Category Archives: Presidential History

January 20

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January 20 is:

National Buttercrunch Day
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a public holiday. It is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed.

Penguin Awareness Day

1265 – In Westminster, the first English parliament conducted its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster, now also known colloquially as the “Houses of Parliament“.

1503 – Casa Contratacion (Board of Trade) founded in Spain to deal with American affairs. It was founded by Queen Isabella I of Castile.

First American military court martial trial began in Cambridge, Mass in 1778. Ordered by George Washington against William Seeds and Samuel Carter for desertion from the Continental Army.

The Kingdom of Great Britain signed a peace treaty with France and Spain in 1783, officially ending hostilities in the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence).

John Marshall was appointed Chief Justice of the United States in 1801.

LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the roller coaster in 1885 for the Switchback Railway that opened a year earlier at Coney Island. There are now over 6500 roller coasters all over the world.

1887 – The United States Senate allowed the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor, in Honolulu,Hawaii as a naval base.

The American Civil Liberties Union was founded by Roger Baldwin, Crystal Eastman, Helen Keller, and Walter Nelles on January 20, 1920. Its stated mission was “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.”

Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David) became King of the United Kingdom in 1936. He was the eldest son of King George V and Queen Mary. He abdicated in December the same year. He was succeeded by his younger brother Albert, (Albert Frederick Arthur George) who chose the regnal name of George VI.

Ronald ReaganTwenty minutes after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated on January 20, 1981. Iran released 52 American hostages after holding them hostage for 444 days. The hostages were placed on a plane in Tehran as Reagan delivered his inaugural address.

January 18

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January 18 is:

Thesaurus Day (Birthday of Peter Roget)

National Gourmet Coffee Day

Peking Duck Day

Winnie the Pooh Day -The Birthday of Winnie’s creator, A.A. Milne

Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded Lima, the capital of Peru in 1535. Pizarro is famed for the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.

James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he named the “Sandwich Islands” in 1778.

President James Madison, born March 16, 1751Publication of Federalist Paper #40: The Powers of the Convention to Form a Mixed Government Examined and Sustained written by James Madison in 1788. This paper addresses one question “whether the Convention were authorized to frame and propose this mixed Constitution” or was the authorization merely to amend the Articles. Madison argues that to fix the Articles, it was necessary to scrap them and start over. The Convention was given the task of “revising the Articles which shall render them adequate to the exigencies of government and the preservation of the union.” The changes were to be submitted to Congress and presented to the states for ratification.

Birthday of Peter Mark Roget (January 18, 1779), English physician, and author, famous for the Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases

Birthday of Daniel Webster (January 18, 1782), American statesman, lawyer, and orator, senator from Massachusetts. As Secretary of State for John Tyler, he negotiated the Webster-Ashbuton Treaty which resolved several border issues between the U. S. and Canada. He and Henry Clay from Kentucky and John C. Calhoun from South Carolina were known as the “Great Triumvirate”, three statesmen who dominated the U.S. Senate in the 1830’s and 1840’s.

The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrived at Botany Bay. Admiral Arthur Phillip sailed the armed tender HMS Supply into the bay on 18 January, 1788. Two days later the remaining ships of the First Fleet arrived to found the planned penal colony. However, the land was quickly ruled unsuitable for settlement as there was insufficient fresh water.

On January 18, 1861 Georgia joined South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.

January 181862 John Tyler, the tenth president of the United States, died in Richmond, Va., at age 71. Tyler was the first Vice-President to ascend to the Presidency upon the death of the President, William Henry Harrison. He fathered more children than any other president – eight with his first wife and seven with his second wife. When Civil War broke out, Tyler sided with the Confederacy and his death was not officially recognized in Washington, D.C. His coffin was draped with the Confederate Flag.

1871 – Wilhelm I of Germany was proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire is known as the Second Reich to Germans. The Second Reich ended in 1919 with formation of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933).

