August 21 History POETS Day

Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—August 21, 2015 Trust your Friday is proving to be a great one looking forward to a great weekend and as always I hope you enjoy Friday’s holidays and observances,  factoids of interest, music videos by Kenny Rogers and the Marvelettes, a relevant quote by Ann Landers, looking forward to enjoying some pecan tortes, blessed with a positive attitude and secure in the knowledge that if you want to find a gift for any memorable event like birthdays, weddings, or anniversaries, you know that the Alaskanpoet can provide you with a unique customized poem at a great price tailored to the event and the recipient. You need only contact me for details.
       1. POETS Day—honoring not our beloved poets who bring such joy and emotion but rather in the United Kingdom and Australia the acronym Piss Off Early Tomorrow Is Saturday—exactly the attitude one would not want to have in one’s work force.  

    2. National Senior Citizens’ Day—created by one our more illustrious senior citizens, President Ronald Reagan, in 1988 to honor the accomplishments of senior citizens and to respect them.                                          

       3. 1957 Number One Song—celebrating the number one song in 1957 on a long run of seven weeks in that position Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear by Elvis Presley.  Here is a link to the King performing the iconic Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVDdGXF6RYc

       4. National Pecan Torte Day—if a pecan lover and missed yesterday’s Chocolate Pecan Pie Day celebrate today by having not one but two pecan tortes today to catch up on your daily holiday observances.  

      5.Texas Hold’em Day—celebrating not an iconic poker game but rather the birthday on this day in 1938 of a very popular country music singer Kenny Rogers, who is still going strong. Here is a link to him performing one of his classics which is also a theme in a Geico commercial:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kn481KcjvMo

On this day in:                                           

       a. 1831 Nat Turner led a rebellion of slaves in Virginia that resulted in the deaths of 60 white men, women, and children and was suppressed in two days. Turner was captured in two months and hung; over two hundred blacks were killed by revenge seeking white militia and plantation owners.     

    b. 1888 the first successful adding machine was patented by William Seward Burroughs although the credit should go to the abacus that has be in use since 2700 B.C. in Mesopotamia.     

     c. 1957 the Soviet Union successfully tested the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile the R-7 Semyorka with a range of 5,500 miles and capable of carrying a three megaton warhead. No wonder during the late 50’s and early 60’s we had numerous B-52s aloft near the borders of the Soviet Union 24/7 ready to strike if we had received any indication that the Soviets were starting the 20 hour fueling process to be able to launch.

      d. 1961 Motown Records released what would become its first Number 1 Hit Please Mr. Postman  by the Marvelettes.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=425GpjTSlS4

       e. 1983 Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. was assassinated on his return to the Philippines upon stepping off his plane in Manila.

Reflections on becoming senior citizens and aging:   “At age 20, we worry about what others think of us. At age 40, we don’t care what they think of us. At age 60, we discover they haven’t been thinking of us at all.” Ann Landers (1918-2002) noted columnist Ridley addendum to Landers’ astute observation “At age 80, we discover that we cannot remember what they have been thinking of us.”

Please enjoy the 140 character poems on events of interest on my twitter account below (if you like them, retweet and join 162 growing followers and please follow me) and follow my blogs. Always good, incisive and entertaining poems on my blogs—click on the links below. Go to www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com for Ridley’s Believe It Or Not—This Day In History, poems to inspire, touch, emote, elate and enjoy and poems on breaking news items of importance. Go to Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times for comments on important and breaking news events that should be of interest. www.alaskanpoet.blogspot.com Ridley's Believe It Or Not  Rhymes On The Newsworthy Times                                                                                                                              © August 21, 2015, Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet

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