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Today is January 10 2016

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   I.
Today's Holidays and Historical Events (updated daily)
Today's Food Holiday
  • Bittersweet Chocolate Day: More
    From Wikipedia: 'Chocolate is a range of foods derived from cocoa (cacao), mixed with fat (i.e., cocoa butter) and finely powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified according to the proportion of cocoa used in a particular formulation.'

    'The cocoa bean (or other alternative) products from which chocolate is made are known under different names in different parts of the world. In the American chocolate industry:
    chocolate liquor is the ground or melted state of the nib of the cacao bean, containing roughly equal parts cocoa butter and solids.
    cocoa butter is the fatty component of the bean.
    cocoa solids is the remaining nonfat part of the cocoa bean, which is ground into a powder.'

    'Raw chocolate is chocolate that has not been processed, heated, or mixed with other ingredients.'
    'Unsweetened chocolate, also known as bitter, baking chocolate, or cooking chocolate, is pure chocolate liquor mixed with some form of fat to produce a solid substance'
    'Dark chocolate, also called "plain chocolate" or "black chocolate", is produced by adding fat and sugar to cocoa. It is chocolate with no milk or much less than milk chocolate.'
    'Bittersweet chocolate is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate) to which some sugar (less than a third), more cocoa butter, vanilla, and sometimes lecithin has been added.'
    'Semisweet chocolate is frequently used for cooking purposes. It is a dark chocolate with (by definition in Swiss usage) half as much sugar as cocoa, beyond which it is "sweet chocolate." Semisweet chocolate does not contain milk solids'
    'Couverture is a term used for chocolates rich in cocoa butter. Popular brands of couverture used by professional pastry chefs.'
    'Milk chocolate, the variety that accounts for over 85% of the solid chocolate eaten in the United States, is solid chocolate made with milk, in the form of milk powder, liquid milk, or condensed milk, added.'
    'White chocolate" is a confection based on sugar, milk, and cocoa butter, without the cocoa solids.'
    'Cocoa powder is used for baking, and for drinking with added milk and sugar.
    'Modeling chocolate is a chocolate paste made by melting chocolate and combining it with corn syrup, glucose syrup, or golden syrup.'
Other celebrations/observances today:
  • National Cut Your Energy Costs Day: More
    Time to tune up your home heating system and prepare your home for winter. .
  • National Sunday Supper Day: More
    Second Sunday in January. Created by Isabel Laessig. Focuses on bringing famalies together. And what better way to do it, than over dinner
  • Peculiar People Day: More
    Peculiar doesn't mean wrong or bad. Find something in others, your friends or even yourself that is different and needs to be celebrated.
  • Houseplant Appreciation Day: More
    Created by, The Gardener's Network.
Awareness / Observance Days on: January 10
  • Health
    • Folic Acid Awareness Week: More
      January 10-16 in the U.S. '

      From Wikipedia: 'Folic acid or folate is a B vitamin. It is also referred to as vitamin M, vitamin B9, vitamin Bc (or folacin), pteroyl-L-glutamic acid, and pteroyl-L-glutamate.'

