This is a diary I have been posting every day on the GOS since Jan stopped doing J Town (she made me do it!). Half of my fan base has moved over here, so I shall be doing some cross-posting. Today’s very important issues are: “Grow” as a transitive verb: Annoying? Is Auto-Tune the worst trend to happen to music in decades? If not, what is? Maraschino cherries: Food or decoration? Does anyone take Luke Russert seriously? Purple or Orange?
Apparently no tweets allowed, sorry!
And now, time for your history lesson!
On This Day
In 1540, King Henry VIII of England married Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife. He was hit by “buyer’s remorse” when he saw that she did not look as good as the portrait he had received of her. Luckily (for her) she was amenable to a divorce that allowed her to remain in England and be taken care of for the rest of her life.
In 1907, Maria Montessori opened her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
In 1912, New Mexico was admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his Four Freedoms speech in his State of the Union address.
In 1947, Pan Am Airlines became the first commercial airliner to schedule an around the world flight.
In 1994, Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit. The assault was planned by rival Tonya Harding, her ex-husband Jeff Gillooly and friend Shawn Eckardt.
In 2005, Edgar Ray Killen was arrested as a suspect in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers. He was found guilty in state court of three counts of manslaughter on June 21, 2005, the forty-first anniversary of the crime. He appealed the verdict, but his sentence of three times 20 years in prison was upheld on January 12, 2007, by the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Born on This Day
1367 – King Richard II of England (d. 1400)
1412 – Joan of Arc, French military figure and Roman Catholic Saint (legendary date) (d. 1431)
1655 – Empress Eleonore-Magdalena of Neuburg of the Holy Roman Empire (d. 1720)
1745 – Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier, French inventor. He was one of the two Montgolfier brothers who pioneered hot air ballooning. (d. 1799)
1819 – Baldassare Verazzi, Italian painter (d. 1886)
1832 – Gustave Dore, French painter, illustrator and sculptor (d. 1883)
1868 – Stefan Luchian, Romanian painter (d. 1917)
1878 – Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)
1880 – Tom Mix, American silent film actor (d. 1940)
1882 – Aleksandra Ekster, Russian painter (d. 1949)
1883 – Khalil Gibran, Lebanese writer (d. 1931)
1899 – Phyllis Haver, American actress (d. 1960)
1903 – Francis L. Sullivan, English actor (d. 1956)
1913 – Loretta Young, American actress (d. 2000)
1915 – Alan Watts, English writer/philosopher (d. 1973)
1926 – Mickey Hargitay, Hungarian-born American actor and bodybuilder (d. 2006)
1928 – Capucine, French actress (d. 1990)
1931 – E. L. Doctorow, American author
1934 – Sylvia Syms, English actress
1940 – Van McCoy, American musician (d. 1979) (The Hustle)
Syd Barrett, English guitarist, singer and songwriter (Pink Floyd and Stars) (d. 2006)
Sandy Denny, English singer and songwriter (Fairport Convention and Fotheringay) (d. 1978)
1951 – Kim Wilson, American musician (The Fabulous Thunderbirds)
1960 – Nigella Lawson, English chef and writer
1962 – Michael Houser, American guitarist (Widespread Panic) (d. 2002)
1964 – Mark O’Toole, English musician (Frankie Goes to Hollywood)
1986 – Alex Turner, English musician (Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets)
Died on This Day
1537 – Baldassare Peruzzi, Italian architect and painter (b. 1481)
1840 – Fanny Burney, English novelist and diarist (b. 1752)
1852 – Louis Braille, French teacher of the blind and inventor of braille (b. 1809)
1919 – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (b. 1858)
1944 – Ida Tarbell, American journalist (b. 1857)
1993 – Dizzy Gillespie, acclaimed jazz trumpet player (b. 1917)
1993 – Rudolf Nureyev, Russian ballet dancer (b. 1938)
1994 – Virginia Dell Cassidy, Bill Clinton’s mother (b. 1923)
2004 – Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (b. 1921)
2006 – Lou Rawls, American singer (b. 1933)
Today is
Bean Day
National Shortbread Day
Three Kings Day
Cuddle Up Day
Apple Tree Day
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