January 27th is

Chocolate Cake Day

National Geographic Day *

Thomas Crapper Day *

International Day in Memory of the Holocaust Victims *

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MORE! Dante, Mairéad Maguire and Mikhail Baryshnikov, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Canada – Edmonton AB:
Blueprint Soundwave Festival

Japan – Nara: Wakausa Yamayaki
(Winter “mountain roast” festival)

Germany – WWII Genocide Memorial Day

Italy – Viareggio: Carnevale di Viareggio
(opening day of pre-Lent carnival)

Monaco – Saint Dévote’s Day

Netherlands – Tilburg:
Minority Events Memorylane Festival

Serbia – Feast of St. Sava

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On This Day in HISTORY

AD 98 – Trajan becomes Roman Emperor; he expands the empire to its largest extent

1302 – Dante Alighieri, major Italian poet who broke with the tradition of using Latin and instead wrote in Italian, is exiled from Florence, is accused of corruption and financial wrongdoing by his enemies. He is never allowed to return, and dies in Ravenna

1343 – Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull Unigenitus justifying Papal power and the use of indulgences

1521 – The Diet of Worms opens, a Holy Roman Empire deliberative assembly called to address the growing dissension of the Reformation movement

1593 – The Vatican opens the seven-year heresy trial of Giordano Bruno, Italian Dominican friar, scholar and cosmologist; theorized that stars are distant suns with their own planets which might support life, that the universe was infinite with no celestial body at its center. Also charged with denying Catholic doctrines, including eternal damnation, the Trinity and transubstantiation. The Inquisition finds him guilty, and burns him at the stake in 1600

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: Trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31

1695 – Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan and Caliph of Islam in Istanbul; rules until his abdication in 1703

1741 – Hester Thrale born in Wales, British author-diarist and art patron; considered important source on 18th century life and Samuel Johnson; Anecdotes of the late Samuel Johnson

1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, child prodigy and one of the world’s greatest composers, is born in Salzburg

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox’s “noble train of artillery” arrives in Cambridge, MA

1785 – The University of Georgia founded, the first public university in the U. S.

1806 – Juan Crisostomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga born, Spanish-Basque composer

1823 –  Édouard Lalo born, French violinist and composer

1825 – Ignoring rulings by the Supreme Court on the sovereignty of Indian nations, the U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the “Trail of Tears” – thousands died of starvation and exposure, without any aid from the armed U.S. Army troops driving them

1832 – Lewis Carroll, born Charles Dodgson in Cheshire, England; author, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass

1850 – John Collier born, leading English Pre-Raphaelite portrait painter

Mrs Dalahaye by John Collier

1850 – Samuel Gompers born in England, American labor leader; founder of the American Federation of Labor (AFL)

1858 – Neel Doff born as Cornelia Doff in the Netherlands; Dutch-Belgium author writing mainly in French; important contributor to proletarian literature; after earning her living as an artist’s model, married Fernand Brouez, founder and publisher of  La Société Nouvelle (The New Society), influential magazine on social issues and the arts for French speaking Europeans; her first book, Jours de Famine et de Détresse (Days of Hunger and Distress) was semi-autobiographical, and nominated for the 1911 Prix Goncourt (it lost by one vote); followed by two more books Keetje and Keetje Trottin, which formed a trilogy

1868 – Boshin War: The Battle of Toba–Fushimi between forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and pro-Imperial factions begins, it would end in defeat of the shogunate, a pivotal point in the Meiji Restoration

1869 – During Boshin War, Tokugawa rebels establish the Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō

1870 – Kappa Alpha Theta, the first women’s sorority, is founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University)

1878 –Dorothy Scarborough born, American novelist and non-fiction author who wrote about the South and the Plains states; best known for her novel The Wind, made into the celebrated 1928 silent film starring Lillian Gish

1880 – Thomas Edison receives the patent on the incandescent lamp

1885 – Jerome Kern born, American composer

1888 – National Geographic Day * – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington DC

1892 – Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo born, French composer

1898 – Georgia Clark born, American bank president, first woman appointed U.S. Treasurer, by Harry Truman

