6 February: Ronald Reagan Quotes

Former actor and US President Ronald Reagan was born on this date in 1911. 10 quotes from him:

1. Live simply, love generously, care deeply, speak kindly, leave the rest to God.

2. The nine most terrifying words in the English language are "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

3. It's hard, when you're up to your armpits in alligators, to remember you came here to drain the swamp.

4. The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the greatest things. He is the one that gets the people to do the greatest things.

5. Never let the things you can't do, stop you from doing what you can.

6. Evil is powerless if the good are unafraid.

7. Many a man has failed because he had his wishbone where his backbone should have been.

8. We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone.

9. Every new day begins with possibilities.

10. Nothing lasts longer than a temporary government program.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

5 February: Sir Robert Peel

Sir Robert Peel, Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was born on this date in 1788. 10 facts about him:

1. Robert Peel was born in Bury, Lancashire. His father was a wealthy cotton mill owner. Peel was educated at Harrow and Oxford. He graduated with a double first in 1808.

2. His ambitious father was keen for him to do well in the political arena and bought him his Commons seat. It’s said that he told him, “Bob, you dog, if you do not become Prime Minister someday I’ll disinherit you”.

3. He served as MP for several constituencies including including that of Oxford University; but his first election win was for Cashel, Tipperary, just a year after he graduated, in 1809. His maiden speech in the Commons went down extremely well, famously described by the Speaker of the House of Commons as “the best first speech since that of William Pitt”.

4. He married Julia Floyd in 1820. She was the daughter of General Sir John Floyd, 1st Baronet, and his first wife Rebecca Darke. They had seven children.

5. He became Home Secretary in 1822 and it was in this post that he made extensive reforms to the prison and legal system, including creating the Metropolitan Police. This is why police officers are sometimes known as “bobbies” or “peelers.”

6. He was invited to become prime minister by King William IV after Earl Grey resigned in 1834. Peel turned the job down at first, but changed his mind and accepted when the king asked him again in 1835. Confident the voters were behind him, he called an election, but didn’t win the large majority he’d hoped for.

7. He was known to change his mind on a few things during his career. He opposed Catholic emancipation for 20 years, but was then persuaded it might not be such a bad idea if civil unrest was the alternative; so he pushed the Catholic Emancipation Bill through Parliament. During Earl Grey’s administration, he argued against parliamentary reform to no avail: the Reform Act was passed in 1832. When running for election in Tamworth, however, he came out in support of it.

8. As PM, he brought in the Mines Act of 1842, which forbade the employment of women and children in mines; the Factory Act 1844, which improved conditions for women and children working in factories. He also repealed the Corn Laws in 1846, which banned the import of cheap foreign grain. This was unpopular with rich landowners, of course, but there were humanitarian reasons to piss them off. The potato famine was raging in Ireland at the time, and there was not enough grain to send to Ireland to feed people. The public supported the move but the wealthy people didn’t (surprise surprise, things haven’t changed much) and the debate lasted 5 months. Although Peel won the vote on the Corn Laws, there were other votes the same day which he lost, and so he decided to resign for good.

9. Peel was the first British prime minister to be photographed while in office. He is featured on the cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.

10. Peel was thrown from his horse while riding on Constitution Hill in London on 29 June 1850. The horse stumbled on top of him, and he died three days later at the age of 62 due to complications from a broken collarbone.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

4 February: Charles Lindberg Quotes

Captain Charles Lindberg, US pioneer aviator was born on this date in 1902. 10 things he said:

1. I don't believe in taking unnecessary risks, but a life without risk isn't worth living.

2. Success is not measured by what a man accomplishes, but by the opposition he has encountered and the courage with which he has maintained the struggle against overwhelming odds.

3. God made life simple. It is man who complicates it.

4. Science, freedom, beauty, adventure: what more could you ask of life?

5. Real freedom lies in wildness, not in civilization.

6. I know there is infinity beyond ourselves. I wonder if there is infinity within.

7. Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.

8. Life is a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.

9. I have seen the science I worshipped, and the aircraft I loved, destroying the civilization I expected them to serve.

10. If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

3 February: 34

Today is 34 of 2026. Here are 10 fun facts about the number 34.

1. 34 is the atomic number of selenium, a chemical element with the symbol Se.

2. 34+35 (pronounced "thirty-four thirty-five") is a song by American singer-songwriter Ariana Grande, released on November 3, 2020.

3. +34 is the international calling code for Spain.

4. 34 Circe is a large main-belt asteroid discovered by French astronomer J. Chacornac in 1855, and named after Circe, the bewitching queen of Aeaea island in Greek mythology.

5. The A34 is a major road in England. It runs from Winchester in Hampshire to Salford, close to Manchester City Centre.

6. 34 is the sum of the first two perfect numbers 6 + 28.

7. 34 is a "magic number" in nuclear physics, the number of protons or neutrons that gives an atom a large amount of stability.

8. London bus route 34 runs from Barnet High Street/Barnet Church To: Walthamstow Bus Station.

9. Miracle on 34th Street is a 1947 film starring Maureen O'Hara and John Payne, directed by George Seaton. A man hired to play Santa at a department store claims to be the real Santa Claus.

10. In numerology this number resonates with inner wisdom. A person under its influence will prefer to look inwards for solutions. These people will also be highly intelligent and creative.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

2 February: Commander Data

Born this date in 1949 was Brent Spiner, the actor best known as android Lieutenant Commander Data in Star Trek: the Next Generation. 10 things you might not know about his character.

1. Data is a self-aware, sapient, sentient and anatomically fully functional male android, the fifth of six known androids designed by Dr. Noonien Soong. Who built his androids to look like him, so he and Lore, Data’s older brother, could all be portrayed by Brent Spiner.