      'A lack of dietary folates can lead to folate deficiency. A complete lack of dietary folate takes months before deficiency develops as normal individuals have about 500–20,000 micrograms ( µg) of folate in body stores. This deficiency can result in many health problems, the most notable one being neural tube defects in developing embryos—a relatively rare birth defect affecting 300,000 (0.2%) births globally each year and 3,000 pregnancies in the United States each year'.
  • Animal and Pets
    • National Save The Eagles Day: More
      Eagle conservation. Efforts like this have brought the American Bald Eagle off the endangered list.
Events in the past on: January 10
  • In 1863, The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.
    From Wikipedia: 'The London Underground (also known as the Tube or simply the Underground) is a public rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and parts of the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. The network is considered the oldest rapid transit system, incorporating the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863 and is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines; and the first line o operate underground electric traction trains, the City and South London Railway in 1890, now part of the Northern line'. More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1870,- John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
    From Wikipedia: 'Standard Oil Co. Inc. was an American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world of its time. Its controversial history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard was an illegal monopoly.' More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1901, Oil company Texaco forms after oil is discovered in Spindletop, TX.
    From Wikipedia: 'Texaco was an independent company until its refining operations merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to the Shell Oil Company. It began as the Texas Fuel Company, founded in 1901 in Beaumont, Texas, by Joseph S. Cullinan, Thomas J. Donoghue, Walter Benona Sharp, and Arnold Schlaet upon the discovery of oil at Spindletop'. More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube (rotary drilling): More
  • In 1920, The League of Nations is instituted.
    From Wikipedia: 'The League of Nations (abbreviated as LN in English, "La Société des Nations" abbreviated as SDN or SdN in French) was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration'.
    'At the 1943 Tehran Conference, the Allied powers agreed to create a new body to replace the League: the United Nations. Many League bodies, such as the International Labour Organisation, continued to function and eventually became affiliated with the UN'. More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1920, The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.
    From Wikipedia: 'The Treaty of Versailles (French: Traité de Versailles) was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties. Although the armistice, signed on 11 took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919'. More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1927, Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany.
    From Wikipedia: 'Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist epic science-fiction drama ssfilm directed by Fritz Lang. Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou, wrote the silent film, which starred Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G.. It is regarded as a pioneering work of the science-fiction genre in movies, being among the first feature-length movies of the genre'. More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1946, The U.S. Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the moon and receiving the reflected signals.
    From Wikipedia: 'Project Diana, named for the Roman moon goddess Diana, was an experimental project of the US Army Signal Corps in 1946 to bounce radar signals off the Moon and receive the reflected signals. This was the first experiment in radar astronomy and the first active attempt to probe another celestial body. It was the inspiration for later EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communication techniques'. More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1951, The U.N. headquarters opens in Manhattan NY.
    From Wikipedia: 'The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193'. More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1962, During the Apollo program, NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle. It became better known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission.
    From Wikipedia: 'On January 10, 1962, NASA announced plans to build the C-5. The three-stage rocket would consist of: the S-IC first stage, with five F-1 engines; the S-II second stage, with five J-2 engines; and the S-IVB third stage, with a single J-2 engine. The C-5 was designed for a 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg) payload capacity to the Moon'. More
    - On YouTube: More
  • In 1980, Last broadcast of the TV show, The Rockford Files, on NBC.
    From Wikipedia: 'The Rockford Files is an American television drama series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974, and January 10, 1980, and has remained in syndication to the present day. Garner portrays Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford with Noah Beery, Jr., in the supporting role of his father, a retired truck driver nicknamed "Rocky"'. More
    - On YouTube: More
    - On YouTube: More
  II.
Henry's Heads Up! - previous days social media post (updated daily)

Tomorrow's food holiday is 'Bittersweet Chocolate Day'.
From Wikipedia: 'Chocolate is a range of foods derived from cocoa (cacao), mixed with fat (i.e., cocoa butter) and finely powdered sugar to produce a solid confectionery. There are several types of chocolate, classified according to the proportion of cocoa used in a particular formulation.'
'The cocoa bean (or other alternative) products from which chocolate is made are known under different names in different parts of the world. In the American chocolate industry:
- chocolate liquor is the ground or melted state of the nib of the cacao bean, containing roughly equal parts cocoa butter and solids.
- cocoa butter is the fatty component of the bean.
- cocoa solids is the remaining nonfat part of the cocoa bean, which is ground into a powder.'

. 'Raw chocolate is chocolate that has not been processed, heated, or mixed with other ingredients.'
. 'Unsweetened chocolate, also known as bitter, baking chocolate, or cooking chocolate, is pure chocolate liquor mixed with some form of fat to produce a solid substance'
. 'Dark chocolate, also called "plain chocolate" or "black chocolate", is produced by adding fat and sugar to cocoa. It is chocolate with no milk or much less than milk chocolate.'
. 'Bittersweet chocolate is chocolate liquor (or unsweetened chocolate) to which some sugar (less than a third), more cocoa butter, vanilla, and sometimes lecithin has been added.' . 'Semisweet chocolate is frequently used for cooking purposes. It is a dark chocolate with (by definition in Swiss usage) half as much sugar as cocoa, beyond which it is "sweet chocolate." Semisweet chocolate does not contain milk solids'
- 'Couverture is a term used for chocolates rich in cocoa butter. Popular brands of couverture used by professional pastry chefs.'
- 'Milk chocolate, the variety that accounts for over 85% of the solid chocolate eaten in the United States, is solid chocolate made with milk, in the form of milk powder, liquid milk, or condensed milk, added.'
- 'White chocolate" is a confection based on sugar, milk, and cocoa butter, without the cocoa solids.'
- 'Cocoa powder is used for baking, and for drinking with added milk and sugar.
- 'Modeling chocolate is a chocolate paste made by melting chocolate and combining it with corn syrup, glucose syrup, or golden syrup.'
[The Hankster says] Everything you always wanted to know about chocolate, but were afraid to ask. My favorite are bittersweet and semisweet. Then all the others. I am currently looking for a chocolate buffet so I can try all of them. F. Gump, had it right. Just open the box and see what you get.


