As previously noted here, my workplace offers on its internal webpage a banner section with events occurring on the particular day in history. Today, February 20, offers three events worth discussing.
On this day in 1839, Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia. Would that some disputes could still be settled this way. "Don't Mess with Texas," indeed. Also, it's a good thing I work in Maryland and that the practice has been prohibited, as there was some discussion of a throw-down with a colleague over the validity and tastiness of our respective wives' Pecan Bar recipes. I was willing to admit that his wife's were good but quite different from my wife's and that I preferred my wife's to his.
On this day in 1933, President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone of the National Archives Building. He said, "This temple of our history will appropriately be one of the most beautiful buildings in America, an expression of the American soul." It's a very nice building and the contents are really good, too. After the establishment of the FDR Presidential Library, Hoover, who was enamored with the system established by Roosevelt, joined the presidential library system and serves as the oldest-served president to have a presidential library under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration.
On this day in 1962, astronaut John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth, flying aboard the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule. I am the Brave Astronaut after all. The man that made millions of little boys in the 60s want to be astronauts when they grew up. I have a colleague who works at the Air and Space Museum who has met him and reports that he is a really genuine guy. And no diapers were evident.
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