Today, October 18th International Necktie Day is celebrated in Croatia and in various cities around the world, e.g. in Dublin, ‘Tübingen, Como, Tokyo, Sydney and other towns! Okay! Now the first question I asked was why? Why is Necktie Day celebrated in Croatia??? I went to Wikipedia and discovered why, and I will tell you in a minute, but first let’s find out about Croatia…..
Yesterday Bolivians voice their support for President Evo Morales and elected him to his third term in office. Unlike many 
Americans,(wink, wink) I have not followed the affairs of Bolivia that closely over the last eight years so I don’t know that much about the man or what he has accomplished in office, so first some background on Morales from Wikipedia:
Yesterday Bolivians voice their support for President Evo Morales and elected him to his third term in office. Unlike many 
Americans,(wink, wink) I have not followed the affairs of Bolivia that closely over the last eight years so I don’t know that much about the man or what he has accomplished in office, so first some background on Morales from Wikipedia:
One of the genres of music that I started to listen to more over the last several years is World Music. There is so much good music out there made in countries that we as Americans don’t know about. One of the countries whose music I have really come to enjoy is Mali. I was first introduced to the music of Mali through the album One Night on Earth:Music from the strings of Mali by Derek Gripper.I explored his music last November 14th, which is Gripper’s birthday. Here is the link to the post about the album, Gripper and the music of Mali. Yesterday in Music -Nov 14, 1977 – Derek Gripper is born and leads to the discovery of the Music of Mali!!
This morning as I looked over the list of events that happened on this date in history, I came to 1945 and on October 12 of that year, the Medal 
of Honor was issued to a conscientious objector for the first time. The recipient was Private First Class Desmond Doss. In total only three such Medals of Honor have been awarded. The other two went to Thomas W. Bennett and Joseph G. LaPointe, Jr. Doss was a Corporal (Private First Class at the time of his Medal of Honor heroics) in the U.S. Army assigned to the Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division.
On the morning of October 11, 1809 the innkeeper at Grinder’s Stand on the Natchez Trace about 70 miles southwest of Nashville
heard gunshots. Soon servants found Meriwether Lewis badly injured from gunshot wounds, including one to the head. Lewis died shortly after sunrise that morning. Lewis had stopped at the inn the day prior, according to a Thomas Jefferson on October 18th. Lewis was on his way to Washington where he hoped to settle issues regarding payment of drafts he had drawn against the War Department while serving as governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory. Lewis also carried his journals with him for delivery to his publisher. From Wikipedia:
So among today’s birthdays is the great Art Blakey.(October 11, 1919 – October 16, 1990) In honor of his birthday, I listened to the 1965 release 
from Art & the Jazz Messengers, Indestructible. As I listened to the album, I kept thinking how great the trumpet was, after listening I discovered that the trumpet player was Lee Morgan and the saxophone player was Wayne Shorter. others playing on the album include: pianist Cedar Walton, Curtis Fuller on trombone, and bassist Reggie Workman. Thom Jurek at AllMusic writes this about the album:
The subject of this morning’s featured article at Wikipedia was John Hay an American statesman and official whose career
in government stretched over almost half a century. His service in government stretched from the Lincoln administration through that of Theodore Roosevelt, yet I doubt that many Americans recognize his name or know of his accomplishments.
Today October 6th is German-American Day! From Wikipedia:
German-American Day is a holiday in the United States, observed annually on October 6. The holiday, which celebrates German American heritage, commemorates the date in 1683 when 13 German families from Krefeld near the Rhine landed in Philadelphia. These families subsequently founded Germantown, Pennsylvania, the first German settlement in the original thirteen American colonies.[1] Originally celebrated in the nineteenth century, German-American Day died out in World War I as a result of the anti-German sentiment that prevailed at the time. The holiday was revived in 1983.
