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Challenger I was in high school, in class in the South Attic, with our desks in a circle. I think it was an English class, but it could have been something related. The launch had gotten a lot of publicity because of Christa McAuliffe, first teacher in space, and a lot of schools all over the country were tuned in. They'd been watching the launch in the library on the second floor, and our music teacher came up and told us what had happened. I said "Oh my god!" about half a second ahead of our teacher saying the same words. 9/11 Our boss was out on the east coast for a veterinary conference and to visit family, and she was due to fly back later that day, so I was solo vet at work that day. I almost always had NPR playing on the radio in the morning, and then in my car on the way in to the hospital. Based on the timeline I'm reading, the first plane hit at 7:46am my time, and since I start work at 8:30am, I was probably at home getting ready for work when they announced it. I don't think anyone realized at that point that it was anything more than a horrible accident. The second plane hit 8:03am, not sure if I was in the car yet or not when they announced it. Word of the plane that hit the Pentagon would have been within ten minutes after my usual start time at work. We didn't have a very good TV at work, just a little TV/VCR combo we kept for kids to watch videos on while their parents and pets were in an exam room. There was no cable, only antenna, so the picture was lousy, but we had it tuned in as best we could by the time the first tower collapsed. I had a few appointments but watched in between them. A lot of people were worried that Chicago would be a target, especially the Sears Tower, so even businesses without any New York connections were shutting down; we're out in the suburbs, but some clients commute and others worked at branches whose main office was downtown. As the morning went on, a lot of people who'd been sent home from work or were supposed to be flying that day wound up calling to make last-minute appointments, and they made up for the ones who cancelled. They shut down all air traffic all over the country, and my boss had the good sense and foresight to get to the car rental counter before the rush, so she was able to drive back instead of flying; her return would only be delayed one day. We're near Pauwaukee Airport and see a lot of planes headed towards or out of O'Hare, so it was really noticeable to not see any contrails or hear any engines going by overhead. I have an aunt who lives in Manhattan, but I looked online, must have been MapQuest back then, and could see that she was pretty far from the Towers, and she didn't work near there either, so I wasn't really worried about her being directly affected. It was still good to hear from my mom once she finally got through that she was indeed okay. She was worried about some of the people she knew who were closer, though. I haven't seen the actual site of the Towers, but when I went to a vet conference in Las Vegas, the hotel casino New York-New York had a fence around one part that had been hung with T-shirts from all the police and fire companies who lost people in the collapses. It was quite touching. Sort of like seeing the Vietnam Memorial wall, sad but not from direct personal impact.

So, Liz just has to hang in another five years? C'mon, Bess, you can do it!! I've read that not only was the bakery not actually on Pudding Lane, but on a side-street off of it, the site is currently in the middle of Monument Street, Pudding Lane having been moved to make room for the street named for the monument to the fire. I love reading entries like this, because looking further into them is so fascinating! According to the Wikipedia article, McKinley was accompanied by not only "his usual Secret Service agent, George Foster," but also two other Secret Service agents added at the request of McKinley's personal secretary, who had tried three times to remove the event from the President's schedule for fear of assassination attempts. The man directly ahead of the assassin in line to meet the President was described as "swarthy" and was looked on with a great deal of suspicion by the Secret Service and police present. He shook the President's hand and move on without incident. The man in line after the assassin was a mix of African and Spanish ancestry (so probably also "swarthy"), and he tackled the assassin faster than any of the police or Secret Service agents, before he could get off a third shot. One of the new bits of technology being presented at the Expo was a primitive x-ray machine. Instead of using it, doctors trying to find and remove the bullet stuck their hands into the wound and fished around. Later Thomas Edison sent another x-ray machine, but it apparently arrived with a crucial part missing. Tesla would've gotten it working if he'd sent it! This one deserves to be quoted in full. "The best surgeon in the city, and the Exposition's medical director, Dr. Roswell Park, was in Niagara Falls, performing a delicate neck operation. When interrupted during the procedure on September 6 to be told he was needed in Buffalo, he responded that he could not leave, even for the President of the United States. He was then told who had been shot. Park, two weeks later, would save the life of a woman who suffered injuries almost identical to McKinley's." John Hay was McKinley's Secretary of State. He had also been Abraham Lincoln's private secretary and a good friend of James Garfield. If he hadn't died in 1905 he probably would have been connected with JFK somehow, too. I wonder how many people have searched for some encounter between him and old Joe Kennedy? Hey, it worked for Emperor Norton I! He was imitating the ancient Greeks and Romans, who thought that big, floppy, unwieldy dicks were hilarious and made fun of them. Note that Magellan had died in the Philippines, and the Victoria arrived under the command of Juan Sebastián Elcano. No joke or info, I just think this is really cool! Huh, I had no idea Othar Tryggvassen, Gentleman Adventurer was named after a real person! And Admiral Grace Hopper, one of the most important figures in the early days of computing, carefully preserved it in the logs for the day. Note that this use of the word "bug" did already exist, hence it being funny enough to find a real bug messing things up for her to make the joke in the first place. :-) The goal to beat is 72 years, 110 days. George VI died 6 February 1952, so our target is May 27, 2024. Born 21 Aprl 1926, she'll be 98 years, 1 month, 6 days old. That only requires going about a year beyond the average life expectancy for someone her age.