Today let's go to Bonita Springs, Florida. Lois (from the STCC) has a cousin who lives there.

The photos are: 1) a view of New Pass from the Gulf of Mexico, 2) a view of the sunset from Little Hickory Island, 3) the entrance to Little Hickory Island, and 4) a sign that proclaims Bonita as the "Gateway to the Gulf."

Bonita Springs is a city in Lee County, Florida, United States. The population was 32,797 at the 2000 census. According to the July 1, 2007 U.S Census estimates, the city had a population of 42,268.

The city is located on both Estero Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. The area referred to as Bonita Beach is located on a road-accessible barrier island (Little Hickory Island) that lies between the Gulf of Mexico and Estero Bay. The Imperial River flows through the downtown district of the city and empties into Estero Bay.
The city is the northernmost city on the west coast of Florida that has a tropical climate, having a mean January temperature of 65 °F (18 °C).[4] (Fort Myers Beach directly to the north has a January mean of 64 °F (18 °C) which gives it a subtropical climate.

Points of interest
Bonita Beach Park - a 2.5-acre (10,000 m2) beachfront park that features a boardwalk and swimming area. Sand dunes and coastal vegetation surround a gazebo and 8 picnic shelters. (Website)
Barefoot Beach Preserve Park - is 342 acres (1.38 km2) of natural land and one of the last undeveloped barrier islands on Florida's southwest coast. It is located on the border of Collier and Lee Counties and accessible by Bonita Beach Road. (Web Site).
Little Hickory Island Beach Park
There are also 10 beach accesses with public parking located up and down Bonita Beach.
Bonita Springs is located west of Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, a significant Bald Cypress reserve under management of the National Audubon Society.
The northern border of Bonita Springs is shared with Lover's Key State Park, a 1,616-acre (6.54 km2) park made up of four barrier islands. The park features nature trails for hiking and bicycling, a canoe launch, kayak and canoe rentals, acres of unspoiled mangroves and miles of pristine beaches. A haven for wildlife, the islands and their waters are home to West Indian Manatees, bottlenose dolphins, roseate spoonbills, marsh rabbits and bald eagles.
The Everglades Wonder Gardens features a large collection of Florida wildlife including exotic birds, panthers, alligators, flamingos and bears. The facility, originally opened in 1936 as both a wildlife exhibition and a refuge for injured animals, also boasts a botanical garden and a natural history museum.
The Naples-Fort Myers Greyhound Track is located in Bonita Springs.

Today's Jumble (8/30/08):

RAPAK = PARKA; ZYZUF = FUZZY; RUSTYD = STURDY; MOCNOM = COMMON

CIRCLED LETTERS = ARFZURDON

When the mayor cut the budget he held a ---

"FUND RAZOR"

Today is National Marshmallow Toasting Day and National Holistic Pet Day (a day to promote natural and holistic treatments for your pets).

Other things on this day in history:

1363 - Beginning date of the Battle of Lake Poyang; the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders— Chen Youliang and Zhu Yuanzhang—are pitted against each other in what was one of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.
1574 - Guru Ram Das became the Fourth Sikh Guru/Master.
1590 - Tokugawa Ieyasu enters Edo Castle. (Traditional Japanese date: August 1, 1590)
1791 - The HMS Pandora sank after running aground on a reef the previous day.
1799 - Capture of the entire Dutch fleet by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell during the Second Coalition of the French Revolutionary Wars.
1800 - Gabriel Prosser leads a slave rebellion in Richmond, Virginia
1813 - Battle of Kulm: French forces defeated by Austrian-Prussian-Russian alliance.
1813 - Creek War: Creek Red Sticks carried out the Fort Mims Massacre.
1835 - Melbourne, Australia is founded.
1836 - The city of Houston is founded by Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen
1862 - American Civil War: Battle of Richmond: Confederates under Edmund Kirby Smith rout a Union army under General Horatio Wright.
1862 - American Civil War: Union forces are defeated in Second Battle of Bull Run.
1873 - Austrian explorers Julius von Payer and Karl Weyprecht discover the archipelago of Franz Joseph Land in the Arctic Sea.
1897 - The town of Ambiky is captured by France from Menabe in Madagascar.
1896 - Eight provinces in the Philippines were declared under martial law by the Spanish Governor General Ramon Blanco. This included the provinces of Batangas, Rizal, Cavite, Nueva Ecija as well as the nearby areas.
1909 - Burgess Shale fossils discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott.
1914 - Battle of Tannenberg.
1918 - Fanya Kaplan, an assassin, shoots and seriously injures Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin. This, along with the assassination of Bolshevik senior official Moisei Uritsky days earlier, prompts the decree for Red Terror.
1922 - Battle of Dumlupinar, final battle in Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922) ("Turkish War of Independence").
1941 - World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins.
1942 - World War II: Battle of Alam Halfa begins.
1945 - Hong Kong is liberated from Japan by British Armed Forces.
1945 - Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General Douglas MacArthur lands at Atsugi Air Force Base.
1956 - Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opens.
1962 - Japan conducts a test of the NAMC YS-11, its first aircraft since the war and its only successful commercial aircraft from before or after the war.
1963 - Hotline between U.S. and Soviet leaders goes into operation.
1967 - Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
1974 - A Belgrade-Dortmund express train derails at the main train station in Zagreb killing 153 passengers.
1974 - Powerful bomb explodes at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries headquarters in Marunouchi, Tokyo, Japan. 8 killed, 378 injured. Eight left-wing activists are arrested on May 19, 1975 by Japanese authorities.
1984 - STS-41-D: The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.
1990 - Tatarstan declares independence from the RSFSR.
1999 - East Timorese vote for independence in a referendum.

