Today is January 23 2014

National Pie Day: More
Enjoy, but let's be careful today. Run, if you see three guys carrying pies. One will have a kitchen bowl haircut, the other bald and the third with a frizzy Afro.

• National Rhubarb Pie Day: More
  
  I can taste my Great Aunt Nora's Strawberry-Rhubar pies, now.
  She always took us to her garden to do a rhubarb show and tell. She wanted to make sure that we knew that while the stalks were OK, the leaves were poisoness.

• In 1556, The deadliest earthquake on record, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
  From Wikipedia: 'The 1556 Shaanxi earthquake (Chinese: ?????; pinyin: Huáxiàn Dàdìzhèn) or Jiajing earthquake (Chinese: ?????; pinyin: Jiajìng Dàdìzhèn) was a catastrophic earthquake and is also the deadliest earthquake on record, killing approximately 830,000 people. It occurred on the morning of 23 January 1556 in Shaanxi, during the Ming Dynasty. More than 97 counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui were affected. An 840-kilometre-wide (520 mi) area was destroyed, and in some counties as much as 60% of the population was killed. Most of the population in the area at the time lived in yaodongs, artificial caves in loess cliffs, many of which collapsed with catastrophic loss of life'. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1795, After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of a battle between ships and cavalry.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Capture of the Dutch fleet at Den Helder or the Battle of Texel occurred in the night of the 23 January 1795, and presents a rare occurrence of a "naval" battle between warships and cavalry; a French Hussar regiment surprised a Dutch fleet frozen at anchor between the port of Den Helder and the island of Texel. After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns. This capture of ships by horsemen is a unique feat in military history'. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell, is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York. She became the U.S. first female doctor. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1855, The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  From Wikipedia: 'The first bridge across the Mississippi River was built in 1855. It spanned the river in Minneapolis, Minnesota where the current Hennepin Avenue Bridge is located. No highway or railroad tunnels cross under the Mississippi River.
  
  The first railroad bridge across the Mississippi was built in 1856. It spanned the river between the Rock Island Arsenal in Illinois and Davenport, Iowa'. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1897, Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Greenbrier Ghost is the name popularly given to the alleged ghost of a young woman in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States, who was murdered in 1897. Initially judged a death by natural causes, the court later declared that the woman had been murdered by her husband following testimony by the victim's mother, in which the latter claimed that her daughter's spirit revealed the true cause of death'. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1909, RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.
  From Wikipedia: 'RMS Republic was a steam-powered ocean liner built in 1903 by Harland and Wolff in Belfast, and lost at sea in a collision six years later while sailing for the White Star Line. A CQD distress call was issued on the new Marconi radio device, the first recorded, resulting in the saving of around 1500 lives. Known as the "Millionaires' Ship" on account of the number of well-known and immensely rich Americans who traveled by her, she was one of the largest and most luxurious liners afloat; she was frequently referred to as a "palatial" liner.
  
  'Although used worldwide by Marconi operators, CQD was never adopted as an international standard since it could be mistaken for a general call "CQ" if the reception was poor. At the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention, held in Berlin in 1906, Germany's Notzeichen distress signal of three-dots/three-dashes/three-dots (· · · – – – · · · ) was adopted as the international Morse code distress signal. (This distress signal soon became known as "SOS"'. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1953, The NFL 'Dallas Texans', assets and players, become the 'Baltimore Colts', now the 'Indianapolis Colts'.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Dallas Texans played in the National Football League for one season, 1952, with a record of 1–11. They were one of the worst teams in NFL history, both on (lowest franchise winning percentage) and off the field. The team was based first in Dallas, then Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Akron, Ohio, during its only season. The Texans were the last NFL team to fold.'
  
  'The NFL was unable to find a buyer for the Texans, and folded the team after the season. A few months later, the NFL granted a new franchise to a Baltimore-based group headed by Carroll Rosenbloom, and awarded it the remaining assets (including the players) of the failed Texans operation. Rosenbloom named his new team the Baltimore Colts. For all intents and purposes, Rosenbloom bought the Texans and moved them to Baltimore. However, the Colts (now based in Indianapolis) do not claim the history of the Yanks/Bulldogs/Yanks/Texans as their own, in spite of the fact that the Colts 1953 roster included many of the 1952 Texans. Likewise, the NFL reckons the Colts as a 1953 expansion team. It does not consider the Colts to be a continuation of the Yanks/Bulldogs/Yanks/Texans franchise, or even the Dayton Triangles for that matter considering that franchise's successor, the Brooklyn Dodgers/Tigers, merged with the Yanks in 1945. As a result, the Texans officially remain the last NFL team to permanently cease operations and not be included in the lineage of any current team.
  
  'In 1960, the league made a second venture into Dallas and established what would become a more successful team, the Dallas Cowboys. Also in that year, the American Football League began with its own Dallas Texans; that team moved after winning the 1962 AFL Championship and became the Kansas City Chiefs. The "Texans" name has since been revived by the NFL for the current Houston Texans, which started play in 2002'. More
• In 1957, The Wham-O company purchased the rights to the 'Pluto Platter'. They renamed it the 'Frisbee'.
  From Wikipedia: 'Fred Morrison discovered a market for the modern-day flying disc in 1938 when he and future wife, Lucile, were offered 25 cents for a cake pan that they were tossing back and forth on a beach in Santa Monica, California. "That got the wheels turning, because you could buy a cake pan for five cents, and if people on the beach were willing to pay a quarter for it, well - there was a business," Morrison told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper in 2007.'
  
  'By 1948, after design modifications and experimentation with several prototypes, Morrison and business partner Warren Franscioni began producing the first plastic discs, renaming them the Flyin-Saucer in the wake of reported unidentified-flying-object sightings.'
  
