Friday, January 23, 2009

Something warm and something cold

On this day in 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree. She received her degree from Geneva Medical College after being turned down by more than two dozen medical schools. She had been accepted by the school due to the faculty and students, all male of course, thinking her application was someone playing a practical joke. She graduated with top honors.

Today, half the medical school graduates are women.

On January 23, 1971, a temperature of -80 F was recorded in Prospect Creek, Alaska. That's the lowest temperature ever recorded in the United States.