This Day in History

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January 8

387 – Siyaj K'ak' conquers Waka, Fozzie Bear's homeland.

1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco.

1697 – Thomas Aikenhead, a student at Edinburgh, becomes the last person executed for blasphemy in Britain.

1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.

1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City.

1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.

1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time.

1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.

1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.

1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.

1963 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

1972 - The New Seekers were at No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing, (in Perfect Harmony'). The song started as a Coca Cola TV ad. It originally included the line, 'I'd like to buy the world a Coke.'

1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins.

1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time".

1989 – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board.

1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov leaves for the Mir space station on Soyuz TM-18. He would stay on the station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space.

2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.

2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.

2011 – The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in which five people were shot dead.

2016 - David Bowie released his twenty-fifth and final studio album Blackstar, on his 69th birthday and two days before his death. It became his first and only album to reach No.1 on the Billboard 200 album chart in the US.

Births

1821 – James Longstreet; 1862 – Frank Nelson Doubleday (founded the Doubleday Publishing Company); 1904 – Karl Brandt; 1908 – William Hartnell (the 1st Dr. Who); 1911 – Gypsy Rose Lee; 1912 – José Ferrer; 1923 – Larry Storch (F Troop); 1926 – Soupy Sales; 1931 – Bill Graham♪ ♫(concert promoter); 1933 – Charles Osgood (CBS News Sunday Morning); ♪ ♫1935 – Elvis Presley♪ ♫; 1937 – Shirley Bassey♪ ♫; 1938 – Bob Eubanks (The Newlywed Game); 1941 – Graham Chapman ("You vacuous, toffee-nosed, malodorous pervert!"); 1942 – Stephen Hawking; 1942 – Yvette Mimieux; 1946 – Robby Krieger(The Doors); 1947 – David Bowie♪ ♫; 1947 – Terry Sylvester♪ ♫(The Hollies); 1951 – John McTiernan; 1955 – Mike Reno♪ ♫(Loverboy); 1959 – Kim Duk-koo(died after a match against Ray 'BoomBoom' Mancini); 1959 – Paul Hester(Crowded House); 1966 – Andrew Wood♪ ♫(Mother Love Bone); 1967 – R. Kelly; 1979 – Sarah Polley; 1984 – Kim Jong-un (Dear Leader)

Deaths

1825 – Eli Whitney; 1880 – Emperor Norton; 1896 – Paul Verlaine; 1914 – Simon Bolivar Buckner; 1916 – Ada Rehan; 1979 – Sara Carter♪ ♫(The Carter Family); 1981 – Matthew Beard ('Stymie' on Our Gang); 1990 – Terry-Thomas; 1991 – Steve Clark(Def Leppard, died the rock star's death, alcohol poisoning); 1994 – Pat Buttram ('Mr. Haney' on Green Acres); 1996 – François Mitterrand; 2002 – Dave Thomas (founder Wendy's); 2007 – Yvonne De Carlo('Lily Munster' on The Munsters); 2015 – Andraé Crouch♪ ♫; 2015 – Patsy Garrett (Benji movie series)

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January 9

475 – Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople, and his general, Basiliscus gains control of the empire.

1349 – The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated.

1431 – Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.

1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.

1816 – Sir Humphry Davy tests his safety lamp for miners at Hebburn Colliery.

1839 – The French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process.

1861 – American Civil War: "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina, when she was fired upon by cadets from The Citadel. [Effectively, the first shots fired in the American Civil War.]

1909 – Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole, plants the British flag 97 nautical miles (180 km; 112 mi) from the South Pole, the farthest South anyone had ever reached at that time.

1916 – World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.

1918 – Battle of Bear Valley: The last battle of the American Indian Wars.

1960 – President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser opens construction on the Aswan Dam by detonating ten tons of dynamite to demolish twenty tons of granite on the east bank of the Nile river.

1963b - Drummer Charlie Watts joined The Rolling Stones after leaving Blues Incorporated and his job working as a graphic designer.

1991 – Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1996 – First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launch a raid against the helicopter airfield and later a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar in the neighboring Dagestan, which turns into a massive hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.

2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco.

2015 – The perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris two days earlier are both killed after a hostage situation. Elsewhere, a second hostage situation, related to the Charlie Hebdo shooting, occurs at a Jewish market in Vincennes.