(The First Reich, was also known as The Holy Roman Empire (a continuation of the Roman Empire in Europe), that started in the lands ruled by Charlemagne (Germany, Austria, Eslovenia, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, eastern France, Northern Italy and western Poland), with a period beginning on the 9th century and finishing in the 19th century.)

Winnie the PoohWinnie the Pooh Day -The Birthday of Winnie’s author A.A. Milne (1882)

Oliver HardyBirthday of Oliver Hardy (January 18, 1892), American comic movie actor, one-half of the famed Laurel & Hardy team. He was born Norvell Hardy and added his father’s name “Oliver” to his own prior to 1910.

Cary GrantBirthday of Cary Grant, (January 18, 1904), actor, born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England.

1911 – Eugene B. Ely landed on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

Danny KayeBirthday of Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky) (January 18, 1913), American actor/comedian/dancer whose performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes and rapid-fire nonsense songs. See BenneynLinda.com/showtunes for my tribute to Danny Kaye.

1919 – Bentley Motors Limited was founded by W. O. Bentley. It was purchased by Rolls-Royce in 1931.

1944 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosted a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.

January 17

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January 17 is traditionally the “Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day.” It is estimated that 40% of the population makes New Year’s Resolutions and 8% keep them.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a public holiday. It is a day off for the general population, and schools and most businesses are closed.

National Hot Buttered Rum Day

395 – Emperor Theodosius I died in Milan; the Roman Empire was re-divided into an eastern and a western half. The Eastern Roman Empire (which became the Byzantine Empire) was centered in Constantinople (now Istanbul) under Arcadius, 12 year-old son of Theodosius, and the Western Roman Empire in Mediolanum (ancient Milan) under Honorius, his brother (aged 10). Theodosius I was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395, the last emperor to rule over the entire Roman Empire.

1377 – Pope Gregory XI moved the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon. The papacy had been centered in Avignon, France since 1309. Seven popes resided in France. Gregory XI died 27 March 1378. The College of Cardinals was pressured into choosing an Italian pope – Urban VI. Soon after, the cardinals regretted selecting Urban and returned to Avignon (called the Western Schism) and elected a French Pope, the antipope, Clement VII. The church had two popes until 1418.

born January 17, 1706Birthday of Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706), Founding Father of America. He was a leading printer, statesman, inventor and diplomat. Author of “Poor Richard’s Almanac“. Inventor of the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, and a carriage odometer.

Captain James Cook and his crew on the HMS Resolution circumnavigated the globe at an extreme southern latitude, becoming one of the first to cross the Antarctic Circle on this date in 1773.

Birthday of David Lloyd George (January 17, 1863), British Prime Minister 1916-1922. He is the only Prime Minister to have been Welsh and to have spoken English as a second language.

1873 – A group of Modoc warriors defeated the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold (now called Captain Jack’s Stronghold) in Northern California. Part of Lava Beds National Monument today.

Birthday of Mack Sennett (born Mikall Sinnott) (January 17, 1880), movie creator (Keystone Kops), innovator of slapstick comedy in film.

Hayes, died January 171893 Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States (from 1877 to 1881), died in Fremont, Ohio, at age 70 of complications of a heart attack.

Birthday of Al Capone (January 17, 1899), the American gangster and prohibition era crime leader.

On Jan. 17, 1912, English explorer Robert Falcon Scott led a party of five which reached the South Pole on 17 January 1912, only to find that they had been preceded by Roald Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition. On their return journey, Scott and his four comrades all died from a combination of exhaustion, starvation and extreme cold.

Commander Taussig of the U.S. Navy took possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean for the United States in 1899. It was intended to be used as a telegraph cable station. Today it is the location of the Wake Island Airfield, managed by the United States Air Force, and a missile facility operated by the U. S. Army. It is part of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument

1917 – The United States paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

U.S. Territories

The 18th Amendment to the Constitution took effect on January 17, 1920 (Prohibition) when the Volstead Act went into effect. It was repealed in 1933 with ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Birthday of Betty White (January 17, 1922), Actress (“The Golden Girls“, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show“, “Hot in Cleveland“)

Popeye1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appeared in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.

