Tomorrow's food holiday will be 'National Popcorn Day'. From Wikipedia; 'Popcorn is able to pop because, like amaranth grain, sorghum, quinoa, and millet, its kernels have a hard moisture-sealed hull and dense starchy innards. When heated, pressure builds within the kernel, and a small explosion (or "pop") is the end result. Some strains of corn are now cultivated specifically as popping corns'.
[The Hankster says] Can't get enough of the stuff. My favorite flavor is salt and lightly buttered. Can't stand soggy buttered popcorn. Cheese coated and caramel corn are my next favorites.
Other celebrations/observances tomorrow:
Robbin Hood fans, tomorrow is 'Archery Day'. Archery in the Schools Day is in May.
[The Hankster says] At Physical Education class at High School I remember seeing the girls P.E. class practicing archery while us guys played tag football. My friends Donnie and Allen (his bows and arrows) and I did our shooting, under the power transmission lines in the town I grew up in, Galena Park TX. That gave us a long uninterrupted field to shoot on.
It's 'Tin Can Day' tomorrow. The tin can was patented by Peter Durand in 1810, From Wikipedia: 'The tin canning process was allegedly invented by Frenchman Philippe de Girard and the idea passed to British merchant Peter Durand who was used as an agent to patent Girard's idea in 1810.[2] The canning concept was based on experimental food preservation work in glass containers the year before by the French inventor Nicholas
Appert. Durand did not pursue foodcanning, but, in 1812, sold his patent to two Englishmen, Bryan Donkin and John Hall, who refined the process and product, and set up the world's first commercial canning factory on Southwark Park Road, London. By 1813 they were producing their first tin canned goods for the Royal Navy'.
[The Hankster says] Very useful things, these tin cans. What ever would we have done as kids, if we wanted to communicate with our buddy. I have made an oatmeal box string phone, but tin is much better. And what would we have used to aim our rocks and arrows at? And in what, prey tell, would we have found our Bean's 'n Weenies or spaghetti O's. And the sportsman among us would have to continue to 'kick the rock' instead of 'kick the can'.
Awareness / Observance Days on: January 19
o Health
- 'Rid the World of Fad Diets Day'. The Tuesday of the Third full week of January. A focus on a consistent healthy life style and not health fads such as diets.
Historical events in the past on: January 19
- In 1883. The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
From Wikipedia: 'On January 19, 1883, the world's first electric lighting system employing overhead wires began service in Roselle, and was built by Thomas Edison to demonstrate that an entire community could be lit by electricity.] The First Presbyterian Church, located on the corner of West 5th Avenue and Chestnut Street, was the first church in the world to be lit by electricity'.
- In 1903 - A new bicycle race 'Tour de France' is announced.
From Wikipedia: 'The Tour de France is an annual multiple stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while also occasionally making passes through nearby countries. The race was first organized in 1903 to increase paper sales for the magazine L'Auto; it is currently run by the Amaury Sport Organisation. The race has been held annually since its first edition in 1903 except when it was stopped for the two World Wars. As the Tour gained prominence and
popularity the race was lengthened and its reach began to extend around the globe'.
- In 1929, The 'Acadia National Park', Maine is established.
From Wikipedia: 'Acadia National Park is a national park located in the U.S. state of Maine. It reserves much of Mount Desert Island, and associated smaller islands, off the Atlantic coast. Created as Lafayette National Park in 1919, it was renamed Acadia in 1929 and is the third oldest national park east of the Mississippi River, following Thousand Islands (1904) and Point Pelee (1918) in Ontario'.
- In 1935, Coopers Inc. (later Jockey) sells the world's first briefs.
From Wikipedia: 'On January 19, 1935, during a blizzard, Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs at the Marshall Field's State Street store in downtown Chicago. Designed by an apparel engineer named Arthur Kneibler, briefs dispensed with leg sections and had a Y-shaped overlapping fly. The company dubbed the design the maccky, since it offered a degree of support that had previously only been available from the jockstrap. Macky briefs proved so popular that over 30,
000 pairs were sold within three months of their introduction. Coopers, having renamed the company Jockey, sent its Mascul-liner plane to make special deliveries of masculine support briefs to retailers across the US. In 1938, when macky were introduced in the UK, they sold at the rate of 3,000 a week'.
