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.)

January 4

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January 4, is:

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . eleven pipers piping.
For the significance of each day of Christmas, see: Good Housekeeping.com The 11 Pipers Piping are the eleven faithful apostles. – Peter, Andrew, James, John, Phillip, Nathanael (also called Bartholomew), Matthew (also called Levi), Thomas, James the Less, Simon, and Jude (also called Thaddeus).

World Braille Day in honor of Louis Braille (1809), French educator of the blind, developer of the Braille system of printing and writing.

National Spaghetti Day

Birthday of Sir Isaac Newton (January 4, 1643), physicist and mathematician; leader in the seventeenth century scientific revolution; discoverer of the law of gravity.

Birthday of Jacob Grimm (January 4, 1785), German writer who, with his brother, William, published the famous Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #34: Concerning the General Power of Taxation written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. Hamilton’s aim is to demonstrate that a government must have unlimited power of taxation for such circumstances as war and natural disaster. He argues that the state governments, which share taxation rights with the federal government, will serve as a balance and prevent abuse of such powers. He argues, further, that the federal government will always incur the greatest expenses, should have the greatest body to draw taxes from, and require a “greater power of taxation than the states.”

Samuel Colt sold his first revolver pistol to the United States government in 1847.

Header-UtahUtah Admission Day.  On this date in 1896 Utah became the forty-fifth state.

  • Capital: Salt Lake City
  • Nickname: Beehive State
  • Animal: Rocky Mountain Elk
  • Astronomical Symbol: Beehive Cluster
  • Bird: Seagull
  • Cooking Pot: Dutch Oven
  • Dance: Square dance
  • Firearm: Browning M1911
  • Fish: Bonneville Cutthroat Trout
  • Flower: Sego Lily
  • Fossil: Allosaurus
  • Fruit: Cherry
  • Gem: Topaz
  • Grass: Indian Ricegrass
  • Hymn: Utah, We Love Thee
  • Insect: Honey Bee
  • Language: English
  • Mineral: Copper
  • Motto: Industry
  • Rock: Coal
  • Snack: Jell-O
  • Tree: Quaking Aspen
  • Vegetable: Spanish sweet onion

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

1925 – French psychologist Emil Coué brought his self-esteem therapy to US “Every day in every way I am getting better and better”.

1954: A young truck driver named Elvis Presley entered the Memphis Recording Service in Memphis, TN, ostensibly to record a song for his mother’s birthday (which was, in reality, many months away). He recorded “Casual Love Affair” and “I’ll Never Stand in Your Way.” It was this recording that would lead MRS head Sam Phillips to call Presley back to record for his Sun Records label.

1958 – SputnikSputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in Oct. 1957, falls to Earth from orbit.

1965 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed his “Great Society” during a speech at Ohio University, then unveiled the program in greater detail at an appearance at University of Michigan. The main goals were the elimination of poverty and the elimination of racial injustice.

Nancy Pelosi Jan 4, 20072007 – 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.

January 3

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January 3 is:

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . ten lords a-leaping.
For the significance of each day of Christmas, see: Good Housekeeping.com. The 10 Lords A-leaping are the ten commandments.

Fruitcake Toss Day Yes, it’s time to toss out left-over fruitcake.

Festival of Sleep Day

Perihelion, the point during the year when the Earth is closest to the Sun, occurs on January 3rd in the year 2026 per Time and Date.com

January 3, 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #32: Concerning the General Power of Taxation written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. Hamilton describes the rights of sovereignty held by the states and the specifically designated rights of the federal government. One area of jurisdiction of the Union is the power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises. The constitution explicitly says that states cannot place duties on exports or, unless approved by congress, imports but says nothing about taxing other items so therefore the power to do so remains with the States.

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #33: Concerning the General Power of Taxation written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. Hamilton returns to his argument that the national government is allowed to made any laws needed for operating the federal government. His discussion includes the “Necessary and Proper Clause” (“to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the powers by that constitution vested in the government of the United States or in any department or officer thereof”) Article 1, Section 8; and the “Supremacy Clause” (“the constitution and the laws of the United States made in pursuance thereof and the treaties made by their authority shall be the supreme law of the land; any thing in the constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding”) Article VI, Clause 2. He makes sure that the audience understands that this will not take away their liberty.

Birthday of Joseph Damien de Veuster (1840), known as Father Damien, missionary to the lepers on Molokai Island in the Hawaiian archipelago.

January 3Birthday of Grace Coolidge (January 3, 1879), wife of President Calvin Coolidge; first lady 1923-1929. At the time of their marriage, Grace Anna Goodhue was a teacher at a school for the deaf.

Birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892), Oxford professor, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Alaska headerAlaska Admission Day; on January 3, 1959 Alaska became the forty-ninth state.