I’m Popeye the Sailor Man,
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.
I’m strong to the finich (sic)
Cause I eats me spinach.
I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.

1949 – The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first aired. It was a domestic comedy featuring the life of a Jewish family liiving in the Bronx. It was written by, directed by, and starred Gertrude Berg.

1961 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warned against the accumulation of power by the “military-industrial complex”.

Michelle ObamaBirthday of Michelle Obama (January 17, 1964), wife of Barack Obama; First Lady 2009-Jan 20, 2017.

Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning of January 17, 1991. Iraq fired 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

January 9

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January 9 is the 9th day of the year.

Play God Day What would you do if you were god for a day?

National Apricot Day

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

ConnecticutConnecticut Ratification Day; in 1788 Connecticut became the fifth state.

  • Capital: Hartford
  • Nickname: Constitution State
  • Aircraft – Corsair F4U
  • Animal – Sperm Whale
  • Bird: Robin
  • Composer – Charles Edward Ives
  • Flower: Mountain Laurel
  • Folk Dance – Square Dance
  • Fossil – Eubrontes Giganteus dinosaur tracks
  • Hero – Nathan Hale
  • Heroine – Prudence Crandall
  • Insect – Praying Mantis
  • Mineral – Garnet
  • Motto: He Who Transplanted Still Sustains
  • Poet Laureate – John Hollander
  • Shellfish – Eastern Oyster
  • Ship – USS Nautilus (SSN-571)
  • Song – “Yankee Doodle”
  • Tall Ship – Freedom Schooner Amistad
  • Tree: White Oak

See our page Connecticut for more interesting facts and trivia about Connecticut.

The Daguerrotype photo process was announced in 1839.

1902 – New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.

January 9 Birthday
Birthday of Richard Nixon (January 9, 1913), born in Yorba Linda, California, thirty-seventh President of the United States.

In 1942 Joe Louis achieved the heavyweight boxing title by knocking out Buddy Baer in the first round.

“Dear Abby” advice column by Abigail Van Buren first appeared in newspapers in 1956.

Birthday of Catherine “Kate” Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, (January 9, 1982) wife of Britain’s Prince William.

On January 9, 2007, Steven P. Jobs introduced Apple’s long-awaited entry into the cellphone world, the iPhone.

January 8

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January 8 is:

Bubble Bath Day

National English Toffee Day

Feast of St. Erhard of Regensburg, patron saint for livestock; Images of him were used as Schluckbildchen (Schluckbildchen; from German, means literally “swallowable pictures”, small notes of paper that have a sacred image on them with the purpose of being swallowed.) They were used as a religious practice in the folk medicine and given to sick animals during the eighteenth, nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.

1642 Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #36: Concerning the General Power of Taxation written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. Hamilton details the government’s need for a body of tax collectors knowledgeable of every district, so as to establish a value to be taxed. He claims that this will be accomplished by using the same tax collectors as the state governments do. Hamilton argues against a poll tax. The argument arises that the Federal Government would lack information about the needs and circumstances of each state. Hamilton again uses the argument that each state has representatives who would be familiar and knowledgeable about the needs of their state. (Why did the 17th Amendment pass?)

Anniversary of the first State of the Union message by President George Washington in 1790. Text may be found at The American Presidency Project

Battle of New Orleans Day or Old Hickory’s Day, or Jackson Day. Commemorates the historic battle with the British won by Andrew Jackson in 1815. The battle took place 18 days after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent, which formally ended the War of 1812, on December 24, 1814, though it would not be ratified by the United States (and therefore did not take effect) until February 16, 1815, as news of the agreement had not yet reached the United States from Europe.