Barry (from the STCC) is from Massachusetts. I don't know where but let's visit someplace in the Bay State. How about Worcester?

The photos are: 1) the Worcester Plaza, 2) Elm Park, 3) the Dodge Park Gazebo, and 3) the Bancroft tower (built as a memorial in 1900).

Worcester (pronounced /ˈwʊstər/) is a city in the state of Massachusetts in the United States of America. A 2006 estimate put the population at 175,898, making it the estimated second-largest city[1] in New England, after Boston. It is also the second-largest city in Massachusetts, and the county seat of Worcester County. The city marks the western periphery of the Boston-Worcester-Manchester (MA-RI-NH) U.S. Census Combined Statistical Area (CSA). Located in Central Massachusetts, Worcester is known as the "Heart of the Commonwealth."

The Pakachoag tribe of the Nipmuc nation of Native Americans were the indigenous settlers of Quinsigamond, now known as Worcester. For the Pakachoag, Worcester's Lake Quinsigamond offered fine hunting and fishing grounds a short distance from their main village near a spring on Pakachoag Hill in what is now Auburn. Mt. Wachusett was their sacred place.
Worcester was first settled by the English in 1673, but the modest settlement of six or seven houses was burned to the ground during King Philip's War on December 2, 1675, and the English settlers were either killed or driven off. The town was subsequently resettled and was incorporated in 1684. On September 10 of that year, Daniel Gookin and others petitioned to have the town's name officially changed from "Quinsigamond" to "Worcester". However, its inhabitants were still vulnerable to attack, and some such as Samuel Lenorson Jr. were taken hostage by natives during the 1690s; and when Queen Anne's War started in 1702, the town was again abandoned by all its English inhabitants except for Diggory Sargent, who was later tomahawked, as was his wife who was too weak to make the journey on foot to Canada; their children were taken to Canada and survived.
In 1713 Worcester was re-settled for the third time, permanently, by Jonas Rice, whose farm was located atop Union Hill. Named after the historic city of Worcester, UK, Worcester [= War + cester camp] was incorporated as a town in 1722 and chartered as a city in 1848. When the government of Worcester County was established on April 2, 1731, Worcester was chosen as its shire town (later known as a county seat). From that date until the dissolution of the county government on July 1, 1998, it was the only county seat.
As political tensions rose in the months before the American Revolution, Worcester served as a center of revolutionary activity. Because it was an important munitions depot, Worcester was targeted for attack by Loyalist general Thomas Gage. However, officers sent secretly to inspect the munitions depot were discovered by Patriot Timothy Bigelow. General Gage then decided to move on to the second munitions depot, in Lexington. In 1775 determining that Boston was too dangerous, Isaiah Thomas moved his newspaper, the Massachusetts Spy, to Worcester. The Massachusetts Spy was one of the few papers published continuously during the Revolution. On July 14, 1776, Isaiah Thomas, intercepting the packet from Philadelphia to Boston, performed the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence ever in front of Worcester City Hall. In 1812, Thomas founded the American Antiquarian Society, a research library holding nearly two thirds of the items known to have been printed in America from 1639, through 1820. The Society's holdings from 1821 to 1876 compare favorably with those of the Library of Congress and other major research libraries.
In 1778, a scandal unfolded in Worcester: 32-year-old Bathsheba Spooner arranged the murder of her husband by three Revolutionary soldiers. The first woman executed in the new American republic, Spooner was hanged by a community that was fearful of civil disorder. Trapped in an abusive marriage, she declared on the scaffold that she "justly died; that she hoped to see her Christian friends she left behind her, in Heaven, but that none of them might go there in the ignominious manner that she did." Her father, Timothy Ruggles of Hardwick, arranged her unhappy marriage, and continues to be honored as a Revolutionary War hero.
