Today's Calendar
Tuesday, January 3, 2023
Question of the Day
Why are barbers’ poles striped?
In times past, barbers were also surgeons. Among their primary tasks was bloodletting, a remedy thought to cure many diseases. The red-and-white-striped pole originally represented a bleeding arm wrapped in bandages.
Advice of the Day
The days have lengthened one cock’s stride.
Home Hint of the Day
Boiled linseed oil, available at paint and hardware stores, is made from flax seed. Driers, such as manganese oxide, are added while the oil is hot (it is not actually boiled). As a finish, it dries faster than raw linseed oil and is thicker and denser when dry.
Word of the Day
Cockup
Something badly botched or muddled.
Puzzle of the Day
What did the beach say when the tide came in?
Long time no sea.
Born
- Lucretia Mott (social reformer) –
- Larkin Goldsmith Mead (sculptor) –
- J.R.R. Tolkien (author) –
- Marion Davies (actress) –
- Victor Borge (pianist & comedian) –
- Joan Walsh Anglund (illustrator) –
- Dabney Coleman (actor) –
- Stephen Stills (musician) –
- John Paul Jones (musician) –
- Mel Gibson (actor) –
- Eli Manning (football player) –
- Greta Thunberg (Swedish environmental activist ) –
Died
- Jack Ruby (convicted killer of Lee Harvey Oswald) –
- Conrad Hilton (hotelier) –
- Alfred Henry Freddy" Heineken" (Dutchman who helped make his namesake beer one of the world’s most popular) –
Events
- Martin Luther was formally excomunicated from the Roman Catholic church by Pope Leo X–
- General George Washington defeated the British under Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton–
- First covered skating rink in Canada opened, in Halifax, Nova Scotia–
- Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge in N.Y.C.–
- First free kindergarten opened, Florence, Massachusetts–
- Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for $125,000 and a $350,000 loan. The loan was to finance Frazee’s Broadway production of the musical No, No, Nanette–
- Benito Mussolini proclaimed a Fascist dictatorship in Italy–
- British broadcaster of propaganda from Nazi Germany during WW II, William Joyce (nicknamed Lord Haw-Haw), was hanged in Great Britain for treason–
- Dragnet made its television debut–
- Members of the newly created U.S. Civil Rights Commision took office–
- President Eisenhower signed proclamation making Alaska the 49th state–
- Moscow State Symphony first Soviet orchestra to play in the United States (in N.Y.C.).–
- The U.S. broke diplomatic relations with Cuba–
- The Vatican excommunicated Cuban premier, Fidel Castro, from the Roman Catholic church–
- Times Beach, Missouri, declared a federal disaster area after fall floods spread dangerous amounts of the toxic chemical dioxin–
- Soprano Leontyne Price made her farewell appearance at New York’s Metropolitan Opera–
- Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame–
- Miss Canada pageant canceled due to costs and changing times–
- Spirit rover landed on Mars–
Weather
- Greatest accumulation of ice ever in U.S. history after 3 day period, 8 inches in Idaho–
- Fifty degrees below zero F at Canton, New York–
- Areas of northern Fairfield County in Connecticut received up to an inch of ice.–