  • Capital: Juneau
  • Nickname: Last Frontier State; Land of the Midnight Sun; Seward’s Icebox
  • Animal: Moose
  • Bird: Willow Ptarmigan
  • Dog: Alaskan Malamute
  • Fish: Giant King Salmon
  • Flower: Forget-me-not
  • Gem: jade
  • Mineral: gold
  • Motto: North to the Future
  • Tree: Sitka Spruce

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

Anniversary of the establishment of the March of Dimes in 1938, an effort to raise money for polio research.
Originally known as the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, it was established by Franklin Roosevelt. The charity focused on collecting dimes. With entertainer Eddie Cantor coining the phrase “March of Dimes”, the White House received more than $85,000 in donations. With the discovery of the Salk vaccine, the organization changed its focus to maternal and infant mortality, especially the prevention of premature births.

On this date in 1952 “Dragnet” with Jack Webb premiered on NBC-TV.

The U.S. severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on January 3, 1961.

Jan 3, 1977 – Apple Computers was incorporated.

January 2

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January 2 is:

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love gave to me . . . nine ladies dancing.
For the significance of each day of Christmas, see: Good Housekeeping.com
The 9 Ladies Dancing are the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit. The nine fruits of the spirit signify good character traits to observe and maintain in oneself and embrace in your own life. They are Faithfulness, Gentleness, Goodness, Joy, Kindness, Love, Patience, Peace, and Self-Control.

Cream Puff Day
Cream Puffs made their debut in the United States in 1880. However, the first cream puff originated in Europe sometime during the 1540s when Catherine de Medici’s pastry chef created the baked puffed shells for Catherine’s husband, Henry II of France.

In Switzerland: Berchtoldstag (Berchtold’s Day). This day honors the founding of Bern in 1191, by Duke Berchtold V. Legend claims that he went hunting and said he would name the city for the first animal he killed, which was a bear (‘bern’).

Birthday of James Wolfe (1727), English general who died at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in Quebec between England and France.  Effectively ended French rule in North America.

Georgia header Georgia Ratification Day, commemorating Georgia’s entry into the Union in 1788 as the fourth state.

  • Capital: Atlanta
  • Nickname: Peach State; Empire State of the South
  • Bird: Brown Thrasher
  • Flower: Cherokee Rose
  • Tree: Live Oak
  • Motto: Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation
  • Amphibian: American Green Tree Frog
  • Butterfly: Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
  • Dance: Square dance
  • Fish: Largemouth bass
  • Food: Grits, Peach, Vidalia onion
  • Fossil: Shark tooth
  • Gem: Quartz
  • Insect: European honey bee
  • Mammal: Right whale
  • Mineral: Staurolite
  • Reptile: Gopher tortoise
  • Rock: Granite
  • Shell: Knobbed Whelk
  • Soil: Tifton
  • Song: “Georgia on My Mind”

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

In 1811, Senator Timothy Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, became the first senator to be censured when the Senate approved a censure motion against him by a vote of 20 to seven. Pickering was accused of violating congressional law by revealing secret documents communicated by the President to the Senate.

Birthday of Isaac Asimov (January 2, 1920), the immensely popular science fiction writer.

On this date in 1974, President Richard Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph.

Also in 1974, Tex Ritter (born Woodward Maurice Ritter), died in Nashville, Tenn. Some of his greatest hits were “Rye Whiskey,” “Wayward Wind,” and “You Are My Sunshine.” His performance of “High Noon,” from the movie of the same name, won an Oscar in 1952. Ritter appeared in eighty-five movies and starred in the television series “Ranch Party” (1959-1962). In 1964 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. John Ritter, his youngest son, starred in the popular series “Three’s Company.” – See more at: Texas Day by Day

January 1

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Monday, January 1, 2026 is the first day of a brand new year! We made it out of 2025!

Happy New Year!

Today is the 8th Day of Christmas:
“On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me: 8 maids a-milking.”
For the significance of each day of Christmas, see: Good Housekeeping.com. (The 8 Maids A-milking are the eight beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount):

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Today is First Foot Day! This is a New Year’s custom that started in Scotland.  The superstition goes back to the era of the Viking raiders when a fair-haired Norseman at a Scotsman’s door meant trouble.

If the first person to set foot in your house on the morning of January 1 is a dark-haired male, you will have good luck for the entire year. Ideally a first footer should bring gifts, such as:

  • a lump of coal to symbolize warmth all year
  • a silver coin for wealth and prosperity
  • some bread so you’ll never be hungry

After greeting everyone in the house, the first footer must exit through a different door from the one he had entered. Nobody should leave the house before the first footer shows up because the first traffic across the threshold should be coming in, not going out.