Known for innovation in commerce, industry, education, and social thought, Worcester and the nearby Blackstone Valley claim their historic role as the birthplace of the American Industrial Revolution. Ichabod Washburn, an early industrialist, developed a process for extruding steel wire. His company, Washburn & Moen, founded in 1831, was "the company that 'barbed-wire fenced the American West,' and held the battle lines during the First World War. In 1840, Loring Coes invented the monkey wrench. In the 1850s, George Crompton and LJ & FB Knowles founded companies that manufactured the textile looms that fueled the Industrial Revolution. Another Worcester innovator, physician Russel Howes, invented the first envelope folding machine in 1856. His machine could produce 25,000 envelopes in ten hours, using three operators.
Women found economic opportunity in Worcester. An early female entrepreneur, Esther Howland designed and manufactured the first American valentine cards in 1847. Women also found opportunity in The Royal Worcester Corset Factory, a company that provided employment opportunity for 1200 women; it was the largest employer of women in the United States in 1908.
An innovative form of affordable housing appeared in the 19th century: the three-decker. Hundreds of these houses were built, affording spacious, comfortable apartments for a homeowner and two tenants. Many extended families settled in these houses, developing strong, safe, and stable neighborhoods for the city's factory workers.
Several entrepreneurs brought growth to Worcester's economy during this period. John Jeppson, a skilled potter, emigrated from Hoganas, Sweden to Worcester in search of a better life. In Worcester he founded Norton Company, now Saint-Gobain, the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of performance engineered abrasives for technical manufacturing and commercial applications as well as general household and automotive refinishing. Jeppson created economic opportunity for the thousands of his countrymen who followed him to Worcester and for others, as well.
Another innovator was George Fuller, an inventor and philanthropist, who developed a heat-treating process crucial to developing steel strong enough to be used in train couplings and the first automobile crankshafts. His company, Wyman-Gordon, has been a leading manufacturer of machine parts.
Charles Palmer, another innovator, received the first patent (1891) for a lunch wagon, or diner. He built his "fancy night cafes" and "night lunch wagons" in the Worcester area until 1901. After building a lunch wagon for himself in 1888, Thomas Buckley decided to manufacture lunch wagons in Worcester. Buckley was very successful and became known for his "White House Cafe" wagons. In 1906 Philip Duprey and Irving Stoddard established the Worcester Lunch Car Company, which shipped 'diners' all over the Eastern Seaboard.
They were joined in early automobile manufacture by American Wheelock, which built compressed air-powered trucks at Worcester in 1904.
Many Irish immigrants settled in Worcester during this period, as well. They helped build the railroad and the Blackstone Canal, further driving Worcester's economic engine.
On September 21, 1938, the city was hit by the brutal New England Hurricane of 1938. Fifteen years later, Worcester was hit by a tornado that killed 94 people. The deadliest tornado in New England history, it damaged a large part of the city and surrounding towns. It struck Assumption Preparatory School, now the site of Quinsigamond Community College.
In December 1999, the Worcester Cold Storage Fire received national attention. Two homeless people, deemed mentally disabled, accidentally knocked over a lit candle in an abandoned cold storage warehouse, igniting a conflagration. Six firefighters lost their lives in an attempt to rescue the homeless people. Less than two years before the attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001, this fire was one of the worst firefighting tragedies of the late 20th-century. President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and other local and national dignitaries attended services and a memorial program.

Today's Jumble (8/29/08):

NESOO = NOOSE; SPEHE = SHEEP; TRIEHD = DITHER; TUVIRE = VIRTUE

CIRCLED LETTERS = NSSEIHEIR

What the sarge said to the sleeping recruit.