Other celebrations/observances tomorrow:

For us 'up overs' (Northern Hemisphere) It's 'National Cut Your Energy Costs Day' tomorrow. Time to tune up your home heating system and prepare your home for winter. .
[The Hankster says] Get someone you trust. Some of the check-up companies want to sell you a new furnace at the first sign a a flake of rust.

Tomorrow is 'National Sunday Supper Day'. Second Sunday in January. Created by Isabel Laessig. Focuses on bringing families together. And how better to do it, than over dinner.
[The Hankster says] How about an all chocolate dinner.

It's 'Peculiar People Day' tomorrow. Peculiar doesn't mean wrong or bad. Find something in others, your friends or even yourself that is different and needs to be celebrated.
[The Hankster says] Hey, you can start with me, unless you are currently looking in the mirror.

Green up tomorrow. It's 'Houseplant Appreciation Day' tomorrow. Created by, The Gardener's Network.
[The Hankster says] I appreciate every plant that I haven't managed to kill.


Awareness / Observance Days on: January 10
o Health
- 'Folic Acid Awareness Week'. January 10-16 in the U.S. ' From Wikipedia: 'Folic acid or folate is a B vitamin. It is also referred to as vitamin M, vitamin B9, vitamin Bc (or folacin), pteroyl-L-glutamic acid, and pteroyl-L-glutamate.'

'A lack of dietary folates can lead to folate deficiency. A complete lack of dietary folate takes months before deficiency develops as normal individuals have about 500–20,000 micrograms ( µg) of folate in body stores. This deficiency can result in many health problems, the most notable one being neural tube defects in developing embryos—a relatively rare birth defect affecting 300,000 (0.2%) births globally each year and 3,000 pregnancies in the United States each year'.

o Animal and Pets
- 'National Save The Eagles Day'. Eagle conservation. Efforts like this have brought the American Bald Eagle off the endangered list.


Historical events in the past on: January 10

In 1863, The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station. From Wikipedia: 'The London Underground (also known as the Tube or simply the Underground) is a public rapid transit system serving a large part of Greater London and parts of the home counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire and Essex. The network is considered the oldest rapid transit system, incorporating the world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, which opened in 1863 and is now part of the Circle, Hammersmith and City and Metropolitan lines; and the first line o operate underground electric traction trains, the City and South London Railway in 1890, now part of the Northern line'.

In 1870,- John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil. From Wikipedia: 'Standard Oil Co. Inc. was an American oil producing, transporting, refining, and marketing company. Established in 1870 by John D. Rockefeller as a corporation in Ohio, it was the largest oil refiner in the world of its time. Its controversial history as one of the world's first and largest multinational corporations ended in 1911, when the United States Supreme Court ruled that Standard was an illegal monopoly.'

In 1901, Oil company Texaco forms after oil is discovered in Spindletop, TX. From Wikipedia: 'Texaco was an independent company until its refining operations merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to the Shell Oil Company. It began as the Texas Fuel Company, founded in 1901 in Beaumont, Texas, by Joseph S. Cullinan, Thomas J. Donoghue, Walter Benona Sharp, and Arnold Schlaet upon the discovery of oil at Spindletop'.

In 1920, The League of Nations is instituted. From Wikipedia: 'The League of Nations (abbreviated as LN in English, "La Société des Nations" abbreviated as SDN or SdN in French) was an intergovernmental organisation founded on 10 January 1920 as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international organisation whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary goals, as stated in its Covenant, included preventing wars through collective security and disarmament and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration'. 'At the 1943 Tehran Conference, the Allied powers agreed to create a new body to replace the League: the United Nations. Many League bodies, such as the International Labour Organisation, continued to function and eventually became affiliated with the UN'.

In 1920, The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I. From Wikipedia: 'The Treaty of Versailles (French: Traité de Versailles) was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of World War I were dealt with in separate treaties. Although the armistice, signed on 11 took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919'.