Births

1854 – Lady Randolph Churchill (mother of Sir Winston Churchill); 1870 – Joseph Strauss (co-designed the Golden Gate Bridge); 1901 – Chic Young (created comic strip Blondie); 1915 – Anita Louise (My Friend Flicka); 1925 – Lee Van Cleef; 1928 – Judith Krantz; 1934 – Bart Starr; 1935 – Bob Denver (Gilligan); 1935 – Dick Enberg; 1936 – Anne Rivers Siddons; 1941 – Joan Baez♪ ♫; 1944 – Jimmy Page(Led Zeppelin, The Yardbirds, The Firm); 1948 – Bill Cowsill♪ ♫(The Cowsills); 1950 - David Johansen♪ ♫(The New York Dolls); 1951 – Crystal Gayle♪ ♫; 1955 – J.K. Simmons; 1959 – Mark Martin; 1965 – Joely Richardson; 1967 – Dave Matthews(Dave Matthews Band); 1978 – A. J. McLean♪ ♫(Backstreet Boys)

Deaths

1324 – Marco Polo; 1766 – Thomas Birch; 1858 – Anson Jones; 1987 – Arthur Lake; 1992 – Steve Brodie; 1997 – Jesse White (The Maytag Repairman); 2015 – Bud Paxson (Fuck you, Bud Paxson.); 2016 – Angus Scrimm (The Tall Man in the Phantasm movies)

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January 10

49 BC – Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war.

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.

1861 – American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.

1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

1927 – Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.

1946 – The United States Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.

1962 – Apollo program: NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle, which became known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.

1985 – Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua and vows to continue the transformation to socialism and alliance with the Soviet Union and Cuba; American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the Nicaraguan government.

1990 – Time Warner is formed by the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications.

2015 – A mass poisoning at a funeral in Mozambique involves beer that was deliberately contaminated with crocodile bile leaving at least 56 dead and nearly 200 hospitalized.

2016 - English singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/record producer/painter/actor David Bowie died from liver cancer at his New York home two days after releasing the album Blackstar on his 69th birthday.

Births

1836 – Charles Ingalls (father of Laura Ingalls Wilder, known for her Little House series of books); 1843 – Frank James (elder brother of Jesse James, member of the James Gang, the gang, not the musical group); 1904 – Ray Bolger ('Scarecrow' in The Wizard Of Oz); 1908 – Paul Henreid; 1917 – Jerry Wexler♪ ♫; 1924 – Max Roach; 1927 – Johnnie Ray♪ ♫; 1930 – Roy E. Disney; 1935 – Ronnie Hawkins♪ ♫(his backing band became The Band); 1936 – Stephen E. Ambrose; 1939 – Scott McKenzie♪ ♫("San Francisco (Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair))"; 1939 – Sal Mineo; 1943 – Jim Croce; 1944 – Frank Sinatra, Jr.♪ ♫; 1945 – Rod Stewart♪ ♫; 1946 – Aynsley Dunbar; 1947 – Neal Smith; 1948 – Donald Fagen♪ ♫(Steely Dan); 1949 – George Foreman; 1949 – Linda Lovelace; 1952 – Scott Thurston♪ ♫(Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers); 1953 – Pat Benatar♪ ♫; 1953 – Bobby Rahal; 1955 – Michael Schenker(UFO, Scorpions); 1956 – Shawn Colvin♪ ♫; 1958 – Eddie Cheever; 1964 – Brad Roberts♪ ♫(Crash Test Dummies); 1973 – Félix Trinidad

Deaths

1778 – Carl Linnaeus; 1862 – Samuel Colt (founded Colt's Manufacturing Company); 1917 – Buffalo Bill Cody; 1951 – Sinclair Lewis; 1961 – Dashiell Hammett; 1971 – Coco Chanel; 1976 – Howlin' Wolf; 1982 – Paul Lynde; 1997 – Sheldon Leonard; 2000 – Sam Jaffe; 2004 – Spalding Gray; 2007 – Carlo Ponti; 2015 – Taylor Negron; 2016 – David Bowie♪ ♫

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January 11

Today is Nat'l Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the U.S.


Events

532 – Nika riots in Constantinople: A quarrel between supporters of different chariot teams—the Blues and the Greens—in the Hippodrome escalates into violence. [HIPPODROME'S GOT HOOLIGANS!!!]