"RISE (AND) SHINE"

Today in history - Beatles last public concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, 1966. Chop Suey invented, 1896, First Scout Camp Opened 1934, The Fugitive TV Series - final episode aired August 29, 1967. Goodyear Tire Company founded, 1898.

It is "More Herbs, Less Salt Day" so our herbalists will have a great time today. And Speedy Gonzales birthday was on this day in 1953.

Other things on this day in history:

708 - Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
1189 - Ban Kulin wrote The Charter of Kulin, which became a symbolic "birth certificate" of Bosnian statehood.
1350 - Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats a Castilian fleet of 40 ships.
1475 - The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
1498 - Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Portugal.
1521 - The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.
1526 - Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
1541 - The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
1655 - Warsaw falls without resistance to a small force under the command of Charles X Gustav of Sweden during The Deluge.
1756 - Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War.
1786 - Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
1825 - Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.
1831 - Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
1833 - The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire.
1842 - Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
1861 - American Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
1862 - Second Battle of Bull Run
1869 - The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first rack railway.
1871 - Emperor Meiji orders the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (Traditional Japanese date: July 14, 1871).
1882 - Is the date attributed to the death of English Cricket and the origin of the legend of The Ashes. This is the date according to the mock obituary in The Sporting Times.
1885 - Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first motorcycle.
1895 - The formation of the Northern Rugby Union at the George Hotel, Huddersfield, England.
1898 - The Goodyear tire company is founded.
1907 - The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
1910 - Japan changes Korea's name to Chōsen and appoints a governor-general to rule its new colony.
1911 - Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
1915 - US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, first U.S. submarine sunk in accident.
1918 - Bapaume taken by Australian Corps and Canadian Corps in the Hundred Days Offensive
1922 - Turkish forces set fire to Smyrna, in Asia Minor.
1930 - The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
1943 - German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy;Germany dissolves Danish government.
1944 - Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
1949 - Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
1958 - United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
1966 - The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
1970 - Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including journalist Ruben Salazar.
1982 - The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, Germany.
1991 - Supreme Soviet suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
1995 - NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces.
1996 - Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
1997 - At least 98 villagers are killed by the GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
2003 - Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
2005 - Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $115 billion in damage.
2007 - A United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident takes place at Minot Air Force Base and Barksdale Air Force Base.

Let's go and visit Middletown, Ohio. Buckeye (aptly named and from the STCC) lives, there.

The photos are: 1) the Broad Street Bash, 2) Donham Plaza, 3) Central Avenue, and 4) a balloon festival that is held in or near Middletown.

Middletown is an All-American City located in Butler and Warren counties in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Formerly in Lemon, Turtlecreek, and Franklin townships, Middletown was incorporated by the Ohio General Assembly on February 11, 1833, and became a city in 1886. The city was the home of AK Steel Holding Corporation (formerly Armco), a major steel works founded in 1900 until it moved to West Chester Township, Ohio in 2007, and Rogers Ltd., Inc. (a.k.a. Rogers Jewelers). Middletown contains a small municipal airport known as Hook Field, (airport code MWO), but is no longer served by commercial airliners, only for general aviation. A regional campus of Miami University is located in Middletown.
The population of Middletown as of the 2000 census was 51,605, as Middletown continues to focus on an outward growth from annexation rather than from interior redevelopment. Its name is believed to have come from its founder, Stephen Vail, but questions remain unanswered as to why. One local historian stated that the town received its name because Mr. Vail, had come from Middletown, New Jersey. Another writer believed that the town was named Middletown because it was the midway point of navigation on the Great Miami River, which was then considered a navigable stream. Vail centered the town in Fractional Section 28 of Town 2, Range 4 North. The Towne Mall, located near I-75, is the main shopping center of the city.

