Happy 89th birthday to illustrator Jules Feiffer!
Today is Friday, January 26, 2017 the 26th day of the year with 339 days remaining.
Sunrise: 7:18am
Sunset: 5:27pm
...giving us 10 hours and 9 minutes of daylight. 59% of the waxing moon will be visible, rising at 1:00pm
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 6:21am/8:17pm
- Low: 1:16pm
Special international celebrations today…
- Australia Day - Australia
- Duarte Day - Dominican Republic
- Foundation Day - Brazil
- Republic Day - India
It’s also…
- Dental Drill Appreciation Day
- Fun at Work Day
- Lotus 1-2-3 Day
- National Big Wig Day
- National Peanut Brittle Day
- National Pre-school Fitness Day
- Toad Hollow Day of Encouragement
- National Peanut Brittle Day
On this day in…
1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón discovered Brazil.
1736 - Stanislaus I formally abdicated as King of Poland.
1784 - In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the symbol to be the turkey.
1788 - The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in what became known as Sydney. The group had first settled at Botany Bay eight days before. This day is celebrated as Australia Day.
1802 - TheU.S. Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within theU.S. Capitol.
1827 - Peru seceded from Colombia in protest against Simón Bolívar's alleged tyranny.
1837 -Michigan became the 26th state to join the United States.
1841 - Britain formally occupied Hong Kong, which the Chinese had ceded to the British.
1861 - In theU.S.,Louisiana seceded from the Union.
1870 - The state ofVirgina rejoined the Union.
1875 - George F. Green patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.
1905 - The Cullinan diamond, at 3,106.75 carats, was found by Captain Wells at the Premier Mine, near Pretoria, South Africa.
1911 - Inventor Glenn H. Curtiss flew the first successful seaplane.
1934 - The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City.
1939 - In the Spanish Civil War, Franco's forces, with Italian aid, took Barcelona.
1942 - The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War II went ashore in Northern Ireland.
1947 - "The Greatest Story Ever Told" was first heard on ABC radio.
1950 - India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president.
1950 - The American Associated Insurance Companies, of St. Louis,MO, issued the first babysitter’s insurance policy.
1959 - "Alcoa Presents" debuted on ABC-TV. The show would later be renamed "One Step Beyond".
1961 -U.S. President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell as the first woman to be the "personal physician to the President".
1962 - TheU.S. launched Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon. The probe missed its target by about 22,000 miles.
1965 - Hindi was made the official language of India.
1969 - California was declared a disaster area two days of flooding and mudslides.
1972 - In Hermsdorf, Czechoslovakia, a JAT Yugoslav Airlines flight crashed after the detonation of a bomb in the forward cargo hold killing 27 people. The bomb was believed to have been placed on the plane by a Croatian extremist group. Vesna Vulovic, a stewardess, survived after falling 33,000 feet in the tail section. She broke both legs and became paralyzed from the waist down.
1979 - The ‘Gizmo’ guitar synthesizer was first demonstrated.
1984 - CBS television debuted Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer."
1992 - Russian president Boris Yeltsin announced that his country would stop targetingU.S. cities with nuclear weapons.
1993 - Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.
1994 - In Sydney, Australia, a young man lunged at and fired two blank shots at Britain's Prince Charles.
1996 -U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury concerning the Whitewater probe.
1998 -U.S. President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
1999 - Saddam Hussein vowed revenge against theU.S. in response to air-strikes that reportedly killed civilians. The strikes wereU.S. planes defending themselves against anti-aircraft fire.
2009 - The Icelandic government and banking system collapsed. Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned.
2010 - It was announced that James Cameron's movie "Avatar" had become the highest-grossing film worldwide.
2014 - In the U.S., the First Class postage rate increased to 49 cents.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Douglas MacArthur 1880
- Stephane Grappelli 1908
- Cora Baird 1912
- William Prince 1913
- James Van Heusen 1913
- William Hopper 1915
- Derek Bond 1919
- Page Cavanaugh (Page Cavanaugh Trio) 1922
- Anne Jeffreys 1923
- Paul Newman 1925
- Joan Leslie 1925
- Roger Vadim 1928
- Jules Feiffer 1929
- Mary Murphy 1931
- Claude Gray (The Tall Texan) 1932
- Huey "Piano" Smith 1934
- Bob Uecker 1935
- Scott Glenn 1942
- Jean Knight 1943
- Angela Davis 1944
- Gene Siskel 1946
- David Strathairn 1949
- David Briggs (The Little River Band) 1951
- Lucinda Williams 1953 - Singer
- Eddie Van Halen 1955 - Guitar player
- Ellen DeGeneres 1958
