January 13th is

Peach Melba Day

Rubber Ducky Day

Sticker Day *

Stephen Foster Memorial Day *

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MORE! Émile Zola, Melba Liston and Douglas Wilder, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Cape Verde – Democracy Day

Lithuania –
Freedom Defenders Day

Togo – Liberation Day

Ukraine –  Malanka
(St. Melania the Younger’s Feast Day)

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On This Day in HISTORY

532 – In Constantinople, a quarrel between supporters of different chariot teams—the Blues and the Greens — in the Hippodrome escalates into the Nika (Win!) riots, with days of burning and looting that destroys half the city and an estimated 30,000 dead

1435 – Pope Eugene IV issues the Sicut Dudum, forbidding the enslavement of the Guanche natives in Canary Islands by the Spanish

1793 – Nicolas Jean Hugon de Bassville, ambassador from Revolutionary France, is lynched by a Roman mob for making derogatory remarks about the Pope and Catholicism

1808 – Salmon Portland Chase is born; Secretary of the Treasury under Abraham Lincoln, and later Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

1810 – Ernestine Rose, atheist, feminist and abolitionist, intellectual force behind the women’s rights movement of the 19th century

1847 – The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican–American War in California

1854 –  Anthony Faas is granted the first U.S. patent for the accordion, making improvements to the keyboard and enhancing the sound

1866 – Vasily Sergeyevich Kalinnikov born, Russian Composer

1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.

1898 – Émile Zola’s J’accuse…! exposes the miscarriage of justice in the Dreyfus affair

1901 – A.B. Guthrie Jr. born, American novelist, historian and screenwriter; 1950 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Way West; nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for Shane (1953)

1907 – Ray Stanton Avery born, creator of the “Kum Kleen Pricer Stickers,” the first commercially available self-adhesive labels – founder of Avery Dennison Corporation. National Sticker Day * now celebrates his legacy

1910 – Public radio broadcast of a live performance of the operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York

1921 – Dachine Rainer born as Sylvia Newman, American-born English writer, poet and anarchist; A Room at the Inn

1924 – Roland Petit born, French choreographer; director Ballet National de Marseille

1926 – Carolyn Gold Heilbrun born, American feminist author and academic; published mystery novels under pen name Amanda Cross

1926 – Melba Liston born, American Jazz trombonist, arranger and composer; first woman trombonist to play in big bands in the 1940s

1938 – Anna Home born, English children’s television producer for the BBC; her career spanned from Play School in the 1960s to her last project, Teletubbies, before her retirement in 1997

1942 – Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car

1955 – Dame Anna Pringle born, British diplomat; Ambassador to the Czech Republic (2001-2004) and to Russia (2008-2011)

1957 – The Frisbee is invented; the Frisbee Pie Company of Connecticut pie tins were the inspiration for the Frisbee. Legend has it that a Wham-O employee saw drivers for the pie company showing Yale students how to throw the pie tins

1957 – Claudia Emerson born, American poet; 2006 Pulitzer Poetry Prize for Late Wife; Poet Laureate of Virginia (2008-2010)

1960 – The USSR Gulag forced labor camps are officially abolished

1966 – Robert C. Weaver is appointed as the first U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, also becoming the first African American Cabinet member

1967 – The first Stephen Foster Memorial Day * which commemorates his achievements on the date of his death in 1864 – Foster has been hailed as ‘the father of American music’ and wrote over 200 songs, including ‎”Oh! Susanna” “Beautiful Dreamer” and “Camptown Races”

1978 – U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires all blood donations to be labeled “paid” or “volunteer” donors

1979 – The Y.M.C.A. files a lawsuit against the Village People over their song, “Y.M.C.A.”

1988 – Lee Teng-hui becomes first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China

1990 – Douglas Wilder is the first elected African American governor of Virginia as he takes office in Richmond

1993 – NASA Space Shuttle Endeavor begins its third mission

2000 – Microsoft chairman Bill Gates steps aside as chief executive and promotes company president Steve Ballmer to the position

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