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

_______________________________ 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

_____________________________ 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

___________________________ 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