From the mills at AK Steel, to the city's biggest employer and one of the nation's top 100 hospitals, Atrium Medical Center, Middletown is home to a wide variety of business and industry.
Most new commercial development is centered around the campus of the newly built Atrium Medical Center, located just east of Interstate 75. Atrium Medical Center replaces the former Middletown Regional Hospital. There has been much dissent in the community on the moving of the hospital from its former site to its new site three miles away. However, the new hospital offers a much larger emergency room, private rooms, and newer and better technology and equipment. In addition, the City Council has been focusing on renewing the business prospects of downtown Middletown.
Middletown City School District provides educational opportunities for the majority of the community, while Franklin and Lebanon City School Districts oversee some outlying parts of the city. Other schools/districts located in the area include Bishop Fenwick High School, Middletown Christian, Madison Local, Lakota Local, Summit Academy, Middletown Fitness & Preparatory Academy, Life Skills Center of Butler County, Butler Technology and Career Development Schools, and Miami University-Middletown, a Miami University regional campus.
The Ohio Challenge Hot Air Balloon Festival, Middfest, All-American Weekend, Greek Festival, Fenwick Festival, and numerous outdoor concerts are just some of the many community events held annually in Middletown.
The Aeronautical Corporation of America, later to be called Aeronca, located to Middletown in 1940 from Cincinnati. The company designed and built thousands of aircraft, notably the Champ, Chief and Super Chief. Today, the company is an operating division of Magellan Aerospace.
Every two years, Middletown hosts the National Aeronca Association convention and fly-in where aircraft owners, pilots, enthusiasts and former employees of Aeronca gather at Hook Field Municipal Airport for a weekend of flying and camaraderie.
The Middletown Journal is a daily paper printed by Cox Publishing covering area, state, national, and world events.
Telephone service is provided through Middletown and Franklin exchanges. The area codes in use are 513 and 937. Another exchange has also been assigned to Middletown but will not be put into use until the 513 exchange runs out of numbers.
The Middletown area is also divided amongst two zip codes, 45042 and 45044. The dividing line for these two zip codes is generally Central Avenue.
Middletown is home to two radio stations, WPFB (AM), broadcasting on 910 kHz, and WPFB (FM) (The Rebel), broadcasting on 105.9 MHz. The broadcast tower is located not too far from Central Academy. It can be seen from much of the city.
Throughout history Middletown has been home to several main transportation routes including the Great Miami River, Miami and Erie Canal, Cincinnati and Lake Erie Railroad, Middletown and Cincinnati Railroad, and now Interstate 75, which is currently being widened to four lanes at the Middletown exit, Exit 32. In addition, the interchange for the northbound lanes is set to be redone from its current ribbon-like design to the more common, side ramps.
Blue Ball, Engle's Corner, Amanda, Lemon Township Morrell's Station, and Excello, Ohio have all been annexed by Middletown. More land was annexed by Middletown when the new Bishop Fenwick High School was built out in Hunter, however, this land was given to Middletown and did not have to be annexed in the traditional sense.
AK Steel's The Hot Strip Mill includes the first building design that ever needed to take into account the circumference of the earth.
Middletown was once home to a professional baseball team.
Middletown High School has more Division I State Basketball Championships (7) than any other school in the state.
The Middletown City School District has eight elementary schools, Amanda Elementary, Central Academy, Creekview Elementary, Highview Elementary, Mayfield Elementary, Miller Ridge Elementary, Rosa Parks Elementary, and Wildwood Elementary. The school district also has two middle schools, Stephen Vail Middle School and George M. Verity Middle School.

Today's Jumble (8/28/08):

POREA = OPERA; NAJOB = BANJO; BRATIL = TRIBAL; WABUSY = SUBWAY

CIRCLED LETTERS = EABARBLSW

When the players began fighting, the game turned into a - - -

"BASE BRAWL"

Today is Race Your Mouse Day!!! It is also Dream Day in honor of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" in 1963. Finally, I found that it is National Cherry Turnover Day. Now it's off to the races. Ready, Set, Go!!!!!!

Other things on this day in history:

