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. Learn more about Chinese New Year traditions.
Daily Calendar for Saturday, February 10, 2024
Question of the Day
What are the oldest college and the oldest law school in the United States?
Harvard College (now the undergraduate school of Harvard University) was established in 1636 for men, making it the oldest college in the United States.
Virginia’s College of William and Mary was chartered in 1693 and established in 1779 what is considered the first law school in the United States, when George Wythe was appointed as a Professor of Law and Police.
Tapping Reeve’s Litchfield Law School, in Litchfield, Connecticut, is recognized as the first law school in the United States not associated with a college or university. Reeve taught law to his first student (his brother-in-law) in 1774 at his home and continued teaching students at that location for 10 years. However, the official founding date of the law school is usually considered as 1784, when a separate school building was built on his property specifically for the purpose of law education and the first students were taught within it.
Advice of the Day
A witty saying proves nothing. —Voltaire
Home Hint of the Day
Take advantage of frozen ground by trucking loads of manure out to your garden now. Avoid repeated traffic over one area, however, which may cause some damage to the grass.
Word of the Day
Cumulus cloud
Fair-weather cloud with flat base and domeshaped top.
Puzzle of the Day
How would securely hitching a horse affect his speed?
It would make him fast.
Born
- Boris Pasternak (poet) –
- Alan Hale (actor) –
- Bill Tilden, Jr. (tennis player) –
- Jimmy Durante (comedian) –
- John F. Enders (scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1954) –
- Bertolt Brecht (dramatist) –
- Lon Chaney, Jr. (actor) –
- Leontyne Price (opera singer) –
- Robert Wagner, Jr. (actor) –
- Roberta Flack (singer) –
- Adrienne Clarkson (Canadian Governor General) –
- Mark Spitz (Olympic gold medal swimmer) –
- Greg Norman (golfer) –
- George Stephanopoulos (political consultant & commentator) –
- Victor Davis (Olympic swimmer) –
- Laura Dern (actress) –
- Emma Roberts (actress) –
- Makenzie Vega (actress) –
Died
- Laura Ingalls Wilder (author) –
- Billy Rose (composer & bandleader) –
- Alex Haley (author) –
- Jim Varney (actor) –
- Retired Lt. Gen. Vernon Walters (ambassador to the UN and Germany) –
- Arthur Miller (playwright) –
- Roy Scheider (actor) –
- Shirley Temple Black (actress) –
Events
- Edmond Halley became second Astronomer Royal of England–
- Treaty of Paris is signed, formally ending the French and Indian War –
- France ceded Canada to England at the Treaty of Paris, ending the French and Indian War–
- Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg-Gotha–
- Act of Union merged Upper and Lower Canada–
- Showman P. T. Barnum staged the wedding of General Tom Thumb and Mercy Lavinia Warren (both little people) in New York. They had to stand on a piano to greet their guests.–
- Alanson Crane patented a fire extinguisher system–
- Ontario’s first free public library opened, in Guelph–
- German government informed the U.S. that after March 1, 1916, armed merchantmen would be treated as warships and attacked without warning (WW I)–
- New Delhi became the capital of India–
- The New York City-based Postal Telegraph Company introduced the first singing telegram–
- The first gold record was awarded for sales of over one million copies. It was Glenn Miller’s Chattanooga Choo Choo” on RCA”–
- Arthur Miller’s play Death of a Salesman premiered in NY–
- Soviets released U.S. U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers in Berlin in exchange for convicted Soviet agent Rudolf Abel–
- The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, providing a contingency plan for presidential succession–
- Peggy Fleming won an Olympic Gold medal in figure skating–
- Arab terrorists killed 1 Israeli and wounded 11 others in an attack at the Munich, West Germany, airport–
- 28 skiers performed backflips while holding hands, Bromont Québec–
- Bonnie Blair became the first U.S. medal winner at the Winter Olympics in Albertville in the women’s 500-meter speed skating. Also the first woman in Olympic history to win consecutive Winter Olympic gold medals–
- Garry Kasparov began chess match against computer Deep Blue”“–
- Brett Hull scored his 700th NHL goal–
- Ray Allen of the Boston Celtics sank his 2,561st 3-pointer, breaking the NBA record set by Reggie Miller–
Weather
- Early morning tornado at Albany, Georgia, caused over $3 million loss–
- Thundersnow (heavy snow accompanied by thunder and lightning) in northern New Hampshire–
- A rare February tornado in southern Oklahoma killed at least 9 people–