It is International Mermaid Day!
Why did the mermaid cross the sea?
To get to the other tide.
Benjamin BannekerBorn 9 Nov 1731; died 9 Oct 1806 at age 74. Black-American astronomer, inventor and mathematician, compiler of almanacs and one of the first important black American intellectuals who was the self-educated son of a freed slave. He was the first to record the arrival of the "seventeen-year locusts" or periodical cicadas. In 1753, Banneker built a wooden clock that kept accurate time even though he had only previously seen a sundial and a pocket watch. He calculated the clock's gear ratios and carved them with a pocket knife. In 1789, he successfully predicted an eclipse. He helped survey the site of Washington D.C. (1791-3). Banneker was also an early antislavery publicist who worked to improve the lot of black people in the U.S.«[Note: some sources give date of death as 25 Oct 1806] |
