October 26th Celebrated History
1785
George Washington receives the first male donkey in the U.S. as a gift from King Charles III of Spain.
1825
Governor DeWitt Clinton of New York officially opens the Erie Canal. The canal took more than two years to dig. Connecting the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, the 425-mile stretch of man-made waterway carried products all along its path. Two years later the Erie Canal would be connected to the Wabash Canal creating the largest canal system in the United States.
1858
Hamilton Smith invents an improved washing machine that rotates and includes slots that carry dirt particles away from the clothes. The inventional also adds a heating element to circulate warm water through the vessel.
1917
The International Women’s Bowling Congress hosts its first meeting in St. Louis, MO.
1970
Garry Trudeau debuts his Doonesbury comic strip in 26 newspapers across the country.
1972
Inventor Edwin Land introduces the Polaroid SX 70 in a presentation at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami, FL. The camera is the first to easily produce instant images.
1977
Ali Maow Maalin is diagnosed with smallpox - the last known person in the world to be diagnosed with the disease. Smallpox is the only disease in history to be eradicated. Maalin dedicated the rest of his life to eradicating another disease - polio - a goal the world is close to achieving.
1984
Starring Arnold Swartzeneger and directed by James Cameron, The Terminator is released in the United States. The apocalyptic film where machines take over the world created a 5-film franchise.
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October 26th Celebrated Birthdays
C.W. Post - 1854
The American industrialist was a pioneering force behind the production of cereals and other prepared foods. In 1895, he produced his first cereal beverage called Postum. The warm beverage is still made today in a variety of flavors.
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller - 1874
Against her husband’s objections, the philanthropist joined with her friends Lilli P. Bliss and Mary Quinn Sullivan to establish the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Today the museum’s growing collection of almost 200,000 pieces include Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” “Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair” by Frida Kahlo, “Boy Leading a Horse” by Pablo Picasso, and “Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond” by Claude Monet.
Henrietta Hill Swope -1902
As an astronomer, Swope dedicated her career to studying variable stars. The Swope Telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile is named in her honor.
Mahalia Jackson - 1911
Considered the Queen of Gospel, Jackson rose to fame in the 1940s when she recorded the highest-selling gospel single of all time - “Move On Up a Little Higher.”
Edward W. Brooke - 1919
In 1967, Edward W. Brooke III became the first African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Blanch K. Bruce left office in 1881.
Lee Surkowskie - 1925
The Canadian outfielder played five seasons with the All American Girls Professional Baseball League.
Hillary Clinton - 1947
The 44th First Lady of the United States also served as a Senator from New York and the U.S. Secretary of State under the Obama administration.
Keith Urban - 1967
The award-winning singer-songwriter also served as a celebrity judge/coach on the singing competition shows The Voice and American Idol.
Seth MacFarlane - 1973
The animator, producer, and actor is best known for creating the animated television series Family Guy and co-creating American Dad.
I’ve found in my own family people either love or hate, hate, hate mincemeat.
My grandmother made mincemeat from real meat - my mother used jarred mincemeat which has no meat in it, the base is apples. I grew up eating the “jarred” variety w/o meat and I really love it.
Really divides our Thanksgiving table, LOL.
I detest that stuff. As a kid my parents forced me to eat it when my grand.ogher would cook it. And that was everytime we visited.
I used to like mincemeat pie. Haven’t had it in 50 years, probably.
Our family tradition was Nonesuch Mincemeat cookies, per the recipe on the back of either the jar, or the little box of “condensed” mincemeat. They are great, fruity, spice cookies. Better than raisin spice because if the assortment of fruit in the mincemeat. Made with shortening, so not exactly health food. But I still enjoy filling a cookie jar with them at Christmas. The recipe is no longer on the back of the jar, so I found it at the website.
If you’re going to make mincemeat with meat, go for it using either venison, buffalo, or wild boar meat. America has an overabundance of deer and wild boar, and buffalo are now being commercially harvested, with their meat appearing on grocery store shelves.
My mom always made Mincemeat pies for meals at either Thanksgiving or Christmas, or both.
With 8 kids she made the simple kind, with the Mincemeat filling from a jar - which does not contain meat, just everything else. She did, as do I, make her own pie crust from scratch. I usually make one or two Mincemeat pies around the Thanksgiving and/or Christmas.
As with my siblings when I was young, and still, and with my family now, some do not like the Mincemeat pies at all, while some, like me, really like them.
When I was very young, about three or four, a much older brother would always tell us that Mincemeat was made from chopped up little “minces”, which he would say were like mice. Somehow it never kept us from trying mom’s Mincemeat pies.
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