January 16 in Pop Culture History

January 16th Fun Facts, Trivia and History

January 16th History Highlights

  • The first ‘Modern Novel’ was published in 1605; The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes, in Madrid, Spain. About 500 million copies have been printed.
  • 1920 – The League of Nations held its first council meeting in Paris, France.
  • 1944 – Dwight Eisenhower assumed command of SHAEF (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe).
  • 1991 – The Gulf War began.
  • If you were born on January 16th,
    You were likely conceived the week of… April 25th (prior year)

January 16th is…

Appreciate A Dragon Day
Book Publishers Day
Fig Newton Day
Get to Know Your Customers Day
National Good Teen Day
National Nothing Day
International Hot and Spicy Food Day
Without a Scalpel Day

January 16th Birthday Quotes

Nothing in this life worth achieving is easy, nor is it impossible.
– James May

I can never remember being afraid of an audience. If the audience could do better, they’d be up here on stage and I’d be out there watching them.
– Ethel Merman

It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.
– Dizzy Dean

To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That’s what lasts. That’s what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better. A better state of one’s feelings or simply the idea of a silence in one’s self that allows one to think or to feel. Which to me is the same.
– Susan Sontag

There are all sorts of things embodied in the Lego brick – geometry and mathematics and truth and proportion and shape and colour… It is a faintly spiritual activity that everybody connects with.
– James May

We live in a culture in which intelligence is denied relevance altogether, in a search for radical innocence, or is defended as an instrument of authority and repression. In my view, the only intelligence worth defending is critical, dialectical, skeptical, desimplifying.
– Susan Sontag

I ain’t what I used to be, but who the hell is?
– Dizzy Dean

What people say isn’t going to stop me. I have to do things for myself.
– Kate Moss

Social order at the expense of liberty is hardly a bargain.
– Sade

January 16th Birthdays

1477 – Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (died in 1547)
1853 – Andre Michwlin, French industrialist, founder of Michelin Tire Company (dies in 1931)
1878 – Harry Carey, American actor (died in 1947)
1908 – Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (died in 1984)
1910 – Dizzy Dean (Jay Hanna Dean), American baseball player and sportscaster (died in 1974)
1932 – Dian Fossey, Gorilla advocate (died in 1985)
1933 – Susan Sontag, American novelist, essayist, and critic (died in 2004)
1935 – A.J. Foyt, American race car driver
1942 – Barbara Lynn, American singer-songwriter
1943 – Ronnie Milsap, American singer
1944 – Jim Stafford, American singer-songwriter
1948 – John Carpenter, American director
1959 – Sade (Helen Folasade Adu), Nigerian-English singer-songwriter
1963 – James May, British journalist/co-host of Top Gear
1974 – Kate Moss, English model
1979 – Aaliyah, American singer and actress (died in 2001)
1985 – Joe Flacco, American football player
1987 – Jake Epstein, Canadian actor

January 16th History

1219 & 1362 – St. Marcellus Floods or Grote Mandrenke (Great Drowning of Men), Netherlands. Over 25,000 people drowned in 1362 and 25,000 in 1219.

1547 – Ivan the Terrible crowned himself 1st Tsar of Moscow.

1581 – England’s  Act of Persuasions passed in 1581 raised the fine that recusants, who refused to submit to established authority had to pay a fine/tax and allowed recusants to be imprisoned. The English Parliament passed several laws that restricted Roman Catholicism practice in England, but it did not outlaw it entirely. During the reign of Elizabeth I, England was a Protestant country, and the English Parliament passed several laws that sought to suppress the practice of Catholicism. These laws included the Act of Supremacy of 1558, which declared Elizabeth the supreme governor of the Church of England, and the Act of Uniformity of 1559, which required all clergy to use the Book of Common Prayer in their services. The English Parliament also passed a number of laws that imposed fines and other penalties on Catholics who practiced their religion openly, or who assisted priests in their ministry. Despite these laws, many Catholics continued to practice their religion secretly in England, and there were periodic persecutions of Catholics throughout Elizabeth’s reign.

However, the Catholic Church was not outlawed in England, and Catholics were not prevented from practicing their religion altogether.

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

1776 – The U.S. Continental Congress approved the enlistment of free men for the rebellion.

1894 – Theodore Witte of Chilliwack, British Columbia, was issued a U.S. patent (#512930) for a “Puttying-Tool” (the first caulking gun)

1920 – The 18th Amendment, Prohibition began, and alcoholic beverages were made illegal in the United States. (Effective one year later)

1936 – The first photo finish camera was installed at a US racetrack at Hialeah, Florida.

1939 – The Superman newspaper comic strip debuted.

1941 – War Department forms 1st Army Air Corps squadron, The Tuskegee Airmen, for black cadets.

1964 – Broadway Show – Hello, Dolly! (Musical) January 16, 1964, starring Carol Channing

1976 – The Donny and Marie musical variety show premiered on ABC.

1984 – Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested in Barbados for possession of marijuana.

January 16, 1986 – The Apple Macintosh Plus was released.

1988 – #1 Hit January 16, 1988 – January 22, 1988: George HarrisonGot My Mind Set On You

January 16, 19** Birthday (fictional) Wally West, Flash, DC Comics

1991 – All major television networks were pre-empted with Gulf War coverage right after evening news broadcasts.

1995Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which starred Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst premiered.

1998Star Kid, Fallen, Hard Rain, Half Baked and Pretty Village, Pretty Flame were released in theaters.

1999 – #1 Hit January 16, 1999 – January 29, 1999: BrandyHave You Ever

2004 – Along Came Polly debuted in theaters.

2009Paul Blart: Mall Cop debuted in theaters.

Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts

Obi-Wan Kenobi probably stank like a desert hobo when Luke first met him living on Tatooine.

I don’t think I’m a robot, but maybe that’s just part of my programming.

A diamond is just a lump of carbon that a South African mining cartel has convinced us is valuable.

US President #17 Andrew Johnson (1865-1869) impeached to little effect.

Don’t get your ambitions mixed up with your capabilities. #LifeProTip

Woody Allen – Real Name: Allen Konigsberg

If you shout, “I’m totally crazy,” people will think you’re crazy. If you shout, “I’m totally sane,” people will also think you’re crazy.

Because 1800 was not a leap year, John Adams served one fewer day as president than all other one-termers.

Lord Acton’s famous quote ‘Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ is immediately followed by ‘Great men are almost always bad men’.

A group of Asteroids is called a Belt.

Just for the giggles: Move every old person in the US to Ohio and rename Ohio as Ol’hio.

Bae – “before anyone else”

If there had been a fire going in the fireplace when the House was flooded with letters, Harry Potter would have ended very differently.

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