Almanac of Absurdities 12/10

On this day in 1684, Isaac Newton’s paper, “On the Motion of Bodies in an Orbit,” is presented to the Royal Society by fellow astronomer Edmund Halley. Yes, he was the Halley in Halley’s Comet. In 1868, the first gas-lamp traffic lights are installed near the Palace of Westminster in London. Birthdays: Grand Ol’ Opry, Mighty Mouse, Emily Dickinson, and Kyu Sakamoto, singer of the 1963 hit “Sukyaki.”