Day of the week in surrounding years:
. . . .,1982,1988,1993,1999—MON—. . . .
1977,1983,. . . .,1994,2000—TUE—2005
1978,1984,1989,1995,. . . .—WED—2006
1979,. . . .,1990,1996,2001—THU—2007
1980,1985,1991,. . . .,2002—FRI—2008
. . . .,1986,1992,1997,2003—SAT—. . . .
1981,1987,. . . .,1998,2004—SUN—2009
Best Liberal Quote of the Day: On Tolerance "It rests with the liberals and the tolerant to preserve our civilization. Everything of importance in this world has been accomplished by the free inquiring spirit and the preservation of that spirit is more important than any social system." — John L. Lewis
Stupidest and/or Scariest Quote from the Right for the Day: On Killing Big Bird "I don't understand why they call it public broadcasting. As far as I am concerned, there's nothing public about it; it's an elitist {code word for an educated public that may figure out how the Republicans, the biggest elitists of all, are screwing them over} enterprise. Rush Limbaugh is public broadcasting." — Newt Gingrich, attacking the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Charlotte Observer, 3-10-96.
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day: From the world of Sports "I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early." — Few sports figures—and indeed, few figures of any endeavor—have achieved the verbal notoriety of Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, former catcher of the New York Yankees. This is one of the indescribable utterances of Hall of Shame member #6.
{Disclaimer: I have attempted to give credit to the many different sources that I get entries. Any failure to do so is unintentional. Any statement enclosed by brackets like these are the opinion of the blogger, A Proud Liberal.}
MOON PHASE
Berkeley, California—Times are Pacific Standard Time (PST)
Jan 4, 2008 2:00 AM Name: Waning Crescent Percent of Full: 15% Age: 87% Rise: 4:23 AM Set: 1:46 PM
Surprise, Arizona—Times are Mountain Standard Time (MST)
Jan 4, 2008 2:00 AM Name: Waning Crescent Percent of Full: 15% Age: 87% Rise: 4:28 AM Set: 2:19 PM
Iowa City, Iowa—Times are Central Standard Time (CST)
Jan 4, 2008 2:00 AM Name: Waning Crescent Percent of Full: 16% Age: 87% Rise: 4:28 AM Set: 1:26 PM
Cambridge, Massachusetts—Times are Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Jan 4, 2008 2:00 AM Name: Waning Crescent Percent of Full: 16% Age: 87% Rise: 4:06 AM Set: 12:59 PM
NASA ASTRONOMY PICTURE OF THE DAY
The Milky Way at 5000 Meters
Credit & Copyright: Serge Brunier
Click picture to go to NASA APOD site for full explanation
EVENTS
● 46 B.C.E. - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.
● 871 - Battle of Reading: Ethelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.
● 1490 - Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered as guilty of the crime of lese-majesty.
● 1493 - Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey.
● 1642 - King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war.
● 1698 - Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, is destroyed by fire.
● 1717 - The Netherlands, England, and France sign the Triple Alliance.
● 1762 - England declares war on Spain and Naples.
● 1821 - Mother Elizabeth Seton, founder of Sisters of Charity, dies.
● 1847 - Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
● 1854 - The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
● 1855 - Kalapuyan Ahant-Chuyuk signed treaty ceding lands and moving to Grande Ronde reservation, Oregon.
● 1870 - Western Union telegraph workers strike.
● 1872 - Birth of Selena Butler, an African American leader of interracial cooperation.
● 1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.
● 1891 - Birth of Trinidadian philosopher C. L. R. James, author of volumes of essays involving class and race antagonism, West Indian self-determination, cricket, Marxism, and aesthetics.
● 1896 - Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
● 1904 - U.S. Supreme Court rules Puerto Rican citizens cannot be refused admission to the U.S.
● 1909 - Founding of Irish Transport Workers Union.
● 1921 - German troops kill 15 demonstrating against executions of leftists.
● 1932 - Mohandas Gandhi arrested for restarting satyagraha campaign. Begins fast to win suffrage for untouchables. Yaravda, India.
● 1933 - Angered by increasing farm foreclosures, members of Iowa's Farmers Holiday Association threaten to lynch banking representatives and law officials who institute foreclosure proceedings for the duration of the Depression. In April at Primghar, 600 farmers battle the sheriff and his deputies to prevent a foreclosure. That same month, when state officers in Crawford County are beaten and driven off, the Iowa governor put three counties under martial law, and the National Guard starts rounding up farmers who are fighting foreclosures.
