rosered32 | "Ich habe eine kleinen problemo mit desa religionas." He was from everywhere

Happy Halloween Everyone!

And here is your facts of the day!

This is the 304th day of the year, with 61 days remaining in 2006.

Fact of the Day: zoo

Humans have kept animals in captivity for at least 25,000 years. Possibly the first animals kept solely out of curiosity were pigeons in Iraq c. 4500 BC. The first animal collection was probably created by the ancient Egyptians over 4000 years ago and contained 100 elephants, 70 big cats, and thousands of other animals. The word zoo was first used in the late 19th century as a popular abbreviation for the zoological gardens in London. Modern zoos have three goals: education, conservation, and research.

Holidays

United States, Canada, United Kingdom: Halloween or All Hallows' Eve.
Feast day of St. Quentin or Quintinus, St. Bee or Bega, St. Wolfgang, and St. Foillan of Fosses.
Germany: Reformationsfest.
Taiwan: Chiang Kai-shek Day.
Nevada: Admission Day.
Holy Day of Martin Luther.
National UNICEF Day

Events

1517 - Martin Luther posted the "95 Theses" on the door of the Wittenberg Palace church in Germany, starting the Protestant Reformation.
1803 - Congress ratified the Louisiana Purchase, adding territory which will eventually become 13 states.
1902 - The first telegraph cable across the Pacific Ocean was completed.
1941 - USS Clemson Class destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed by a German submarine, the first U.S. warship sunk in World War II. Though some were saved, 96 crew members died.
1941 - Mount Rushmore National Memorial was completed after 14 years.
1950 - Earl Lloyd became the first black to play in the NBA when he took the floor for the Washington Capitols.
1952 - The U.S. exploded its first hydrogen bomb, at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1956 - U.S. Rear Admiral George J. Dufek became the first person to land an airplane at the South Pole.
1959 - Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine from Texas, announced in Moscow that he would never return to the United States.
1968 - President Lyndon Johnson ordered a halt to all U.S. bombing of North Vietnam.
1980 - Reza Pahlavi, oldest son of the late shah, proclaimed himself the successor to the Peacock Throne.
1992 - Vatican formally rehabilitated Galileo Galilei, who was forced by the Inquisition in 1633 to recant his assertion that the Earth orbits the Sun.
2001 - Microsoft and the U.S. Justice Department reached a tentative agreement to settle the historic antitrust case against the software giant.

Births

1795 - John Keats, English poet.
1860 - Juliette Low, American, founder of the Girl Scouts.
1887 - Chiang Kai-shek, first constitutional president of the Republic of China and army general.
1912 - Dale Evans (Frances Butts), American singer-songwriter, actress, wife of Roy Rogers.
1931 - Dan Rather, American TV journalist.
1936 - Michael Landon, American TV actor, producer and director.

Deaths

1926 - Harry Houdini (Erik Weisz), Hungarian-born American magician and escape artist.
1984 - Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, assassinated by Sikh members of her own security guard.
1993 - River Phoenix, American film actor.
1993 - Federico Fellini, Italian film maker.
1994 - John Pope-Hennessy, English art historian and museum curator.