Blonde and red-haired male first footers bring BAD LUCK.
A female first footer spells DISASTER on the entire household.
********************************************************************************

Another superstition associated with New Year’s Day says one should not do laundry, do dishes, or sweep on this day. But, in China and Latin America, a legend suggests that you can literally sweep negativity away!

And one should not eat chicken today. Some believe that because chickens have wings, your luck will fly away if you have it on New Year’s.

January 1st is also National Bloody Mary Day. A Bloody Mary is a cocktail containing vodka, tomato juice, and combinations of other spices and flavorings. It is popular as a cure for hangover – from too much New Year’s Eve partying, maybe.

As a religious holiday, Jan 1 celebrates the Circumcision of Jesus, 8 days after birth in keeping with Jewish law. It is of significant medical importance that male circumcision be carried out on the eighth day after birth since the level of vitamin K is highest on this day and vitamin K plays a pivotal role in regulation and control of the important clotting factors in the coagulation pathway that helps in stopping bleeding.

AND, January 1st is the feast day of St. Basil, patron of hospital administrators. St. Basil came from a very holy family. It is remarkable to note that from the ten siblings in St. Basil’s family, five children became saints: St. Basil, who became the Archbishop of Caesarea; St. Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa; St. Peter, Bishop of Sebaste, St. Naucratius, and St. Macrina, as well as his grandmother, St. Macrina and his mother, St. Emellia.
Traditionally on St. Basil’s Day a St. Basil’s cake is made with a coin inside. Whoever gets the coin will have good luck for the entire year. Recipe here food.com

author of Federalist PaperPublication of Federalist Paper #31:Concerning the General Power of Taxation written by Alexander Hamilton in 1788. The opponents to the Constitution argue that the federal government will usurp the rights of the states by creating a monopoly on taxation and that the states would eventually be excluded and destroyed. Hamilton argues that a representative legislature would prevent that from happening.

New Year’s Day is celebrated by the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California (begin in 1890), the Mummer’s Day parade in Philadelphia, and the Mobile Carnival in Mobile, Alabama, birthplace of the Mardi Gras.

If that’s not enough, January 1 is also the birthday of:
Paul Revere, Born January 1 1735
Paul Revere (1735),

"Mad" Anthony Wayne, born January 1Anthony Wayne (1745), American Revolutionary War officer known as “Mad Anthony”,

Betsy Ross, born Jan 1,Betsy Ross (1752), and

J. Edgar Hoover, born January 1J. Edgar Hoover (1895).

In 1808 the importation of slaves was banned in the United States.

January 1 is the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 when Lincoln freed the slaves in the Confederate states….said nothing about the slaves in the North.

In 1892 Ellis Island opened to begin processing LEGAL immigrants into the U.S.

Happy New Year one and all!

Tidbits of History, December 31, 2025

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This entry of December 31, 2025,  marks the 12th year of “Tidbits of History”. I’d like to acknowledge some of the resources and references used for this project:

I’m also indebted to many, many books, including:

  • From Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov’s Book of Facts. New York, Bell Publishing Company, 1981
  • From 2201 Fascinating Facts by David Louis, published by Greenwich House, New York, 1983
  • From Anniversaries and Holidays, Third Edition by Ruth W. Gregory, published by American Library Association, Chicago 1975.

I’ve gathered information from wherever I’ve come across it and deeply appreciate the efforts of others who contributed to the subjects I’ve included in Tidbits of History. Choosing what to include and what to ignore has been the challenge of this project and I’ve tried to include a variety of facts and events that I found interesting. The above mentioned websites offered more information than anyone could possibly digest on a daily basis.

I’d also like to thank “WordPress” for providing a forum which makes this blog easy. It allowed me to add formatting where I chose without having to HTML-ize every entry.

2025 has been a challenging year, as they all are. A diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease in 2024 has led to many changes in our lives. The disease is complex and ever-changing. What symptoms Benney displays this week will be different than last week or next week. Keeps us guessing and on our toes. Medication is helping. Life is the opportunity to continue learning and changing and we are doing our best to adapt. One of the best things about last year and this situation was meeting with a speech therapist. Melanie was always upbeat, encouraging, complimentary. She recognized Benney’s strengths and positive qualities and meeting with her was a pleasure.
Learning about Parkinson’s Disease is ongoing. Seems like everyone’s story is different – no two people experience the same symptoms. It’s a struggle but we are blessed and life is good.

So, as 2026 begins, I look forward to another opportunity to study, to learn, and to share historical information. I am not attempting to provide comprehensive information on any subject, just a “tidbit” to whet your appetite in the hopes that you, too will find history worth learning.

There are those who would try to destroy or distort our history. To me that is a crime against humanity for we are the caretakers of the past. One of our favorite quotes by George Santayana is:

“Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

May 2026 be a wonderful year for all of us! May we continue to learn new and old “tidbits of history” and find delight in the discoveries.

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