Answer of the Day
Was Nixon ever governor of California? "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore." That's what Richard M. Nixon told reporters on this date in 1962, having just failed in a bid to become governor of California. He never did become governor. But six years later, he was elected President of the United States over incumbent vice-president Hubert H. Humphrey. Then, on this date in 1972, Nixon was re-elected in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern. And a year after that, in 1973, his world began to crumble when reporters began to research a break-in at the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington, DC. The Watergate scandal that unfolded brought down Nixon's presidency. He resigned from the presidency on August 9, 1974.

Quote
"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits." — Richard Nixon

The Tacoma-Narrows Bridge Just Before Its Collapse

Today in History

• Canadian Pacific Railway: transcontinental system was completed, linking Montreal with Port Moody, British Columbia (1885)
• Galloping Gertie: suspension bridge over the Tacoma Narrows collapsed due to aeroelastic flutter, killing a cocker spaniel and becoming a textbook engineering disaster case (1940)
• African-American civil rights movement: Carl B. Stokes became the first black mayor of a major US city, Cleveland (1967); Douglas Wilder became the first elected black governor of a US state, Virginia (1989)
• Magic Johnson: LA Lakers basketball star announced he had AIDS and was retiring (1991)

Yunjin Kim

Today's Birthdays

• Marie Curie: Nobelist in Physics and Chemistry (1867-1934); physicists who share this birth date include Lise Meitner (1878-1968) and Chandrasekhara Raman (1888-1970)
• Leon Trotsky (1879-1940): Communist revolutionary
• Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989): zoologist, ornithologist and ethologist
• Albert Camus (1913-1960): author of The Stranger
• Billy Graham (91): evangelist who has received both the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
• Joni Mitchell (66): folk singer, "Both Sides Now"; soprano Joan Sutherland (83) also celebrates her birthday today
• Yunjin Kim (36): actor, Lost's Sun-Hwa Kwon

Word of the Day
 taradiddle

1. A petty falsehood; a fib.
2. Silly pretentious speech or writing; twaddle.