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

January 8, 18561856 – Dr. John A. Veatch discovers borax at Tuscan Springs, California. Wagons pulled by teams of twenty mules each give rise to the brand “Twenty Mule Team Borax.”

January 8, 18891889 – Herman Hollerith was issued US patent #395,791 for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’ — his punched card calculator. Remember punch cards? An extra hole or two from a hand-held clandestine punch could gum things up… “Keypunch operator” was one of the careers for which one could train and was my first job in 1960.

1918 – President Woodrow Wilson announces his “Fourteen Points” for the aftermath of World War I.

Birthday of Elvis Presley (January 8, 1935), American singer, musician, and actor. Cultural icon of the 20th Century.

1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a “War on Poverty” in the United States. According to the Heritage Foundation:

In the 50 years since that time, U.S. taxpayers have spent over $22 trillion on anti-poverty programs. Adjusted for inflation, this spending (which does not include Social Security or Medicare) is three times the cost of all U.S. military wars since the American Revolution. Yet progress against poverty, as measured by the U.S. Census Bureau, has been minimal, and in terms of President Johnson’s main goal of reducing the “causes” rather than the mere “consequences” of poverty, the War on Poverty has failed completely. In fact, a significant portion of the population is now less capable of self-sufficiency than it was when the War on Poverty began.

January 7

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January 7 is:

According to National Today.com, January 7th is National Tempura Day “It is always a yummy time to celebrate tempura, a fantastic Japanese dish made from deep-frying vegetables, seafood, or other foods dipped in a light batter of flour, eggs, and water. Tempura has been with us for about three centuries. Although the Portuguese living in Nagasaki in the 16th century introduced it, tempura has become entrenched in Japanese culture, and you can find tempura everywhere in Japan today. On this day, you can enjoy tempura in different ways, including with a dipping sauce or something more experimental like tempura ice cream.”

Old Rock Day The unofficial holiday encourages people to acknowledge, celebrate, and learn more about old rocks and fossils.

Anniversary of First U.S. Presidential Election – The first presidential election was held on the first Wednesday of January in 1789. No one contested the election of George Washington.

Christmas observed by the Russian Orthodox Church in accordance with the Julian calendar.

Fillmore January 7Birthday of Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800), thirteenth president of the United States. President Zachary Taylor died July 9, 1850 and Vice-President Fillmore was sworn in the next day. Fillmore accepted the resignations of all the department heads and appointed an entirely new cabinet. Fillmore was the first President who was a health nut. He did not smoke or drink, and was fastidious about measures he believed could affect his physical well-being. For example, one hot summer night in Washington, he left the White House to sleep in the cooler and breezier part of Washington known as Georgetown because of the malaria risk.

First Lady Abigail Fillmore was appalled to find no books in the White House, supposedly not even a Bible. Of this omission was to come her greatest gift: the White House Library.

On January 7, 1904 the distress signal “CQD” was established only to be replaced two years later by “SOS”. Land telegraphs had adopted the convention of using “CQ” (“sécu”, from the French word sécurité) to identify alert, or precautionary messages of interest to all stations along a telegraph line. CQ had then been adopted in maritime radiotelegraphy as a “general call” to any ship or land station.

From wikipedia:

In landline use there was no general emergency signal, so the Marconi company added a “D” (“distress”) to CQ in order to create a distress call. Sending “D” was already used internationally to indicate an urgent message. Thus, “CQD” was understood by wireless operators to mean All stations: Distress.

At the first International Radiotelegraphic Convention, held in Berlin in 1906, Germany’s Notzeichen distress signal of three-dots three-dashes three-dots ( ▄ ▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ▄ ) was adopted as the international Morse code distress signal. This distress signal soon became known as “SOS” because it has the same dash-dot sequence as the letters S O S with the gaps between the letters removed, and in fact it is properly written SOS, with an overbar, to distinguish it from the three individual letters. In contrast, CQD is transmitted as three distinct letters with a short gap between each, like regular text. The SOS distress code is also easier to hear as it is nine symbols long, while no other character or sign is longer than six symbols.

