Bethel Daily Briefing: Thursday, March 8, 2012

TODAY IS THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2012

 Do you make special plans for St. Patrick's Day? Email them to Christine Rose at RosepetL5@aol.com to be included in a story.

WEATHER from The National Weather Service 

Thursday: A chance of showers, mainly after 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 63. Breezy, with a southwest wind 8 to 11 mph increasing to between 18 and 21 mph. Winds could gust as high as 34 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Thursday Night: Showers, mainly before midnight. Low around 37. Southwest wind 10 to 16 mph becoming north. Winds could gust as high as 31 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch possible. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY from Brainy Quotes 

A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Do you live in an historic home and wonder what garden design would best complement your home?  If so, join the Bethel Historical Society and Colleen Plimpton,  author of Mentors in the Garden of Life,  on March 18 from 2-4 p.m. at the 1842 Second Meeting House, 40 Main Street, Bethel.

Colleen trained at the New York Botanical Garden and has tended her sloping Connecticut acre for 19 years. She’s appeared on numerous TV and radio programs including CBS, ABC, Good Morning America and PBS.  Colleen pens a prize-winning newspaper column for Hearst Connecticut Media Group; coaches gardening; has taught at the New York Botanical Garden; lectures widely; and writes for publications such as GreenPrints, Connecticut Gardener, and Toastmaster

Veterans' Holding Corporation  Annual Corned Beef  and Cabbage Dinner: The purpose of the dinner is to raise funds for the preservation and maintenance of the 1842 2nd Meeting House.

 March 10, 2012, Serving 5:00 – 7:30 p.m., 1842 2nd Meeting House,  Bethel CT  Price: $15.00 Adults- $10 Children (ages 6-12) under age 6 - FREE  Price includes dinner and dessert, alcoholic beverages extra

Danbury Child Needs Help

What looked like asthma seven months ago turned out to be cancer growing inside three-year-old Mackenzie Newsome of Danbury. everyone is talking about.

Stony Hill Volunteer Fire Department Boot Drive for Mackenzie Newsome  Public Event · By Danielle Demato and Patrick Magyar

The Stony Hill Four Corners. The intersection of Route 6 and Old Hawleyville Road. Right at the 4 different lights- coming from newtown, by Quality Gem, Union Savings Bank, Big Y, and Stony Hill Road. Saturday, March 31, 2012, 9:00am until 3:00pm

Open Mic, Molten Java, Show us your stuff!  And by stuff we mean music, poetry, juggling, bird calls, interpretive dance,  did we say music? Molten Java's open mic is fun and judgement free.  The host, J.D. will show you the ropes and get you behind the mic. C'mon, you know you want to take that first step to fame and fortune! 213 Greenwood Ave, Bethel

The Haas Insurance Agency is giving away $1000 to one lucky charity and you get to decide who gets it. Simply visit the Haas Agency Facebook page for all the details!  Hurry, the contest ends March 31, 2012! 107 Church Hill Rd, Sandy Hook, CT 

New Canaan Ski and Sport of Ridgefield's "50% off Sale Sunday March 11th"

The Winter 50% off Sale continues Sunday March 11th from 10-5 @ our Ridgefield location 197 Ethan Allen Highway. Last chance to save big on Marmot, Miller, Bogner, Kjus, Obermeyer, Arcteryx and much more...Equipement from K2, Dynastar, Volkl, Nordica, Libtec, and 23....Come early and save big...197 Ethan Allen Hwy, Ridgefield, CT 

Teen Program: The Hunger Games

Are the odds in your favor?

Join us for this special program on "The Hunger Games", just in time for the movie release!  Did you read the Hunger Games? What did you think? Who would you fight for? Tuesday March 20, 6 pm to 7:15 pm

New Business? Planning an event? Proud of someone? New baby in the family? Send in your announcements and we will let the world know!

 MUNICIPAL MEETINGS:

The Regional Recycling Task Force, Brookfield Town Hall, 10:30 a.m. 162 Whisconier Road, Brookfield

GARDENING HINTS from Old Farmers Almanac.com

 Re-pot houseplants so they will grow well during spring and summer. Plant deciduous trees and shrubs as soon as the ground is workable.

TODAY IN HISTORY from On This Day

1618 - Johann Kepler discovered the third Law of Planetary Motion. 

1702 - England's Queen Anne took the throne upon the death of King William III. 

1782 - The Gnadenhutten massacre took place. About 90 Indians were killed by militiamen in Ohio in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians. 

1853 - The first bronze statue of Andrew Jackson is unveiled in Washington, DC. 

1855 - A train passed over the first railway suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, NY. 

1862 - The Confederate ironclad "Merrimack" was launched. 

1880 - U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes declared that the United States would have jurisdiction over any canal built across the isthmus of Panama. 

1887 - The telescopic fishing rod was patented by Everett Horton. 

1894 - A dog license law was enacted in the state of New York. It was the first animal control law in the U.S. 

1907 - The British House of Commons turned down a women's suffrage bill. 

1909 - Pope Pius X lifted the church ban on interfaith marriages in Hungary. 

1910 - In France, Baroness de Laroche became the first woman to obtain a pilot's license. 

1910 - The King of Spain authorized women to attend universities. 

1911 - In Europe, International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time. 

1933 - Self-liquidating scrip money was issued for the first time at Franklin, IN. 

1941 - Martial law was proclaimed in Holland in order to extinguish any anti-Nazi protests. 

1945 - Phyllis Mae Daley received a commission in the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps. She later became the first African-American nurse to serve duty in World War II. 

1946 - In New York City, the "Journal American" became the first commercial business to receive a helicopter license. 

1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that religious instruction in public schools was unconstitutional. 

1953 - A census bureau report indicated that 239,000 farmers had quit farming over the last 2 years. 

1954 - Herb McKenley set a world record for the quarter mile when he ran the distance in 46.8 seconds. 

1959 - Groucho, Chico and Harpo made their final TV appearance together. 

1965 - The U.S. landed about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam. They were the first U.S. combat troops to land in Vietnam. 

1966 - Australia announced that it would triple the number of troops in Vietnam. 

1973 - Two bombs exploded near Trafalgar Square in Great Britain. 234 people were injured. 

1982 - The U.S. accused the Soviets of killing 3,000 Afghans with poison gas. 

1985 - The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reported that 407,700 Americans were millionaires. That was more than double the total from just five years before. 

1999 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction of Timothy McVeigh for the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. 

2001 - The U.S. House of Representatives voted for an across-the-board tax cut of nearly $1 trillion over the next decade. 

Have an announcement or an interesting bit of news?  Let us know! 

Email Christine Rose at RosepetL5@aol.com