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Monday 3rd December Blog

Posted on Mon 3rd Dec, 2018 in: Blog

Hello!

It's December, and the weather is set to get colder!

Former US President George HW Bush has died age 94. Bush served as the 41st president from 1989 to 1993, following two terms as vice president under Ronald Raegan. His extensive public service record also included stints as director of the CIA, chairman of the Republican National Committee, and ambassador to the United Nations. George H.W. Bush enlisted in the Navy in 1942 at age 18 and flew 58 combat missions, getting shot down once over the Pacific. As president he faced a rapidly and dramatically changing world as the Soviet Union collapsed and the Berlin Wall fell.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos has successfully launched a manned Soyuz rocket carrying astronauts to the International Space Station for the first time since October's aborted mission. NASA's Anne McClain, Russia's Oleg Kononenko, Canada's David Saint-Jacques were aboard the launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Monday as part of Expedition 58. After launching at 11.31am GMT the three are set to dock at the International Space Station at exactly 5.36pm GMT. The trio aboard the rocket will be on the International Space Station for six and a half months before heading back to Earth. It was the first manned mission for Russia since October, when a NASA astronaut and Russian cosmonaut were forced to make an emergency landing shortly after launch following a rocket malfunction. The pair landed safely about 12 miles east of the city of Dzhezkazgan in Kazakhstan. A criminal investigation into the failure placed the blame on a sensor which had been damaged during assembly.

A family's attempt to win their neighbourhood Christmas lights competition ended up causing panic when a passer-by thought a man was stuck on their roof. The Heerlein family in Austin, Texas, decided to recreate the decoration scene in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, complete with a hanging Clark Griswold. In the scene, Clark, played by Chevy Chase, slides down the roof of his house while adding the lights and ends up dangling from the gutter. So the Heerlein family hung a dangling Clark front and centre of their decoration, but it took veteran Alfred Norwood Jr by surprise when he walked past one day. Believing someone was really in distress, he moved a ladder to try to help, called police and even tried to wave down passing cars. According to police officers, Mr Norwood's call was not the first one police had received about the Heerlein house. Chris Heerlein, the man behind the decoration, and his sister-in-law Leah Wheless, tracked Mr Norwood down after the incident and gave him a gift card for his troubles.

On this Day:

1965- For the first time and all-white jury convicts members of the Ku Klux Klan over the murder of an all white civil rights activist

1988- Claims by a health minister that eggs contain salmonella are branded alarmist and incorrect

1989- The leaders of the two world superpowers declare an end to the Cold War after two days of storm-lashed talks at the Malta summit

1992- Emergency services deal with casualties at the scene of 2 bomb blasts in the centre of Manchester

Famous Birthdays:

Actress Amanda Seyfried, 33

Singer Ozzy Osbourne, 70

TV host Eamonn Holmes, 59

Actress Jenna Dewan, 38

Have a great day!

The Millhouse World of Wood Team

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