So, count me among the countless who didn't know that yesterday, 2 Oct, marked the anniversary of the day, 141 years ago, that a noble peacemaker, Mohandas Gandhi was born in India. And on Oct. 2, the Mahatma's 50th birthday, poor old President Wilson got head-whacked, out in Pueblo, Colorado, out campaigning for his nation's becoming part of the League of Nations [no deal], with the stroke that paralyzed him.

As for today, the 3rd of October, 276th day of the year, the tiny wiki-bots tell me that it was on this day in 1955, when I was a delightful 4-year-old, that the Mickey Mouse Club debuted, just a few days after James Dean was killed.

Happy birthday, long-gone, lovely, pretty [Hallmark] artist & art-collector Alice Ann Biggerstaff. Happy day to glorious, lovely, neurotic, brilliant Italian actress, Eleanora Duse, born in 1858.... and to Gore Vidal, b. the year that The Great Gatsby was published.... And oh my, it seems that it was on this day, in 1656. that the old red-headed hot-headed Myles Standish passed away. Hard to imagine almost, that I wrote a book about him once.

And in 1836, just a few months he was visited by Marcus & Narcissa Whitman, Black Hawk, chief of the Sauks, died in prison, in St. Louis. The Whitmans were newlyweds, Oregon Trail pioneers, and missionaries, on their way to the West & being future massacre victims/ I wrote a book about them, too. It's Woody Guthrie's deathday, too. 1967. Bless 'im. I was a miserable high school sophomore then.