January 2

Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 

– Proverbs 8:34

January is:

Business and Reference Books Month

Born on this Day

• 1403: John Bessarion, Trebizond, Byzantine humanist, theologian, cardinal
  
  

• 1647: Virginia patriot Nathaniel Bacon leader of Bacon's Rebellion, Va. (1676)
  
  

• 1727: British Gen. James Wolfe, hero of the battle of Quebec
  
  

• 1752: Philip Freneau (Poet of the American Revolution: The Indian Burying Ground)
  
  

• 1861: Helen Herron Taft, First Lady to President Robert Taft.
  
  

• 1866: Gilbert Murray, Australian born scholar who became the chairman of the League of Nations, 1923 through 1928.
  
  

• 1904: Fan dancer Sally Rand
  
  

• 1904: Singer James Melton (La Traviata)
  
  

• 1917: Actress and dancer Vera (Eva Hartwig) Zorina (Star-Spangled Rhythm)
  
  

• 1920: Author Isaac Asimov (writer of over 300 books including Foundation and I, Robot)
  
  

• 1930: Singer Julius LaRosa (Anywhere I Wander, Eh Cumpari)
  
  

• 1936: Singer-songwriter Roger Miller (Invitation to the Blues, You Don't Want My Love; singer: Dang Me, King of the Road, Chug-a-Lug)
  
  

• 1913: Actress Anna Lee ("General Hospital")
  
  

• 1939: Former television evangelist Jim Bakker
  
  

• 1952: Actress Wendy Phillips
  
  

• 1961: Actress Gabrielle Carteris
  
  

• 1967: Actress Tia Carrere
  

• 1968: Actor Cuba Gooding Junior
  
  

• 1969: Model Christy Turlington ("Cybill")
  

• 1971: Actor Taye Diggs
  

• 1983: Actress Kate Bosworth 

Events in History on this day
  

• 0018: Death of Ovid
  

• 0394: Death of St Macarius
  

• 1119: Death of Pope Gelasius II
  

• 1169: Death of Bertrand de Blanquefort, 6th Master of the Templars
  

• 1322: Death of King Phillip V, "The Tall" of France
  

• 1492: The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand the Second and Queen Isabella the First.
  

• 1611: First trial of Countess Elizabeth Bathory
  Caution - the material on the page linked to Elizabeth Bathory  is not suitable for children but it is information that parents should make children aware of.
  

• 1631: England and Spain sign a treaty against the Dutch
  

• 1758: French begin bombardment of Madras, India.
  

• 1788: Georgia ratified the Constitution, the fourth of the original 13 colonies to do so, and was admitted to the union.
  

• 1842: The first wire suspension bridge was opened to traffic in Fairmount, Pennsylvania.
  

• 1872: Brigham Young, the 71-year-old leader of the Mormon Church was arrested on a charge of bigamy. He had 25 wives.
  

• 1874: Anton Bruckner started work on his Fourth Symphony, just two days after completing his Third. The Bruckner Fourth is the "Romantic," perhaps the most frequently performed of the Bruckner symphonies because it goes over well with listeners who are not diehard Bruckner fans.
  

• 1893: The first commemorative postage stamps were issued.
  

• 1900: Secretary of State John Hay announced the "Open Door Policy" to facilitate trade with China.
  

• 1900: The Chicago Canal opens.
  

• 1903: President Theodore Roosevelt closes a post office in Indianola, Mississippi for refusing to hire a black postmistress.
  

• 1904: U.S. Marines are sent to Santo Domingo to aid the government against rebel forces.
  

• 1921: The first religious broadcast on radio was heard today, as Dr. E.J. Van Etten of Calvary Episcopal Church preached on KDKA Radio in Pittsburgh.
  

• 1929: The United States and Canada reached agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.
  

• 1930: President Hoover calls his congressional leaders to discuss the public works program.
  

• 1935: Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, New Jersey, on charges of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty, and executed.)
  

• 1937: Britain and Italy sign the Mediterranean Peace Pact.
  

• 1938: Chaing Kai-shek gives up Chinese premiership to H.H. Kung.
  

