Daily Calendar for Monday, January 1, 2024
Question of the Day
When did ancient cultures celebrate the new year?
* In ancient Egypt, the new year was celebrated when the star Sirius rose around the time of sunrise. This roughly coincided with the summer solstice and the annual flooding of the Nile River.
* The original Roman calendar contained only ten months, with the new year starting on March 1.
* The ancient Celts celebrated the new year (Samhain) beginning at dusk on October 31.
* The original Roman calendar contained only ten months, with the new year starting on March 1.
* The ancient Celts celebrated the new year (Samhain) beginning at dusk on October 31.
Advice of the Day
The month of January is like a gentleman; as he begins, so he goes on.
Home Hint of the Day
Soak tarnished silverware in sour milk for half an hour. Then wash in soapy water to polish and brighten.
Word of the Day
Nipper
A fore tooth of a horse. The nippers are four in number.
Puzzle of the Day
Why do birds fly south in the winter?
Because it is too far to walk.
Born
- Paul Revere (patriot) β
- Betsy Ross (patriot) β
- E.M. Forster (novelist) β
- J. Edgar Hoover (director of U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation) β
- Hank Greenberg (baseball player) β
- J.D. Salinger (author) β
- Carole Landis (actress) β
- Terry Moore (actress) β
- Don Novello (actor) β
- Kathleen Casey-Kirschling (official first baby boomer in United States) β
- Nancy Lopez (golfer) β
Died
- Johann Christian Bach (composer) β
- Maurice Chevalier β
- Ray Walston (actor) β
- Julia Phillips (first woman to win an Oscar Award [for co-producing the movie The Stingβ]β) β
- Shirley Chisholm (an advocate for minority rights who became the first black woman elected to Congress) β
- Patti Page (singer) β
- Donna Douglas (actress) β
Events
- First U.S. flag, The Grand Union, was displayed by George Washington; it became the unofficial national flag, preceding the 13-star, 13 stripe versionβ
- Legislative Union of Great Britain with Ireland under the name of United Kingdom became effectiveβ
- President John Adams held the first New Year’s reception in the White Houseβ
- Importation of enslaved people into the U.S. officially banned β
- First recorded ten-pin bowling match played at Knickerbocker Alleys, NYCβ
- The Emancipation Proclamation became law, marking the end of legalized slavery in the U.S.β
- State of New York introduced the electric chair for capital punishmentβ
- The U.S. government opened an immigrant processing station at Ellis Island, New Yorkβ
- First Rose Bowl football game played at Pasadena, Californiaβ
- U.S. Parcel Post service beganβ
- The British battleship Formidable was sunk in the English Channel by a German submarine with the loss of 600 lives (WW I)β
- Fiorello La Guardia is inaugurated as mayor of New Yorkβ
- The U.S. Navy commissioned its first woman doctor, Mary Sproulβ
- Kurt Waldheim inaugurated as Secretary General of the United Nationsβ
- John Ehrlichman, H.R. Haldeman, and John Mitchell were found guilty of obstructing justice in the Watergate Incidentβ
- Episcopal Church of the U.S. ordained its first woman priestβ
- American Telephone & Telegraph Co. officially divested itself of 22 Bell System subsidiariesβ
- First U.S. electronic highway toll collection, in Oklahomaβ
- The Coney Island Polar Bear Club observed its 100th anniversary the same way it celebrated the previous 99—with a New Year’s Day plunge in the Atlantic Oceanβ
- A strong earthquake rocked Mexico City and Acapulcoβ
- New England Patriots quarterback Doug Flutie converted the first successful drop kick in an NFL game since 1941β
- Twelve-year-old Aidan Murray Medley caught a 551-pound bull shark just north of Palm Beach Inlet, Floridaβ
Weather
- Twenty-four degrees below zero F in Northfield, Vermontβ
- Bethlehem, New Hampshire, recorded a temperature of -20 degrees Fβ
- VanBuren, Maine, recorded a temperature of -32 degrees Fβ
- Six day Great Plains and N. Rockies blizzard began, most adverse conditions in history of westβ
- Maybell, Colorado, set a record low temperature of -60 degrees Fβ