Monthly Archives: December 2019

December 15, 1992

Posted on December 15, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 15, 1992, the CEO of the IBM company, John Akers,  announced it would eliminate 25 thousand employees in the coming year. When the employees panicked, he quickly responded and said he didn’t mean eliminate, he meant terminate. He … Continue reading →

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December 14, 1799

Posted on December 14, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 14, 1799 First American President George Washington died after a very, brief illness. What killed him? No one is sure. On December 13th he was healthy and on December 14th he was dead. He was seen by his … Continue reading →

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December 13, 1988

Posted on December 13, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 13, 1988, a bankruptcy judge in Columbia, South Carolina, ordered that the assets of the PTL (Praise The Lord) television ministry be sold to a Toronto real estate developer for $65 million. Turns out that Jim and Tammy … Continue reading →

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December 12, 1955

Posted on December 12, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 12, 1955, British engineer Christopher Cockerell patented the first hovercraft. It is not true that he named the first hovercraft “A Légpárnásom Tele Van Angolnákkal”.

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December 11, 1972

Posted on December 11, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 11, 1972 Astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 lunar mission became the last two people to walk on the Moon. Their footprints and the initials of Gene Cernan’s daughter are still there. Yes, the … Continue reading →

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December 10, 1932

Posted on December 10, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 10, 1932, Australia conceded defeat in the Great Emu War. The giant, six-foot tall flightless birds were damaging the crops of the farmers of the Campion district in Western Australia and the government sent the army in to … Continue reading →

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December 9, 1640

Posted on December 9, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 9, 1640, settler and local smart-ass, Hugh Bewitt, was banished from the Puritan Massachusetts Colony when he declared himself free of original sin. He claimed that all the sins he committed were copies of other people’s sins. The … Continue reading →

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December 8, 877

Posted on December 8, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 8, 877, Louis the Stammerer, the son of Charles the Bald, was crowned king of the West Frankish Kingdom. As is evident from their le sobriquet, the rulers and leaders of countries in the Dark Ages didn’t get … Continue reading →

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December 7, 1968

Posted on December 7, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 7, 1968, Richard Dodd of Winamac, Indiana returned an overdue book to the University of Cincinnati’s medical library. Nothing strange there. Oh, his great-grandfather had checked it out in 1823 when he was a medical student at the … Continue reading →

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December 6, 1877

Posted on December 6, 2019 by Joel Byers

On December 6, 1877, inventor Thomas Edison demonstrated the first gramophone for the public, with a recording of himself reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb. It was later shown that if you played it backwards, it said, “Won og ot … Continue reading →

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