• 1941: The Andrews Sisters recorded "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" on Decca Records
  

• 1942: Japanese forces occupied Manila, forcing U.S. and Philippine forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur to withdraw to the Bataan peninsula.
  

• 1953: Robert Taft of Ohio is elected as U.S. Senate Republican leader.
  

• 1958: Scandal inflamed Rome when diva Maria Callas declared that she had inflamed vocal cords and canceled a performance of "Norma" after singing one act. She had been seen partying the previous night. The Rome opera barred her from returning. She sued for damages and won.
  

• 1959: The Soviet Union launched Lunik-1, the first unmanned spacecraft to travel to the moon.
  

• 1960: Senator John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
  

• 1965: The New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000.
  

• 1973: U.S. admits the accidental bombing of a Hanoi hospital.
  

• 1974: President Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 miles-an-hour (however, federal speed limits were abolished in 1995).
  

• 1980: President Carter asks the Senate to delay the arms treaty ratification in response to Soviet action in Afghanistan.
  

• 1983: The musical play "Annie," based on the "Little Orphan Annie" comic strip, closed on Broadway after a run of 2,377 performances.
  

• 1987: President Reagan and his wife, Nancy, headed back to Washington after a New Year's holiday in California. Responding to a reporter's shouted question, the president predicted that 1987 would be "better than '86."
  

• 1988: President Reagan and Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed an agreement to lift trade restrictions between their countries.
  

• 1988: An Ashland Oil Company tank collapsed in West Elizabeth, Pennsylvania, sending more than 700-thousand gallons of diesel oil into the Monongahela River.
  

• 1989: PTL founders Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker returned to the television pulpit for the first time in two years, broadcasting from a borrowed house in Pineville, North Carolina.
  

• 1990: On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high, ending the day above 2800 for the first time, at 2800.15.
  

• 1991: Sharon Pratt Dixon was sworn in as mayor of Washington DC, becoming the first black woman to head a city of Washington's size and prominence. 
  

• 1991: European, Soviet and Arab officials pushed for talks to avert war with Iraq. 
  

• 1992: Military commanders in Croatia agreed to a cease-fire accord, the 15th attempt at a truce. Russian shoppers experienced their first day of "sticker shock" after President Boris Yeltsin lifted price controls to stimulate production.
  

• 1993: President Bush arrived in Moscow to sign a strategic arms treaty with Russian President Boris Yeltsin, who hailed the agreement as "our joint gift to the people of the Earth." Leaders of the three warring ethnic groups in Bosnia-Herzegovina met face-to-face in Geneva.
  

• 1994: The new Republican mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani, delivered his inaugural address in which he called for unity while promising to crack down on crime and tackle the city's budget problems.
  

• 1995: Chechen defenders drove Russian troops out of the capital of Grozny.
  

• 1995: Marion Barry was inaugurated as mayor of Washington DC, four years after leaving the office in disgrace to serve a six-month sentence for misdemeanor drug possession.
  

• 1996: Former Interior Secretary James Watt pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of attempting to sway a grand jury investigating 1980s influence-peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Watt was later fined and sentenced to five years' probation.) 
  

• 1996: AT&T announced it would eliminate 40,000 jobs, mostly through layoffs.
  

• 1997: Rain and melting snow swamped the West, trapping visitors in Yosemite National Park, closing casinos in Reno, Nevada, and forcing the evacuation of 50,000 Californians.
  

• 1998: The defense in the Terry Nichols trial rested its case in the penalty phase after calling nine witnesses who pleaded for his life. (Nichols had already been convicted of conspiracy, which carried a potential death sentence, and involuntary manslaughter for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.)
  
  

• 1998: Russia began circulating new rubles in effort to keep inflation in check and promote confidence.
  

• 1999: A UN-chartered cargo plane carrying nine people was downed in Angola's central highland war zone; there were no survivors. 
  

• 2000: Retired Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Junior, known early in his career for modernizing the Navy and later for ordering the spraying of Agent Orange in Vietnam, died in Durham, North Carolina, at age 79. 

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