Events on this day...  
            Leonid meteor shower, radiant in Leo
       1497 Bartolomeu Dias discovers Cape of Good Hope
       1820 Antarctica discovered by US Navy Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer.
       1903 Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty, gave US canal rights thru Panama
       1913 Lincoln Deachey performs the first airplane loop-the-loop
       1918 Latvia declares independence from Russia
       1928 Mickey Mouse debuts in New York in "Steamboat Willy"
       1936 Main span of the Golden Gate Bridge is joined.

  Happy Birthday to: 
       1789 Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, developed a method of photography
       1836 Sir W.S. Gilbert, playwright (of Gilbert & Sullivan fame)
       1899 Eugene Ormandy, conductor (Philadelphia Orchestra)
       1923 Alan Sheppard, first American into space (Freedom 7, Apollo 14)
       1928 Mickey Mouse, film star

  Todays Witticism: 
        And I thought *I* had problems!