From 1899 to 1908, nine documented rescues were made by the use of wireless. The earliest of these was a distress call from the East Goodwin lightship. However, for the earliest of these, there was no standardized distress signal. The first US ship to send a wireless distress call in 1905 simply sent HELP (in both International Morse and American Morse). 

On 7 December 1903, Ludwig Arnson was a wireless operator aboard the liner SS Kroonland when she lost a propeller off the Irish coast. His call of CQD brought aid from a British cruiser. In 1944 Mr. Arnson received the Marconi Memorial Medal of Achievement in recognition of his sending the first wireless distress signal.[9] By February 1904, the Marconi Wireless Company required all its operators to use CQD for a ship in distress or for requiring URGENT assistance.[1] In the early morning of 23 January 1909, whilst sailing into New York from Liverpool, RMS Republic collided with the Italian liner SS Florida in fog off the island of Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States. Radio Operator Jack Binns sent the CQD distress signal by wireless transmission.

On 15 April 1912, RMS Titanic radio operator Jack Phillips initially sent “CQD”, which was still commonly used by British ships. Harold Bride, the junior radio operator, suggested using SOS, saying half-jokingly that it might be his last chance to use the new code. Phillips thereafter began to alternate between the two.[4]: 1911  Although Bride survived, Phillips perished in the sinking.

President Harry S. Truman announced in his State of the Union address of 1953 that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.

The United States recognized Fidel Castro‘s new government in Cuba in 1959.

In 1968 First Class Postage increased from 5¢ to 6¢.

January 7, 1969 US Congress doubled presidential salary from $100,000 to $200,000 per year.

Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government in 1979. The Khmer Rouge leadership boasted over the state-controlled radio that only one or two million people were needed to build the new agrarian communist utopia. As for the others, as their proverb put it, “To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss.” Head of the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot presided over a government that killed 1-3 million people, about 20% of the Cambodian population.

January 6

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January 6 is the sixth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.

Bean Day Wondering why National Bean Day is held on January 6? That’s the same day as the famous geneticist, Gregor Mendel, died in 1884. Mendel used bean plants and pea plants to develop theories on genetics in plants. So the formation of National Bean Day has more to do with scientific development than how good bean recipes taste. But don’t let that deter you from enjoying eating beans on this holiday!

Cuddle Up Day Link includes suggestions for cuddling.
National Shortbread Day Link includes history of shortbread.

Feast of the Epiphany. In Western Christianity, the feast commemorates principally (but not solely) the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child, and thus Jesus’ physical manifestation to the Gentiles.

Birthday of Joan of Arc (January 6, 1412), the Maid of Orleans, national heroine of France.

Birthday of Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878), American poet, historian, biographer of Abraham Lincoln.

New MexicoNew Mexico Admission Day On this day in 1912 New Mexico became the forty-seventh state.

  • Capital: Santa Fe
  • Nickname: Land of Enchantment
  • Aircraft – Hot air balloon
  • Amphibian – New Mexico Spadefoot Toad
  • Animal – Black Bear
  • Bird: Roadrunner
  • Butterfly – Sandia hairstreak butterfly
  • Colors – Red and Yellow
  • Cookie – Biscochito
  • Cowboy Song – Under The New Mexico Skies
  • Fish – NM cutthroat trout (Rio Grande cutthroat trout)
  • Flower Yucca flower
  • Fossil – Coelophysis (small late Triassic dinosaur)
  • Gem – Turquoise
  • Grass – Blue grama grass
  • Guitar: New Mexico Sunrise guitar
  • Insect – Tarantula hawk wasp
  • Motto: It Grows as it Goes
  • Necklace: Native American squash blossom necklace
  • Reptile – New Mexico whiptail lizard
  • Slogan – “Everybody is somebody in New Mexico”
  • Tie – Bola tie
  • Tree: Pinon
  • Vegetables – chile and frijole

See our page for New Mexico for more interesting facts and trivia about New Mexico.