● 1939 - British author George Orwell signs Breton/Rivera manifesto, "Towards a Free Revolutionary Art."
● 1944 - Danish playwright and priest Kaj Munk is taken from his home and murdered by the occupying Gestapo. His outspoken sermons and plays called upon Danes to resist the Nazis, leading to his death.
● 1944 - Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
● 1944 - World War II: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
● 1945 - In Raguse, Sicily, Maria Occhipinti, lies down in front of army trucks which come to find new young conscripts to incorporate into the new Italian army. Within minutes, a crowd surrounds the soldiers, forcing them to release their recruits, but kill a demonstrator and set off a major revolt. The city falls to the insurgents and resists governmental troops for three days, falling only after the death of many townspeople.
● 1948 - Burma regains its independence from the United Kingdom.
● 1951 - Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
● 1955 - U.S. agrees to pay Japan two million dollars for damages resulting from atomic tests in Marshall Islands.
● 1958 - Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957).
● 1959 - Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
● 1960 - Albert Camus killed at 46, in an automobile accident near Sens.
● 1960 - United Steel workers end lengthy strike, begun the previous July.
● 1961 - Longest recorded strike ends after 33 years - Danish barbers' assistants.
● 1962 - New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.
● 1965 - Free Speech Movement (FSM) holds first legal rally on Sproul Plaza, University of California at Berkeley.
● 1965 - Sam Rayburn House Office Building, costing "more than the pyramids at Giza, the hanging gardens of Babylon, and the Colossus of Rhodes," according to the New York Times, opens in Washington DC. The congressional bill authorizing its construction appropriated $2 million plus "such additional sums as may be necessary." "Such additional sums" eventually totaled $88 million, making the Rayburn Building, at the time, the most expensive public structure in the world. The record has since been surpassed by numerous sports stadiums.
● 1965 - United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address.
● 1972 - Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.
● 1974 - United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
● 1975 - Elizabeth Ann Seton becomes the first American-born saint.
● 1975 - Jose Patricio Leon, militant activist, "disappeared" in Chile by government of U.S.-installed dictator Augusto Pinochet.
● 1976 - Spain - Major wildcat anti-fascist strike wave starts; at its height over 500,000 workers are involved.
● 1979 - In an out-of-court settlement, $675,000 is awarded to the victims of the Kent State University shootings of 1970.
● 1980 - Citing "an extremely serious threat to peace," President Carter announces a series of punitive measures against the U.S.S.R., most notably an embargo of grain and high technology and reinstitution of draft registration, in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. This idiotic indoctrination of 18-year-olds continues today, long after the Soviets have departed Afghanistan and this world.
● 1983 - Colorado farmers protest foreclosures.
● 1987 - An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, DC, collides with Conrail engines, killing 16 people (Chase, Maryland rail wreck).
● 1989 - Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
● 1990 - A crowded passenger train collides with a standing freight train in Pakistan's Sindh province, killing 300 people.
● 1997 - Eighty thousand rally in Ogoni portions of Nigeria against military dictatorship and Shell Oil's plans to destroy Ogoni land. Nigerian Army opens fire on peaceful demonstration, wounding four.
● 1998 - Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria; over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
● 1999 - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
● 1999 - Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.
● 2004 - Dr. Mikhail Saakashvili is elected the President of Georgia.
● 2004 - Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
● 2004 - Unrest takes over the southern provinces of Thailand.
