GMT

Today in History: February 11

1531 Henry VIII is recognized as the supreme head of the Church of England.

1805 Sixteen-year-old Sacajawea, the Shoshoni guide for Lewis & Clark, gives birth to a son, with Meriwether Lewis serving as midwife.

1815 News of the Treaty of Ghent, ending the War of 1812, finally reaches the United States.

1858 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous, a French miller's daughter, claims to have seen an apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes.

1926 The Mexican government nationalizes all church property.

1951 U.N. forces push north across the 38th parallel for the second time in the Korean War.

1966 Vice President Hubert Humphrey begins a tour of Vietnam.

1990 South African political leader Nelson Mandela is released from prison in Paarl, South Africa, after serving more than 27 years of a life sentence.


Born on February 11

1800 William Henry Fox Talbot, photography pioneer, produced the first book with photographic illustrations (The Pencil of Nature).

1847 Thomas Alva Edison, prolific American inventor who jointly or singly held over 1,300 patents.

JOTD
A dumb kid walks into an ice cream shop...

Kid: “I’ll have a scoop of vanilla and a scoop of chocolate please.”
Clerk: “Sorry kid, we're out of chocolate.”
Kid: “OK. Make it a scoop of strawberry and a scoop of chocolate.”
Clerk: “No, no, you don't understand, it’s chocolate we're out of,”
Kid: “Ah, OK. Then gimme a scoop of raspberry, and a scoop of chocolate.”
Clerk: “Listen kid, can you spell the VAN in vanilla?”
Kid: “Sure! V-A-N.”
Clerk: “Can you spell the STRAW in strawberry?”
Kid: “Sure! S-T-R-A-W!
Clerk: “Can you spell the frick in chocolate?”
Kid: “There is no frick in chocolate!”
Clerk: “THAT’S what I’m trying to tell you.”