1900 – In China, foreign diplomats in Peking, fearing a revolt, demanded that the imperial government discipline the Boxer rebels

1908 – William Randolph Hearst born, American newspaper publisher

1910 – Thomas Crapper Day * – the day British plumber Thomas Crapper died; he opened the first bathroom fixtures showroom, popularizing installing lavatories inside homes; inventor of the floating ball cock, siphonic flush toilet, plumbing u-bend trap and the manhole cover

1926 – John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrates a pictorial transmission machine called television

1927 – United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network with contracts with 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS)

1934 – Édith Cresson born, French politician and diplomat; European Commissioner for Research, Science and Technology (1995-1999); first woman Prime Minister of France (1991-1992)

1941 – Beatrice Tinsley born, New Zealand astronomer-cosmologist; revolutionary pioneer in theoretical studies of how galaxies evolve, relation of stars aging to galaxies; but after coming to the U.S. for better opportunities in her field,  Tinsley wrote to her father: “The University of Texas in Dallas has kept me at the nearest possible level to nothing.” She was asked to design an astronomy department for the University of Texas, yet in spite of her startling scientific achievements, her application for the job as head of the university’s astronomy department was not even answered; she eventually left her husband and children for a professorship at Yale, a heart-breaking choice between career and family

1944 – WWII: The 872-Day Siege of Leningrad is lifted, one of the longest sieges in history; over 1 million Soviet troops are killed, captured or missing, and another 2.4 million wounded or sick; civilian casualties numbered over 642,000 during the siege; over 579,000 Axis troops were killed or wounded

1944 – Mairéad Maguire born, Northern Irish peace activist; co-founder with Betty Williams of the Women for Peace, now the Community for Peace People; she and Williams were awarded the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize

1945 – International Day in Memory of the Holocaust Victims * – Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration/death camp, is liberated by Russia’s Red Army (see also 2005 entry)

1948 – Wire Recording Corporation of America announced first magnetic tape recorder: The ‘Wireway’ machine with built-in oscillator selling for $149.50

1948 – Mikhail Baryshnikov born, Latvian Kirov Ballet Premier danseur who defected; NYC Ballet and American Ballet Theatre; choreographer, and ABT artistic director

(Would someone please explain to me why camera operators can keep basketball players and downhill skiers in focus, but so much footage of ballet dancers is all blurry?)

1951 – An Air Force plane drops a one-kiloton atom bomb on Frenchman Flats NV

1960 – Fiona O’Donnell born in Canada, Scottish Labour Party politician; MP for East Lothian (2010-2015); elected in 2017 to the East Lothian Council

1961 – Leontyne Price makes her debut at NY’s Metropolitan Opera House as Leonora in Verdi’s Il Trovatore

1967 – At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee die in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft

1967 – More than 60 nations sign the Outer Space Treaty which bans orbiting of nuclear weapons and placing weapons on celestial bodies or space stations

1973 – The Vietnam peace accords are signed in Paris

1977 – The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on female priests

1981 – Ronald Reagan gets a photo-op at the White House with the 52 former American hostages released by Iran 

1984 – Cyndi Lauper releases “Time After Time”

1985 – The Coca-Cola Company, of Atlanta, GA, announces plans to sell its soft drinks in the Soviet Union

1992 – Former world boxing champion Mike Tyson goes on trial, accused of raping an 18-year-old contestant in the 1991 Miss Black America Contest

1996 – Mahamane Ousmane, first democratically elected president of Niger, overthrown by a military coup led by Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, who was then assassinated in 1999

1997 – There are reports that French national museums are holding nearly 2,000 works of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World War II

1999 – The U.S. Senate blocks dismissal of impeachment charges against President Clinton; voted for new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses

2005 – International Day in Memory of the Holocaust Victims * is designated by the UN General Assembly as an annual commemoration on January 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau (see also 1945 entry)

2011 – The Yemeni Revolution, part of the Arab Spring, begins as over 16,000 protesters demonstrate in Sana’a, Yemen’s largest city

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