Daily Calendar for January 12th, 2021

The Old Farmer's Almanac daily calendar gives you quick reference for the significant events on any day throughout the year.

Chinese New Year

The new year is by far the most important festival of the Chinese lunar calendar. It is celebrated on the second new Moon after the winter solstice. The holiday is a time of renewal, with debts cleared, new clothes bought, shops and homes decorated, and families gathered for a reunion dinner. Chinese New Year is marked by fireworks, traditional lion dances, gift giving, and special foods.

1730s

• Born 1737: John Hancock (statesman)

1770s

• 1773: First public museum in America, Charleston Museum, organized in Charlestown, South Carolina

• 1777: Mission Santa Clara de Asis in California established

1830s

• Died 1833: Marie-Antoine Carême (French haute cuisine founder)

1850s

• Born 1856: John Singer Sargent (artist)

1870s

• Born 1873: Frank Gerber (manufacturer)

• Born 1876: Jack London (author)

1900s

• Born 1902: Joe Lewis (comedian)

• 1906: Forward pass legalized in football

• Born 1907: Tex Ritter (singer)

• Born 1908: Jose Arcadio Limon (dancer)

1910s

• 1910: A couple from China became the youngest parents in history. The dad was 9 years old and the mom was 8

• 1914: Ford Motor Co. raised minimum daily wage from $2.30 to $5.00

1920s

• Born 1920: James Leonard Farmer Jr. (civil rights activist)

• Born 1925: Katherine MacGregor (actress)

1930s

• Born 1930: Tim Horton (hockey player)

• 1932: Hattie Caraway was the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She was appointed in 1931 to fill the Arkansas seat left vacant by the death of her husband, and then elected in 1932 and re-elected in 1938

1940s

• Died 1942: Shep (loyal dog)

• Born 1944: Joe Frazier (boxer)

1950s

• Born 1955: Kirstie Alley (actress)

• Born 1958: Christiane Amanpour (broadcast journalist)

1960s

• Born 1960: Dominique Wilkins (basketball player)

• 1962: U.S. State Department denied passports to American Communist Party members

• 1966: Batman made its television debut

1970s

• 1970: Boeing 747 landed at Heathrow Airport in London after its first trans-atlantic proving flight from NY50 Years Ago

• 1971: All in the Family made its television debut

• Died 1976: Agatha Christie (author)

1990s

• 1991: Swimmer Melvin Stewart set world record in 200-meter butterfly

2000s

• Died 2002: Cyrus Vance (Secretary of State under Jimmy Carter)

• Died 2003: Maurice Gibb (with his brothers built the Bee Gees into a disco sensation with hits like "Stayin' Alive" and "More Than a Woman")

• 2005: Launch of Deep Impact spacecraft to study comet Tempel 1

2010s

• 2010: A 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook Haiti approximately 16 miles from the capital city of Port-au-Prince