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An Internal Explosion?

While most people have reached the conclusion that the MAINE was sunk by the external explosion of a mine, there was also the possibility that the explosion of the magazines was triggered by an internal fire or explosion. Like all warships, the MAINE was loaded with explosives and flammable materials, including the shells and powder for her guns, the coal used to fuel her engines, and paint supplies. As a result, the explosion could have been caused by an internal accident or intentional internal sabotage. Immediately after the explosion, this explanation was favored both by the Spanish authorities in Havana, as the one for which they could not have been blamed, by other foreign naval experts, and by some American observers. This disagreement over the cause of the disaster was a primary reason for the extent of the official and unofficial investigations into the disaster.

Captain Charles Sigsbee

When the first investigation into the event was being conducted, there was evidence against the external blast of a mine which seemed to indicate that the explosion was internal. While most members of the MAINE's crew and other witnesses reported having heard two explosions, some did say that there was only one explosion. Before it had been determined that the magazine had exploded, one explosion could have indicated that all the damage had been caused by one large, powerful mine. Once it had been proven that the magazine had exploded, a single explosion would have indicated that the magazine explosion had not been triggered by the external blast of a mine but rather by a fire on board the ship or by an accident in the magazine itself.

The validity of these conclusions is based on the assumption that the witnesses were able to distinguish the explosions. If the magazine explosion was indeed sparked by the external detonation of a mine, the two blasts could have occurred in such quick succession that some witnesses thought that they saw or heard one long, drawn out explosion rather than two distict blasts. One hundred years later, lacking the audio or video evidence upon which we have come to rely in so many more recent cases, there is no way to determine the nature of the explosion(s).

The plating at frames 17, 18, and 19 protrude from the water above and to the right of the small boat.

In addition, two circumstances had been missing which many observers believed would have been noticed in the event of an external, underwater explosion. One was a splash or geyser of water which none of the witnesses reported having seen being thrown up beside the ship at the time of the explosion. Many felt that this would have been indicative of an external explosion of a mine. The other was dead fish, which no one reported having found floating in Havana harbor on the morning after the disaster. Assuming that there were fish living in the polluted water of the harbor, it seemed that if there had been an explosion in the water, quite a few fish would have been killed and then found the next day.

Spontaneous Combustion

An internal explosion could have been caused by a fire on board the ship. One possible source for such a fire was spontaneous combustion of the coal in the bunkers, some of which were located next to the magazines, separated only by a bulkhead. This was a frequent problem on board coal-fired warships during the late nineteenth century. When a ship like the MAINE was carrying soft, bituminous coal, and the temperature in the bunker reached a high level, the coal could spontaneously ignite. This could be particularly dangerous in the bunkers near magazines. If there were a fire in such a bunker, it could heat the magazine enough to ignite the powder and cause an explosion. This explanation has been favored by those who believed that the blast was internal, from the time of the disaster. More recently, this was the theory which Admiral Hyman Rickover presented in his book, How the Battleship MAINE Was Destroyed, in 1976.

Spontaneous combustion in coal bunkers was a problem which had affected several US Navy ships built since the Civil War, apparently making this a reasonable explanation for an internal fire which could have triggered the magazine explosion. However, unlike the MAINE, none of these ships was known to have been lost as a result of these fires. Two years earlier, there had been spontaneous combustion on board the cruiser CINCINNATI while she was based at Key West. The fire had started in a bunker next to a magazine, heating the magazine to the point where the wooden boxes containing shells burned, and the loaded shells became charred, but they did not explode. It was soon noticed that a bulkhead had become red hot, and the bunker and magazine were quickly flooded. The CINCINNATI carried old-fashioned but chemically stable brown powder which did not explode even when heated to this point. Although the MAINE was armed mostly with the same type of powder when she exploded in 1898, she was also carrying between 1500 lbs. and one ton of less stable black powder, used for saluting, in the Reserve magazine. Apparently, the CINCINNATI was not carrying any black powder at the time of her fire.

In addition, experience with the hazard of spontaneous combustion had made the Navy aware of the problem, causing officers and crew to periodically check coal bunkers. The MAINE and other Navy ships also carried a thermostatically controlled fire alarm system in the coal bunkers which was designed to trigger fire alarms if the temperature in the coal bunkers reached a certain level, indicating that spontaneous combustion had occurred. These alarms could have been disregarded, however, because they had been known to have been triggered when temperatures in the bunkers reached levels below that at which they were set.

