Joan Detz Speaker Services

1734     Birthday of Daniel Boone (near Reading, PA).  [A bit of trivia:  Did you know that Daniel Boone used a tuliptree to build his 60-foot canoe?  If you’ve never seen a liriodendron tulipifera, I encourage you to visit an arboretum to see one … it will bring history to life.  Tuliptrees had special meaning to the early pioneers because they indicated the location of the best farming soils.  I have a massive tuliptree on my property here in southeastern PA and can understand why Daniel Boone chose this majestic tree to build his canoe:  a tuliptree rises ramrod-straight … without any branches to mar its trunk for about 2/3 of its height.]

1783     George Washington said farewell to his victorious army

1860    Abraham Lincoln was elected President

1879     Birthday of Leon Trotsky 

1879     Birthday of Will Rogers (”I do not belong to any organized political party.  I am a Democrat.”)

1917      The beginning of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia

1936     President Franklin D. Roosevelt beat Kansas Governor Alfred Landon … winning in all but two of the states.

1948    Harry Truman stunned the experts by winning the US presidency over Thomas Dewey

1952    The US conducted a test explosion of a hydrogen bomb in the Pacific … ushering in a new era of military power

1956    Russian troops took control of Hungary

1964    Lyndon B. Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater

1967    President Johnson signed the act of Congress establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

1972     President Nixon was re-elected

Here’s a way to get recognition for your work:  Enter the National Association of Government Communicator’s 2010 Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Awards Competition.

This annual international awards program recognizes superior government communication products and those who produce them. Deadlines: Dec. 4, 2009 (early submission deadline) and Jan. 8, 2010 (final submission deadline). 

To learn more:  www.nagconline.org

1785     George Washington received a gift of two donkeys from the King of Spain. 

1825     The Erie Canal opened … providing a water route that connected the Hudson River with Lake Erie.

1886     The Statue of Liberty was dedicated in New York Harbor  (Note:  October 28 is Immigrants Day.  From humorist Will Rogers comes this quip:  “My forefathers didn’t come over on the ‘Mayflower’, but they met the boat.”)

1922     Construction began on the Holland Tunnel (connecting New Jersey with New York City under the Hudson River).

1955     The US Air Force officially declared flying saucers to be unsubstantiated by fact.

1958     US planes began daily jet service across the Atlantic Ocean.

1969     Ralph Nader created a pro-consumer organization, Nader’s Raiders … with ramifications for the auto industry. 

1767     The Mason and Dixon Line survey was completed (between the Maryland and Pennsylvania colonies). 

1803     The Louisiana Purchase

1867     Transfer of Alaska from Russia to the US

1870     First use of the postcard in the US 

1892     First recitation of the pledge of allegiance (at the dedication of the World’s Fair Grounds in Chicago)

1916      First ROTC units

1931      Opening of the George Washington Bridge (connecting New York City and New Jersey) … with NY Gov Franklin Roosevelt doing honors.  [Note:  The bridge had been completed under budget and ahead of schedule.]

1948     The phrase “cold war” entered the US vocabulary (when Bernard Baruch testified before a Senate committee about US/Soviet relations).

1969     US Dept of Health, Education and Welfare banned cyclamates as sweeteners.

1978     The Women’s Army Corp was disbanded as a separate branch of US armed forces.

1979     The ailing Shah of Iran (exiled from his nation) flew to New York for medical treatment.

1983     2000 Marines and Army Rangers invaded Grenada (taking control of the island after the previous week’s political coup)

1988     The Veterans Administration was established as the 14th Cabinet department … with President Ronald Reagan signing.

Dictionary Day (based on the October 16, 1758 birthday of Noah Webster).  Apparently, Samuel Goldwyn was not too impressed by the lexicographer’s achievement:  “The dictionary is nothing but a lot of words.”  Of course, the same could be said about training manuals or corporate mission statements or safety guidelines:  “nothing but a lot of words.”  As a speechwriter, ask yourself:  “How can I make those words meaningful to my audiences?”

National Boss Day.  I’ll let you figure out how to work this into your presentations.  But in today’s economy, perhaps you’d be wise to consider this thought:  ”Before you have an argument with the boss, take a very good look at both sides … his side, and the outside.”

Tomorrow, October 15th, marks World Poetry Day. 

The oldest poetry society in the United States is the Poetry Society of America … perhaps best known for persuading the Pulitzer committee to include a poetry category.  You can link to the home page of their web site at www.poetrysociety.org.

The executive director is Alice Quinn, who was poetry editor of the New Yorker for 20 years.   It’s a fabulous organization that provides a large number of public programs (usually readings) all across the country.

When it comes to military history and political history, geography plays a starring role.  Here’s what’s happened during this week in history (from October 11 through October 17):

732      Battle of Tours

1066    Battle of Hastings

1492    Columbus arrived in America

1644    Birthday of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania (Penn’s Woods)  [A personal note here:  If you have never read Penn’s book, “Some Fruits of Solitude,” consider getting a copy.  His section on “Rules of Conversation” is priceless.]

1754     Birthday of Milly Pitcher (who carried water to artillerymen at the Battle of Monmouth)

1775     Birthday of the U.S. Navy

1854    Abraham Lincoln gave his first major political address in Peoria.  [Food for thought:  “How does it play in Peoria?”]

1890    Founding of the D.A. R. (Daughters of the American Revolution)

1890    Birthday of Dwight D. Eisenhower

1908    Birthday of John Kenneth Galbraith:  “Politics is not the art of the possible.  It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”

1917     Birthday of Lions International … crossing geographical borders with civic contributions

1960    Premier of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, spoke at the United Nations - summing his various opinions by banging his shoe on the desk.  [And, yes, I’m old enough to say:  I saw it on TV when it happened.  What an image!]

On this date in 1956, President Eisenhower spoke in Pittsburgh, PA.  This quote remains as good today:

“The history of free men is never really written by chance but by choice.”

Before I offer my weekly list, let me point out:  October 10 is “Committee/Conference Day.”  In honor of the day, I’d like to share this observation from Sir Thomas George (English civil servant, born 1907):  “A committee is a cul-de-sac down which ideas are lured and then quietly strangled.”

I’d like to make a modest proposal:  If US businesses reduced their committee time this week by just 5%, they’d see a jump in productivity … and they’d have much happier employees.  (Can you imagine how we’d all benefit if committee time got reduced by 10%?)

And, now, let’s move on to this week’s theme:  “Transportation & Construction”.

1846    Birthday of George Westinghouse, inventor of the railroad air brake.

1863    First Turkish bath was opened in the US (in Brooklyn, NY).

1871     The Great Fire began in Chicago.

1888    The Washington Monument was opened to the public.

1910     St. Patrick’s Cathedral was dedicated in New York City.

1913     The Panama Canal opened.

1913     Henry Ford introduced the “moving assembly line” at his Michigan plant.

1931     The first non-stop flight across the Pacific Ocean took over 41 hours.

1936    Hoover Dam switched on its first power generator.

1971     The famed “London Bridge” was reassembled in Arizona as a tourist attraction.