Orchids to …

• Dave Pogue for his spot-on letter, echoing the opinions of many others.

• any Democrat filing for City Council or mayor, giving the people of Columbus a choice.

• the nice couple who offered their assistance Tuesday night at the library when our mother fell, from a grateful son and daughter.

• Raine at Hilliard Lyons for doing an exemplary job in helping my husband and me in the purchase of our new home, from Shaun and Amy Baker.

• everyone at Ono Brothers Contractors for an excellent job on our home-restoration project, from the Oswalts.

• the woman who found our baby doll at Sam’s Club and returned her to us.

• the lady who paid for my groceries Tuesday afternoon at Kroger, from Vera Meredith.

• Alexis Hamilton for a great job in the skating competition, from Nana.

• Marvin Hamilton for all the hard work you have done on fundraisers for Jason.

• the guy that helped my daughter and me Wednesday evening when our car broke down.

• the Kroger employee who found and turned in my cellphone, from Pat.

• the dismantled Columbus Downtown Inc. for always making sure rent was collected and leases were renewed on time.

Onions to …

• greedy fisheries and state lawmakers for allowing the slaughter of river otters that were just reintroduced in our state after being trapped to extinction four years ago.

• the couple who left the church and are still causing trouble.

• the younger generation for being so rude to the older generation, especially when we are walking with a cane.

• the local retailer for selling New England Patriots jerseys, which is disgusting and shameful.

• the woman at the drive-thru window who spent excessive time making other customers wait.

• to the Redevelopment Commission leader who skipped Monday’s meeting, apparently to post campaign photos on Facebook, from an Ordinary Joe.

• the police officer for stopping me for not having a light on my license plate, as police should have more important things to do.

• jurors handing out the verdict for the Hope town marshal.

• the city leader who uses some small businesses for catering, but not others.

• the company that makes employees remove articles of clothing before going through scanners as they leave the property.

• Columbus gas stations that are above the national average of $2.03 per gallon again.

• Governor Pence for trying to remove a democratically elected official.

• drivers on East County Road 50N who drive too fast and create safety problems.

• the scooter operator on Gladstone Avenue on Monday afternoon for having a passenger and weaving dangerously in and out of traffic.

• families that claim to be religious but go to bars and drink.

Happy Birthday to …

• Jeff Oakes.

• Lloyd Bannister, from your wife and all the family.

• Linda Bell, from Lloyd and Mary Bannister.

• Beverly Hewitt, from Rodney and Rhonda Hewitt.

• Mary Lou Estes, from Sonja.

• Steven West on No. 4, from Pa Steve, Nana, Nakia, Isabel, Dawson, Mommy, Uncle T., Aunt Jennifer, Uncle Jeremy, Uncle Klint, Maggie, Brad, Luke and Cole.

• Tim Shoaf, from friends at the Moravian Church.

• Justin Harvey, from Aunt Elsie.

• Maya Smith, from Aunt Elsie.

• Drew Sterett.

• Mattie Shoaf.

• Lila Rain Fox on No. 7, from Momma, Daddy, Keegan, Grayson, Jackson.

• Rhonda Day.

• Bruce Luzier.

• Pat Blanton, from Josh, Amanda, Mya, Tressa, Bree, Tonya, Julie and Donna.

• Mya Blanton, from Grandma Pat, Dad, Mom, Aunt Tressa and Bree.

• Sally Simmonds, from Shirley, Janet, Donna and your neighbors.

Belated Wishes to …

• Dexter Shields, from Daddy and Mommy.

•

1615

• Thomas Rolfe, the only child of John Rolfe and his wife, Rebecca (the former Pocahontas), was born in Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.

•

1649

• England’s King Charles I was executed for treason.

•

1815

• The U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in agreeing to purchase the personal book collection of former President Thomas Jefferson to replace volumes lost when the British burned the U.S. Capitol and its congressional library during the War of 1812.

•

1882

• The 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, New York.

•

1911

• James White, an intellectually disabled black man who’d been convicted of rape for having sex with a 14-year-old white girl when he was 16, was publicly hanged in Bell County, Kentucky.

•

1933

• Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. The first episode of the “Lone Ranger” radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.

•

1945

• During World War II, more than 500 Allied captives held at the Japanese prison camp in Cabanatuan in the Philippines were liberated by U.S. Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrilla fighters. Adolf Hitler marked the 12th anniversary of his appointment as Germany’s chancellor with his last public speech in which he called on Germans to keep resisting until victory.

•

1948

• Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. (Godse and a co-conspirator were later executed.) Aviation pioneer Orville Wright, 76, died in Dayton, Ohio.

•

1962

• Two members of “The Flying Wallendas” high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance at the State Fair Coliseum in Detroit.

•

1968

• The Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

•

1969

• The Beatles staged an impromptu concert atop Apple headquarters in London; it was the group’s last public performance.

•

1972

• Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

•

1981

• An estimated 2 million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the freed American hostages from Iran.

•

2005

• Iraqis voted in their country’s first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success. The downing of a C-130 military transport plane north of Baghdad killed all 10 British servicemen on board; the militant group Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility. In Northern Ireland, Robert McCartney, 33, was fatally stabbed in a fight at a Belfast pub by members of the Irish Republican Army. Marat Safin defeated Lleyton Hewitt 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Australian Open.

•

2010

• China suspended military exchange visits with the United States in protest over $6.4 billion in planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. (Those exchanges were reinstated in Jan. 2011.) Thousands of demonstrators from across Japan marched in central Tokyo to protest the U.S. military presence on Okinawa. Serena Williams ended Justine Henin’s (EH’-nenz) hopes of a Grand Slam title in her return from retirement with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 victory in the Australian Open final.

•

2014

• An appeals court in Florence, Italy, reinstated the guilty verdict against U.S. student Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend for the 2007 murder of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher. (Knox was sentenced to 28 1/2 years in prison, raising the specter of a long legal battle over her extradition from the U.S. should the conviction be upheld.) Federal prosecutors announced they would seek the death penalty against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the Boston Marathon bombing. Animation producer Arthur Rankin Jr. (“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”) died in Bermuda at age 89.