In the months after the MAINE disaster, there were at least two cases of spontaneous combustion on board other Navy ships, the battleship OREGON and the armored cruiser BROOKLYN. In mid-March 1898, the OREGON had been ordered to leave San Francisco and travel around Cape Horn to reinforce the US Navy in Caribbean. Spontaneous combustion occurred one week later, while she was steaming off the coast of Peru during this voyage. Her crew noticed smoke and heat in the forward section of the ship, which were traced to a coal bunker. A damage control team was then able to dig into the bunker, expose the smoldering coal, and douse the fire.

There was a similar fire in a bunker next to a magazine on board the BROOKLYN on May 16, 1898 while she was en route from Charleston, South Carolina to Key West in the middle of the night. The fire was detected by the thermometers in the bunkers, which activated the alarm system, giving the crew enough time to remove ammunition from the adjacent magazine and spew steam into the bunker to extinguish the fire. Since the same alarm system had been fitted on board the MAINE, it would seem that it would have been effective if spontaneous combustion had occurred on board the battleship in Havana harbor. In addition to these standard Navy procedures which would have reduced the likelihood of a bunker fire, there were other arguments against such an occurrence that night on the MAINE. While there were coal bunkers next to the magazines which exploded, some of these bunkers were not full on the night of the blast, and had been recently cleaned and painted. Also, Commander Wainwright, executive officer of the MAINE, had a reputation for caution and thorough safety procedures. As a result, the crew members had instructions to check the coal bunkers at regular intervals and to feel the bulkheads of bunkers for any sign of unusual heat when in passageways besidethem. However, there was one bunker, A-16, which was full ofcoal and abutted the Reserve magazine. It could have been the site of spontaneous combustion because ventilation, though good enough to allow combustion to occur, was not sufficient to prevent heat from rising to the point at which the coal could have begun to smolder.

Magazine Explosion

Another possible cause of the blast was the explosion of a magazine beginning in the magazine itself. This was the cause of accidental explosions which heavily damaged or destroyed nine other battleships around the world between 1900 and the end of the Second World War. There was one significant difference between these other, later explosions and the explosion on board the Maine in Havana harbor. Most of the later accidents involved ships carrying early smokeless powders which were chemically unstable and prone to explode as a result of chemical deterioration. The Maine, however, still carried the old fashioned brown and black powders which, though smoky when used, were much more stable and safer on board ship than the early smokeless powders. This made such a magazine explosion less likely.

Other factors against the possibility of an internal magazine explosion on board the MAINE were the strict safety procedures ordered by the cautious Captain Sigsbee. Whenever the magazines were opened, lights were put out, cigarettes extinguished, and the galley was sealed off. Sigsbee had even gone so far as to devise an item which he had added to the regular safety procedures. Anyone who went into the magazines had to wear soft cloth "antistatic slippers" over their shoes, which were intended to prevent the generation of static electricity sparks by regular shoe soles scraping the deck.

Other Causes of an Internal Explosion

There were several other possible causes of an internal explosion. One of these would have been a fire in the other flammable materials carried on board, such as the large quantity of paint needed each time the ship was painted, stored in the paint locker on board the ship. There was also little chance of this, though, because no one could gain access to this material without Sigsbee's knowledge, the key to the paint locker having been kept in the cautious Captain's cabin. The use of flammable paint in the recently painted coal bunkers near bunker A-16 could also have been a cause for trouble. If the combustibles which had entered the air as the paint dried had entered A-16, this could have increased the likelihood of spontaneous combustion there.

Another possible cause could have been internal sabotage, if a visitor to the ship had managed to smuggle a bomb on board and leave it where it would ignite a magazine, a coal bunker, or the paint locker. This could have happened if the crew of the ship had not watched visitors closely enough and had allowed them access to sensitive areas of the ship. Commander Wainwright's strict safety procedures also meant that there was little chance of internal sabotage on board the ship in Havana harbor. Because the visit was a friendly one, the ship could not be kept sealed off and visitors had to be allowed on board. Sigsbee had ordered several tight security measures while in Havana, though. One of these was that all visitors to the ship had to be kept under close surveillance, greatly reducing the possibility that one of these visitors could have left a bomb on board without being noticed. Thus, while an internal explosion was possible, it seems unlikely given the arguments against the possible causes for such an event.

