February 21, 2014

February 21: this day in history (from Wikipedia)

1804 – "The first self-propelling steam locomotive makes its outing at the Pen-y-Darren Ironworks in Wales." The last thing that was ever invented outside of the United States, or so it seems.
    
1848 - "Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto." I may be the first to say this, but it was a flawed book.  

1948 – "NASCAR is incorporated." That's why the locomotives had to go. You can't race 'em.

1952 – "The British government, under Winston Churchill, abolishes identity cards in the UK to 'set the people free.'" I didn't know anything about this. Too bad today's Tories apparently treat Churchill's grave as the loo.

1972 – "President Richard Nixon visits the People's Republic of China to normalize Sino-American relations." I don't think the U.S. has "normal relations" with any country anymore.

Notable Quotes (from BrainyQuote unless otherwise noted.)

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."   - Anais Nin (February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977)

"To save your world you asked this man to die; would this man, could he see you now, ask why?" - W.H. Auden (February 21, 1907 – September 29, 1973)

"My theory on housework is, if the item doesn't multiply, smell, catch fire, or block the refrigerator door, let it be. No one else cares. Why should you?" - Erma Bombeck (February 21, 1927 – April 22, 1996)

"You will become way less concerned with what other people think of you when you realize how seldom they do." - David Foster Wallace (February 21, 1962 – September 12, 2008)

Song of the Day

Bobby Charles (February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010) would have turned 76 today. He wrote (under his full name Robert Charles Guidry) and recorded as Bobby Charles the original version of this classic: