Saturday, January 7, 2023 Today is the seventh day of 2023 and the 18th day of winter.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1785, Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries crossed the English Channel in a balloon.

In 1927, the first commercial trans-Atlantic telephone call was made between London and New York City.

In 1955, Marian Anderson made her debut at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, becoming the first African American soloist to sing there.

In 2015, gunmen killed 12 people at the Paris offices of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Millard Fillmore (18001874), 13th U.S. president; Zora Neale Hurston (18911960), author; Francis Poulenc (1899-1963), composer; Charles Addams (1912-1988), cartoonist; Katie Couric (1957- ), TV news anchor; Rand Paul (1963- ), politician; Nicolas Cage (1964- ), actor; John Ondrasik aka Five for Fighting (1965- ), singer-songwriter; Jeremy Renner (1971), actor; John Rich (1974- ), singer-songwriter; Francisco Rodriguez (1982- ), baseball player; Jon Lester (1984- ), baseball player.

TODAY’S FACT: Millard Fillmore, who assumed the presidency in 1850 upon the death of Zachary Taylor, was the last president from the Whig party. Fillmore sought reelection in 1852, but the Whig party nominated Gen. Winfield Scott instead.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters (who were actually from Chicago) played their first game in Hinckley, Illinois.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.” Zora Neale Hurston, “Their Eyes Were Watching God”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 2.5 hours -- length of the first balloon trip across the English Channel, which crossed at the channel’s narrowest point (21 miles).

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (Jan. 6) and last quarter moon (Jan. 14).

Sunday, January 8, 2023

Today is the eighth day of 2023 and the 19th day of winter.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1790, President George Washington gave the first State of the Union address.

In 1877, Crazy Horse lost his final battle against the U.S. Cavalry along the Tongue River in Montana Territory.

In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlined his “Fourteen Points” peace plan.

In 1982, AT&T agreed to give up its local “Baby Bells.”

In 2011, a gunman opened fire at a public event for Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, killing six people and injuring 13, including Giffords.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Jose Ferrer (1912-1992), actor; Soupy Sales (19262009), TV personality; Elvis Presley (1935-1977), singer/ actor; Bob Eubanks (1938- ), TV game show host; Graham Chapman (1941-1989), actor/ comedian; Stephen Hawking (1942-2018), physicist; Terry Brooks (1944- ), author; David Bowie (1947-2016), singersongwriter; Michelle Forbes (1965- ), actress; Rachel Nichols (1980- ), actress; Cynthia Erivo (1987- ), actress; Noah Cyrus (2000- ), singer/ actress.

TODAY’S FACT: About 600,000 people annually visit Elvis Presley’s Graceland estate in Memphis, Tennessee.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1901, the first tournament sanctioned by the American Bowling Congress was held in Chicago.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “We live out our lives as we are meant to live them -- with some choice, with some chance, but mostly as a result of the persons we are.” -- Terry Brooks, “The Druid of Shannara”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 641 projected width (in feet) of the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, which will be the largest sculpture in the world if it is completed.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (Jan. 6) and last quarter moon (Jan. 14).

Monday, January 9, 2023 Today is the ninth day of 2023 and the 20th day of winter.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1788, Connecticut ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the fifth U.S. state.

In 1861, Confederates fired upon the steamship Star of the West at the garrison of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, an incident many historians consider the first shots of the American Civil War.

In 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the American Sixth Army invaded the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

In 2015, the two perpetrators of the shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris two days earlier were killed by police after a hostage crisis.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:

Chic Young (1901-1973), cartoonist; Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), philosopher/ author; Richard Nixon (1913-1994), 37th U.S. president; Judith Krantz (19282019), author; Bart Starr (1934-2019), football player; Joan Baez (1941- ), singersongwriter; Jimmy Page (1944- ), musician; J.K. Simmons (1955- ), actor; Dave Matthews (1967- ), singersongwriter; Sean Paul (1973), rapper/singer-songwriter; Sergio Garcia (1980- ), golfer; Catherine Middleton (1982), princess of Wales.

TODAY’S FACT: The comic strip “Blondie,” launched by Chic Young in 1930, eventually appeared in more than 2,000 newspapers around the world and spawned 28 film adaptations between 1938 and 1950.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1972, the Milwaukee Bucks ended the Los Angeles Lakers’ record 33-game winning streak with a 120-104 win.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “ I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth -- and truth rewarded me.” -- Simone de Beauvoir TODAY’S NUMBER: 1.2 billion -- iPhones sold in the decade after Apple introduced the first-generation unit on this day in 2007.

TODAY’S MOON: Between full moon (Jan. 6) and last quarter moon (Jan. 14).