475 - Fall of the Roman Empire: The Roman general Orestes forces western Roman Emperor Julius Nepos to flee his capital city, Ravenna.
489 - Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths defeats Odoacer at the Battle of Isonzo, forcing his way into Italy.
1189 - Third Crusade: The Crusaders begin the Siege of Acre under Guy of Lusignan
1349 - 6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz, accused to be the cause of the plague.
1511 - Portuguese conquer Malacca.
1521 - The Ottoman Turks occupy Belgrade.
1542 - Turkish-Portuguese War (1538-1557) - Battle of Wofla: The Portuguese are scattered, their leader Christovão da Gama captured and afterwards executed.
1565 - St. Augustine, Florida, established. It is the oldest surviving European settlement in the United States.
1609 - Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay.
1619 - Ferdinand II is elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
1640 - Second Bishop's War: King Charles I's English army loses to a Scottish Covenanter force at the Battle of Newburn
1777 - American Revolutionary War - Battle of Cooch's Bridge takes place near Newark, Delaware.
1789 - William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn.
1830 - The Tom Thumb presages the first railway service in the United States.
1845 - Scientific American magazine publishes its first issue.
1849 - After a month-long siege, Venice, which had declared itself independent, surrenders to Austria.
1859 - A geomagnetic storm causes the Aurora Borealis to shine so brightly that it is seen clearly over parts of USA, Europe, and even as far afield as Japan.
1862 - American Civil War - Second Battle of Bull Run, also known as the battle of Second Manassas.
1867 - The United States takes possession of the at this point unoccupied Midway Island.
1879 - Cetshwayo, last king of the Zulus, is captured by the British.
1898 - Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola".
1907 - UPS is founded by James E. Casey in Seattle, Washington.
1913 - Queen Wilhelmina opens the Peace Palace in The Hague.
1914 - World War I - The Royal Navy beats the German fleet in the Battle of Heligoland Bight.
1914 - World War I - German troops conquer Namur.
1916 - World War I - Germany declares war on Romania.
1916 - World War I - Italy declares war on Germany.
1917 - Ten suffragists are arrested when picketing the White House.
1924 - Georgian opposition stages the August Uprising against the Soviet Union.
1931 - France and Soviet Union sign a treaty of non-aggression.
1937 - Toyota Motors becomes an independent company.
1943 - World War II - In Denmark, a general strike against the Nazi occupation is started.
1944 - World War II - Marseille and Toulon are liberated.
1953 - Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first television show, including its first TV advertisement.
1961 - Motown releases what would be its first number one hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes.
1963 - March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his famous I have a dream speech.
1964 - The Philadelphia race riot begins.
1968 - Riots in Chicago, Illinois, during the Democratic National Convention.
1971 - The dollar is allowed to float against the yen for the first time.
1979 - An IRA bomb explodes on the Grand Place in Brussels.
1981 - The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of Pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men. Soon, these will be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS.
1982 - The first Gay Games are held in San Francisco.
1986 - US Navy officer Jerry A. Whitworth is sentenced to 365 years imprisonment for espionage for the Soviet Union.
1988 - Ramstein airshow disaster: Three aircraft of the Frecce Tricolori demonstration team collide and fall into the crowd. 75 are killed, 346 seriously injured.
1990 - Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province.
1990 - The Plainfield Tornado: An F5 tornado hits in Plainfield, Illinois, and Joliet, Illinois, killing 28 people.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union - Ukraine declares its independence from the Soviet Union.
1991 - Collapse of the Soviet Union - Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party.
1996 - Britons Charles, Prince of Wales, and Diana, Princess of Wales, are divorced.
1998 - Pakistan's National Assembly passes a constitutional amendment to make the "Qur'an and Sunnah" the "supreme law" but the bill is defeated in the Senate.

Let's visit Newport News, Virginia. I've never been there but it was suggested by someone on the STCC.

The photos are: 1) the Mariner's Museum, 2) Huntington Park Beach along the James River, 3) the City Center at Oyster Point, and 4) Christopher Newport University.

Newport News is an independent city in Virginia. It is at the south-western end of the Virginia Peninsula, on the north shore of the James River extending south from Skiffe's Creek along many miles of waterfront to the river's mouth at Newport News Point on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
The area known as Newport News was part of Warwick County, one of the eight original shires of Virginia formed by the House of Burgesses in the British Colony of Virginia by order of King Charles I in 1634. The county was largely composed of farms and undeveloped land until almost 250 years later. In 1881, 15 years of explosive development began under the leadership of Collis P. Huntington, who built a new railroad and terminal, coal piers, and a large shipyard in the southeastern portion closest to the harbor.
In 1896, the new unincorporated town of Newport News, which had briefly replaced Denbigh as the county seat of Warwick County, became an independent city, separating from the county. In 1900, 19,635 people lived in Newport News, Virginia; in 1910, 20,205; in 1920, 35,596; and in 1940, 37,067. However, in 1958, by mutual consent, Newport News consolidated with the former Warwick County (itself a separate city from 1952 to 1958), rejoining the two localities to approximately their pre-1896 geographic size, forming what was then Virginia's third largest independent city in population. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 180,150. A more recent 2006 estimate indicates the city's population has declined to 178,281, ranking it as Virginia's fifth largest incorporated city by population.
With many residents employed at the expansive Northrop Grumman Newport News Shipbuilding, the U.S. Army base at Fort Eustis, and other area bases and suppliers, the city's economy is very connected to the military. The location on the harbor and along the James River facilitates a large boating industry which can take advantage of its many miles of waterfront. Newport News also serves as a junction between the rails and the sea with the Newport News Marine Terminals located at the East End of the City.

