January 1st Facts, Fun Trivia and History |
January 1st History Highlights |
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A Forgotten Tradition… |
Every US President up until Herbert Hoover held a tradition during New Years Day anyone could stand in line and shake the president’s hand and wish him a happy new year. |
January 1st is… |
Apple Gifting Day Commitment Day Copyright Law Day Ellis Island Day Global Family Day National Bloody Mary Day |
January 1st Birthday Quotes |
The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it. January, Lots of people go mad in January. Not as many as in May, of course. Nor June. But January is your third most common month for madness. Dickensian poverty tends to occur after Christmas in January. For it is then, with pockets empty, diary decimated and larder bare, that the general populace sinks into a collective pauper’s hibernation until Valentine’s Day. |
January 1st Birthdays |
1735 – Paul Revere, American silversmith and engraver (died in 1818) 1745 – Anthony Wayne, American general and politician (died in 1796) 1752 – Betsy Ross, American seamstress, credited with designing the Flag of the United States (died in 1836) 1895 – J. Edgar Hoover, American civil servant, first director of the FBI 1900 – Xavier Cugat, Spanish-American singer-songwriter and actor (died in 1990) 1909 – Dana Andrews, American actor (died in 1992) 1919 – J. D. Salinger, American soldier and author (died in 2010)[174] 1919 – Rocky Graziano, American boxer and actor (died in 1990) 1942 – Country Joe McDonald, American singer-songwriter and guitarist 1943 – Don Novello, American comedian (Father Guido Sarducci) 1964 – Dedee Pfeiffer, American actress |
January 1st History |
January 1st is both the furthest away and closest day to December 31st. Because of time zones, the first person born in a year can be born before the last person of the previous year. 4713 BC – Julian Calendar day #1, according to Joseph Justus Scaliger’s cycle of 7980 years. 45 BC – The Julian Calendar began, and was used widespread until 1582. 1622 – January 1st became the start of the “New Year” (it was March 25 for a long time prior) 1776 – General George Washington raised the first United States flag- the Grand Union Flag, at Prospect Hill, Massachusettes. 1788 – The Times of London newspaper began publication. 1801 – Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland unite, founding the “United Kingdom”. 1801 – Ceres, the largest and first known object in the Asteroid belt, was discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi. 1818 – Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus was published (anonymously) in London. (500 copies were made) 1862 – U.S. income tax began, with 3% of incomes over $600, 5% of incomes over $10,000. 1863 – The ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ issued by Abraham Lincoln 1886 – 1st Tournament of Roses took place in Pasadena, California 1896 – German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen announced his discovery of X-rays. 1908 – 1st New Year’s ball drop at Times Square, NYC 1910 – The Hydrox “biscuit bonbon,” a chocolate sandwich cookie with creme filling, was introduced. Oreos came out in 1912. 1915 – Aspirin was made available for the first time in tablet form. The pills were manufactured by Bayer pharmaceuticals, and had been available in powder form before that. 1923 – Britain’s Railways were grouped into the ‘Big Four’: LNER, GWR, SR, and LMS. 1928 – The 21-story Milam Building was the first air-conditioned, high-rise office building in the United States (San Antonio, TX) 1925 – 1st Sugar Bowl and 1st Orange Bowl 1934 – Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay became a United States Federal Prison. 1936 – The Herald Tribune of New York began microfilming the latest issues, becoming the first US newspaper to make a current record of its publication. 1946 – ENIAC, the first U.S. computer was completed. It was built at the Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, 1948 – The first motion picture ‘newsreel’ in color was taken at the Tournament of Roses and the Rose Bowl Game, Pasadena, California. 1954 – NBC broadcasted Pasadena’s Rose Bowl parade, for the first time in color. 1960 – US population: 179,245,000 1962 – The Rose Bowl game on NBC was the first coast-to-coast color television broadcast of a college football game in the US. 1964 – Tops of the Pops first aired on BBC 1966 – #1 Hit January 1, 1966 – January 7, 1966: Simon & Garfunkel – The Sound Of Silence 1966 – “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health” warning started appearing on cigarettes. 1971 – Cigarette advertisements were banned on American television. Janury 1, 1980 – The Far Side, Comic Strip debuted 1983 – The Evil Dead was released in theaters January 1, 1983 – The Apple Lisa was released. 1983 – The ARPANET officially changed to using the Internet Protocol, creating the Internet by default. 1985 – VH1 debuted on US cable January 1, 1985 – The Apple Macintosh XL was released. 1985 – The AT&T monopoly was broken up into seven companies: Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell and US West. 1988 – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America organized. January 1, 1990 (fiction) The Ghostbusters defeated Vigo the Carpathian, Ghostbusters II, Film 1995- The History Channel was launched 1995 – The last syndicated Far Side by cartoonist Gary Larson appeared. (started in 1985) 1997 – U.S. television networks adopted a ratings system for programming similar to the one used for motion pictures. 1997 – The Emergency Broadcast System was replaced by the Emergency Alert System 1999- The Biography channel and DIY channels were introduced. 1999 – Euro currency was introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union. 2000 – Fantasia 2000 was released in theaters. 2005 – #1 Hit January 1, 2005 – March 4, 2005: Mario – Let Me Love You 2008 – CourtTV was rebranded as TruTV 2011 – Discovery Health Channel became The Oprah Winfrey Network. 2014 -The manufacture and importing of the common 40-watt and 60-watt general service incandescent lamps was ended under the deadline set by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. 2015 – The Eurasian Economic Union came into effect, creating a political and economic union between Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan |
Today’s Random Trivia and Shower Thoughts |
Micheal Collins, one of the Apollo 11 astronauts, became the loneliest human ever when he solitarily orbited the dark side of the moon, and lost all radio contact with Earth and his fellow astronauts for 48 minutes. “Redrum!” – Danny Torrance in The Shining #moviequotes TV Quotes… “Nip it!” (Barney Fife) on “The Andy Griffith Show” Hangovers cost an estimated $220 billion loss in productivity per year. Women always have an ex-boyfriend who can fix cars. #moviecliches “We’re in America, man .” #misunderstoodlyrics 2000-year-old graffiti was discovered in the ancient city of Pompeii, such as “On April 19th, I made bread.” and “If anyone does not believe in Venus, they should gaze at my girlfriend.” “A boy’s best friend is his mother.” – Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) #moviequotes An ore (like a gold or silver ore) is only called an ore if it’s economically feasible to mine the mineral. The Capital of Zimbabwe is Harare Almost all cattle are descended from only 80 aurochs tamed in northern Mesopotamia about 10,000 years ago. The line between the two numbers in a fraction is called the vinculum 7/22. St Francis of Assisi – Real Name: Giovanni De Bernardone Notice the big letter on the face of the dollar bill? Each letter represents which Federal Reserve Bank printed it! “H” is for St. Louis The seven sins according to Gandhi: “Wealth without work. Pleasure without conscience. Knowledge without character. Commerce without morality. Science without humanity. Religion without sacrifice. Politics without principle.” In the average lifetime, a person will walk the equivalent of 5 times around the equator. Bangkok’s real name is “Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit”. |
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