1853 – President-elect of the United States Franklin Pierce and his family were involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts while on their way to his Inauguration. Their son, Benjamin Pierce (April 13, 1841 – January 6, 1853), died at the age of 11.

German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presented his theory of continental drift in 1912.

T. Roosevelt, died January 6On January 6, 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, N.Y., at age 60. He became president following the assassination of William McKinley.
According to Wikipedia:

On the night of January 5, 1919, Roosevelt experienced breathing problems. He felt better after treatment from his physician, Dr. George W. Faller, and went to bed. Roosevelt’s last words were “Please put out that light, James” to his family servant James Amos. Between 4:00 AM and 4:15 AM the next morning, Roosevelt died in his sleep at Sagamore Hill as a result of a blood clot detaching itself from a vein and entering his lungs. Upon receiving word of his death, his son Archibald telegraphed his siblings simply, “The old lion is dead.” Woodrow Wilson’s vice president, Thomas R. Marshall, said that “Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.”

Four Freedoms Day commemorating FDR’s message to Congress in 1941 defining national goals as Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

January 5

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January 5 is:

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . twelve drummers drumming.
Eleven pipers piping.
Ten lords a-leaping.
Nine ladies dancing.
Eight maids a-milking.
Seven swans a-swimming.
Six geese a-laying.
Five Golden Rings
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtledoves.
And a partridge in a pear tree.

For the significance of each day of Christmas, see: Goodhousekeeping.com The 12 Drummers Drumming are the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle’s Creed. The Creed most likely originatee in 5th-century Gaul, as a development of the Old Roman Symbol, the old Latin creed of the 4th century. It has been in liturgical use…since the 8th century, and by extension in the various modern branches of Western Christianity, including the modern liturgy and catechisms of the Catholic Church, Lutheranism, Anglicanism, Presbyterianism, the Moravian Church, Methodism, and Congregational churches.

  1. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
  2. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord
  3. Who was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary
  4. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried
  5. He descended into hell.The third day he arose again from the dead
  6. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty
  7. He will come again to judge the living and the dead
  8. I believe in the Holy Spirit
  9. the holy catholic Church, the Communion of Saints
  10. the forgiveness of sins
  11. the resurrection of the body
  12. And in life everlasting.

National Bird Day, anniversary of the incorporation of the National Associations of Audubon Societies.

In 1757 – Louis XV of France survived an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.

Anniversary of the death of Elizabeth I of Russia on January 5, 1762. It was said that when she died 15,000 dresses were found in her closets. She changed her dress two or three times every evening.

Birthday of Zebulon Montgomery Pike (January 5, 1779), American general who commanded an early exploring expedition into the West. Pike’s Peak is named after him.

In 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, was burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #35: Concerning the General Power of Taxation written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. In this article Hamilton responds to the argument that the federal government should be given the authority to tax only certain objects rather than a broad spectrum. He argues that if only imports are taxed, the taxes would be increased to the point of injuring trade, decreasing consumption, and promoting smuggling. Further, who pays these duties? If the merchant pays, increases may put them out of business; if the customer pays, the importing states would carry a heavier burden than manufacturing states.
Secondly Hamilton answers the charge that the House of Representatives is not large enough for all citizens.

Since it was assumed that all members of Congress would be merchants, professionals, or land owners, all types of citizens would be represented.

In 1895 – Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island.  In November 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer, was convicted of treason.  Sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having communicated French military secrets to the German Embassy in Paris, Dreyfus was sent to the penal colony at Devil’s Island in French Guiana,, where he spent almost five years.  Eventually all the accusations against Alfred Dreyfus were demonstrated to be baseless. In 1906 Dreyfus was exonerated.

On Jan. 5, 1914, Henry Ford, head of the Ford Motor Company, introduced a minimum wage scale of $5 per day.