  'Morrison and Franscioni ended their partnership in early 1950, and in 1954 Morrison formed his own company, called American Trends, to buy and sell Flyin-Saucers, which were by then being made of a flexible polypropylene plastic from Southern California Plastics, the original molder. After learning that he could produce his own disc more cheaply, in 1955 Morrison designed a new model, the Pluto Platter, the archetype of all modern flying discs. He sold the rights to Wham-O on January 23, 1957, and in 1958 Morrison was awarded U.S. Design Patent D183,626 for his product' More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1960, The bathyscaphe 'USS Trieste' breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.
  From Wikipedia: 'Trieste is a Swiss-designed, Italian-built deep-diving research bathyscaphe, which with her crew of two reached a record maximum depth of about 10,911 metres (35,797 ft), in the deepest known part of the Earth's oceans, the Challenger Deep, in the Mariana Trench near Guam in the Pacific. On 23 January 1960, Jacques Piccard (son of the boat's designer Auguste Piccard) and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh achieved the goal of Project Nekton.
  
  Trieste was the first manned vessel to have reached the bottom of the Challenger Deep' More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1975, The TV show 'Barney Miller' premieres.
  From Wikipedia: 'Barney Miller is an American sitcom set in a New York City Police Department police station in Greenwich Village. The series originally was broadcast from January 23, 1975, to May 20, 1982, on ABC. It was created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker. Noam Pitlik directed the majority of the episodes'. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1977, The TV Miniseries 'Roots' premieres.
  From Wikipedia: 'Roots is a television miniseries in the USA based on Alex Haley's 1976 novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family; the series first aired, on ABC-TV, in 1977. Roots received 37 Emmy Award nominations and won nine. It won also a Golden Globe and a Peabody Award. It received unprecedented Nielsen ratings for the finale, which still holds a record as the third highest rated episode for any type of television series, and the second most watched overall series finale in U.S. television history. It was produced on a budget of $6.6 million'. More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1983, The TV show, The A-Team, premieres on NBC TV.
  From Wikipedia: 'The A-Team is an American action-adventure television series, running from 1983 to 1987, about a fictitious former United States Army Special Forces unit who, after being court-martialed "for a crime they didn't commit#, escape from military prison and, while still on the run, work as soldiers of fortune. A feature film based on the series was released by 20th Century Fox in June 2010'. More
  - On YouTube: More
  - On YouTube: More
• In 1986, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first ten members.
  From Wikipedia: 'The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way, influenced the music industry.'
  
  'The first group of inductees, inducted on January 23, 1986, included Elvis Presley, James Brown, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis. Robert Johnson, Jimmie Rodgers and Jimmy Yancey were inducted as Early Influences, John Hammond received the Lifetime Achievement Award and Alan Freed and Sam Phillips were inducted as Non-Performers''. More
  - On YouTube: More

Nothing. Looks like I was lazy on this day.

No. 1 song

• There I've Said It Again - Bobby Vinton: More
  This song will stay no. 1 until Jan. 25, when the Beatles hit the no. 1 US charts with, I Want To Hold Your Hand.
• There are differences in the number one song by country, rating category (top 10, 40 , 100) and chart. The Cash Box 100 has the no. 1 pop hit as:
  Louie Louie More
  For those who, 50 yrs later still can't understand the words, this has the lyrics.

Top movie

• The Sword in the Stone More
  It will stay on top until the weekend box office ratings of February 2, 1964, when Dr. Strangelove takes over

• FamousBirthdays.com: January 23 Birthdays More
• FamousDaily.com: January 23 History More
• History.com: Historical Events on 23rd January More
• HistoryOrb.com: Famous Deaths on 23rd January More
• On-This-day.com history 23rd January More
• On-This-day.com music history 23rd January More
• Wikipedia.com: History January 23 More

National: Egg Month, Hot Tea Month, Oatmeal Month, Soup Month.

January is:

January origin (from Wikipedia): 'January is named after Janus, the God of beginnings and transitions; the name has its beginnings in Roman mythology, coming from the Latin word for door since January is the door to the year.'

'January is the first month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and one of seven months with the length of 31 days. The first day of the month is known as New Year's Day. It is, on average, the coldest month of the year within most of the Northern Hemisphere (where it is the second month of winter) and the warmest month of the year within most of the Southern Hemisphere (where it is the second month of summer). In the Southern hemisphere, January is the seasonal equivalent of July in the Northern hemisphere and vice versa.'

January at Wikipedia: More

If you couldn't afford 90 cents for a movie ticket, 50 years ago, or your 45 RPM record player was broke, you might watch one of these shows on TV.
From this Wikipedia article: More

Best selling books of 1964 More

• Astronomy Picture of the Day: More
• NOAA: - National Hurricane Center - Atlantic Graphical Tropical Weather Outlook: More
• Listen to Old Radio Shows: (streaming mp3 with schedule) More
• NASA TV: (video feed) More
  NASA TV schedule: More
• Public Domain eBook Links

  Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More

• Podcast: A Moment of Science. Approximately 1 minute general science facts.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: The Naked Scientists. Current science, medicine, space and other science
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Podcast: Quirks & Quarks. Current science news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Articles and videos: Universe Today. Current space and astronomy news.
  Home page: More
  RSS: More
• Old Picture of the Day - "Each day we bring you one stunning little glimpse of history in the form of a historical photograph."
  Home page: More
  RSS: More

Below, are listed several holiday sites that I reference in addition to other holiday researches.

US Government Holidays

• 2014 Postal Holidays More
• 2014 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

• List of holidays by country More
• Holidays and Observances around the World More