• Today is Lost Sock Memorial Day.

     • Today is Root Canal Appreciation Day (TheSmileExperts.com).

     • Today is Donate a Day's Wages to Charity Day.

     • Today is National Nightshift Workers Day.

     • Today is National Butterscotch Brownie Day.

     • Today is Vast Wasteland Day, the day in 1961 when Federal Communications Commission Chairman Newton Minow challenged network TV executives to sit through an entire day of their own programming. Minow suggested they would observe a "vast wasteland."

     • Today is Pipsqueak Appreciation Day, a time to honor pipsqueaks everywhere.

     • Today is Victory Day in Russia and Day of Memory and Honor in Uzbekistan..

 On this date in . . .

1901: John Knight was born in Fairmont, West Virginia. Nicknamed "Fuzzy," he became Tex Ritter’s sidekick in dozens of western movies. Fuzzy died in 1976.

1903: Blacksmith Fred LaRose of Cobalt, Ontario, threw his hammer at a fox and struck the world's largest silver vein.

1913: The 17th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, providing for the election of senators by popular vote rather than selection by state legislatures.

1944: Jimmy Davis became governor of Louisiana. He wrote and recorded the hit song "You Are My Sunshine," and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1972.

1960: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Enovid, the first pill considered safe for birth control use.

1964: Louis Armstrong hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart with "Hello, Dolly!" It was Satchmo’s first #1 hit in his 41-year career.

1974: Three Detroit bandits set a record by stealing 32,500 used watches from a Goodwill Industries warehouse.

1984: In Chicago the White Sox beat Milwaukee 7-6 in the 25th inning of history's longest baseball game: 8 hours 6 minutes. The game had begun the night before but was suspended because of a 1:00 a.m. curfew.

1987: Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers were married.

1990: Irish singer Sinead O'Connor refused to appear on "Saturday Night Live" after chauvinist comedian Andrew Dice Clay was named as host.

1991: The Congregational Church in Winnetka, Illinois, made $195,388.53, the largest sum ever raised at a one-day rummage sale.

1999: A truck carrying 20-million bees in 450 hives overturned in Falmouth, Maine. Firefighters quickly sprayed the dumped hives with water to make the bees think it was raining, so they’d stay home. Five firefighters were stung, but none seriously hurt.

2000: The owner of a small Dutch tobacco shop won $4.1 million in the lottery by mistake. Having accidentally printed up more tickets than he could sell, he was forced, by law, to buy the remainder himself. One of the extra tickets was a big winner.

2002: In Bahrain, voters were allowed to cast ballots for the first time in 30 years. Women voted for the first time in the nation's history.