● 2006 - Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
● 2007 - The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history. {Unfortunately, she goes on to prove that a lack of testes will ensure that the war criminal Bush is not subject to well deserved impeachment proceedings.}
BIRTHS
● 1077 - Emperor Zhezong of Song Dynasty in China (d. 1100)
● 1334 - Amadeus VI of Savoy (d. 1383)
● 1581 - James Ussher, Irish Anglican archbishop (d. 1656)
● 1643 - Sir Isaac Newton, English mathematician and natural philosopher (d. 1727)
● 1664 - Lars Roberg, Swedish physician (d. 1742)
● 1672 - Hugh Boulter, Irish Archbishop of Armagh (d. 1742)
● 1710 - Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer (d. 1736)
● 1720 - Johann Friedrich Agricola, German composer (d. 1774)
● 1785 - Jakob Grimm, German philologist and folklorist (d. 1863)
● 1809 - Louis Braille, French inventor of braille (d. 1852)
● 1813 - Isaac Pitman, British inventor (Pitman shorthand) (d. 1897)
● 1832 - George Tryon, British admiral (d. 1893)
● 1838 - Charles Sherwood Stratton, American circus performer (d. 1883)
● 1839 - Carl Humann, German engineer (d. 1896)
● 1848 - Katsura Taro, Prime Minister of Japan (d. 1913)
● 1869 - Tommy Corcoran, baseball player (d. 1960)
● 1874 - Josef Suk, Czech composer (d. 1935)
● 1881 - Wilhelm Lehmbruck, German sculptor (d. 1919)
● 1882 - Aristarkh Lentulov, Russian artist (d. 1943)
● 1883 - Max Eastman, American writer (d. 1969)
● 1893 - Yone Minagawa, Japanese, became worlds Oldest living person January 29, 2007. (d. Aug. 13, 2007)
● 1894 - Manuel de Abreu, Brazilian physician (d. 1962)
● 1896 - Everett Dirksen, American politician (d. 1969)
● 1896 - André Masson, French artist (d. 1987)
● 1900 - James Bond, American ornithologist (d. 1989)
● 1901 - C. L. R. James, writer and journalist (d. 1989)
● 1905 - Sterling Holloway, American actor (d. 1992)
● 1910 - Arthur Villeneuve, Quebec painter (d. 1990)
● 1913 - Malietoa Tanumafili II, Sovereign Ruler of Samoa (d.2007)
● 1914 - Herman Franks, baseball player
● 1916 - Lionel Newman, American film music composer (d. 1989)
● 1920 - William Colby, American CIA director (d. 1996)
● 1924 - Sebastian Kappen, Indian theologian (d. 1993)
● 1925 - Veikko Hakulinen, Finnish cross-country skier (d. 2003)
● 1927 - Paul Desmarais, Canadian businessman
● 1927 - Barbara Rush, American actress
● 1929 - Yayoi Kusama, Japanese artist, sculptor
● 1930 - Sorrell Booke, American actor (d. 1994)
● 1930 - Don Shula, American football coach
● 1931 - Adi Lady Lala Mara, First Lady of Fiji (d. 2004)
● 1932 - Carlos Saura, Spanish director
● 1933 - Ilia II Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia.
● 1934 - Rudolf Schuster, President of Slovakia
● 1935 - Floyd Patterson, American boxer (d. 2006)
● 1937 - Grace Bumbry, American singer
● 1937 - Dyan Cannon, American actress
● 1940 - Helmut Jahn, German architect
● 1940 - Brian David Josephson, Nobel laureate
● 1940 - Gao Xingjian, Nobel laureate
● 1941 - George Pan Cosmatos, Greek film director (d. 2005)
● 1941 - John Bennett Perry, American actor
● 1941 - Maureen Reagan, American political activist (d. 2001)
● 1942 - John McLaughlin, English jazz guitarist
● 1943 - Doris Kearns Goodwin, American writer
● 1945 - Vesa-Matti Loiri, Finnish entertainer
● 1945 - Richard R. Schrock, Nobel laureate
● 1946 - Arthur Conley, American singer (d. 2003)
● 1946 - Susannah McCorkle, American Jazz singer (d. 2001)
● 1947 - Chris Cutler, English musician and composer (Henry Cow, Art Bears)
● 1947 - Rick Stein, English chef and television presenter
● 1948 - Eugeniusz Wycisło, Polish politician
● 1950 - John Louis Evans, convicted murderer (d. 1983)
● 1951 - Barbara Cochran, American alpine skier
● 1953 - Norberto Alonso, Argentine footballer
● 1953 - George Tenet, American CIA director
● 1954 - Eugene Chadbourne, American composer and musician
● 1955 - Mark Hollis, English musician and composer (Talk Talk)
● 1956 - Nels Cline, American guitarist and composer
● 1956 - Bernard Sumner, English musician (New Order, Joy Division, Electronic)
● 1957 - Patty Loveless, American singer
● 1958 - Matt Frewer, American actor
● 1958 - Andy Borowitz, American comedian and satirist
● 1958 - Gary Jones, Welsh-born actor
● 1958 - Julian Sands, British actor
● 1959 - Yoshitomo Nara, Japanese pop artist
● 1960 - Michael Stipe, American singer (R.E.M.)
