ON THIS DAY

The Czar of Russian who became known as "Ivan the Terrible" was born on this date in 1530.

On this date in 1718, French colonists began to settle in the New Orleans area.

In 1822, William Herschel died. It was a long life. Herschel was the one who discovered Uranus and don't think he wasn't kidded about that.

On this date in 1875, a man swam across the English Channel for the first time.

The very first passenger plane service between London and Paris began on this date in 1919.

On this date in 1997, the tobacco industry agreed to an $11.3 billion settlement with the state of Florida.

Should we mention that exactly four months from today is Christmas?

Country singer Jo Dee Messina turns 39, Rachel Ray is 41 today! Billy Ray Cyrus turns 48 today. Director Tim Burton celebrates his 51st birthday, Regis Philbin is 76, Sean Connery turns 0079 today.

The former host of "Let's Make a Deal", Monty Hall, turns 86.

National Banana Split Day -- In the summer of 1904, optometrist David Sticker took a banana, split it down the middle and topped it with three scoops of different flavors of ice cream. A study from the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, revealed that distinct personalities correspond with ice cream flavors.

• If you like banana, you are easy going, well adjusted, generous, honest, and empathetic.
• If you like vanilla, you are colorful, impulsive, a risk taker who sets high goals and has high expectations of yourself. You also enjoy close family relationships.
• If you like chocolate, you are lively, creative, dramatic, charming, enthusiastic, and the life of the party. Chocolate fans enjoy being at the center of attention and can become bored with the usual routine.
• If you like butter pecan, you are orderly, a perfectionist, careful, detail-oriented, conscientious, ethical, and fiscally conservative. You are also competitive, aggressive in sports, and the take-charge type of personality.
• If you like strawberry, you are shy, yet emotionally robust, skeptical, detail oriented, opinionated, introverted, and self-critical.
• If you like chocolate chip, you are generous, competitive, and accomplished. You are charming in social situations, ambitious, and competent.

Given that information we have put together the "Ice Cream Compatibility Test" for ice cream lovers. If you are looking for the perfect man just asking one simple question can find if he is a perfect match for you. The question? "What is your favorite ice cream flavor?" If your favorite flavor is:

• Banana -- compatible with all flavors.
• Vanilla -- you are most likely to be compatible with someone whose favorite flavor is vanilla.
• Chocolate -- compatible with butter pecan or chocolate chip.
• Butter Pecan -- compatible with butter pecan, chocolate and chocolate chip.
• Strawberry -- compatible with chocolate chip.
• Chocolate Chip -- compatible with butter pecan, strawberry or chocolate.

Name the Second Bananas:

• "I Love Lucy" starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, their second bananas were "Vivian Vance and William Frawley."
• "The Andy Griffith Show," Don Knotts and Jim Nabors
• "Gunsmoke," Amanda Blake and Milburn Stone (he was Doc)
• "Happy Days," Anson Williams and Donny Most
• "Mary Tyler Moore Show," Ted Knight and Gavin Mcleod
• "Dick Van Dyke Show," Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam

THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

• A U.S. scientist says that we are just months away from creating artificial life.
• Miss Venezuela won the Miss Universe pageant over the weekend.
• Lindsay Lohan's Hollywood Hills home was broken into again. Last time was in May.
• Apple's Snow Leopard--it's next operating system--goes on sale THIS FRIDAY!
• Ryan Jenkins, the reality show contestant sought in the killing of his ex-wife hunted Monday, ended in a suicide in a remote Canadian motel room.
• Sheryl Crow has sold her entire music catalog of songs to a publishing company for $10 million.
• Actress Milla Jovovich married director Paul W.S. Anderson at their Beverly Hills home in an outdoor sunset ceremony on Saturday.
• "One Tree Hill" actor Antwon Tanner has pleaded guilty to selling more than a dozen Social Security numbers for $10,000.
• The latest date announced for Michael Jackson's burial at Hollywood Hills is Thursday, September 3rd at 7pm.
• After months of denying that there was anything going on, LeAnn Rimes and Eddie Cibrian have been seen in public as a couple.
• The thing between Kate Hudson and Alex Rodriguez continues. She followed him to the Bay area last week when the Yankees took on Oakland.
• French hunk Gilles Marini has traded "Sex and The City" for "Brothers and Sisters." The actor, who played Kim Cattrall's naked stud next door neighbor in the first Sex & The City movie, heads to the Sunday night drama on ABC.
• A total of 33 advertisers, including Walmart, Clorox and Sprint, have pulled their commercials from the Glenn Beck show after Beck called President Obama "a racist."

Your love of Twitter could get you fired if you're not careful. Paul Wilson, a freelance/corporate web marketer and blogger, found several of these tweets and posted them as "Top 10 Tweets to Get You Fired." (All of the following are presented here exactly as they were written on Twitter, except for the expletives):

1. "hate my job!! i want to tell my bosses how dumb they are and how meaningless this job is, then quit, and be happy!"
2. "So my job was to test all the food at the new resturant, can I just say, ughew. I'm going to taco bell then twistee treat."
3. "Workin... This job sucks worse then the economy!"
4. "I'm going to work! Walmart! Must find better job! I hate it when chicks there have a deeper voice than me and refer to me as foo!"
5. "Also I'm really bummed that I'm working today, i asked off so i could study but my boss is a (blankety blank blank) who can't read."
6. "Co-worker smuggled out a chair for me. Currently being paid to sit around and listen to John Barrowman on my iPod. I don't hate my job today!"
7. "having sex dreams of people you work with makes for an awkward day."
8. "smoking weed at work is so (blanking) great :)"
9. "It's bad when you overhear the n00b programmer say "I used to work at McDonalds with him" and you wonder if he is talking about the CEO..."
10. "Huh, with my boss on twitter, maaaybe I should take down that sexy picture of her... but her reaction will be priceless!"

Men find thin, seductive women to be the most attractive, according to a study from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC. While beauty is skin deep in the eyes of most men, it's in the eye of the beholder for women. Men defined a woman's beauty by her physical attributes. Women who appeared to be thin and seductive received the highest ratings. Men were also particularly attracted to women who appeared to be confident. Women had a more diverse range of responses than men, with some rating particular men very attractive while other women found the same men not attractive at all.

When it comes to giving our pets names, about half of us choose human-like names, such as Jack or Sophie instead of Fido or Fluffy, according to an AP-Petside.com poll of more than 1,000 pet owners. While 49% of respondents, including 51% of dog owners and 50% of cat owners, had given at least one of their pets a human-like name, the other half did not. Here are some of the more unusual names:

• Hollywood and Chichi Mittens (cats)
• Elvis, Cila and Nanner (Dachshunds)
• Vegas (Labrador Retriever)
• Jibber Jack the dog
• Talulublue (Beagle)
• Louis XIV (Yorkie)

The most popular name in the poll was Max, which also came in number one in the database of pet names that is maintained by Veterinary Pet Insurance. Wayne Eldridge, a veterinarian and author of "The Best Pet Name Book Ever!" told says pet owners who give their pets human names are more likely to see them as full members of the family.