Happy Birthday to A.A. Milne, creator of Pooh & company...
Today is Friday, January 18, 2019. 61 days until spring, and a mere 655 days until the next presidential election.
- Sunrise: 7:23am
- Sunset: 5:18pm ...giving us 9 hours and 55 minutes of daylight. 84% of the waxing moon now visible, rising at 2:58pm.
Tides at the Golden Gate
- High: 8:29am/10:44pm
- Low: 2:11am/3:28pm
Special celebrations & commemorations today…
- Maintenance Day - US
- Revolution Day - Tunisia
- National Peking Duck Day
- Arbor Day - Florida
- Thesaurus Day
- Bean Day
- International Fetish Day
On this day in…
1803 - Thomas Jefferson, in secret communication with Congress, sought authorization for the first official exploration by theU.S. government.
1778 - English navigator Captain James Cook discovered theHawaiian Islands, which he called the "Sandwich Islands."
1788 - The first English settlers arrived in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.
1871 - Wilhelm, King of Prussia from 1861, was proclaimed the first German Emperor.
1886 - The Hockey Association was formed in England. This date is the birthday of modern field hockey.
1896 - The x-ray machine was exhibited for the first time.
1911 - For the first time an aircraft landed on a ship. Pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor.
1919 - The World War I Peace Congress opened in Versailles, France.
1939 - Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded "Jeepers Creepers."
1943 - During World War II, the Soviets announced that they had broken the Nazi siege of Leningrad, which had began in September of 1941.
1943 -U.S. commercial bakers stopped selling sliced bread. Only whole loaves were sold during the ban until the end of World War II.
1950 - The federal tax on oleomargarine was repealed.
1957 - The first, non-stop, around-the-world, jet flight came to an end at Riverside,CA. The plane was refueled in mid-flight by huge aerial tankers.
1964 - The plans for the original World Trade Center in New York were unveiled to the public.
1967 - Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the "Boston Strangler," was convicted in Cambridge,MA, of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. He was sentenced to life in prison. Desalvo was killed in 1973 by a fellow inmate.
1978 - The European Court of Human Rights cleared the British government of torture but found it guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in Northern Ireland.
1985 - Mary Decker broke a world, indoor record when she ran the women’s, 2,000-meter race in 5:34.2. She also ran the outdoor mile in 4:16.7.
1987 - For the first time in history the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was seen by over 100 million viewers. The audience was measured during the week of January 12-18.
1990 - A jury in Los Angeles,CA, acquitted former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, of 52 child molestation charges.
1990 - In an FBI sting, Washington,DC, Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession. He was later convicted of a misdemeanor.
1991 - Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years in business due to financial problems.
1993 - The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50U.S. states for the first time.
1995 - The "yahoo.com" domain was created.
1995 - A network of caves were discovered near the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France. The caves contained paintings and engravings that were 17,000 to 20,000 years old.
1997 - Hutu militiamen killed three Spanish aid workers and three soldiers and seriously wound an American in a night attack in NW Rwanda.
2000 - The Chinese web services company Baidu, Inc. was incorporated in Beijing.
2002 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of a saliva-based ovulation test.
2012 - Wikipedia began a 24-hour "blackout" in protest against proposed anti-piracy legislation (S. 968 and H.R. 3261) known as the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. Many websites, including Reddit, Google, Facebook, Amazon and others, contended would make it challenging if not impossible for them to operate.
Today’s birthday celebrants include (or included)...
- Peter Roget 1779 - Physician, lexicographer
- Daniel Webster 1782 - American politician, Secretary of State under three presidents
- A.A. Milne 1882 - Author, playwright, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh
- Oliver Hardy 1892 - Comic actor
- Cary Grant 1904 - Actor
- Danny Kaye 1913 - Actor, singer, dancer
- Berthold Goldschmidt 1903 - Composer
- David Bellamy 1933 - Author, broadcaster, botanist
- Bobby Goldsboro 1941 - Singer, songwriter
- David Ruffin 1941 - Singer, musician (The Temptations)
- 'Legs' Larry Smith 1944 - Drummer (The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band)
- Brett Hudson 1953 - Musician, singer, songwriter (Hudson Brothers)
- Tom Bailey 1954 - Singer, bass player (The Thompson Twins)
- Kevin Costner 1955 - Actor
- Mark Collie 1956 - Singer, musician
- Philip Boa 1962 - Singer, musician
- Jane Horrocks 1964 - Actress, musician, singer
- Jesse L. Martin 1969 - Actor, singer
- DJ Quik 1970 - Hip hop artist
- Kristy Lee Cook 1984 - Singer