1569 – First recorded lottery in England.

1759 – In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.

1787 – William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.

1805 – The Michigan Territory is created.

1861 – Alabama secedes from the United States.

1863 – American Civil War: CSS Alabama encounters and sinks the USS Hatteras off Galveston Lighthouse in Texas.

1908 – Grand Canyon National Monument is created.

1917 – The Kingsland munitions factory explosion [<--Interesting read.] occurs, in Lyndhurst, NJ, as a result of sabotage.

1922 – First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.

1927 – Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.

1935 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1949 – The first "networked" television broadcasts took place as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania goes on the air connecting the east coast and mid-west programming.

1962 – An avalanche on Huascarán in Peru causes around 4,000 deaths.

1964 – Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.

1967 - The Jimi Hendrix Experience recorded 'Purple Haze' at De Lane Lea studios in London. Hendrix later stated 'The Purple Haze,' was about a dream he had and that he was "walking under the sea."

1973 – Major League Baseball owners vote in approval of the American League adopting the designated hitter position.

2000 - It was reported that Whitney Houston was under investigation after allegedly trying to smuggle 15.2 grams of Marijuana out of Hawaii. A security officer found the drug in the singer's handbag, Houston then walked away when he tried to detain her.

2003 – Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois's death row based on the Jon Burge scandal, in which, suspects were beaten and tortured with cattle prods, burning on radiators, and Violet Wands, in order to obtain confessions.

Births

1755 – Alexander Hamilton (founded the Federalist Party, The U.S. Coast Guard, & The N.Y. Post); 1807 – Ezra Cornell (founded Western Union and Cornell University); 1858 – Harry Gordon Selfridge (founded Selfridges dept stores); 1870 – Alexander Stirling Calder:artist(father & son of Alexander Calder); 1887 – Aldo Leopold; 1895 - Laurens Hammond♪ ♫(invented the Hammond organ, as well as the Hammond clock); 1906 – Albert Hofmann (discovered LSD, [May God Bless And Keep Him]); 1908 – Lionel Stander (butler/Man Friday on Hart To Hart); 1912 – Don "Red" Barry; 1923 – Carroll Shelby AC Cobra, Shelby Mustangs, and an awesome chili cook); 1925 – Grant Tinker (former Chairman/CEO of NBC, tv producer, married to Mary Tyler Moore for 19 yrs); 1928 – David L. Wolper (producer Roots, The Thorn Birds, Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)); 1930 – Rod Taylor; 1942 – Clarence Clemons♪ ♫(E Street Band); 1946 – Naomi Judd♪ ♫(The Judds, mother to WYnona & Ashley); 1946 – Tony Kaye(Yes); 1951 – Charlie Huhn(Ted Nugent); 1952 – Ben Crenshaw; 1952 – Lee Ritenour; 1956 – Robert Earl Keen; 1958 – Vicki Peterson(The Bangles); 1959 – Brett Bodine; 1968 - Tom Dumont(No Doubt); 1971 – Mary J. Blige♪ ♫; 1972 – Amanda Peet

Deaths

1836 – John Molson (founded the Molson Brewing Company); 1843 – Francis Scott Key (lyricist "Star Spangled Banner"); 1928 – Thomas Hardy (author "Tess of the d'Urbervilles"; 1981 – Beulah Bondi (played Jimmy Stewart's mother in four films Of Human Hearts, Vivacious Lady, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946)); 1988 – Greg 'Pappy' Boyington (fighter pilot w/Flying Tigers, Black Sheep Squadron, inspiration for the tv series Baa Baa Black Sheep); 2008 – Edmund Hillary (w/Tenzing Norgay, 1st to summit Mt. Everest); 2008 – Carl Karcher (co-founded fast food chain Carl's Jr.); 2013 – Tom Parry Jones (invented the breathalyzer); 2015 – Anita Ekberg; 2016 – David Margulies

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January 12

1528 – Gustav I of Sweden is crowned king.

1866 – The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.

1895 – The National Trust is founded in the United Kingdom.

1908 – A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

1915 – The United States House of Representatives rejects a proposal to require states to give women the right to vote.

1921 – Acting to restore confidence in baseball after the Black Sox Scandal, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is elected as Major League Baseball's first commissioner.

