in the White House. Hey, I was 4.) 

1910 - John Wooden was born (basketball was never the same)

1944 - German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel committed suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler. 

1947 - Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier - The guy with ‘The Right Stuff’ and one of my all time favorite heros. 

1960 - Presidential candidate John Kennedy suggested the formation of a Peace Corp

1964 - Martin Luther King Jr wan the Nobel Prize for Peace

1968 - First live telecast from a manned space craft - Apollo 7

1979 - Wayne Gretzky scored his first 894 professional goals

1986 - Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for Peace

1991- Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi won the Nobel Prize for Peace

Tell me what do you plan to do today?