United Nations Day... and also Bologna Day

We couldn't make up these coincidences if we tried. Today really is United Nations Day, celebrated every year on October 24 because October 24, 1945 was the "effective date" of the U.N. Charter.

Some might argue that anyone who thinks the U.N. has ever been effective about anything must be full of bologna. And, wouldn't you know? Today is also National Bologna Day (although, as the link to Usual Suspect Punchbowl.com will reassure you, the Bologna Day observance is supposed to be about lunchmeat, not politics).

Photo obtained from Wikipedia

If you want to avoid any political entanglement, you may choose to remember instead that today is the anniversary of Annie Edson Taylor's successful 1901 plunge over Niagara Falls -- in a barrel.

You think that was a downer -- today is also the anniversary of "Black Thursday," the beginning of the Wall Street Collapse of 1929.

And the Concorde last flew on this date in 2003.

The United States, the alleged world leader in aviation and aviation technology, never did have a supersonic transport plane -- and now there are none in the world.

That's progress?