1926 – Original radio show Sam 'n' Henry aired on Chicago radio, later renamed Amos 'n' Andy in 1928.

1932 – Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.

1962 – Vietnam War: Operation Chopper, the first American combat mission in the war, takes place.

1967 – Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.

1969 – The New York Jets of the American Football League defeat the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League to win Super Bowl III in what is considered to be one of the greatest upsets in sports history.

1971 – The Harrisburg Seven: Rev. Philip Berrigan and five other activists [1 + 5 = 7?] are indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, D.C.

1991 – Persian Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of American military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

1998 – Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.

2004 – The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2, makes its maiden voyage.

2005 – Deep Impact (the spacecraft, not the movie) launches from Cape Canaveral on a Delta II rocket.

2010 – An earthquake in Haiti occurs, killing over 100,000 people and destroying much of the capital Port-au-Prince.

Births

1822 – Étienne Lenoir (designed the internal combustion engine); 1856 – John Singer Sargent; 1876 – Jack London; 1879 – Ray Harroun(won 1st Indy 500); 1893 – Hermann Göring; 1901 – Karl Künstler; 1904 – Mississippi Fred McDowell♪ ♫; 1905 – Tex Ritter♪ ♫; 1910 – Patsy Kelly; 1910 – Luise Rainer; 1916 – P. W. Botha; 1918 – Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; 1923 – Ira Hayes (one of the Marines to raise the flag on Iwo Jima, subject of "Ira Hayes" by Johnny Cash); 1926 – Ray Price♪ ♫; 1930 – Tim Horton (founded Tim Hortons); 1939 – William Lee Golden♪ ♫(The Oak Ridge Boys, he was the mountain man); 1941 – Long John Baldry♪ ♫; 1944 – Smokin' Joe Frazier; 1947 – Tom Dempsey (NFL place kicker, was notable for being born with no right toes (nor right fingers), who kicked a no-time-left, game-winning field goal from 63 yards in 1970, that was the NFL record, until it was broken by Matt Prater in 2013); 1951 – Kirstie Alley; 1951 – Chris Bell♪ ♫(Big Star); 1951 – Rush Limbaugh (gas bag); 1952 – Ricky Van Shelton♪ ♫; 1954 – Howard Stern's Ass; 1960 – Oliver Platt; 1964 – Jeff Bezo$ (Amazon.com); 1965 – Rob Zombie♪ ♫; 1970 – Zack de la Rocha♪ ♫(Rage Against The Machine); 1974 – Melanie C♪ ♫(Spice Girls, she was 'Sporty Spice'); 1981 – Amerie

Deaths

1899 – Hiram Walker (founded Canadian Club whisky); 1976 – Agatha Christie; 2001 – William Redington Hewlett (co-founded Hewlett-Packard); 2003 – Maurice Gibb♪ ♫(The Bee Gees); 2004 – Randy VanWarmer♪ ♫

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January 13

Today is Friday The Thirteenth.

Today is Stephen Foster Memorial Day in the U.S., celebrating the life of Stephen Foster on the anniversary of his death.

Today is the feast day of St. Mungo, founder , and patron saint of Glasgow, Scotland.

Also today, the Korean-American community celebrates Korean-American Day, commemorating Korean immigration to the United States, and contributions of Korean-Americans to American culture.


Events

1797 – French Revolutionary Wars: A naval battle between a French ship of the line and two British frigates off the coast of Brittany ends with the French vessel running aground, resulting in over 900 deaths.

1815 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.

1842 – Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.

1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.

1898 – Émile Zola's J'accuse…! exposes the Dreyfus affair.

1908 – The Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, Pennsylvania kills 171 people.

1910 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

1939 – The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers [almost 5 million acres] of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.

1942 – World War II: First use of an aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1960 – The Gulag system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union is officially abolished.

1962 - Chubby Checker went back to No.1 on the US singles chart with 'The Twist'. The song first went to No.1 in Sept 1960 and became the only record in American chart history to top the charts on two separate occasions.

1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison in California.

1978 – United States Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled "paid" or "volunteer" donors.

1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes into Washington, D.C.'s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78, including four motorists.

1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.

1990 – Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.

2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy due to the captain's negligence and irresponsibility. There are 32 confirmed deaths.

