June 15. An early summer day on the calendar, and one marked by two curious events 240 years apart.

June 15, 1752. Ben Franklin and his son go out into a Philadelphia thunderstorm to fly a kite. A legend is born. Franklin had been experimenting with electricity since 1747; in particular, he wanted to know if there was electricity in lightning. The kite experiment was not his first plan for investigating electricity. He first proposed putting an iron rod on a steeple or tower to draw electricity out of a storm. When his idea was published in London, several scientists tried it, and concluded that, yes, there was electricity in lightning. So, why did Franklin conduct his potentially dangerous kite experiment? Or did he? Some historians don't think he ever did, citing the fact that Franklin said very little about it. This was a guy who wrote about everything -- if he did this little experiment, why didn't he write about it more? Who knows. Explore this very interesting character yourself -- his autobiography is online at Project Gutenberg.

June 15, 1992. Flash forward 240 years and take a jump across the Delaware River from Philadelphia to Trenton, New Jersey. Vice President Dan Quayle (remember him?) is visiting a school and corrects a student's spelling of the word "potato," telling the student it should be spelled "potatoe." Oh, dear. Another child left behind.

Apparently, Dan Quayle is the Yogi Berra of politics -- did he really say these things? I'm still laughing!