Mickey Mouse Day!

His first cartoon, “Steamboat Willie” opened in New York on November 18th, 1928.  The first voice of Mickey was none other than Walt Disney Himself.

It’s also the Great American Smokeout.

The American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout event grew out of a 1971 event in Randolph, Massachusetts, in which Arthur P. Mullaney asked people to give up cigarettes for a day and donate the money they would have spent on cigarettes to a high school scholarship fund. In 1974, Lynn R. Smith, editor of the Monticello Times in Minnesota, spearheaded the state’s first D-Day, or Don’t Smoke Day. The idea caught on, and on November 18, 1976, the California Division of the American Cancer Society succeeded in getting nearly one million smokers to quit for the day. The first national Great American Smokeout was held in 1977. During the next 34 years the Smokeout was celebrated with rallies, parades, stunts, quitting information, and even “cold turkey” menu items in schools, workplaces, Main Streets, and legislative halls throughout the United States. The Great American Smokeout has been chaired by some of America’s most popular celebrities, including Sammy Davis Jr., Ed Asner, Natalie Cole, Larry Hagman, Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, the first “spokespud” Mr. Potato Head, and many others.

History 101: November 18th, 1903: The United States and Panama sign a treaty granting the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal was built ahead of schedule, below budget, and with no corruption. If any one person can be credited for this achievement it is George W. Goethals, the project’s chief engineer, 1907−15.

In 1904 the Americans took over the failed French effort to build a canal at the Isthmus of Panama. The first two chief engineers, both civilians, resigned after short tenures. President Theodore Roosevelt announced that the next chief would be an Army officer, who, if he walked off the job, would find himself facing a court martial. The man selected was Maj. George W. Goethals of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Music History 101:  November 18, 1970: Myra Gale Brown got a divorce from her husband of 15 years. The divorce caused much less publicity than did her marriage when she was only 13. She had married – Jerry Lee Lewis.

The 101 number one song of the day established a group with a reputation for “flops” as their legendary record label’s go to girls.   Four months earlier, they were known as the “No Hits” because of a succession of songs that went nowhere. But suddenly they had a number one hit which was not at all unprecedented at Motown but until the time, no one who recorded for the that company was able to repeat that feat. But with the arrival of the song you’re about at the top of the charts, they had a second number one song making them the first in an incredible stable of artists and placing them squarely in the forefront. And that brings us to the 101 number one song of the day which was on top on November 18, 1964 for the Supremes. (Baby Love)

The 101 Gold Nugget of Knowledge: St. Louis is the most dentally challenged in the nation, according to Men’s Health.

The magazine looked at community water fluoridation, the percentage of people who saw a dentist in the past year, as well as the percentage who have had teeth extracted. They also looked at the percentage of households using dental floss, the money spent on oral hygiene, and the number of dentist offices per capita. After crunching the numbers, the best teeth can be found in San Jose, California, while St. Louis has the worst.

A SWAT team surrounded a home in Wisconsin after a shotgun toting 67-year-old man blasted his TV because he was so enraged with Bristol Palin’s performance on “Dancing with the Stars.”

Steven Cowan told officers that he felt Palin was not a good dancer and that she was only on the show because of her famous mother. Officials say Cowan was so mad after Monday’s show that he fired at his television set and then aimed the gun at his wife, but she managed to escape. Negotiators were able to talk Cowan into surrendering early Tuesday morning after a 15-hour standoff. He was charged with 2nd degree reckless endangerment and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Police in Boise, Idaho, arrested a woman accused of posing as a plastic surgeon and performing bogus breast exams on women in bars and nightclubs. Boise police said Kristina Ross was arrested Tuesday and charged with practicing medicine without a license after she allegedly gave breast exams to several women at bars at nightclubs while claiming to be a plastic surgeon named Dr. Berlyn Aussieahshowna. Police said they were tipped off by employees of a plastic surgeon who kept getting calls for “Dr. Aussieahshowna” from women who claimed to have scheduled appointments or surgeries. Police said Ross has never been licensed as a medical doctor.

This is the kind of scam normally associated with men and that’s were this case gets more interesting.  Idaho court records show that Ross was arrested for petty theft in the spring and that the arrest warrant was issued to a Kristoffer Jon Ross.  Ross has a previous criminal record as a man but identified herself as a woman and was booked into Ada County Jail as a female.  Confusing, huh?