● 1961 - Lee Curreri, American actor
● 1962 - Laila Eloui, Egyptian actress
● 1962 - Robin Guthrie, Scottish guitarist (Cocteau Twins)
● 1962 - Peter Steele, American musician (Type O Negative)
● 1963 - Dave Foley, Canadian comedian and actor
● 1963 - Till Lindemann, German singer (Rammstein)
● 1965 - Yvan Attal, French actor and director
● 1965 - Beth Gibbons, English singer (Portishead)
● 1965 - Cait O'Riordan, British musician (The Pogues)
● 1965 - Julia Ormond, English actress
● 1966 - Deana Carter, American singer
● 1967 - David Berman, American poet and singer/songwriter (Silver Jews)
● 1967 - Johnny Nelson, British former boxer
● 1967 - Marina Orsini, Canadian actress
● 1967 - David Toms, American professional golfer
● 1970 - Chris Kanyon, First Active Openly Homosexual Professional Wrestler
● 1971 - Junichi Kakizaki, Japanese artist, sculptor
● 1973 - Harmony Korine, American film director and artist
● 1973 - Frank Høj, Danish cyclist
● 1974 - Ian Moor, English singer
● 1976 - Benoît Joachim, professional cyclist
● 1976 - Ted Lilly, American baseball player
● 1977 - Irán Castillo, Mexican actress
● 1977 - Tim Wheeler, Irish singer (Ash)
● 1978 - Dominik Hrbatý, Slovakian tennis player
● 1978 - Mai Meneses, Spanish singer
● 1979 - Tristan Gommendy, French racing driver
● 1979 - Jeph Howard, American musician (The Used)
● 1980 - Miguel Monteiro, Portuguese footballer
● 1982 - Kang Hye-jeong, South Korean actress
● 1982 - Richard Logan, English footballer
● 1982 - Paulo Ferrari, Argentinian footballer
● 1983 - Spencer Chamberlain, American vocalist (Underoath)
● 1985 - Fernando Rees, Brazilian race car driver
● 1985 - Al Jefferson, Plays in the NBA for the Minnesota Timberwolves
● 1986 - Steve Slaton , American Football Player
● 1986 - James Milner, English footballer
● 1988 - Nabila Jamshed, Indian Writer
● 1991 - Olivia Tennet, New Zealand actress
● 1995 - María Isabel, Spanish singer
● 2000 - Rhiannon Leigh Wryn, American actress
DEATHS
● 1066 - Edward the Confessor, pre-Norman conquest English king (b. ca. 1004) (disputed)
● 1248 - King Sancho II of Portugal (b. 1207)
● 1564 - Hosokawa Ujitsuna, Japanese military commander (b. 1514)
● 1584 - Tobias Stimmer, Swiss painter and drawer (b. 1539)
● 1695 - François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, French general (b. 1628)
● 1752 - Gabriel Cramer, Swiss mathematician (b. 1704)
● 1761 - Stephen Hales, English physiologist (b. 1677)
● 1773 - Anton Losenko, Russian painter (b. 1737)
● 1782 - Ange-Jacques Gabriel, French architect (b. 1698)
● 1804 - Charlotte Lennox, English author and poet (bc. 1730)
● 1821 - Elizabeth Ann Seton, American saint (b. 1774)
● 1825 - King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (b. 1751)
● 1863 - Roger Hanson, Confederate general (b.1827)
● 1877 - Cornelius Vanderbilt, American entrepreneur (b. 1794)
● 1883 - Antoine Eugène Alfred Chanzy, French general (b. 1823)
● 1891 - Antoine Labelle, Quebec catholic priest (b. 1833)
● 1896 - Joseph Hubert Reinkens, German Old Catholic bishop (b. 1821)
● 1903 - Gulstan Ropert, Roman Catholic prelate (b. 1839)
● 1919 - Georg von Hertling, Chancellor of Germany (b. 1843)
● 1920 - Benito Pérez Galdós, Spanish novelist (b. 1843)
● 1931 - Art Acord, American actor (b. 1890)
● 1941 - Henri Bergson, French philosopher, Nobel laureate (b. 1859)
● 1960 - Albert Camus, Algerian-born French philosopher and writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1913)
● 1961 - Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian physicist, Nobel laureate (b. 1887)
● 1962 - Hans Lammers, German SS officer (b. 1879)
● 1965 - T. S. Eliot, American-born writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1888)
● 1967 - Donald Campbell, British motorboat racer (b. 1921)
● 1970 - Jean-Étienne Valluy, French general (b. 1899)
● 1971 - Arthur Ford, American clairaudient (b. 1896)
● 1981 - Ruth Lowe, Canadian pianist and composer (I'll Never Smile Again) (b. 1914)
● 1985 - Brian Horrocks, British general (b. 1895)