January 5, Coolidge diedIn 1933 Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States, died in Northampton, Mass., at age 60 from coronary thrombosis. Coolidge became president upon the death of Warren Harding.

Introduced January 51945 – Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Brothers cartoon “Odor-able Kitty“.

1959 – “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” backed by “Raining in My Heart” was released by Coral Records. It was the last release of Buddy Holly before his death.

1998 – Sonny Bono died in a skiing accident. He was 62. He came to fame in partnership with his wife Cher, as the popular singing duo Sonny & Cher. He was also mayor of Palm Springs, California, from 1988 to 1992, and congressman for California’s 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998.

Christmas Music:

Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample which represents the end of this Christmas music season – until December 2021! Hope you’ve enjoyed it.

12 Days of Christmas
The 12 Days of Christmas

(by clicking the Windows Media Player icon button, a midi file will play [if it’s installed on your computer]. No music has been embedded.
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.)

Tidbits of History, December 31

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December 31 is:
Widely known as New Year’s Eve

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . . seven swans a-swimming.
For the Catholic interpretation of the significance of each day of Christmas, see: crosswalk.com

Memorial, December 31On December 31, 1687 the first organized group of Huguenots set sail from the Netherlands to the Dutch East India Company post at the Cape of Good Hope. The largest portion of the Huguenots to settle in the Cape arrived between 1688 and 1689 in seven ships as part of the organized migration, but quite a few arrived as late as 1700; thereafter, the numbers declined and only small groups arrived at a time. Many of these settlers were settled in an area that was later called Franschhoek (Dutch for French Corner), in the present-day Western Cape province of South Africa. A large monument to commemorate the arrival of the Huguenots in South Africa was inaugurated on 7 April 1948 at Franschhoek, where the Huguenot Memorial Museum was erected in 1957.

1695 – A window tax was imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.

December 31, 1857 – Queen Victoria chose Ottawa, then a small logging town, as the capital of Canada.
According to Wikipedia:

On New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1857, Queen Victoria as a symbolic and political gesture was presented with the responsibility of selecting a location for the permanent capital of the Province of Canada… The ‘Queen’s choice’ turned out to be the small frontier town of Ottawa for two main reasons: Ottawa’s isolated location in a back country surrounded by dense forest far from the American border and situated on a cliff face would make it more defensible from attack. Ottawa was located approximately midway between Toronto and Kingston in (Canada West) and Montreal and Quebec City in (Canada East). Despite Ottawa’s regional isolation it had seasonal water transportation access to Montreal over the Ottawa River and to Kingston via the Rideau Waterway. By 1854 it also had a modern all season Bytown and Prescott Railway that carried passengers, lumber and supplies the 82 kilometre distance to Prescott on the Saint Lawrence River and beyond. The smaller size of the town also made it less prone to rampaging politically motivated mobs, as had happened in the previous Canadian capitals. The government already owned the land that would eventually become Parliament Hill which they thought would be an ideal location for building the Parliament Buildings. Ottawa was the only settlement of any substantial size that was already located directly on the border of French populated former Lower Canada and English populated former Upper Canada thus additionally making the selection an important political compromise. Queen Victoria made her ‘Queen’s choice’ very quickly just before welcoming in the New Year.

1862 – American Civil War: Abraham Lincoln signed an act that admitted West Virginia to the Union, thus dividing Virginia in two. West Virginia was admitted as a state June 20, 1863. See for a discussion on why the two areas split.

Thomas EdisonThomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in 1879. (2012 – Incandescent bulbs are essentially outlawed.)

1907 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration to be held in Times Square was in 1907, (then known as Longacre Square) in New York, New York. (By 1872, the area had become the center of New York’s carriage industry. The area not having previously been named, the city authorities called it Longacre Square after Long Acre in London, where the carriage trade in that city was centered and which was also a home to stables.) Times Square was renamed in April 1904 after The New York Times moved its headquarters to the newly erected Times Building.

farthing ceased to be legal tender in the United Kingdom December 31, 1960.The farthing coin ceased to be legal tender in the United Kingdom in 1960. The farthing represented 1/4 of a penny (or a “fourthing”).

