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 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.
On 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.
Publication of
In 1933 
1945 – Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Brothers cartoon “Odor-able Kitty“.
2007 – The 110th United States Congress convened electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history. She served from 2007-2011 and from 2019-2023.
Birthday of Grace Coolidge (January 3, 1879), wife of 
Anthony Wayne (1745), American Revolutionary War officer known as “Mad Anthony”, 
Betsy Ross (1752), and 
J. Edgar Hoover (1895).
On 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.
Thomas Edison demonstrated incandescent lighting to the public for the first time in 1879. (2012 – Incandescent bulbs are essentially outlawed.)
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”).
2006 – Saddam Hussein was executed by hanging.
Birthday of 
