I was rummaging through the This Day in Daily Happen History files and came across these nuggets for October 26:

1492 Lead (graphite) pencils first used. Poor Christopher Columbus. He was halfway around the world when this happened and by the time he came back, he had the second biggest story in Europe. You discovered an entire continent? Big deal, Chris! We got pencils!

1858 Hamilton Smith patents rotary washing machine. Mrs. Hamilton Smith had to quit her bridge club that day. Suddenly her afternoon got a lot busier.

1861 Pony Express (Missouri to California) ends after 19 months. It only took 19 months to figure out this wasn’t a good idea?

1881 Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday involved in gunfight at OK Corral, in Tombstone, Ariz. It lasted all of 30 seconds. Both Earp and Holliday survived and went on to have bad mustaches for many years to come.

1919 US President Woodrow Wilson’s veto of Prohibition Enforcement Bill is overridden. I’m betting Happy Hour was interesting that afternoon.

1949 US President Harry Truman increases minimum wage from 40 cents to 75 cents. So the buck really didn’t stop at Harry’s desk. Only 75 cents did.

1973 Wings release “Helen Wheels.” On October 27, 1973, they apologized.

1976 Trinidad & Tobago becomes a republic. Was it not working out as a solo act? Was this the best title they could come up? Why didn’t Tobago get top billing?

1984 “The Terminator” starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton is released in the US. I still haven’t see it. Don’t be surprised.