January 20

Sing to the LORD, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.
 

– Psalm 96:2 

January is:

• Human Resources Month - Honors human resources executives in companies. Sponsor: Personnel Journal.
  
  
• January Diet Month - Promotes a healthy eating plan after the winter holidays. Sponsor: The Popcorn Institute.
  
  
• March of Dimes Birth Defects Month - Encourages the fight to prevent birth defects. Sponsor: March of Dimes Foundation.

Today is:

• Saint Sebastian Feast Day - Martyred by being shot full of arrows; Saint Sebastian is the patron saint of archers, athletes, and soldiers. He is also the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  
• Stay Young Forever Day - Celebrate older people on this the birthday of George Burns. He was born Nathan Birnbaum in 1896 in New York City. Sponsor: The Life of the Party.

Born on this Day

• 1760: Charles III, King of Spain.
  

• 1820: Anne Clough, promoter of higher education.
  

• 1855: Composer Ernest Chausson
  

• 1876: Josef Hofmann. This keyboard prodigy would make musical history at the age of 11 when he would become the first pianist to be recorded on grammophone.
  

• 1889: American blues singer Leadbelly (Huddie William Ledbetter)
  

• 1894: Composer Walter Piston was born in Rockland, Maine
  

• 1896: Comedian George Burns (Nathan Birnbaum) in New York City.
  

• 1894: Harold Gray, creator of the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie"
  

• 1899: The Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin
  

• 1919: Actor Lawrence Dobkin
  

• 1920: Italian film director Federico Fellini
  

• 1920: Actor DeForest Kelley ( Star Trek series, Apache Uprising, The Law and Jake Wade, Gunfight at O.K. Corral, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Fear in the Night)
  

• 1924: Country singer Slim Whitman
  

• 1926: Actress Patricia Neal
  

• 1930: Former astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, the second man to set foot on the moon
  

• 1933: Pop singer Ron Townson (The Fifth Dimension)
  

• 1934: Comedian Arte Johnson
  

• 1937: Actress Dorothy Provine
  

• 1945: Singer Eric Stewart
  

• 1946: Movie director David Lynch
  

• 1950: Rock musician Paul Stanley (KISS)
  

• 1952: Rock musician Ian Hill (Judas Priest)
  

• 1956: Comedian Bill Maher
  

• 1958: Actor Lorenzo Lamas
  

• 1965: Country singer John Michael Montgomery
  

• 1967: Actress Stacey Dash ("Clueless")
  

• 1968: TV personality Melissa Rivers
  

• 1968: Singer Xavier
  

• 1969: Actor Skeet Ulrich - Touch(1997), Scream(1996), Last Dance, The Craft, Boys.            

Events in History on this day
  

 

• 0250: Martyrdom of St. Fabian, Pope
  

• 0473: Death of St. Euthymius the Great
  

• 0842: Death of Theophilus, Emperor of Byzantium
  

• 1256: Death of Renaud de Vichiers, 19th Master of the Templars
  

• 1265: 1st English Parliament called into session by the Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort
  

• 1320: Wladislaw I, also known as Wladislaw the Short, was crowned king of Poland. In defeating the Knights of the Teutonic Order, he created strong foundations for one Polish nation.
  

• 1479: Death of John II, King of Aragon
  

• 1500: Pinzon discovers Brazil
  

• 1503: An office is established in Spain to supervise trade with the New World, and to monitor Columbus' expenses
  

• 1612: Death of Rudolph II, Holy Roman Emperor
  

• 1615: Portuguese defeated by the English off Swally, India
  

• 1649: British king Charles I was brought before a high court of justice at Westminster Hall on charges of treason following the civil war against parliamentarian forces.
  

• 1788: The British settlement of Australia began
  

• 1801: John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.
  

• 1839: Chile defeated a confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.
  

• 1841: The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. (It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.)
  

• 1885: The roller coaster was patented by L.A. Thompson of Coney Island, NY. His coaster was 450 feet long with the highest drop being 30 feet.
  

• 1887: The US Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
  

• 1892: The first officially recognized basketball game was played at the YMCA gym in Springfield, Mass. The game was invented by Dr. James Naismith.
  

• 1905: Troops are mobilized in Russia to protect St. Petersburg from a brewing revolt.
  

• 1908: The Sullivan ordinance bars women from smoking in public facilities.
  

• 1917: A London arms factory explodes killing 80.
  

• 1930 : Charles Lindbergh arrives in NY, setting a cross country flying record of 14.75 hours.
  

• 1932: New York bankers lend New York City $350 million.
  

• 1936: Britain's King George the Fifth died; he was succeeded by Edward the Eighth.
  

• 1941: President Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for a third term.
  

• 1941: Hitler meets with Mussolini and offers aid in Albania and Greece.
  

• 1942: Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews.
  

• 1943: Germany and Japan sign a trade accord to exchange military supplies.
  

• 1946: President Truman creates the Central Intelligence Group.
  

• 1946: Charles DeGaulle hands in his resignation.
  