Births

1808 – Salmon P. Chase; 1832 – Horatio Alger, Jr.; 1885 – Alfred Fuller (founded the Fuller Brush Company); 1901 – A. B. Guthrie, Jr.; 1919 – Robert Stack (The Untouchables, Unsolved Mysteries); 1927 – Liz Anderson♪ ♫(wrote "(My Friends Are Gonna Be) Strangers" & "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive" for Merle Haggard, Lynn Anderson's mother); 1929 – Joe Pass; 1930 – Frances Sternhagen (The Closer); 1931 – Ian Hendry; 1931 – Charles Nelson Reilly; 1943 – Richard Moll (Night Court); 1949 – Brandon Tartikoff; 1954 – Trevor Rabin♪ ♫(Yes); 1957 – Mark O'Meara; 1961 – Wayne Coyne♪ ♫(The Flaming Lips); 1961 – Julia Louis-Dreyfus; 1962 – Trace Adkins♪ ♫; 1964 – Penelope Ann Miller; 1966 – Patrick Dempsey ('McDreamy' on Grey's Anatomy); 1970 – Shonda Rhimes (creator, head writer, executive producer, and showrunner of Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice, and Scandal); 1972 – Nicole Eggert; 1977 – Orlando Bloom ('Legolas' in The Lord Of the Rings trilogy, 'Will' in Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, 'Paris' in Troy); 1990 – Liam Hemsworth (The Hunger Games movies)

Deaths

614 – Saint Mungo; 1864 – Stephen Foster♪ ♫("Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" ("Swanee River"), "My Old Kentucky Home"); 1882 – Wilhelm Mauser (Mauser bolt-action rifle); 1885 – Schuyler Colfax (17th VPOTUS); 1929 – Wyatt Earp; 1941 – James Joyce; 1962 – Ernie Kovacs; 1978 – Hubert Humphrey (38th VPOTUS); 1979 – Donny Hathaway♪ ♫; 2009 – Patrick McGoohan (The Prisoner, 'King Edward "The Longshanks"' in Braveheart; 2010 – Teddy Pendergrass♪ ♫; 2012 – Richard Threlkeld

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January 14

Today is Ratification Day in the United States, celebrating the anniversary of the ratification of the 1783 Treaty of Paris.


Events

1539 – Spain annexes Cuba.

1639 – The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.

1784 – American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States - Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.

1911 – Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.

1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.

1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel by airplane while in office when he travels from Miami to Morocco, to meet with Winston Churchill, where they discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.

1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.

1952 – NBC's long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.

1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.

1960 – The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote issuing authority, is established.

1967 – Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco, California's Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love.

1969 – An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.

1973 – Elvis Presley's concert Aloha from Hawaii is broadcast live via satellite, and sets the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.

2004 – The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.

2011 – Former president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees his country to Saudi Arabia after a series of street demonstrations against his regime and corrupt policies, asking for freedom, rights and democracy, considered as the anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution and the birth of the Arab Spring.

2015 – Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson completed the first-ever free climb of the Dawn Wall of El Capitan in Yosemite National Park.

Births

83 BC– Mark Antony; 1741 – Benedict Arnold; 1875 – Albert Schweitzer; 1886 – Hugh Lofting (created Doctor Dolittle); 1892 – Hal Roach; 1896 – John Dos Passos; 1906 – William Bendix; 1915 – Mark Goodson (created Family Feud and The Price Is Right); 1919 – Andy Rooney; 1926 – Tom Tryon; 1932 – Big Daddy Don Garlits; 1936 – Clarence Carter♪ ♫("Clarence Carter!, Clarence Carter!, Clarence Carter!, Clarence Carter!, oooohh shit!, Clarence Carter!"); 1938 – Allen Toussaint; 1941 – Faye Dunaway; 1943 – Shannon Lucid (astronaut); 1948 – T Bone Burnett; 1948 – Carl Weathers; 1949 – Lawrence Kasdan; 1952 – Sydney Biddle Barrows; 1963 – Steven Soderbergh; 1964 – Shepard Smith; 1967 - Zakk Wylde(Ozzy, Black Label Society); 1969 – Jason Bateman (Hancock); 1969 – Dave Grohl(Nirvana, Foo Fighters); 1982 - Caleb Followill♪ ♫(Kings of Leon)