By 1634, the English colony of Virginia consisted of a total population of approximately 5,000 inhabitants and was redivided into eight shires of Virginia, which were renamed as counties shortly thereafter. The area of Newport News became part Warwick River Shire, which became Warwick County in 1637. By 1810, the county seat was at Denbigh. For a short time in the mid-19th century, the county seat was moved to Newport News.
Newport News was merely an area of farm lands and a fishing village until the coming of the railroad and the subsequent establishment of the great shipyard. Following a huge growth spurt of railroad and shipyard development, the new "City of Newport News" was formally organized and became independent of Warwick County in 1896 by an act of the Virginia General Assembly. It was one of only a few cities in Virginia to be newly established without earlier incorporation as a town. (Virginia has had an independent city political subdivision since 1871). Walter A. Post served as the city's first mayor.

The area which formed the present-day southern end of Newport News had long been established as an unincorporated town. However, during the period after the American Civil War, the new City of Newport News was essentially founded by Collis P. Huntington. Huntington, who was one of the builders of the country's first transcontinental railroad, was recruited by former Confederate General Williams Carter Wickham to become a major investor and guiding light, and helped complete the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway to the Ohio River in 1873.
With the new railroad complete, Huntington was aware of the potential to ship eastbound coal from West Virginia's untapped natural resources. His agents began acquiring land in Warwick County in 1865, and in the 1880s, he oversaw extension of the C&O's new Peninsula Subdivision, which extended from the Church Hill Tunnel in Richmond southeast down the peninsula through Williamsburg to Newport News, where the company developed coal piers on the harbor of Hampton Roads.
His next project was to develop Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company, which became the world's largest shipyard. Opened as Chesapeake Dry Dock & Construction Company, the Shipbuilding was originally meant to build boats to transition goods from the rails to the seas. With President Theodore Roosevelt's declaration to create a Great White Fleet, the company would enter the warship business by building seven of the first sixteen warships. Today, shipbuilding holds a dominant position in the American warship construction business. In addition to Collis, other members of the Huntington family also played major roles in Newport News. From 1912–1914, his nephew, Henry E. Huntington, assumed leadership of the shipyard. Huntington Park, developed after World War I near the northern terminus of the James River Bridge, is named for him.
Collis Huntington's son, Archer Milton Huntington and his wife, sculptor Anna Hyatt Huntington, developed the Mariners' Museum beginning in 1932, creating a natural park and the community's Lake Maury in the process. A major feature of Newport News, the Mariners' Museum has grown to become one of the largest and finest maritime museums in the world.
Independent city status guarantees protection against annexation of territory by adjacent communities. After years of resisting annexation efforts by Newport News, in 1952, Warwick County was successful in petitioning the Virginia General Assembly to become the independent City of Warwick. In 1958, the citizenry of the cities of Warwick and Newport News voted by referendum to consolidate the two cities, choosing to assume the better-known name of Newport News, and forming the third largest city population-wise in Virginia with a 65 square miles (168 km2) area. The boundaries of the City of Newport News today are essentially the boundaries of the original Warwick River Shire and those of Warwick County for most of its existence, with the exception of minor border adjustments with neighbors.
The city's original downtown area, located on the James River waterfront, changed rapidly from a few farms to a new city in the last quarter of the 19th century as part of the development of the railroad terminal with its coal piers and other harbor-related facilities and the shipyard. Although fashionable housing and businesses developed there as well, gradually these moved outward to the west and north following a national trend suburban development during the 20th century. Despite some efforts at large-scale revitalization, by the beginning of the 21st century, the downtown area largely consisted of the coal export facilities, the shipyard, and municipal offices, bordered by some harbor-related smaller businesses and lower income housing.
Newport News grew in population from the 1960s through the 1990s. The city began to explore New Urbanism as a way to develop areas midtown. City Center at Oyster Point was developed out of a small portion of the Oyster Point Business Park and opened in phases from 2003 through 2005. The city invested $82 million of public funding in the project. Closely following Oyster Point, Port Warwick opened as an urban residential community in the new midtown business district. 1500 people now reside in the Port Warwick area which also includes a three acre city square where festivals and events take place.