● 1986 - Christopher Isherwood, English writer (b. 1904)
● 1986 - Phil Lynott, Irish musician (Thin Lizzy) (b. 1949)
● 1988 - Lily Laskine, French harpist (b. 1893)
● 1990 - Doc Edgerton, American electrical engineer (b. 1903)
● 1994 - RD Burman, Indian musician (b. 1939)
● 1995 - Eduardo Mata, Mexican conductor and composer (b. 1942)
● 1995 - Sol Tax, American anthropologist (b. 1907)
● 1997 - Harry Helmsley, American real estate mogul (b. 1909)
● 1998 - Mae Questel, American actress (b. 1908)
● 1999 - Iron Eyes Cody, American actor (b. 1904)
● 2003 - Conrad Hall, American cinematographer (b. 1927)
● 2003 - Yfrah Neaman, Lebanese-born violinist (b. 1923)
● 2003 - Sabine Ulibarri, Mexican American writer (b. 1919)
● 2004 - Joan Aiken, English author (b. 1924)
● 2004 - Brian Gibson (director), English film director (b. 1944)
● 2004 - Jake Hess, American singer (b. 1927)
● 2004 - Jeff Nuttall, English writer (b. 1933)
● 2004 - John Toland, American historian (b. 1912)
● 2005 - Humphrey Carpenter, English author (b. 1946)
● 2005 - Guy Davenport, American author, artist, and scholar (b. 1927)
● 2005 - Ali al-Haidri, Iraqi governor of Baghdad (assassinated)
● 2005 - Frank Harary, American mathematician (b. 1921)
● 2005 - Robert Heilbroner, American economist (b. 1919)
● 2005 - Bud Poile, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1924)
● 2005 - Alton Tobey, American artist (b. 1914)
● 2006 - Irving Layton, Canadian poet (b. 1912)
● 2006 - Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai (b. 1946)
● 2006 - Robert Howard White, Mayor of Papatoetoe, New Zealand (b. 1914)
● 2007 - Ben Gannon, Australian theatre film and television producer (b. 1952)
● 2007 - Helen Hill, American independent film-maker (b. 1970)
● 2007 - Sir Lewis Hodges, British Air Chief Marshal (b. 1918)
● 2007 - Grenfell (Gren) Jones, Welsh newspaper cartoonist (b. 1934)
● 2007 - Steve Krantz, American film and TV producer (Fritz the Cat) (b. 1923)
● 2007 - Gáspár Nagy, Hungarian poet and writer (b. 1949)
● 2007 - Sandro Salvadore, Italian footballer (b. 1939)
● 2007 - Jan Schröder, Dutch cyclist (b. 1941)
● 2007 - Marais Viljoen, former State President of South Africa (b. 1915)
● 2007 - Osman Waqialla, Sudanese artist and calligrapher (b. 1925)
HOLIDAYS AND OBSERVANCES
● Roman Catholic:
● St. Abraham
● St. Aquilinus
● St. Dafrosa
● St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
● St. Ferreolus
● St. Hermes
● St. Libentius
● St. Mavilus
● St. Pharaildis
● St. Rigobert
● Bl. Angela of Foligno
● Bl. Thomas Plumtree
● Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar for December 22 (Civil Date: January 4)
● Nativity Fast.
● Forefeast of the Nativity of Christ
● St. Great Martyr Anastasia, deliverer from bonds, and her teacher Martyr Chrysogonus, and with them Martyrs Theodota, Evodias, Eutychianus, and others who suffered under Diocletian
● Greek Calendar:
● Martyr Zoilus.
● Repose of Dositheus, hermit of Roslavl forests and Optina (1828).
● Burma - National Day
● Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People
THIS IS AN ABBREVIATED POST FOR THIS DATE USING ONLY THE FOLLOWING SEVEN SOURCES. A COMPLETE POST IS PLANNED AS SOON AS TIME ALLOWS.
Click on this LINK to see original Wikipedia list with many having links with details.
Geov Parrish's this Day in Radical History, things that happened on this day that you never had to memorize in school.
Roman Catholic Saint of the Day
Russian Orthodox Christian Menaion Calendar
Liberal Quotes of the Day taken from The Best Liberal Quotes Ever: Why the Left Is Right Compiled by William P. Martin ©2004
Quotes from the Right of the Day taken from Take Them at Their Words: Startling, Amusing and Baffling Quotations from the GOP and Their Friends, 1994-2004 Compiled by Bruce J. Miller with Diana Maio ©2004
Dumbest Thing Said for the Day taken from 1001 Dumbest Things Ever Said Edited by Steven D. Price ©2004
Permanent Backlink to Post
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