The Sampson Board's Court of Inquiry

This question of what destroyed the Maine was addressed by the two official inquiries conducted by the US Navy into the matter. The first US Navy Court of Inquiry to investigate the MAINE disaster, known as the Sampson Board and consisting of Captain William T. Sampson and three other officers, arrived atHavana on February 21, 1898. They listened to testimony from Captain Sigsbee, the officers and crew of the Maine, and other witnesses of the explosion. In addition, they also listened to the statements of divers who had been sent down to examine the wreck of the MAINE. These divers had a very difficult job, working around the jagged wreckage in the dirty, dark, almost opaque waters of the harbor.

After the Sampson Board completed its investigation and inquiries in 1898, it came to the conclusion that the MAINE had been destroyed by the explosion of the forward and reserve magazines of six-inch ammunition, both located in the forward part of the ship. The divers had reported that the port side of the ship where the forward reserve magazine for six-inch ammunition had been located was entirely gone. Apparently that magazine of secondary battery ammunition was a location of the explosion. Most of the testimony of the witnesses and the observations of the divers seemed to indicate that the explosion of these magazines had been triggered by an external blast. The majority of the witnesses testified that there had been two explosions, as would have been the case if the explosion of the magazines had been triggered by the blast of a mine outside the ship. Lt. John Blandin, officer of the deck at the time of the explosion, reported that he heard an explosion coming from the port side, forward. Another officer, Cadet Cluverius, was in his cabin writing a letter when the explosion occurred. He recalled hearing a report like the firing of a gun, followed by all the ship's lights going out, and then there was an "indescribable roar, a terrific crash, intense darkness ..."

Other witnesses on board other ships in the harbor alsoobserved two explosions. The American passenger steamer CITY OF WASHINGTON was moored aft of the MAINE. After 9:30 PM, two American tobacco dealers were sitting in deck chairs on her deck. One of them had just joked that they were well protected with the guns of the Maine commanding the city when he heard a sound like a cannon shot. He looked up and saw the bow of the MAINE rise up out of the water, apparently as a result of the force of the first blast beneath the forward end of the ship. Then he saw a huge, fiery explosion in the center of the ship, followed by thick black smoke and debris falling everywhere as they ran for cover. At the same time, the captain of their ship, Frank Stevens, heard a muffled blast which seemed to comefrom underwater, followed by a second explosion. When he saw what had happened, he ordered the ship's boats launched. Frederick Teasdale, captain of the British bark DEVA, was below deck on board his ship, berthed about one half mile south of the MAINE at a wharf in Regla, across the harbor from Havana. He felt his ship stagger, and he was afraid that she had been rammed by a steamer. This was apparently caused by a shock wave from the first blast, under water. He then ran on deck, in time to see the explosion of the Maine's magazines hurling debris and smoke across the harbor.

While inspecting the wreckage on the day after the disaster, several officers of the MAINE had noticed bottom plates, identifiable by their green anti-fouling paint, thrust up out of the water. Later, the divers had found the keel of the ship in an "inverted V" shape thrust upward to within eighteen inches of the harbor surface, more than thirty feet above its original position. They placed this bent section of the keel at about frame eighteen, near the bow, and it was interpreted as having been driven into the ship, and upwards, by a powerful outside force, such as the explosion of a mine, beneath the keel. Based on this evidence of an external explosion, the Sampson Board reached the conclusion that the MAINE had been destroyed by an external, submarine mine. If the mine had been a Spanish naval mine, it assumed that the mine was large, with a charge of several hundred pounds of high explosive guncotton which triggered the explosion of the magazines. With deliberations completed by the third week in March, their report was delivered to the Navy Department in Washington on March 25, 1898.

In addition, there were two pieces of information which the Sampson Board did not accept as evidence. One was that otherdivers had reported finding a hole in the ship's side with the edges bent inward, which seemed to indicate an external blast. The second was a hole in the harbor floor, filled with soft mud, opposite the hole in the ship's side, which some observers interpreted as having been caused by the same external blast. The Vreeland Board's Investigation

Twelve years later, in 1910, a second inquiry into the fate of the Maine was begun. At this time, many Americans wanted the remains of the men which had been left on board the Maine removed from the wreck and brought back to the United States for burial. Others wanted a second, more thorough investigation of the disaster. In addition, the Cubans wanted the wreck removed from Havana harbor, where it was a hazard to shipping. In response, Congress authorized the raising of the MAINE and appropriated funds for the project.