Today's Jumble (8/27/08):

FARIE = AFIRE; TYDIT = DITTY; SULUFE = USEFUL; ARPITE = PIRATE

CIRCLED LETTERS = IRDTEFLPI

What the scout experienced when he hiked through the woods.

"(A) FIELD TRIP"

Today is Just Because Day. Finally, a day to do something without a reason. It is Lyndon Baines Johnson Day in Texas. Gracie Allen said goodnight and passed away on this day in 1964 as did Stevie Ray Vaughn in 1990.

Other things on this day in history:

479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan commander of the Greek army in the Battle of Plataea. Along the with the Greek victory on the same day in the Battle of Mycale, the Persian invasion of Greece ended.
410 - Visigothic sack of Rome ends after three days.
663 - Remnants of the Korean Baekje Kingdom and their Yamato Japanese allies engage the combined naval forces of the Tang Chinese and Silla Koreans on the Geum River in Korea; the outcome is a significant Tang-Silla victory, while the Japanese would not attempt another invasion of Korea until the Japanese invasions of Korea of the late 16th century.
1232 - The Formulary of Adjudications is promulgated by Regent Hōjō Yasutoki. (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 1232)
1689 - The Treaty of Nerchinsk is signed by Russia and the Qing empire.
1776 - Battle of Long Island, in present day Brooklyn, New York, British forces under General William Howe defeat Americans under General George Washington.
1789 - The French National Assembly adopts the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming that "men are born and remain free and equal in rights."
1793 - French counter-revolution, port of Toulon revolts and admits the British fleet, which lands troops and seizes the port leading to Siege of Toulon.
1798 - United Irishmen and French forces clash with the British army in the Battle of Castlebar, part of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.
1813 - French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte defeats a larger force of Austrians, Russians and Prussians at the Battle of Dresden.
1828 - The Russians defeat the Turks at the Battle of Akhalzic.
1828 - Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks brokered by Britain between Brazil and Argentina during their war.
1859 - Petroleum discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania. World's first successful oil well.
1861 - Union (Northern) forces attack Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.
1896 - Anglo-Zanzibar War: the shortest war in world history (09:00 to 09:45) between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar.
1916 - Romania declares war against Austria-Hungary, entering World War I as one of the Allied nations. It is soon occupied by German and Bulgarian forces.
1921 - The British install the son of Sharif Hussein bin Ali (leader of the Arab Revolt of 1916 against the Ottoman Empire) as King Faisal I of Iraq.
1928 - Kellogg-Briand Pact, outlawing war, was signed by fifteen nations. Ultimately sixty-one nations signed it.
1939 - First flight of the Heinkel He 178, the first modern jet aircraft.
1943 - Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific Theater of Operations during World War II.
1952 - Reparation negotiations between West Germany and Israel end in Luxembourg; West Germany to pay 3 billion Deutschmark.
1957 - The Constitution of Malaysia came into force.
1962 - Mariner 2 unmanned space mission launched to Venus by America's NASA.
1969 - Israeli commando force penetrates deep into Egyptian territory to stage mortar attack on regional Egyptian Army headquarters in the Nile Valley of Upper Egypt.
1971 - A coup attempt fails in the African nation of Chad. The Chadian government accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks off diplomatic relations.
1975 - The Governor of Portuguese Timor abandons its capital, Dili, and flees to Atauro Island, leaving control to a rebel group.
1979 - An IRA bomb kills British World War II admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten and 3 others while boating on holiday in Sligo, Republic of Ireland. Another bomb near Warrenpoint, Northern Ireland kills 18 British soldiers.
1982 Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altikat is shot and killed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital. Justice Commandos Against Armenian Genocide claim responsibility, saying they were avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
1985 - The Nigerian government is peacefully overthrown by Army Chief of Staff Major General Ibrahim Babangida.
1991 - The European Community recognizes the independence of the Baltic states: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
1991 - Moldova declares independence from the USSR.
1993 - The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed.
2000 - Ostankino Tower in Moscow catches fire, three people are killed.
2003 - Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, passing approximately 34,646,416 miles (55,758,006 kilometers) from Earth.
2006 - Comair Flight 5191 crashed en route from Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Kentucky, to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia. Forty-nine of the 50 people aboard the flight were confirmed dead in the hours following the crash