Daily Calendar for January 25th, 2021

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

Burns Night

The birthday of Scotland's most famous poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796), has become an occasion for Scots all over the world to gather together in his honor. A Burns Night supper usually includes haggis, a traditional dish of the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep or calf minced with suet, onions, oatmeal, and seasonings. Burns's words, "Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the pudding-race!" greets the dish's entry into the room. Men wear kilts and women their tartan sashes, and the evening's celebration includes reading Burns's poems and singing his songs, ending with one of his most famous, "Auld Lang Syne." Most of us are familiar with the first verse, "Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne."

Every Year

• Burns Night

1530s

• 1533: Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn were secretly married, he for the second time

1750s

• Born 1759: Robert Burns (poet)

1820s

• 1821: Hot drinks served on frozen Hudson River to warm pedestrians crossing between New Jersey and New York City200 Years Ago

1850s

• 1858: Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" was played at the wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Victoria, to Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia. It is believed that this is where the tradition of playing the Wedding March at weddings came from

1860s

• Born 1860: Charles Curtis (U.S. vice president)

1870s

• 1870: S.S. City of Boston disappeared

• 1870: G. D. Dows patented an improved soda fountain

1880s

• Born 1882: Virginia Woolf (author)

1890s

• 1890: Reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) of the New York World received a tumultuous welcome home after she completed a round-the-world journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes

1900s

• 1909: Elecktra, by Richard Strauss, premiered at the Dresden Royal Opera House

1910s

• 1915: First transcontinental telephone call was made, between New York and San Francisco; Alexander Graham Bell and Dr. Thomas A. Watson exchanged greetings

• 1919: The Paris Peace Conference of WW I adopted President Wilson's resolution for the creation of a League of Nations as part of the peace agreement

• Born 1919: Edwin Newman (news commentator)

1930s

• 1932: The governor general of Canada, the Earl of Bessborough, declared the Trans-Canada telephone system officially open

• 1937: Guiding Light debuted on radio

1940s

• Died 1947: Al Capone (gangster)

1960s

• 1961: President John F. Kennedy was the first United States president to hold a live televised news conference

• 1966: Constance Baker Motley was named U.S. District Judge for southern NY and became the first African American female federal judge

1970s

• 1975: 44-pound 10-ounce cod caught at Five Fathom Bank near Delaware

1980s

• Born 1981: Alicia Keys (musician)

• 1983: The Infrared Astronomical Satellite launched into orbit to gather information on distant stars and the solar system

• 1983: Nazi war criminal, Klaus Barbie, was arrested in Bolivia

1990s

• Died 1990: Ava Gardner (actress)

• 1991: Iraq opened outlet valves at Kuwait refinery to create the world's largest oil spill (450 million gallons estimated)

2000s

• Died 2005: Philip Johnson (architect)

2010s

• 2010: Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute founded

• Died 2017: Mary Tyler Moore (actress)