On This Day:
Sunday December 28, 2014 This is the 362nd day of the year, with 3 days remaining in 2014. Fact of the Day: fish sleep Except for elasmobranches (sharks, rays), fish don't have eyelids -- so they can't close them to sleep. Pelagic fish (tuna, bluefish, marlins) never stop swimming. Coastal fish, who catch a wink or two, do not fall asleep the way humans do. Most of these fish simply become inactive and hover around like they are sleeping, but they are still aware of danger approaching. Parrot fishes and wrasses exude a mucus membrane that covers their body like a baggie and they remain their semicomatose, eyes open, resting at night. So, basically, a fish blanks out but does not sleep in human terms.
Holidays Feast day of the Holy Innocents, St. Antony of Lérins, and St. Theodore the Sanctified.
Australia: Proclamation Day.
Christian: Holy Innocents Day (Childermas)/ Day of the Holy Innocents/ Innocents' Day.
Nepal: The King's Birthday.
Events 1065 - Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.
1832 - John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Andrew Jackson.
1836 - Mexico's independence was recognized by Spain.
1846 - Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.
1869 - The Knights of Labor, a labor union of tailors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, held the first Labor Day ceremonies in American history.
1869 - Chewing gum was patented by William F. Semple of Mount Vernon, Ohio.
1908 - The most destructive earthquake in European history struck Messina, Italy, flattening the city and killing more than 80,000 people. The earthquake registered 7.5 on the Richter scale.
1937 - The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.
1945 - Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."
1989 - Alexander Dubcek, the former Czechoslovak Communist leader who was deposed in a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, was named chairman of the country's parliament.
Births 1856 - (Thomas) Woodrow Wilson, 28th President of the United States of America (1913-1921).
1902 - Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher, educator, and writer.
1905 - Earl "Fatha" Hines, American musician often called "The Father of Modern Jazz Piano."
1981 - Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first official American test-tube baby.
Deaths 1694 - Mary II, queen of England.
1734 - Rob Roy (Robert MacGregor), outlaw recognized as the Scottish Robin Hood.
1984 - David Samuel "Sam" Peckinpah, American film director.
1999 - Clayton Moore, American television actor probably best known for playing the fictional western character "The Lone Ranger."
2004 - Susan Sontag, American essayist, novelist, intellectual, filmmaker, and activist.
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