The job was given to the US Army Corps of Engineers, which constructed a water-tight elliptical cofferdam on the floor of Havana harbor around the wreck of the MAINE. After its completion in November, 1911, the water was pumped out from around the wreck inside the cofferdam. This left the wreck in the open air, where it was more easily and thoroughly examined by the new investigators, for the first time since it had sunk. A second board of inquiry, lead by Rear Admiral Charles E. Vreeland met on November 10. Their investigation was finished in several weeks and the report was sent to President Taft on December 14, 1911. The remains of the crewmen had been removed from the ship and taken back to the United States on board the armored cruiser NORTH CAROLINA for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. The wreck of the ship was then refloated, towed out to sea, and ceremonially scuttled on March 16, 1912.

When the Vreeland Board began their investigation in 1911, they were able to take a much better look at the wreck of Maine. They reached essentially the same conclusion as the Sampson board, differing only in detail They agreed that the magazine explosion had been triggered by an external blast, but that that the original charge was a low form of explosive, and that the original blast did not occur at frame eighteen as decided by the Sampson court. Instead, they placed the explosion further aft, between frames twenty-eight and thirty-three, where about 100 square feet of plating was dented in as much as two feet and torn irregularly, with the torn edges bent inward into the ship. According to the Vreeland Board, a large high explosive charge would have punched a clean hole in the side of the ship, rather than the large dent and ragged tear which they found. They decided that the bending of the keel into the "inverted V" shape had been caused by the explosion of the magazines.

Maine’s hulk was finally floated 2 February 1912 and towed out to sea where it was sunk in deep water in the Gulf of Mexico with appropriate ceremony and military honors 16 March.

Thus, the conclusion that the explosion which destroyed the ship was triggered by an external blast, as reached by both the Sampson and Vreeland inquiries, seems to be a valid one. Having reached that same conclusion, we still don't know what actually caused the blast. Was the MAINE destroyed by a Spanish mine, as so many believed in 1898, by sabotage, or by some kind of "infernal machine" ?

On This Day In History

Birthdates which occurred on November 23:
912 Otto I (the Great) German king, Holy Roman emperor (962-73)
1221 Alfonso X (the Wise) king of Castile & Leon (1252)
1553 Prospero Alpini Italy, botanist/physician (De Medocoma Aegyptorum)
1749 Edward Rutledge (Gov-SC) signed Declaration of Independence
1804 Franklin Pierce 14th President (1853-1857)
1837 Javan der Waals Holland, physicist (Cont of Liquid & Gaseous States)
1859 Billy the Kid [William H Bonney], criminal
1860 Karl Branting Sweden, statesman/diplomat (Nobel Peace Prize 1921)
1862 Alberto Williams Buenos Aires Argentina, composer (Etrerno Reposo)
1876 Manuel de Falla C diz Spain, composer (El Amor Brujo)
1883 Jose Clemente Orozco Mexico, painter (Epic of Culture in New World)
1887 Boris Karloff [William H Pratt], Dulwich England, actor (Frankenstein)
1888 Harpo Marx [Adolph] NYC, actor/comedian (Marx brothers)
1894 Ture Persson Sweden, sprinter (Olympic-silver-1912)
1903 Victor Jory actor (Gone with the Wind, Papillon, Dodge City)
1915 Ellen Drew [Terry Ray], Kansas City MO, actress (Isle of Dead)
1915 John Dehner Staten Is NY, actor (Big Hawaii, Bare Essence)
1917 George O'Hanlon Brooklyn NY, actor (Calvin-Life of Riley, George Jetson)
1917 Michael Gough Malaya, actor (Search for the Nile)
1920 Paul Celan Romanian poet (Collected Prose)
1926 Don Gordon Los Angeles CA, actor (Prentiss-Lucan)
1928 Jerry Bock US, Broadway composer (Fiddler on the Roof)
1930 Robert Easton Milwaukee, actor (Someone Up There Likes Me)
1930 William E Brock (Sen-D- )/US Secretary of Labor (1985-87)
1931 Yevgeni Grischin USSR, 500m/1500m speed skater (Oly-gold-1956, 60)
1933 Hayes Jenkins US, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1956)
1933 Krzysztof Penderecki Debica Poland, composer (Hiroshima Threnody)
1935 Vladislav N Volkov cosmonaut (Soyuz 7, 11)
1938 Oscar Robertson NBA guard (Cin, Milwaukee, Olympic-gold-1960)
1939 Susan Anspach NYC, actress (Grace-Yellow Rose, Blume in Love)
1940 Gosta Pettersson Sweden, cyclist (Olympic-silver-1968)
1943 Andrew Goodman civil rights worker, murdered in 1964
1945 Steve Landesberg Bronx NY, comedian/actor (Barney Miller)
1951 Bernd Landvoigt German DR, coxless pairs (Olympics-gold-1976)
1951 David Rappaport London England, 3'11" actor (Wizard, Time Bandits)
1951 Jorg Landvoigt German DR, coxless pairs (Olympics-gold-1976)
1952 Francie Larrieu Smith US, track runner (AAU 1 mile-1979)
1956 Michael Brainard LA, actor (Joey Martin-All My Children)
1956 Shane Gould Australia, 200m/400m freestyle swimmer (Oly-gold-1972)
1958 David Wallace Miami, actor (General Hospital, Babysitter, Humongus)
1959 Maxwell Caulfield Derbyshire England, actor (Miles-The Colbys)

