January 11th is

Milk Day *

Hot Toddy Day

International Thank You Day

International Parity at Work Day *

Human Trafficking Awareness Day *

Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day *

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MORE! Alice Paul, Alan Paton and Winnie Byanyima, click

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WORLD FESTIVALS AND NATIONAL HOLIDAYS

Canada – Sir John A. Macdonald Day *

Micronesia – Kosrae: Constitution Day

Morocco & Western Sahara –
Independence Manifesto Day

Nepal – Prithivi Jayanti (Unity Day)

Puerto Rico – Eugenio de Hostos Day *

Tunisia – Children’s Day

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On This Day in HISTORY

630 – The prophet Muhammad and his followers defeat the Quraysh tribe, and open the city of Mecca to pilgrims

889 – Abd al-Rahman III born, Arab Emir, Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, and self-proclaimed first Caliph of Córdoba (912–961); noted for his patronage of the Arts, especially architecture, but also for his repelling of the Shia Islamic Fatimids, political rivals in control of the Mediterranean coast of Africa, and his war with the Christian kingdoms of northern Spain

Abd al-Rahman III and his court in Medina Azahara,
detail from a painting by Dionisio Baixeras Verdaguer

1055 – Theodora Porphyrogenita becomes sole empress regnant of the Byzantine Empire, the last of the Macedonian line, after years of alternating exile and waxing and waning amounts of power and influence as co-ruler with her tempestuous and jealous sister Zoe and Zoe’s assorted husbands

1209 – Möngke Khan born, Great Khan of the Mongol Empire (1251-1259); the first Khagan from the Toluid line, noted for reforms which improved the administration of the Mongol Empire, and Mongol success in conquering Iraq, Syria and the kingdom of Dali (now part of China’s Yunnan province)

1569 – First recorded state lottery in England is drawn, chartered by Queen Elizabeth I for “reparation of the havens and strength of the Realme, and towardes such other publique good workes”

1650 – Diana Glauber born, painter of the Dutch Golden Age whose career was cut short when she lost her sight; no works of hers are known to survive, but an inventory of period showing the art works at Schloss Salzdahlum, the summer palace of Anthony Ulrich, the Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, lists a series of five paintings representing the five senses under her name

1770 – The first shipment of rhubarb is sent to the U.S. from London

1759 – The Presbyterian Synod in Philadelphia creates the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of Presbyterian Ministers – the first U.S. ‘life insurance’ company

1787 – William Herschel discovers two moons of Uranus, Titania and Oberon

Replica of Herschel’s telescope

1805 – Michigan Territory, long-time bone of contention in struggles amongst the Northwestern plains tribes, the British and the U.S., becomes an American territory

1815 – Sir John A. Macdonald * born, the first Prime Minister of Canada

1839 – Eugenio María de Hostos * born, writer and activist for Puerto Rican independence and ending slavery

1859 – John Tengo Jabavu born, South African political activist, journalist and newspaper editor; he took over as editor of Isigidimi samaXhosa (The Xhosa Messenger), the first South African newspaper written in Xhosa (1876-1883), then founded his own newspaper Imvo Zabantsundu (Black Opinion), and served as publisher-editor  (1884-1921); noted for his opinion pieces on the growing threat of Afrikaner nationalism, and for equal rights for South Africa’s black population, women’s rights, and public education

1861 – Alabama declares its secession from the United States

1867 – Benito Juarez returns to the Mexican presidency, following the withdrawal of French troops and the execution of Emperor Maximilian

1875 – Reinhold Gliere born in Kiev of German-Polish ancestry, Soviet Composer

1878 – The first day milk is delivered in glass bottles, celebrated as Milk Day *

1885 – Alice Paul born, American suffragist and women’s rights activist; a leader of the National Women’s Party, key strategist in the long-fought campaign for the 19^th Amendment, and author of the Equal Rights Amendment, which remains unratified to this day

1893 – Ellinor Aiki born, Estonian painter; noted for portraits and landscapes

1899 – Eva Le Gallienne born in England, American stage actress, producer-director and author; founder of the Civic Repertory Theatre, forerunner of Off-Broadway

1902 – Popular Mechanics magazine is published for the first time

Cover of first issue of Popular Mechanics

1903 – Alan Paton born, South African author and anti-apartheid activist; Cry, the Beloved Country

1908 – The Grand Canyon, after being made the Grand Canyon Forest Preserve (1893) and then the Grand Canyon Game Preserve (1906), becomes the Grand Canyon National Monument (it would finally become a full-fledged national park in 1919)

1911 – Nora Heysen born, Australian artist; first woman to win the prestigious Archibald Prize in 1938 for portraiture, and first Australian woman appointed as an official war artist, with the rank of captain, to depict the efforts of Australian women in WWII

Self-Portrait by Nora Heysen – 1953

1912 – The Lawrence Textile workers ‘Bread and Roses’ Strike, led largely by women, begins – after an injunction against “loitering” in front of the mills designed to prevent strikers from picketing, they form the first moving picket lines in the U.S.

