Internet (ARPANET) was used for the first time in 1969. Charley Kline of UCLA tried to send information from one computer to another. The system crashed, but the idea was viable.
Oct 292025
Oct 292025
John Glenn in 1998
John Glenn in 1998 traveled on the space shuttle Discovery. At 77 years old, he was the oldest person to travel in space at that time. The shuttle returned to earth on November 7, 1998. He had been one of the original seven astronauts and had orbited the earth in 1962. Children could learn more at: John Glenn.
Oct 292025
Daniel Decatur Emmett (born Mount Vernon, Ohio, 1815; died Mount Vernon, Ohio, June 28, 1904) wrote the words and music of Dixie. Idea: Children could play Dixie on tissue paper-covered combs.
Valerie Worth (born Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1933; died Clinton, New York, July 31, 1994) wrote poetry and fiction for children. Her books include Fox Hill and Small Poems.
Oct 302025
Halloween is tomorrow! Are the pumpkin seeds toasted? Are the costumes ready? Children could read The Night Before Halloween, written by Natasha Wing and illustrated by Cynthia Fisher. They might want to explore: http://www.nick.com/games/halloween-games/.
Children can answer this riddle: What do witches put on their hair? Check back tomorrow for the answer!
The answer to yesterday’s riddle: What do you call a skeleton who will not work? A lazy bones!
Oct 302025
National Candy Corn Day
National Candy Corn Day is today! George Renninger of the Wunderlee Candy Company invented the treat in the late 1800’s. Candy corn is made from corn syrup, sugar, confectioner’s wax, and food coloring. About twenty million pounds of candy corn are sold each year. Today the top two manufacturers of candy corn are Brach’s and Jelly Belly.
Oct 302025
Ball Point Pens
Ballpoint pen was patented in 1888 by John J. Loud of Weymouth, Massachusetts. He received patent number 392,046. A lawyer, inventor, and tanner, he developed the instrument so that he could write on his leather products. Fountain pens, then the most used type of pen, could not write on leather. Loud’s ballpoint pen, however, was not successful when used on paper. Laszlo Biro created a commercially successful ballpoint pen in 1943. Children can view Loud’s patent at: Ballpoint Pen Patent.
Oct 302025
Orson Welles presented a radio broadcast of H. G. Wells’s War of the Worlds in 1938. Many people had not tuned in at the beginning, so they believed there was a real Martian invasion. Children can listen to the radio broadcast (55 minutes) at: Youtube War of the Worlds.
Oct 302025
Bosphorus Bridge was opened in 1973. The bridge spans the Bosphorus Strait and connects Asia and Europe. Almost a mile long, the suspension bridge was the scene of a brief tennis match between Venus Williams and Ipeko, a Turkish tennis player.
Oct 302025
John Adams
John Adams (born Braintree, Massachusetts, 1735; died Quincy, Massachusetts, July 4, 1826) was the second president (1797-1801) of the United States. He was a direct descendant of a Mayflower voyager. Before the Revolutionary War, he helped establish the Sons of Liberty. He was Washington’s vice president, but he felt the position was useless. Children could visit a website at: John Adams.
Louise Borden (born Cincinnati, Ohio, 1949) has written at least 30 books for children. Her works include The Journey That Saved Curious George and Touching the Sky: The Flying Adventures of Wilbur and Orville Wright. Children can visit her website at: Louise Borden.
Bruce Hale (born Los Angeles, California, 1957) has written and illustrated over 25 books for children. His works include the Chet Gecko series and Snoring Beauty. Children can visit his website at: Bruce Hale.
Eric A. Kimmel (born Brooklyn, New York, 1946) has written more than 150 books for children. Trina Schart Hyman earned a 1990 Caldecott Honor Award for her illustrations in his book Herschel and the Hanukkah Goblins. He received Sydney Taylor Book Awards for The Chanukah Guest (1990) and Gershon’s Monster (2000). Children can visit his website at: Eric A. Kimmel.
Emily Price Post (born Baltimore, Maryland, 1872; died New York, New York, September 25, 1960) was a writer. She wrote several books on proper etiquette. For a time she wrote a syndicated column that appeared daily in about two hundred newspapers.
Henry Winkler (born New York, New York, 1945) is an actor, director, and author of eighteen books for children. He collaborates with Lin Oliver on the Hank Zipzer books. Children can visit the Zipzer site at: Hank Zipzer.
Oct 312025
Halloween
Halloween is celebrated by trick-or-treaters all over the country. Experts believe the holiday has both Christian and pagan origins. The day before All Saints Day, the event first occurred in Europe and then spread to the United States.
Children could read Scarry, Scarry Halloween by Jan Brett and then visit her website at: http://www.janbrett.com/index.html to find some Halloween activities.
One last Halloween riddle: What is a monster’s favorite play? Answer: Romeo and Ghouliet!
Answer to yesterday’s riddle: What do witches put on their hair? Answer: Scare spray!