Deaths which occurred on November 23:
0615 Columbanus, Irish explorer/monastery founder/poet/saint (Poenitentiale), dies (aka St. Columba)
1457 Ladislaus V (posthumus), king of Hungary/Bohemia, dies at 17
1499 Perkin Warbeck, Flemish sailor, hanged
1902 Walter Reed, US bacteriologist (Yellow Fever), dies
1910 Hawley H Crippen, doctor/murderer, hanged
1914 Elbrige Gerry VP (of Gerrymander fame), dies at 70
1962 Gloria Gordon actress (My Friend Irma), dies at 81
1972 Marie Wilson actress (My Friend Irma), dies at 56
1973 Paul Newlan actor (Capt Grey-M Squad)
1974 Cornelius Ryan, war reporter/historian (Bridge too Far), dies at 54
1976 Andre Malraux France, novelist/art historian/puplic office. ("The Voices of Silence"), dies at 75
1979 Merle Oberon actress (Assignment Foreign Legion), dies at 68
1982 Rev Grady Nutt actor (Hee Haw), dies at 47
1990 Bo Diaz catcher, crushed to death by a satellite dish, at 37
1990 Roald Dahl British short story writer, dies at 74
1991 Freddie Mercury lead singer of Queen, dies of aids at 46
1991 Klaus Kin ski, actor (Android, Nosferatu, Little Drummer Girl), dies at 65
1992 Ray Acuff, country singer who rode the "Wabash Cannonball" to fame and fortune, died of congestive heart failure at age 89.

Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1968 CUTHBERT BRADLEY G.---FORT MADISON IA.
[REMAINS RETURNED 12/20/91]
1968 RUHLING MARK J.---PITTSBURGH PA.
[03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV, ALIVE IN 98]
1969 JONES GRAYLAND...INDIANAPOLIS IN.
1971 ALTUS ROBERT W.---SHERIDAN OR.
1971 PHELPS WILLIAM---CORTLAND NY.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