The Marshall Plan expired in 1961 after distributing more than $12 billion U.S. dollars in foreign aid to rebuild Europe.

1999 – The United States Government handed control of the Panama Canal (as well all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) to Panama. This act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties. The Torrijos–Carter Treaties (Spanish: Tratados Torrijos-Carter) are two treaties signed by the United States and Panama in Washington, D.C., on September 7, 1977, which superseded the Hay–Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903. The treaties guaranteed that Panama would gain control of the Panama Canal after 1999, ending the control of the canal that the U.S. had exercised since 1903. The treaties are named after the two signatories, U.S. President Jimmy Carter and the Commander of Panama’s National Guard, General Omar Torrijos.

Christmas Music:

Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. And nothing says New Years like Robert Burns’ Auld Lang Syne.

    Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
    And never brought to mind?
    Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
    And auld lang syne.

    Chorus

    For auld lang syne, my dear,
    For auld lang syne.
    We'll take a cup o' kindness yet,
    For auld lang syne.

    And surely you’ll buy your pint cup!
    and surely I’ll buy mine!
    And we’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
    for auld lang syne.

    Chorus

    We two have run about the slopes,
    and picked the daisies fine;
    But we’ve wandered many a weary foot,
    since auld lang syne.

    Chorus

   We two have paddled in the stream,
   from morning sun till dine;
   But seas between us broad have roared
   since auld lang syne.

    Chorus

    And there's a hand, my trusty friend!
    And give's a hand o' thine!
    And we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
    For auld lang syne.

    Chorus

Tidbits of History, December 29

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December 29 is:

On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . five gold rings.
For the Catholic interpretation of the significance of each day of Christmas, see: crosswalk.com

National “Get on the Scales” Day

Pepper Pot Day

Johnson born December 29 1808Birthday of Andrew Johnson (December 29, 1808) 17th President of the United States.  He became President upon the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

Texas headerTexas was admitted as the 28th U.S. state in 1845.

  • Capitol: Austin
  • Nickname: Lone Star State
  • Bird: Mockingbird
  • Flower: Bluebonnet
  • Tree: Pecan
  • Motto: Friendship

See our page Texas for more interesting facts and trivia about Texas.

President James K. Polk, born Nov 2, 1795 U.S. President James Polk turned on the first gas light at the White House in 1848.

Bowling ball was invented in 1862.

Birthday of Henry P. DeForest (December 29, 1864),
According to Today in Science: Henry Pelouze deForest was an American gynecologist and surgeon who in 1902 established the first fingerprint file in the U.S., and invented the dactyloscope, a measuring device to analyze finger print patterns. Shortly after becoming its chief medical examiner, he was requested by the New York Civil Service Commission, to devise a system of personal identification to combat fraud at civil service examinations for police and fire department jobs. Hired stand-ins had been taking the test on behalf of candidates. A scandal resulted when a particular stand-in revealed he had taken the test for a dozen different candidates. DeForest first thought of utilizing the Bertillon anthropometric method, but instead adopted the simpler fingerprinting procedure used by Scotland Yard. This fingerprint file thus began for bureaucratic rather than criminal purposes. The first record was created on 19 Dec 1902.

December 29, 1890 – Wounded Knee Massacre on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 300 Lakota killed by the US Army.

In 1896, “Lava” soap was trademarked by William Waltke & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri.

Christmas Music:

Several years ago I worked on a project to celebrate the music in my life. Nothing says Christmas like the carols and songs heard only at this time of year. Here’s today’s sample:


It Came Upon a Midnight Clear

(by clicking the Windows Media Player icon button, a midi file will play [if it’s installed on your computer]. No music has been embedded.
Lyrics can be printed by using the File->Print Preview Commands. They will print in black ink with no images.)