Deaths

1742 – Edmond Halley; 1898 – Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland); 1920 – John Francis Dodge (co-founded the Dodge Automobile Company); 1957 – Humphrey Bogart; 1961 – Barry Fitzgerald; 1965 – Jeanette MacDonald; 1977 – Peter Finch (He was mad as hell and he wasn't going to take it anymore.); 1977 – Anaïs Nin; 1984 – Ray Kroc; 1986 – Donna Reed; 1987 – Douglas Sirk; 2004 – Uta Hagen; 2004 – Ron O'Neal (Superfly); 2006 – Shelley Winters; 2009 – Ricardo Montalbán; 2012 – Dan Evins (founded Cracker Barrel Old Country Store); 2013 – Conrad Bain; 2016 – Alan Rickman

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January 15

Today is Wikipedia Day. Wikipedia is 16 years old. I'm not entirely sure we can live without Wikipedia.


Events

1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.

1759 – The British Museum opens.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present-day Vermont) declares its independence.

1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.

1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

1910 – Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 325 ft (99 m).

1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio.

1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.

1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

1973 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

1976 – Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

2001 – Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

2002 - 1980's British pop legend Adam Ant was admitted to a mental ward 24 hours after being charged by police with pulling a gun on staff in a London pub.

2005 – ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon.

2009 – Captain Sully (Chesley Sullenberger) emergency landed a US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River saving all 155 passengers after the plane collided with birds few minutes after take-off. [The event became known as The Miracle On The Hudson.]

Births

1622 – Molière; 1870 – Pierre S. du Pont; 1902 – Saud of Saudi Arabia; 1906 – Aristotle Onassis; 1909 – Gene Krupa; 1913 – Lloyd Bridges; 1918 – Gamal Abdel Nasser; 1924 – George Lowe; 1926 – Maria Schell; 1929 – Earl Hooker; 1929 – Martin Luther King, Jr.; 1941 – Captain Beefheart♪ ♫; 1948 – Ronnie Van Zant♪ ♫; 1953 – Randy White; 1957 – Mario Van Peebles; 1958 - Ken Judge; 1965 – Bernard 'The Executioner' Hopkins; 1966 – Lisa Lisa♪ ♫; 1968 – Chad Lowe; 1971 – Regina King; 1979 – Drew Brees; 1988 – Skrillex♪ ♫

Deaths

1876 – Eliza McCardle Johnson (18th FLOTUS); 1896 – Mathew Brady; 1950 – Henry H. Arnold; 1964 – Jack Teagarden♪ ♫; 1970 – William T. Piper (founded Piper Aircraft); 1987 – Ray Bolger ('Scarecrow' in The Wizard Of Oz); 1990 – Gordon Jackson (Upstairs Downstairs); 1993 – Sammy Cahn♪ ♫; 1994 – Harry Nilsson♪ ♫; 1996 – Minnesota Fats; 1998 – Junior Wells♪ ♫; 2005 – Ruth Warrick(All My Children); 2007 – James Hillier (co-invented the electron microscope); 2014 – Roger Lloyd-Pack; 2016 – Dan Haggerty; 2016 – Ken Judge

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I eagerly await the day that there are more notable deaths than births. I don't know why.

[Undertoad]

Freaky about that guy Ken Judge but I guess it happens to about one in 365 of us

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Originally Posted by Undertoad

Freaky about that guy Ken Judge but I guess it happens to about one in 365 of us

And more often than you'd think.

Helluva thing, dying on yer birthday.

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January 16

Today is Nat'l Nothing Day in the U.S., "to provide Americans with one National day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honoring anything." [Good enough for me. It's day drinking and goofing off all day. Wait, that's what I do everyday! I'm a valueless lump ( you know who you are), yay me!!]

Also celebrated today in the U.S. is Nat'l Religious Freedom Day.


Events

27 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.

1362 – A storm tide in the North Sea ravages the East coast of England and destroys the German city of Rungholt on the island of Strand.

1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.

1547 – Ivan IV of Russia a.k.a. Ivan the Terrible becomes Czar of Russia.

1605 – The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.

1707 – The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.

1786 – Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson.

1847 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

1862 – Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompted a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.

1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.

1909 – Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1919 – Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.

1920 – The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.

1942 – Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.