2. Androids may not age, but actors do, so it was written into Data’s back story that Soong created him to age at the same rate as a human.

3. He was the sole survivor on a planet called Omicron Theta after an attack from the Crystalline Entity, a creature which converts life forms to energy for sustenance. He was deactivated before the attack in the year 2336 and was discovered there by Starfleet in 2338, and re-activated. Data attended Starfleet Academy from 2341 to 2345, studying mechanics and exobiology. He served aboard the USS Trieste before being assigned to the Enterprise under Captain Jean-Luc Picard in 2364.

4. What is he made of? A fan website called Memory Alpha lists his components thus: “24.6 kilograms of tripolymer composites, 11.8 kilograms of molybdenum-cobalt alloys and 1.3 kilograms of bioplast sheeting.” His skull is made from cortenide and duranium. His ultimate storage capacity is eight hundred quadrillion bits (100 petabytes) and a total computational speed of sixty trillion operations per second. He is ambidextrous and could, if he wanted to, paint a picture with his left and right hand at the same time. In the show, however, he appears to favour his left hand, as Spiner is Left-handed. Data blinks at random, like a human, thanks to a Fourier series. His genitals are fully functional so he could perform as a sex robot, although he’s not programmed to enjoy the sex act as a human male would. He can fall 11.75 meters without damaging himself.

5. He doesn’t need to eat or sleep, although he sometimes does in order to appear more human. As he has no sense of taste, Data often wouldn’t bother eating. He can’t get drunk on alcohol, but components in his processing systems can be similarly disrupted by polywater. He doesn’t need to breathe, either. He could survive in space and underwater, as shown in one episode when he attempts to swim while out sailing on a lake with Geordi La Forge. His body was too dense for him to Swim – he sank to the bottom and had to walk along the bed of the lake to the shore. It took nearly two weeks to get the water out of Data's systems, but he survived the experience.

6. Data doesn’t remember much about his early life as his memories were wiped. In one episode, he meets his “mother” Juliana Tainer, and she fills him in on some of them, such as the fact that he didn’t like wearing clothes in the early days and would walk around naked since he wasn’t affected by heat or cold. The Soongs wrote him a ‘modesty subroutine’ to correct this behaviour after people in the colony complained.

7. Eric Menyuk, Mark Lindsay Chapman, Kevin Peter Hall, and Kelvin Han Yee were all considered for the role before Brent Spiner was cast. He used the character of Robby the Robot from the film Forbidden Planet as a role model while researching the role.

8. Data can be turned off. There is an on/off switch just below his right shoulder blade. Very few of his crewmates know this: Captain Picard, Dr. Beverly Crusher, and counselor Deanna Troi.

9. Data has a pet Cat called Spot. In Star Trek: Picard, his memories of Spot are the last ones that Data "surrenders" to Lore.

10. Spiner has said that his favourite scene as Data was the one where he played poker on the holodeck with a re-creation of Stephen Hawking, in which Hawking played himself.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

1 February: Muriel Spark Quotes

Muriel Spark, Scottish novelist whose books include The Comforters. The Ballad of Peckham Rye, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, was born this date in 1918. 10 quotes:

1. She wasn't a person to whom things happen. She did all the happenings.

2. Ridicule is the only honourable weapon we have left.

3. A rebellion against a tyrant is only immoral when it hasn't got a chance.

4. You look for one thing and you find another.

5. To me education is a leading out of what is already there in the pupil's soul.

6. One's prime is elusive. You little girls, when you grow up, must be on the alert to recognise your prime at whatever time of your life it may occur. You must then live it to the full.

7. Frankness is usually a euphemism for rudeness.

8. For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.

9. I am a hoarder of two things: documents and trusted friends.

10. You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

31 January: Apollo 14

On this date in 1971, Apollo 14 launched. 10 facts about this mission.

1. This was the eighth time humans flew in the Apollo program and the third time astronauts landed on the Moon. The astronauts landed on the Moon on 5 February.

2. The primary objectives of Apollo 14 were to explore the Fra Mauro region, which was what Apollo 13 was supposed to do, and to set up scientific experiments including a seismometer to measure "moonquakes" and study the Moon's interior and instruments to measure solar wind, the Moon's atmosphere and its magnetic field.

3. The Lunar Module was called Antares and the Command Module, Kitty Hawk.

4. Apollo 14’s crew were: Alan B. Shepard Jr., Commander; Edgar D. Mitchell, Lunar Module Pilot; and Stuart A. Roosa, Command Module Pilot. Shepherd had been the first American in space and was also the oldest person to walk on the Moon, at the age of 47.

5. Stuart Roosa took hundreds of tree seeds along. The seeds orbited the Moon with him in Kitty Hawk. Back on Earth, the seeds were planted in locations around the world and the resulting trees are known as “Moon Trees”.

6. The astronauts collected 93.2 pounds (42.3 kg) of Moon rocks and soil. One of the rocks they brought back was "Big Bertha" and was one of the largest Moon rocks brought back to Earth.

7. This mission was the first to use a Modularized Equipment Transporter (MET), nicknamed the “rickshaw”, which had wheels and resembled a wheelbarrow.

8. Another innovation was distinguishing marks on an astronaut’s space suit. It had been hard to tell which Apollo 12 astronaut was which in the hundreds of photographs taken on the Moon’s surface, so NASA decided that Shepard would wear a space suit with Red stripes at the knees and shoulders and a red stripe on the helmet. Had Apollo 13 reached the Moon, they would have used the same system.

9. In was on this mission that Golf was first played on the Moon, by Alan Shepherd. He hit two balls using a specially adapted club. The first golf ball travelled about 200 yards, the second about 400 yards.

10. Apollo 14 splashed down on 9 February after a mission which had lasted 9 Days, 0 Hours, 1 Minute and 57 Seconds.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/