February 18 - Painting a Planet on the River

 Pluto was discovered on this day in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, who was seeking a 'mysterious planet x' that they speculated should exist based on effects that Uranus and Neptune were showing.

Pluto lasted until 2006 and it's something they now give it the term 'plutoid'

What a tale of a planet.

A tale I used to like when I was a kid was by Mark Twain and it was on this day in 1885 that "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published.

Tho' I often get the 2 stories of his and Tom Sawyer's mixed up.

Mark Twain sure could paint a picture of the time.  And speaking of painting, it was on this day in 1564 that famous painter Michelangelo passed away.

February 17 - Five Chiefs

Could you lend me a Wilfrid... a fiver?

On the Canadian five dollar bill we have our first French speaking prime minister - Sir Wilfrid Laurier.

Sir Wilfrid died on this day in 1919.

He still holds the record for length of continuous time in office of Prime Minister from 1896 to 1911.

It was also on this day that Chief Geronimo had passed away in 1909.

February 16 - Mummy Stockings

 In 1923 on this day, Howard Carter opened King Tut's tomb...

...spooky.  I think I had originally said this was back in November of 1922... but just to get the dates right.  In November 1922 they found the steps to the entrance of a tomb, which turned out to eventually lead them to Tut's chamber on this day in 1923 they opened it up.

Mummies were often wrapped up in cloth , I wonder if it would have been better to use nylon.

Well, aside from the fact that Carothers didn't get to patent it until many centuries later.

This day in 1937 is when Carothers (working at DuPont at the time) patented the polymer.  He had 'invented' it on February 28, 1935 and was able to file for patent on this day... the patent wouldn't be awarded until September 1938.

February 15 - 10 Flag Codes

 Canada's telltale maple leaf was officially adopted on this day in 1965.

The official "National Flag Day of Canada" was declared in 1996.

Also on this day in 2001 in the journal "Nature" the human genome was officially first officially fully mapped and published.

Kind of a cool concept when you think about it, being able to go in and read allele by allele.  21 years later there's so much we can.

It's also on this day in 1971 that the Brits decided to start using 'decimalized' currency.  Meaning that currency was now based on 10s.  

Prior to this a pound was 20 shillings.  Each shilling was 12 pence.  Now a pound is just 100 p (instead of 240).

February 14 - Love is a bite on the neck

 Well today is an easy one.  February 14th is Valentine's Day.

Now, apparently the day comes about from some Saint Valentine of Rome who died on February 14th in 269AD.

It was on this day in 1931 that Bela Lugosi was seen as Dracula in the film.

Some say Dracula is a love story.

February 11 - Surely a Science Graph is Freedom

 It was on this day that Nelson Mandela was released from his prison after 27 years.

After visiting the Museum of Human Rights and seeing the Mandela you really gain new appreciation for the suffering he went through.  

Another person who brought a lot of smiles was Leslie Nielsen.  Canadian actor you may remember from The Naked Gun or Airplane... he was born today in 1926.

Sadly, he passed in 2010.

This day in 1650 Rene Descartes passed away.  

He was a very well known mathematician and philosopher (in those days you tended to be both) and came up with the idea of how to plot integers on a plane - what we now call a cartesian plane.

He also coined the phrase "Cogito ergo sum" - I think therefore I am.

Speaking of some math and science, it's International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

February 10 - Think about the falling beans

 Okay, so this one was a new thing for me.

I see that it's World Pulses Day.

Okay, so something about taking your pulse... something about hearts?

Nope, pulses are ... I guess another way of saying 'legume'.  So today is the world day to recognize the importance of types of crops.

Bleh, always hated lentils myself.

All them beans floating around, they need some rain to help them grow, but you may need an umbrella - good thing the US celebrates "National Umbrella Day".

Who was it that said you never 'own' an umbrella, merely borrow it from the universe for a period of time.

All the while under that umbrella thinking deep thoughts, and there's one computer who's probably thinking more - Deep Blue.

It was on this day Deep Blue (from IBM) played the world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1996.

This was their second match - Deep Blue had tried against Kasparov in 1989 and lost.  In 1996 however, of 6 games, Deep Blue actually won a game, caused them to draw twice, but Kasparov won 3.  But, Deep Blue won the first.