- In 1937, Howard Hughes sets a speed record for transcontinental air flight. The flight was from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds. From Wikipedia: 'A year and a half later, on January 19, 1937, flying the same H-1 Racer fitted with longer wings, Hughes set a new transcontinental airspeed record by flying non-stop from Los Angeles to Newark in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds (beating his own previous record of 9 hours, 27 minutes).
His average ground speed over the flight was 322 mph (518 km/h)'.
- In 1953, Almost 72% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
From Wikipedia: 'Lucy Goes to the Hospital, is an episode of the 1950s American television show I Love Lucy in which the title character, Lucy Ricardo, gives birth to her son, "Little Ricky," after a "predictably chaotic" sequence of events. Twelve hours before the broadcast, the actress who played Lucy Ricardo, Lucille Ball, had given birth to Desi Arnaz, Jr. by cesarean section. The episode had actually been filmed on November 14, 1952'.
- In 1955, The TV show, The Millionaire, premieres. It followed the lives of persons receiving 1 million dollars, tax free.
From Wikipedia: 'The Millionaire is an American anthology series that aired on CBS from January 19, 1955, to June 7, 1960, originally sponsored by Colgate-Palmolive. The series explored the ways sudden and unexpected wealth changed life for better or for worse and became a five-season hit during the Golden Age of Television, finishing in the Nielsen ratings at #9 for the 1955-1956 season, #13 in 1956-1957, #17 in 1957-1958 and #30 in 1958-1959. It told the stories of
people who were given one million dollars from a benefactor who insisted they never know him, with one exception. The series was known in syndication by two titles—The Millionaire, and as If You Had a Million.
The 1932 film If I Had A Million had a similar plot to this TV show'.
- In 1977, U.S. President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino (the "Tokyo Rose"). From Wikipedia: 'Iva Toguri is the most famous name linked to the Tokyo Rose persona. Toguri was a native of Los Angeles. She was stranded in Japan when she was visiting her family at the onset of war. Toguri’s prominence saw her branded as one of the war’s most notorious propagandists, but evidence showed she was not a Japanese sympathizer. Toguri’s program became conflated with more vicious
propaganda. She was arrested and convicted of treason after Japan's surrender. She was released from prison in 1956. It was more than 20 years before she received an official presidential pardon for her role in the war'.
- In 1978, The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.
From Wikipedia: 'Though extremely successful in the 1960s, the Beetle was increasingly faced with stiff competition from more modern designs globally'.
- In 1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
From Wikipedia: 'The Lisa was first introduced on January 19, 1983 and cost US$9,995 (approximately $23,700 in today's dollars.) It was one of the first personal computer systems with a graphical user interface (GUI) to be sold commercially. It used a Motorola 68000 CPU clocked at 5 MHz and had 1 MB RAM'.
- In 1986, The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.
- In 1988, The news magazine style TV show, 48 Hours, premieres on CBS-TV.
From Wikipedia: '48 Hours is an American documentary/news magazine television series broadcast on CBS. The series has been broadcast on the network since January 19, 1988. The program airs Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, as part of the network's placeholder Crimetime Saturday block; as such, it is currently one of only two remaining first-run prime time programs (excluding sports) airing Saturday nights on the major U.S. broadcast television networks (along with Univision's Sabadazo)'.
- In 2006, The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.
From Wikipedia: 'New Horizons is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a team led by S. Alan Stern, the spacecraft was launched with the primary mission to perform a flyby study of the Pluto system, and a secondary mission to fly by and study one or more other Kuiper belt objects (KBOs).'
Most of the post-Jupiter voyage was spent in hibernation mode to preserve on-board systems, except for brief annual checkouts. On December 6, 2014, New Horizons was brought back online for the Pluto encounter, and instrument check-out began. On January 15, 2015, the New Horizons spacecraft began its approach phase to Pluto.
On July 14, 2015, at 11:49 UTC, it flew 12,500 km (7,800 mi) above the surface of Pluto, making it the first spacecraft to explore the dwarf planet. Having completed its flyby of Pluto, New Horizons has maneuvered for a flyby of Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69, expected to take place on January 1, 2019, when it is 43.4 AU from the Sun'.
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
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 1966 More
Sites for downloading or reading free Public Domain eBooks. Available in various formats. More