1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.

1964 – Hello, Dolly! opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.

1969 – Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.

1973 - Bruce Springsteen appeared at Villanova University, Philadelphia, to an audience of 25 people. Due to a strike at the time by Villanova's school newspaper The Villanovan, this concert went unadvertised, so this is probably the smallest crowd Bruce and The E Street Band have ever played in front of.

1977 - One half of TV cop show "Starsky & Hutch" (he was blonde Hutch), David Soul went to No.1 on the UK singles chart with 'Don't Give Up On Us'. Also a No.1 in the US.

1979 – The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.

1985 - David Bowie's schizophrenic half-brother Terry Burnes killed himself after laying down on the railway lines at Coulsdon South station, London. He was killed instantly by a passing train. He was 47.

1988 - Tina Turner gave herself a place in the record books when she performed in front of 182,000 people in Rio De Janeiro. The largest audience ever for a single artist.

1990 - Ike Turner was convicted of driving under the influence of cocaine and being under the influence of cocaine [shocker, I know] and sentenced to a four year prison sentence in California.

1991 – Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.

1992 - Eric Clapton recorded his Unplugged session for MTV. The set, which included his current hit single 'Tears in Heaven' and a reworked acoustic version of 'Layla', earned six Grammy Awards for the album including Record of the Year.

1996 - Jamaican authorities opened fire on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane, The Hemisphere Dancer, mistaking it for a drug trafficker's plane. U2 singer Bono was also on the plane; neither singer was injured in the incident. The incident inspired Buffett to write a song called 'Jamaica Mistaica'.

2001 – US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.

2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia would disintegrate 16 days later on re-entry.

2004 - Michael Jackson appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to seven charges of child molestation. The singer, who arrived 21 minutes late, was told off by the Santa Barbara judge saying 'Mr. Jackson, you have started out on the wrong foot here, it is an insult to the court.'

Births

1821 – John C. Breckinridge (14th VPOTUS); 1878 – Harry Carey; 1900 – Edith Frank (Anne Frank's mother); 1901 – Frank Zamboni (yeah, that Zamboni); 1908 – Ethel Merman♪ ♫; 1910 – Dizzy Dean; 1917 – Carl Karcher (founded Carl's Jr.); 1920 – Elliott Reid (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes); 1932 – Dian Fossey; 1933 – Susan Sontag; 1934 – Bob Bogle♪ ♫(The Ventures); 1935 – A. J. Foyt; 1936 – Michael White (producer Monty Python And The Holy Grail); 1943 – Ronnie Milsap; 1944 – Jim Stafford; 1947 – Laura Schlessinger (Dr. Laura); 1948 – John Carpenter (director, screenwriter, producer, Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981), Starman, Assault on Precinct 13, Christine, Big Trouble in Little China); 1950 – Debbie Allen; 1950 – Robert Schimmel; 1959 – Sade♪ ♫; 1962 – Maxine Jones♪ ♫(En Vogue); 1965 - Jill Sobule♪ ♫(she kissed a girl); 1969 – Stevie Jackson♪ ♫(Belle & Sebastion); 1969 – Roy Jones Jr.; 1971 – Jonathan Mangum (white dude); 1974 – Kate Moss; 1979 – Aaliyah♪ ♫

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Deaths

1891 – Léo Delibes; 1906 – Marshall Field (founded Marshall Field's dept stores); 1942 – Carole Lombard; 1957 – Arturo Toscanini♪ ♫; 1967 – Robert J. Van de Graaff (high-voltage Van de Graaff generators); 1968 – Bob Jones, Sr. (founded Bob Jones University); 1972 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. (created Alvin and the Chipmunks), co-wrote "Come on-a My House"); 1981 – Bernard Lee ('M' in 11 James Bond movies); 2007 – Benny Parsons; 2009 – Andrew Wyeth; 2010 – Glen Bell (founded Taco Bell); 2013 – Pauline Phillips (created Dear Abby); 2014 – Ruth Duccini (Munchkin); 2014 – Dave Madden (the band's manager on The Partridge Family)

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1965 - Jill Sobule♪ ♫(she kissed a girl, and she liked it);

Jill Sobule is not actually Katy Perry but the singer/songwriter who wrote the same titled song ten years before Katy Perry.

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And had a radio hit with it.