1913 – The Hudson Motor Company unveils the first sedan-type car at the National Automobile Show in New York City

1917 – The French government regulates Gruyere cheese price for war rationing

1921 – Juanita M. Kreps born, American economist and government official; first woman appointed as U.S. Secretary of Commerce (1977-1979), and 4^th woman to hold a cabinet-level position

1922 – At Toronto General Hospital, Leonard Thompson becomes the first person to be successfully treated with insulin

1927 – Louis B. Mayer, head of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles CA

1928 – Bing Crosby and Paul Whiteman’s orchestra record “Ol’ Man River” from the musical Showboat

1931 – Betty Churcher born, Australian painter, historian and curator; director of the National Gallery of Australia (1990-1997)

1931 – Mary Rodgers born, American Broadway musical composer and children’s author; Once Upon a Mattress

1935 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California

1936 – Eva Hesse born in Germany, American sculptor known for her pioneering work with in latex, fiberglass and plastics, on the leading edge of the postminimal movement in the 1960s; her Jewish parents sent her and her older sister to the Netherlands aboard one of the last Kindertransport trains leaving Germany in 1938, but the family was reunited in England, then emigrated to America in 1939. Hesse was diagnosed in 1969 with a brain tumor, and endured three operations, but died in 1970 at age 34

1938 – In Limerick, ME, Frances Moulton becomes the first woman bank president

1949 – The first recorded snowfall in Los Angeles CA

1952 – Diana Gabaldon, American author; noted for her Outlander series

1957 – The African Convention, a French West African political party, is founded in Dakar, Senegal

1958 – Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges debuts on CBS-TV

1963 – The U.S. disco, the Whisky A Go-Go, opens in Los Angeles California

1964 – U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes the landmark report Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States showing that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts

1964 – His Ring of Fire album makes Johnny Cash the first country singer to hit #1 on the U.S. pop album charts

1967 – Jimi Hendrix records “Purple Haze”

1971 – The Treaty on the Prohibition of the Emplacement of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on the Sea-bed and the Ocean Floor and in the Subsoil thereof is signed in Moscow, London and Washington DC

1972 – East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh

1978 – Two Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule link up with the Salyut 6 orbiting space station, where the Soyuz 26 capsule was docked

1982 – The UN Special Committee against Apartheid launches the International Year of Mobilisation for Sanctions against South Africa

1985 – Lucy Knisley born, American illustrator and comic artist; noted for her self-illustrated travel journal French Milk, Relish: My Life in the Kitchen, Displacement,   and An Age of License

1986 – The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia officially opens

1988 – U.S.Vice President George Bush meets with representatives of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to answer questions about the Iran-Contra scandal

1991 –Silver and paintings acquired by the late Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, are auctioned for a total of $20.29 million at Christie’s in New York

1992 – Paul Simon becomes the first international star to perform in South Africa after the end of the United Nations cultural boycott

1994 – The Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin

1996 – NASA space shuttle STS-72 launches from the Kennedy Space Center at the start of the 74th Space Shuttle mission and the 10th flight of Endeavour

2000 – The U.S. Postal Service unveils the second Vietnam Veterans Memorial commemorative stamp in a ceremony at The Wall

2003 – Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’s death row because of the Jon Burge scandal – Burge was a Chicago police commander convicted of torturing confessions from over 200 suspects

2007 – U.S. Senate designates Human Trafficking Awareness Day * as a National Day

2012 – The Brownielocks Holidays website launches the first Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day * because the code is no longer required for a Ham Radio license, and its use is dying out – help keep this form of communication alive by learning your name

2017 – The first International Parity at Work Day * is launched to raise awareness of the need for workplace diversity, strengthening workplaces by including workers of all  genders, ages, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and physical abilities. The World Economic Forum estimates it will take another 170 years to reach full global economic parity, but the newly formed Parity Pioneers Movement is committed to organizational diversity as a long-term strategy to increase business resilience

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