Ruby Laffoon (1869–1941) was an American politician and the 43rd
governor of Kentucky, from 1931 to 1935. At age 17, Laffoon moved to
Washington, D.C. to live with his uncle, U.S. Representative Polk
Laffoon. In 1931, he defeated Republican William B. Harrison by what was
then the largest margin of victory ever in a Kentucky gubernatorial
election. To make up for a revenue shortfall during the Great
Depression, Laffoon advocated the enactment of the state's first sales
tax. This issue dominated most of his term in office and split the state
Democratic Party and his own administration; the tax was defeated three
times before he forged a bipartisan alliance to get it passed in a
special legislative session in 1934. Term-limited by the state
constitution, Laffoon supported political boss Tom Rhea to succeed him
as governor, but Rhea was beaten by Lieutenant Governor Happy Chandler
in the primary. Laffoon appointed a record number of Kentucky colonels,
including Harland Sanders, who used the title "Colonel" when he opened
his chain of Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Laffoon>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1590:
On the third birthday of his granddaughter Virginia Dare, the
first English child born in the Americas, John White, governor of the
Roanoke Colony in present-day North Carolina, US, returned from England
only to find the settlement deserted.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roanoke_Colony>
1612:
The trials of the Pendle and Samlesbury witches, among the most
famous of England's witch trials, began at the assizes in Lancaster.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samlesbury_witches>
1868:
Astronomer Pierre Janssen discovered helium while analyzing the
chromosphere of the sun during a total solar eclipse in Guntur, India.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium>
1920:
The Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution
(authors Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony pictured) was
ratified, guaranteeing women's suffrage in America.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution>
1976:
North Korean soldiers killed two American soldiers in the Joint
Security Area of the Korean Demilitarized Zone, heightening tensions
over a 100-foot (30 m) poplar tree that blocked the line of sight
between a United Nations Command checkpoint and an observation post.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_murder_incident>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
Beowulf cluster:
(computing) A cluster of standard personal computers linked by a local
area network, usually on the order of 10 nodes.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Beowulf_cluster>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Life was a pleasure; he looked back at its moments, many of them
as shrouded in mist as the opposite bank of the Thames. Objectively,
many of them held only misery, fear, confusion; but afterward, and even
at the time, he had known an exhilaration stronger than the misery,
fear, or confusion. A fragment of belief came to him from another epoch:
Cogito ergo sum. For him that had not been true; his truth had been:
Sentio ergo sum. I feel, so I exist. He enjoyed this fearful, miserable,
confused life, and not only because it made more sense than nonlife. He
could never explain that to anyone.
--Brian Aldiss
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Aldiss>