• 1954: Over 22,000 anti-Communist prisoners are turned over to the UN forces in Korea.
  

• 1958: Elvis Presley got a little U.S. Mail this day with greetings from Uncle Sam. The draft board in Memphis, TN ordered The King to report for duty; but allowed a 60-day deferment for him to finish the film King Creole.
  

• 1961: President John F. Kennedy is sworn in at the Capitol.
  

• 1964: A big day in U.S. record stores this day as the first album by The Beatles was released. The LP, Meet the Beatles, became a huge success -- and was #1 on the charts by February 15, 1964.
  

• 1965: Alan Freed, the ‘Father of Rock ’n’ Roll’, died in Palm Springs, California.
  

• 1973: Jerry Lee Lewis debuted at the Grand Ole Opry. He played ``Great Balls of Fire'' and other rock tunes over the objections of Opry officials.
  

• 1977: President Jimmy Carter is sworn in and then surprises everyone as he walks home to the White House.
  

• 1981: Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
  

• 1982: Ozzy Osbourne was hospitalized after biting the head off a bat someone had thrown on stage during a concert. After undergoing rabies shots, the rocker said he thought the bat was plastic.
  

• 1986: The United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior.
  

• 1986: Britain and France announced plans to build the Channel Tunnel.
  

• 1987: Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite disappeared in Beirut, Lebanon, while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages (he was finally freed in November 1991).
  

• 1988: An Arizona House committee opened hearings on the possible impeachment of Governor Evan Mecham
  

• 1989: George Bush was sworn in as the 41st president of the United States; Dan Quayle was sworn in as vice president.
  

• 1990: Soviet troops stormed the capital of the republic of Azerbaijan, the scene of ethnic unrest, leaving dozens dead and wounded.
  

• 1990: The space shuttle "Columbia" returned from an eleven-day mission. Actress Barbara Stanwyck died in Santa Monica, California, at age 82.
  

• 1991: Seven men identified as allied airmen captured during the Persian Gulf War were put on Iraqi television in Baghdad.
  

• 1991: During the Gulf War, Iraqi missiles were shot down by U.S. Patriot rockets as they approached Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. 
  

• 1991:  In Latvia, "black beret" commandos of the Soviet Interior Ministry attacked the republic's Interior Ministry headquarters, killing five people. 
  

• 1992: A French Airbus A-320 crashed near Strasbourg, killing 87 people.
  

• 1993: Bill Clinton was sworn in as the 42nd president of the United States; Al Gore was sworn in as vice president.
  

• 1993: The Senate confirmed Lloyd Bentsen as treasury secretary, Les Aspin as defense secretary and Warren Christopher as secretary of state.
  

• 1993: Actress Audrey Hepburn died in Switzerland at age 63.
  

• 1993: President Clinton picked up a saxophone and jammed at five of the 12 inaugural balls he and his wife, Hillary, attended.
  

• 1993: The quartet star Robert Mann composed two pieces which were performed in New York. Mann himself performed the works in the middle of a concert bracketed by Bach, Bartok and Brahms.
  

• 1994: Robert B. Fiske Junior was appointed by Attorney General Janet Reno to investigate President and Mrs. Clinton's Arkansas land deals.
  

• 1994: Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. (Faulkner joined the cadet corps in August 1995 under court order but soon dropped out, citing isolation and stress from the legal battle.)
  

• 1995: The United States announced it was easing the trade embargo in effect against North Korea since the Korean War.
  

• 1995: The Japanese government, criticized for being slow to respond to Kobe's devastating earthquake, admitted its initial reaction might have been "confused."
  

• 1995: A strike-shortened National Hockey League season opened, with teams playing a 48-game schedule instead of the usual 84.
  

• 1996: Palestinians voted for the first time in elections that consolidated PLO chief Yasser Arafat's rule of the West Bank and Gaza under a peace deal with Israel. He became the first democratically-elected leader of the Palestinian people with 88.1 percent of the vote. 
  

• 1996: The space shuttle Endeavour landed after a nine-day mission that included snaring a Japanese satellite. 
  

• 1997: President Clinton and Vice President Gore were sworn in for second terms of office. his inaugural address, Clinton called for an end to "the politics of petty bickering and extreme partisanship."
  

• 1998: A jury was selected in Amarillo, Texas, to hear a multi-million-dollar lawsuit filed by Texas cattlemen against talk show host Oprah Winfery over comments made on her program concerning beef safety.
  

• 1999: For a second day, President Clinton's legal team argued its case before the Senate, saying that House-passed articles of impeachment (while true) were  "flawed and unfair."
  

• 2000: The Clinton administration issued visas to the grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez, enabling them to visit the United States to make their case for the 6-year-old's return to Cuba. 
  

• 2000: Census 2000 officially got under way as Census Bureau Director Kenneth Prewitt knocked on the door of a small wood-frame house in Unalakleet, Alaska, to begin the nationwide head count. 
  

 

Soul Food January 20 & 21

All the Rest January 20 & 21

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