Bert T. Combs (August 13, 1911 – December 4, 1991) was an American jurist and politician from Kentucky. After being decorated for prosecuting Japanese war criminals before military tribunals during World War II, he returned to his law practice in Prestonsburg. In 1951 he was appointed by Governor Lawrence Wetherby to fill a vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, and was elected to a full term later that year. He was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office. Combs secured passage early in his term of a larger- than-needed three percent sales tax to pay a bonus to the state's military veterans, and used much of the surplus to improve the state's educational system and expand the state park and highway systems. He was appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, serving three years. In 1985 Combs' challenge to the state's education funding model led to a court ruling that declared Kentucky's entire public school system unconstitutional. In 1991 Combs was caught in a flash flood on the road, and died of hypothermia.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bert_T._Combs

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

554:

As a reward for over 60 years of service to the Byzantine Empire, Emperor Justinian I granted Liberius extensive estates in Italy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberius_(praetorian_prefect)

1624:

Cardinal Richelieu became the chief minister to King Louis XIII, and transformed France's feudal political structure into one with a powerful central government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_Richelieu

1868:

A major earthquake near Arica, Peru (now in Chile), caused an estimated 25,000 casualties, and the subsequent tsunami caused considerable damage as far away as Hawaii and New Zealand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1868_Arica_earthquake

1942:

Major General Eugene Reybold of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authorized the construction of facilities that would house the Manhattan Project. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project

1954:

The complete version of "Qaumi Taranah", the national anthem of Pakistan, was broadcast for the first time on Radio Pakistan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qaumi_Taranah

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

sinistromanual: Left-handed. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sinistromanual

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

We must try to advance the cause of humanity by developing in ourselves, as well as in others, a higher type of manhood and womanhood than the past has known. To aid in the evolution of a new conscience, to inject living streams of moral force into the dry veins of materialistic communities is our aim. We seek to come into touch with the ultimate power in things, the ultimate peace in things, which yet, in any literal sense, we know well that we cannot know. We seek to become morally certain — that is, certain for moral purposes — of what is beyond the reach of demonstration. But our moral optimism must include the darkest facts that pessimism can point to, include them and transcend them.   --Felix Adler https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Felix_Adler