January 3rd is

Chocolate-Covered Cherries Day

Drinking Straw Day *

Festival of Sleep Day

Fruitcake Toss Day *

∞

J.R.R. Tolkien Day *

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MORE! Lucretia Mott, J.R.R. Tolkien and Fats Domino, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Burkina Faso – Revolution Day

Canada – Victoria BC:
Wildlife Tour & High Tea
(daily through March)

China – Beijing:
The Bird’s Nest Ice and Snow Festival

Saint Kitts & Nevis – Carnival Holiday

United States – New York NY:
Hip Hop Shakespeare: Othello

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On This Day in HISTORY

106 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is born, Roman philosopher-lawyer-politician

1496 – References in Leonardo da Vinci notebooks suggest that he tested his flying machine. The test was unsuccessful and he didn’t try to fly again for several years

1521 – Pope Leo X’s papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem excommunicates Martin Luther

1698 – Pietro Metastasio born, Italian poet-songwriter-librettist

1749 – Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont

1749 – First issue of Berlingske, Denmark’s oldest continual newspaper,  published

1793 – Lucretia Mott, American abolitionist, pioneering women’s rights activist

1815 – Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance against Prussia and Russia

1823 – Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico for colonization in the region of the Brazos River in Texas

1825 – The first U.S. engineering college, Rensselaer School, opens in Troy NY, now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

1831 – Savitribai Jyotirao Phule born, Indian social reformer and poet; along with her husband, Jyotirao Phule, improves women’s rights and works to abolish discrimination and unfair treatment of people based on caste in India during British rule; she and her husband are co-founders of the first women’s school at Bhide Wada in Pune

1868 – The Shogunate is abolished in Japan and the Meiji dynasty is restored

1871 – Oleomargarine is patented by Henry Bradley

1888 – Marvin C. Stone patents the first spiral-wound wax-coated paper drinking straw *

1892 – John Ronald Reuel (J.R.R.) Tolkien * is born, beloved British author of  The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy

1919 – Herbie Nichols born, American Jazz pianist-composer; “Lady Sings the Blues”

1920 – Renato Carosone born, Italian songwriter-orchestra leader; “Mambo Italiano”

1925 – Benito Mussolini delivers his speech on the kidnapping and murder of socialist leader Giacomo Matteotti to the Italian Chamber of Deputies; he assumes “political responsibility, moral and historical” for events leading up to Matteotti’s murder; Mussolini’s speech marks the beginning of the delegitimization of the Parliament and its democratic functions, and his assumption of dictatorial powers

1926 – George H. Martin born, English arranger-composer-musician-producer, the “Fifth Beatle” who produced their early recordings, and did much of the orchestration, adding the string quartet to “Yesterday” for example

1938 – The March of Dimes is established by U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to fight poliomyelitis; its original name was the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis

1943 – Van Dyke Parks born, American composer-arranger-producer, worked with The Beach Boys, The Mothers of Invention, Randy Newman and many others

1945 – Stephen Stills born, American singer-songwriter-producer; Crosby, Stills  Nash and Young

1946 – John Paul Jones born, Led Zeppelin

1947 – U.S. Congressional proceedings – the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress –
are televised for the first time, to viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York

1951 – Dragnet debuts on NBC-TV

1953 – Frances Bolton and her son Oliver, from Ohio, become the first mother-son combination to serve at the same time in the U.S. Congress

1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch

1957 – Fats Domino records “I’m Walkin'”

1959 – Alaska becomes the 49th U.S. state

1961 – The U.S. severs diplomatic relations with Cuba

1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicates Cuban prime minister Fidel Castro

1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on U.S. television in a film clip shown on the Jack Paar Show, performing “She Loves You”

1988 – Margaret Thatcher becomes Britain’s longest-serving 20th century Prime Minister

1990 – Ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrenders to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission

1995 – The World Health Organization reports that the total of officially reported cases of AIDS has risen to 1,025,073 in 192 countries by the end of 1994

1995 – The U.S. Postal Service raises the price of the first-class stamp to 32 cents

1996 – The first Great Fruitcake Toss * is launched  in Manitou Springs, Colorado – now contestants compete annually to see who can toss their fruit cake the farthest

1998 – China announces that it will spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys

2000 – Charles Schultz draws his last Peanuts comic strip

2004 – NASA’s Spirit rover lands on Mars, and sends back black and white images three hours after landing

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Visuals

• Chocolate-Covered Cherries
• First page of The Hobbit
• International flags
• Marcus Tullius Cicero – Don’t blame Caesar quote
• Lucretia Mott – Great change quote
• J.R.R. Tolkien – Unpraised deeds
• Charles Schultz retirement notice

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