Today we celebrate a delicious and creamy seafood soup, it’s National Seafood Bisque Day. This day is observed annually on October 19th.
Seafood Bisques is a creamy and delightful soup made with lobster, crab, shrimp, or crayfish seasoned with wine or cognac and savory spices, a highly seasoned soup with a French origin. Some culinary historians believe that the word “bisque” comes from the French “bis cuties,” meaning “twice-cooked.” Others believe that the origin of this word is related to the Bay of Biscay. Dishes from Biscay traditionally include spices similar to those bisque.
Bisque is a method of extracting flavor from imperfect crustaceans which are classified as not good to be sold in the market. In an authentic bisque, the shells are ground to a fine paste and added to thicken the soup. Julia Child even says “do not wash anything off until the soup is done because you will be using the same utensils repeatedly and you don’t want any marvelous tidbits of flavor losing themselves down the drain.” The bisques are thickened with rice, strained out, leaving behind the starch, or pureed during the final stages.
So, today, if you love seafood and a bowl of creamy soup, celebrate this day by making some seafood bisque for dinner suited for the cold weather in October. Share on social media using #SeafoodBisqueDay.
1987 Stock markets crash on “Black Monday”
The largest-ever one-day percentage decline in the Dow Jones Industrial Average comes not in 1929 but on October 19, 1987. As a number of unrelated events conspired to tank global markets, the Dow dropped 508 points—22.6 percent—in a panic that foreshadowed larger systemic issues.
Confidence in Wall Street had grown throughout the 1980s as the economy pulled out of a slump and President Ronald Reagan implemented business-friendly policies. In October 1987, however, indicators began to suggest that the bull market of the last five years was coming to an end. The government reported a surprisingly large trade deficit, precipitating a decline in the U.S. Dollar. Congress revealed it was considering closing tax loopholes for corporate mergers, worrying investors who were used to lose regulation.
As these concerns grew, Iran attacked two oil tankers off of Kuwait and a freak storm paralyzed England, closing British markets early on Friday before the crash. The following Monday, U.S. investors awoke to news of turmoil in Asian and European markets, and the Dow began to tumble.
(excerpted from https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/black-monday-stock-markets-crash-dow-drops)
