Daily Calendar for Friday, January 5, 2024
Question of the Day
Where does the word βturnpikeβ come from?
Early American roads were often privately owned and maintained. To travel on them, you had to pay a toll at the tollhouse, after which you were allowed to pass through the turnstile — a pike (or pole) on an axle similar to those in modern subway stations. The amount you paid could vary, depending on the type of wagon or carriage you had, the animals drawing it, and so on.
Advice of the Day
Holly berries shining red, Mean a long winter, βtis said.
Home Hint of the Day
To cure a dog of chewing on his paws when he gets bored, paint the spot he likes to chew with oil of cloves (available at drugstores).
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
- Zebulon Montgomery Pike (explorer) β
- King C. Gillette (inventor) β
- Herbert Bayard Swope (journalist) β
- Yves Tanguy (artist) β
- Myrtle Alice Cook McGowan (athlete) β
- Jane Wyman (actress) β
- Sam Phillips (record company executive) β
- William Dewitt Snodgrass (poet) β
- Alvin Ailey (dancer) β
- Robert Duvall (actor) β
- Diane Keaton (actress) β
- Bradley Cooper (actor) β
- Walker Scobell (actor) β
Died
- Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (explorer) β
- Calvin Coolidge (30th U.S. president) β
- George Washington Carver (educator) β
- Charlie Mingus (musician) β
- Pistol Pete Maravich (basketball player) β
- Thomas "Tip" O'Neill (Speaker of the House) β
- Sonny Bono (actor, mayor of Palm Springs, and U.S. Congressman) β
- Tug McGraw (baseball player) β
- Jean-Paul L'Allier (Quebec City mayor) β
- Jerry Van Dyke (actor) β
Events
- First divorce granted in the American Coloniesβ
- New Hampshire was the first state to adopt a constitutionβ
- A British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Virginiaβ
- The word hamburger first appeared in print in the Walla Walla Union, Walla Walla, Washingtonβ
- The first successful photo of an aurora was made by physicist Martin Brendelβ
- First Trans-Pacific (California to Hawaii) cable opened to public useβ
- Fannie Farmer’s last lectureβ
- Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming became first woman governor in American historyβ
- Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began in San Francisco, Californiaβ
- United Mine Workers official Joseph A. Yablonski and his wife and daughters were found slain in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania homeβ
- President Nixon ordered NASA to begin work on a manned space shuttleβ
- Arkansas law requiring creationism to be taught in public schools struck down by Federal courtβ
- President Ronald Reagan submitted the first $1 trillion budget to Congressβ
- Reggie Jackson elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame β
- Robert Nuranen returned a library book he had checked out for a 9th-grade assignment, along with a check for 47 year’s worth of late fees—$171.32β
- World’s highest cable-stayed bridge opened spanning a deep ravine in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountainsβ
Weather
- Twenty degrees below zero F, Hanover, New Hampshireβ
- Record cold morning in East: -24 degrees F in New Haven, Connecticut, and -40 degrees F in the Berkshire Hillsβ
- Severe Artic outbreak: Des Moines -30 degrees F, Indianapolis -25 degrees Fβ
- Eleven degrees F in Athens, Georgiaβ