On this day...
1165 Pope Alexander III returns from exile to Rome
1584 English parliament expells the Jesuits
1765 People of Frederick County MD refuse to pay England's Stamp tax
1785 John Hancock is elected president of the Continental Congress for the second time
1832 French take Antwerp in liberation of Belgium
1835 Henry Burden patents Horseshoe manufacturing machine, Troy, NY
1848 Female Medical Educational Society founded in Boston
1852 Just past midnight, a sharp jolt causes Lake Merced to drop 30' (9m)
1863 Battle of Chattanooga begins
1863 Patent granted for a process of making color photographs
1868 Louis Ducos du Hauron patents trichrome color photo process
1876 Columbia, Harvard & Princeton form Intercollegiate Football Association
1887 Notre Dame loses its 1st football game 8-0 to Michigan
1887 The opera "The Trumpeter of Suckingen" 1st American production (NYC)
1899 1st jukebox (Palais Royal Hotel, San Francisco)
1903 Enrico Caruso US debut (Metropolitan Opera House, NY) in "Rigoletto"
1904 3rd Olympic games close in St Louis
1905 Henry Watson Furness, an Indiana physician, named minister of Haiti
1909 Wright Brothers forms million dollar corp to manufacture airplanes
1909 18.2 cm (7.17") of rainfall, Rattlesnake Creek, Idaho (state record)
1911 Post Hospital at Presidio, San Francisco renamed Letterman General Hospital
1921 Pres Harding signs Willis Campell Act (anti-beer bill) forbidding doctors from prescribing beer or liquor for medicinal purposes
1930 NY Giant Hap Moran runs 91 yards for a TD from a scrimmage
1936 1st issue of Life, picture magazine created by Henry R Luce
1942 Coast Guard Woman's Auxiliary (SPARS) authorized
1942 Steward Poon Lim set adrift for 133 days after his boat was torpedoed
1943 US forces seized control of Tarawa & Makin from Japanese
1947 Wash Redskin Sammy Baugh passes for 6 touchdowns vs Chi Cards (45-21)
1948 Lens to provide zoom effects patented-FG Back
1955 British transfer Cocos (Keeling) Is in Indian Ocean to Australia
1959 "Fiorello!" premiers on Broadway
1960 Tiros 2, a weather satellite is launched
1963 Horatio Alger Society founded
1963 JFK's body, lay in repose in East Room of White House
1964 Beatles release "I Feel Fine" & "She's a Woman"
1968 Milwaukee Bucks make their 1st NBA trade, giving Bob Love & Bob Weiss to Chicago Bulls for Flynn Robinson
1971 China People's Republic seated in UN Security Council
1975 Bob Thomas of Chicago Bears kicks 55-yard field goal
1977 European weather satellite Meteosat 1 launched from Cape Canaveral
1980 4,800 die in series of earthquakes that devastated southern Italy
1982 Challenger moves to Vandenberg AFB and mated for STS-6
1982 NY Islanders & Minnesota North Stars play to an 8-8 tie
1985 58 die as Egyptian commandos storm hijacked Egyptair jet in Malta
1985 Retired CIA analyst Larry Wu-tai Chin, arrested of spying for China
1988 South Africa: Botha reprieves Sharpeville Six
1988 Wayne Gretzky scores his 600th NHL goal
1988 Yankees sign free agent 2nd-baseman Steve Sax to 3-year contract
1989 Pilots Union give up sympathy strike against Eastern Airlines
1991 Evander Hollyfield retains HW boxing title, KOs Bert Cooper in 7
1992 The United States lowered its flag over the last American base in the Philippines, ending nearly a century of military presence in its former colony.
2000 In a setback for Al Gore, the Florida Supreme Court refused to order Miami-Dade county officials to resume hand-counting election-day ballots. Meanwhile, Gore's lawyers argued in a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court that the high court should stay out of the Florida election controversy.

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

Japan : Labor Day/Thanksgiving
Maryland : Repudiation Day (1765)
Bern Switzerland : Onion Market Day-autumn festival (Monday)
US : Thanksgiving (Thursday)
US : Adoption Week Begins
US : Bible Sunday
US : Family Week Begins
Diabetic Eye Disease Month

Religious Observances
RC : Solemnity of Christ the King
RC, Ang, Luth : Memorial of St Clement I, 4th pope (c 88-97) (opt)
RC : Memorial of St Columban, Irish monk, abbot (opt)

Religious History
1654 French mathematician Blaise Pascal, 31, underwent a profound religious conversion. He thereupon abandoned his study of science, having realized that "the Christian religion obliges us to live only for God, and to have no other aim than him."
1729 German_born John Philip Boehm, 46, was formally ordained a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church. Boehm had previously come to America in 1720, where he began organizing religious services among German Reformed immigrants in Pennsylvania.
1742 English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: 'Two things I would earnestly recommend to your constant study: the book of God, and your own heart. These two, well understood, will make you an able minister of the New Testament.'
1947 E. L. Sukenik of Jerusalem's Hebrew University first received word of the existence of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The documents, dating between 200 BC and AD 70, had been accidentally discovered the previous winter (1946_47) by two Bedouin shepherds in the vicinity of Qumran.
1970 Pope Paul VI issued a decree barring cardinals over the age of 80 from voting for a new pope.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

Thought for the day :
"The great thing in this world is not so much where we are, but in what direction we are moving."

Question of the day...
Can you be a closet claustrophobic?

Murphys Law of the day...(Barr's Comment on Domestic Tranquility)
On a beautiful day like this it's hard to believe anyone can be unhappy -- but we'll work on it.

Amazing fact #3...
Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds, while dogs only have about ten.