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January is . . . #4

January 23:

Measure Your Feet Day
Image result for feet measurement
History tells us that many units of measure were derived from the physical property of a king or some notable. For example the English unit of length, known as “the foot” was derived from the actual length of a king’s foot.
Celebrate Measure Your Feet Day by taking photographs of your family’s feet. For a great focal point photograph, have your family sit on the floor with their legs outstretched with their feet up against or touching a wall. Line up the feet in order from longest to shortest and snap the picture. On the scrapbook page, label each set of feet and record the size in inches. Since you know this day is coming, treat yourself to a pedicure the day before.

National Handwriting Day
The lost art of handwriting is one of the few ways we can uniquely express ourselves. Handwriting adds intimacy to a scrapbook page as you share journaling facts with those who will enjoy your albums for years to come. Some scrapbookers are self-conscious of their handwriting skills. Keep in mind that everyone’s handwriting is unique. Your descendants will cherish the words written in your distinctive style.

National Pie Day

1960: Swiss engineer Jacques Piccard and U.S. Navy lieutenant Don Walsh descend into the bottom of Challenger Deep (10,916 m/35,810 ft), setting a new undersea record.

1989: Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter, writer, and member of the surrealist movement, dies in Figueras, Spain, at the age of 84.

Édouard Manet, French painter (1832)

John Hancock, patriot and statesman (1737)

Jeanne Moreau, French theater and motion-picture actor (1928)

January 24:

Compliment Day

1848: The California Gold Rush kicks off when James Marshall, a construction worker, discovers a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill, California.

Edith Newbold Wharton (1862-1937), American novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner and the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Yale University.

1885: The CPR telegraph was completed from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

1935: The first canned beer is sold by the Krueger Brewing Company in Richmond, Virginia.

1952: Vincent Massey was appointed the first Canadian-born Governor General of Canada. He served from February 28, 1952 to September 15, 1959.

1965: Winston Churchill, prime minister of Great Britain from 1940–1945 and 1951–1955, dies in London, England, at age 90.

Ernst Hoffmann, German writer and composer (1776)

Edith Wharton, writer (1862)

Aaron Neville, singer (1941)

Ernest Borgnine, actor (1917)

1978: Cosmos 954, a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite, re-entered the atmosphere and crashed in the NWT. The Canadian Armed Forces launched a large operation to recover radioactive debris scattered over a wide area.

January 25:

Opposite Day

National Speak Up & Succeed Day

1890: Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world trip in record time, beating Jules Verne's fictional character Phileas Fogg's record of 80 days.

1932: The Trans-Canada telephone system was inaugurated when the Governor General, the Earl of Bessborough, spoke to nine provincial lieutenant governors.

Robert Burns, Scottish poet (1759)

Burns Clubs around the world hold Burns Night celebrations toasting the “Immortal Memory” and concluding with the singing of Burns’ famous Auld Lange Syne.

William Somerset Maugham, British author (1874)

January 26:

National School Nurse Day

National Compliment Day

Pleasant words are like a honeycomb,
Sweetness to the soul
And health to the body.
--Proverbs

Australia Day
Australia day is a day for the people of Australia to reflect on what has been achieved and to be proud of a great nation. Also called Foundation Day, it commemorates the landing on the Australian continent of Captain Arthur Phillip and his company of men and women in 1788.

1679: The keel of the 44 tonne Griffon was laid at the mouth of the Cayuga Creek on Lake Erie. Launched on August 7, it was the first ship to be built on and sail the Great Lakes.

1905: The world's largest diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa.

1924: An order-in-council decreed that the Canadian Red Ensign could be flown over Canadian government buildings at home and abroad.

1950: India formally becomes a republic, three years after gaining independence from Great Britain.

1956: Buddy Holly has his first recording session at Decca Studios in Nashville, Tennessee.

