Hello, Bombers! Another day, another dollar. Another day, another stupid Republican Trick. Another day, another gun death. Another day, another…
So let me think of some irrelevant questions to ask you. What was your favorite sitcom ever? Soup: Broth based or creamy? What is your favorite cheese? T-shirts: V-neck or crew neck? Farrah, Jaclyn, or Kate? What is your favorite decade (not counting this one) for fashion? Men in sandals, yes or no? Facial hair, good or bad?
The usual suspects on Twitter have this to say (please note there are some jokes about an imaginary girlfriend. If you missed this, Google Manti Te'o):
Now, on to the history lesson!
On This Day
In 1806, Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha, gave birth to James Madison Randolph, the first child born in the White House.
In 1917, the United States paid Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands. I wonder if they would have cost less if they were not virgins?
In 1945, Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, was taken into Soviet custody in Budapest, Hungary. (His fate has never been determined.)
In 1946, the United Nations Security Council held its first meeting.
In 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade.
In 1994, a magnitude 6.7 earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 61 people and causing $20 billion worth of damage.
In 1995, a magnitude 7.2 earthquake devastated the city of Kobe, Japan; more than 6,000 people were killed.
In 1997, an Irish court granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.
In 1998, President Bill Clinton became the first U.S. president to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil suit when he answered questions from lawyers for Paula Jones, who had accused Clinton of sexual harassment.
In 2001, faced with an Enron-created electricity crisis, California used rolling blackouts to cut off power to hundreds of thousands of people. I was lucky that the Socialist DWP in L.A. did not have to do that.
Born on This Day
1706 – Benjamin Franklin, American statesman and inventor (d. 1790)
1820 – Anne Brontë, British author (d. 1849)
1863 – David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister (d. 1945)
1863 – Constantin Stanislavski, Russian actor and theatre director (d. 1938)
1880 – Mack Sennett, Canadian film director (d. 1960)
1899 – Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
1905 – Peggy Gilbert, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader, advocate for women musicians (d. 2007)
1922 – Betty White, American actress
1923 – Carol Raye, Australian actress
1925 – Patricia Owens, Canadian actress (d. 2000)
1926 – Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (d. 2006)
1927 – Tom Dooley, American humanitarian (d. 1961)
1927 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer (d. 2008)
1928 – Vidal Sassoon, English hair stylist and cosmetologist (d. 2012)
1931 – James Earl Jones, American actor
1939 – Maury Povich, American talk show host and Tabloid TV pioneer
1942 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer
1944 – Françoise Hardy, French singer
1949 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
1949 – Mick Taylor, British musician (John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and The Rolling Stones)
1955 – Steve Earle, American musician
1959 – Susanna Hoffs, American musician (The Bangles)
1960 – John Crawford, American musician (Berlin) God, this video is so 80s! And barely shows John, but whatever...
1964 – Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States
1964 – Andy Rourke, English bass guitarist (The Smiths and Freebass)
1966 – Stephin Merritt, American singer and songwriter (The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, and The Gothic Archies)
1966 – Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
1967 – Richard Hawley, English singer, guitarist, and songwriter (Pulp and The Longpigs)
1969 – Naveen Andrews, British actor
1978 – Ricky Wilson, British singer (Kaiser Chiefs)
Died on This Day
1654 – Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (b. 1625)
1861 – Lola Montez, Irish-born adventurer (b. 1821)
1863 – Horace Vernet, French painter (b. 1789)
1893 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (b. 1822)
1927 – Juliette Gordon Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA (b. 1860)
1933 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American artist and designer (b. 1848)
1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1925)
1967 – Evelyn Nesbit, American model and actress and witness in one of the many Crimes of the Century that were dubbed that by the press of the time. (b. 1884)
1972 – Betty Smith, American writer and singer (b. 1896)
1996 – Barbara Jordan, American politician (b. 1936)
2005 – Virginia Mayo, American actress (b. 1920)
2007 – Art Buchwald, American humorist (b. 1925)
Today is
Hot Buttered Rum Day
Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day
Kid Inventors’ Day
Customer Service Day