Common sense is the collection of prejudices aquired by age eighteen. ~ Albert Einstein

Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius. ~ George Bernard Shaw

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

That last one, I know a prime example. My brother-in-law, The Mouth. Master's degree, no common sense.

Enjoy use your common sense day. If you run into people without any, offer up a prayer of thanks that you do.

Today is:

Flag Day -- Panama

Giomo dell'Unita Nazionale e Festa delle Forze Armate -- Italy (National Unity and Armed Forces Day)

Guy Fawkes Carnival -- Bridgwater, Somerset, UK

Guy Fawkes Eve (sometimes called Mischief Night in some parts of Australia, UK, New Zealand, although that is more appropriate to April 30/October 30

Ludi Plebeii -- Ancient Roman Calendar (public games, through the 17th)

National Candy Day

Suez Day

St. Americus' Day (patron of America)

St. Charles Borromeo's Day

Thanksgiving Day -- Liberia

Unity Day -- Russia

Use Your Common Sense Day

Will Roger's Day

Waiting for the Barbarians Day (I thought they came and took over a long time ago!)

Yitzhak Rabin Memorial (unofficial, but widely commemorated)


Anniversaries Today:

Taking of the US Embassy in Teheran, Iran -- 1979
Discovery of King Tut's Tomb -- 1922
Abraham Lincoln weds Mary Todd, 1842
Mary II of England marries William, Prince of Orange, 1677 (ruled jointly as Willaim and Mary)


Birthdays Today:

Sean "Diddy" Combs, 1970
Matthew McConaughey, 1969
Ralph Macchio, 1962
Jeff Probst, 1962
Kathy Griffin, 1960
Markie Post, 1950
Laura W. Bush, 1946
Loretta Swit, 1937
Doris Roberts, 1930
Martin Balsam, 1919
Art Carney, 1918
Walter Cronkite, 1916
Will Rogers, 1879
Augustus Montague Toplady, 1740 (wrote the hymn "Rock of Ages")


Today in History:

The Flood of the Arno River causes massive damage in Florence, Italy, 1333
Joan of Arc liberates Saint-Pierre-le-Moûtier, 1429
Thomas Wolsey, English cardinal, arrested, 1529
Mozart's Symphony No. 36 is performed for the first time in Linz, Austria, 1783
The Erie Canal is completed with Governor DeWitt Clinton performing the Wedding of The Waters ceremony in New York Harbour, 1825
Benjamin Palmer patents an artificial leg, 1846
Dentist John Beers of San Francisco patents the gold crown, 1873
Tonga adopts a constitution, 1875
James Ritty patents the cash register, to combat the pilfering of the till by the bartenders in his Ohio saloon, 1879
London's first deep-level tube railway opens between King William Street and Stockwell, 1890
The Italian unknown soldier is buried in the Altare della Patria (Fatherland Altar) in Rome, 1921
Nellie Tayloe Ross is elected the first female US State governor, in Wyoming, 1924
The rebuilt Vienna State Opera reopens with a performance of Beethoven's Fidelio, 1955
Two-thirds of Florence, Italy is submerged as the River Arno floods; together with the contemporaneous flood of the Po River in northern Italy, this leads to 113 deaths, 30,000 made homeless, and the destruction of numerous Renaissance artworks and books, 1966
Genie, a 13-year-old feral child is found in Los Angeles, California having been locked in her bedroom for most of her life, 1970
The Netherlands experiences the first Car Free Sunday caused by the oil crisis, as the highways are deserted and are used only by cyclists and roller skaters, 1973
First conference that focuses exclusively on the subject of the commercial potential of the World Wide Web, in San Francisco, 1994