In 1927, Fritz Lang's futuristic film Metropolis is released in Germany. From Wikipedia: 'Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist epic science-fiction drama ssfilm directed by Fritz Lang. Lang and his wife, Thea von Harbou, wrote the silent film, which starred Brigitte Helm, Gustav Fröhlich, Alfred Abel and Rudolf Klein-Rogge. Erich Pommer produced it in the Babelsberg Studios for Universum Film A.G.. It is regarded as a pioneering work of the science-fiction genre in movies, being among the first feature-length movies of the genre'.

In 1946, The U.S. Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the moon and receiving the reflected signals. From Wikipedia: 'Project Diana, named for the Roman moon goddess Diana, was an experimental project of the US Army Signal Corps in 1946 to bounce radar signals off the Moon and receive the reflected signals. This was the first experiment in radar astronomy and the first active attempt to probe another celestial body. It was the inspiration for later EME (Earth-Moon-Earth) communication techniques'.

In 1951, The U.N. headquarters opens in Manhattan NY. From Wikipedia: 'The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict. At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; there are now 193'.

In 1962, During the Apollo program, NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle. It became better known as the Saturn V Moon rocket, which launched every Apollo Moon mission. From Wikipedia: 'On January 10, 1962, NASA announced plans to build the C-5. The three-stage rocket would consist of: the S-IC first stage, with five F-1 engines; the S-II second stage, with five J-2 engines; and the S-IVB third stage, with a single J-2 engine. The C-5 was designed for a 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg) payload capacity to the Moon'.

In 1980, Last broadcast of the TV show, The Rockford Files, on NBC. From Wikipedia: 'The Rockford Files is an American television drama series starring James Garner that aired on the NBC network between September 13, 1974, and January 10, 1980, and has remained in syndication to the present day. Garner portrays Los Angeles-based private investigator Jim Rockford with Noah Beery, Jr., in the supporting role of his father, a retired truck driver nicknamed "Rocky"'.

 III.
Top Song & Movie 50 years ago today (last updated Jan 9 2016 next Jan 16 2016

No. 1 song

  • We Can Work It Out - The Beatles    On YouTube: More
    At Wikipedia: More
    'Over and Over' has been displaced by 'We Can Work It Out ', which will hold the no. 1 spot until January 29 1966, when 'The Sounds of Silence - Simon AND Garfunkel', takes over.

Top movie

  • Agent for H.A.R.M.  At Wikipedia:  More
    On IMDb: More
    On YouTube (trailer): More
    Having displaced 'Doctor Zhivago', it will be there until the weekend box office of January 16 1966 when, 'Our Man Flint', takes over.
  IV.
Today in the Past (reference sites): January 10
   V.
This month January 2016 (updated once a month - last updated - January 1 2016)

Monthly holiday / awareness days in January

Food
California Dried Plum Digestive Month
National Hot Tea Month
National Soup Month
Oatmeal Month

Health
Bath Safety Month
Birth Defects Month
Cervical Health Awareness Month
National Glaucoma Awareness Month
National Personal Trainer Awareness Month
National Volunteer Blood Donor Month
Self-help Group Awareness Month
Self-Love Month
Shape Up US Month
Thyroid Awareness Month

Animal / Pets
Adopt A Rescued Bird Month
Train Your Dog Month
Unchain A Dog Month
Walk Your Dog Month

Other
Be Kind to Food Servers Month
Book Blitz Month
Celebration of Life Month
Financial Wellness Month
Get A Balanced Life Month
Get Organized Month
International Brain Teaser Month
International Change Your Stars Month
International Child-Centered Divorce Awareness Month
International Creativity Month
International Quality of Life Month
International Wayfinding Month
International Wealth Mentality Month
Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month
National Be On-Purpose Month
National Braille Literacy Month
National Clean Up Your Computer Month
National Codependency Awareness Month
National Mail Order Gardening Month
National Mentoring Month
National Personal Self-Defense Awareness Month
National Polka Music Month
National Poverty in America Awareness Month
National Radon Action Month
National Skating Month
National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month
National Stalking Awareness Month
Rising Star Month
Teen Driving Awareness 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

  VI.
TV fifty years ago 1966 (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2016)

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

 VII.
Best selling books fifty years ago (updated yearly - last updated Jan. 1 2016)

Best selling books of 1966 More

VIII.
Fun (Last link added October 1 2014, but content on each site may change daily)
  • 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
  IX.
Other Holiday Sites (Last link added October 1 2014. Link content changes yearly)

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


US Government Holidays

  • 2016 Postal Holidays More
  • 2016 Official Federal Holidays More

Holidays Worldwide

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