Wayne Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player (1961)

Bessie Coleman, first African American female aviator (1893)

Eddie Van Halen, heavy metal guitarist (1957)

Feast Day of Saint Polycarp, one of the apostolic Fathers whose martyrdom created the tradition of observing saints’ days.

January 27:

National Kazoo Day

Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day

1721: A mail stagecoach service was established between Quebec and Montreal. It was the first regular postal service in Canada.

1880: Thomas Edison patents the electric light bulb.

1888: The National Geographic Society is established for the purpose of increasing and diffusing geographical knowledge.

1916: Manitoba allowed women to vote and granted political equality.

1945: The Soviet army marches into the Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, liberating about 7600 prisoners abandoned there.

1950: India’s Republic Day, Basant Panchmi, is celebrated in commemoration of the proclamation of the republic on this date. India declared its independence from Britain and everybody else and adopted a new constitution.

Jerome Kern, composer (1885) whose most popular achievement was the score for the musical version of Edna Ferber’s novel Show Boat.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer (1756)

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), author (1832) and English mathematician who wrote Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Donna Reed, actor (1921)

Family Literacy Day

January 28:

Fun at Work Day

1914: Nellie Letitia McClung (1873-1951) and other suffragettes held the Mock Parliament in Winnipeg, to agitate for votes for women.

1916: Manitoba became the first province to grant women the right to vote in provincial elections and hold public office.

1968: Aretha Franklin tops the charts with her hit "Chain of Fools." She goes on to earn a string of awards including lifetime achievement awards from the Grammys and from the Kennedy Center of the Arts.

1986: The space shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after lift off at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1866: Scottish explorer David Livingstone embarks on his final expedition in Africa to establish the true source of the Nile. All outside contact with him is lost after he reaches Lake Tanganyika.

Jackson Pollock, American artist (1912)

Anna Ivanovna, Russian empress (1693)

Susan Sontag, writer (1933)

Serendipity Day
Serendipity roughly means “a pleasant surprise.” Since it is impossible to plan to surprise yourself, you will have to be the “surpriser.” Here are some possible serendipitous scenarios:
Hide a love note in your mate’s pocket – be mysterious and include a time and place to rendezvous later
Bake some cookies and stop by a friend’s for coffee
Buy a bouquet of flowers at the grocery store and leave them on your mother’s kitchen table.
Stop by your child’s school at lunch and eat with him or her in the cafeteria
Wrap a five dollar bill around your teenager’s toothbrush
Pack a picnic lunch a camp out under the dining room table with your toddler

1980: Canada’s Ambassador to Iran, Kenneth Taylor, arranged the escape of six US Embassy employees from Tehran. The six had escaped from the US Embassy when it was occupied by Iranian “students” in November 1979, and by November 22 were safely housed with Canadian Embassy staff. Afraid that the Iranians had learned of the whereabouts of the six, the Americans were driven to Tehran airport, and were able to leave Iran with non-diplomatic Canadian passports they had been given. Taylor and four other Canadians left Iran a few hours later after closing the Embassy.

January 29:

Chinese New Year, 2006

National Puzzle Day

National Corn Chip Day

1856: The Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military decoration, was awarded to Alexander Dunn (1833-1868), the first Canadian to receive it, for gallantry at the charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava.

1891: Liliuokalani became Queen of Hawaii following the death of her brother King Kalakaua. She was the last monarch in Hawaiian history.

1897: The Victorian Order of Nurses was founded in Ottawa with the aid of Lady Aberdeen.

1936: Baseball greats Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson, and Christy Mathewson are the first players inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The hall opens its doors to the public in 1939.

W. C. Fields, actor (1880)

1946: The Bluenose sank after striking a reef off Haiti.

Thomas Paine, political philosopher (1737) and author of Common Sense, The Rights of Man, and The Age of Reason.

Common Sense Day
Named in honour of Thomas Paine to encourage the use of good sense in appreciating and protecting the rights of all people.

Oprah Winfrey, talk-show host (1954)

Anton Chekhov, Russian dramatist and short-story writer (1860)


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