Tomorrow's food holiday will be 'National Blueberry Pancake Day'. From Wikipedia: 'A pancake is a flat cake, often thin, and round, prepared from a starch-based batter that may also contain eggs, milk and butter and cooked on a hot surface such as a griddle or frying pan, often with oil or butter. In Britain, pancakes are often unleavened, and resemble a crêpe.In North America, a raising agent is used (typically baking powder). The American pancake is similar to a Scotch pancakeor drop scone.'
'The Ancient Greeks made pancakes called (teganites), (tagenites) or (tagenias), all words deriving from (tagenon), "frying pan". The earliest attested references on tagenias are in the works of the 5th century BC poets Cratinus and Magnes. Tagenites were made with wheat flour, olive oil, honey, and curdled milk, and were served for breakfast.'
'The Middle English word Pancake appears in English in the 15th century'.
'American and Canadian pancakes (sometimes called hotcakes, griddlecakes, or flapjacks) are usually served at breakfast, in a stack of two or three pancakes topped with real or artificial maple syrup and butter, and often served with sides such as bacon, toast, eggs or sausage. Other popular topping alternatives include jam, peanut butter, nuts, fruit, honey, powdered sugar, whipped cream, cane syrup, and molasses'.
[The Hankster says] They didn't have me in mind when the term short stack (2 pancakes) was invented.
Other celebrations/observances tomorrow:
- Look through your old toy box. Tomorrow is 'National Kazoo Day'. Since 1983 by Chaplin Willard Rahn of the Joyful Noise Kazoo Band. From Wikipedia: 'The kazoo is a musical instrument that adds a "buzzing" timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of mirliton, which is a membranophone, one of a class of instruments which modifies its player's voice by way of a vibrating membrane.'
'Similar hide-covered vibrating and voice-changing instruments have been used in Africa for hundreds of years, often for ceremonial purposes. A popular belief is that Alabama Vest, an African-American in Macon, Georgia, was the one who invented the kazoo around 1840. However, there is no documentation to support that claim.'
'The first documented appearance of a kazoo was that created by an American inventor, Warren Herbert Frost, who named his new musical instrument kazoo in his patent #270,543 issued on January 9, 1883. The patent states, "This instrument or toy, to which I propose to give the name 'kazoo' "..." Frost's kazoo did not look like present-day submarine-shaped kazoos. The modern kazoo—also the first one made of metal—was patented by George D. Smith of Buffalo, New York, May 27, 1902'.
[The Hankster says] The only instrument I ever really played well. Well, maybe a piece of cellophane held tight between the lips and blown over. I think the only name that was given was, irritating.
- Tomorrow is 'National Have Fun At Work Day'. Jan. 28 or last Friday of Jan.
[The Hankster says] There is a word, let me think, ah yes, oxymoron, comes to mind.
- It's 'Data Privacy Day' tomorrow. From Wikipedia: 'Data Privacy Day (known in Europe as Data Protection Day) is an international holiday that occurs every January 28. The purpose of Data Privacy Day is to raise awareness and promote privacy and data protection best practices. It is currently 'celebrated' in the United States, Canada, and 47 European countries'.
[The Hankster says] Perhaps not an oxymoron, but an improbility.
- 'Christa McAuliffe Day'. From Wikipedia: 'Sharon Christa Corrigan McAuliffe (September 2, 1948 – January 28, 1986) was an American teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, and was one of the seven crew members killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion'.
Awareness / Observance Days on: January 28
o Other
- International Mobilization Day against Nuclear War'. On the anniversary of adoption of the Delhi Declaration in 1985..
Historical events in the past on: January 28
- In 1887, In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, 15 inches (38 cm) wide and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.
- In 1896, Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined 1 shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thus exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).
From Wikipedia: 'There are many competing claims as to the first speeding ticket ever issued depending whether the claim goes by the first traffic violation or the first paper ticket ever issued. Great Britain may have the earliest claim with the first person to be convicted of speeding, Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, who on 28 January 1896 was fined for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h) in a 2 mph (3.2 km/h) zone. He was fined 1 shilling plus costs. A New York City cab driver named Jacob
German was arrested for speeding on May 20, 1899 for driving 12 miles per hour on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. In Dayton, Ohio, police issued a paper ticket to Harry Myers for going twelve miles per hour on West Third Street in 1904.'
'Another early speeding ticket was issued in 1910 to Lady Laurier, the wife of Wilfrid Laurier, Prime Minister of Canada, in Ottawa, Canada, for exceeding the 10 miles per hour speed limit'.
- In 1915, An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.
From Wikipedia: 'The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's seven uniformed services. The Coast Guard is a maritime, military, multi-mission service unique among the U.S. military branches for having a maritime law enforcement mission (with jurisdiction in both domestic and international waters) and a federal regulatory agency mission as part of its mission set. It operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during
peacetime, and can be transferred to the U.S. Department of the Navy by the U.S. President at any time, or by the U.S. Congress during times of war. This has happened twice, in 1917, during World War I, and in 1941, during World War II.'
'Created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the "Revenue Marine", it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton headed the Revenue Marine, whose original purpose was as the collector of customs duties in the nation's seaports. By the 1860s, the service was known as the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and the term Revenue Marine gradually fell into disuse.'
'The modern Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U.S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915, under the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As one of the country's five armed services, the Coast Guard has been involved in every U.S. war from 1790 to the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan'.
- In 1940, The radio show, Beat the Band, made its debut on NBC radio.
From Wikipedia: 'Beat the Band was a musical quiz show heard on NBC radio from 1940 to 1944 in two distinctly different series. The program popularized the show business catch phrase, "Give me a little traveling music", often uttered on TV a decade later by Jackie Gleason.
'In the first series, broadcast on Sundays at 6:30pm from Chicago, emcee Garry Moore read music-related questions submitted by listeners to band members in the 14-piece Ted Weems Orchestra. Originally sponsored by the General Mills cereal Kix, listeners whose questions were used on the air received $10; those who stumped the band received $20 and a case of Kix. Questions were often posed in the form of puns or riddles.'
'The program's vocalists were Perry Como, Parker Gibbs and Marvel Maxwell. Other cast members included Country Washburn and Elmo Tanner, the Whistling Troubador. This series aired from January 28, 1940 to February 23, 1941'.
- In 1956, Elvis Presley makes his first US television appearance.
From Wikipedia: 'On January 10, 1956, Presley made his first recordings for RCA in Nashville.'
'Parker finally brought Presley to national television, booking him on CBS's Stage Show for six appearances over two months. The program, produced in New York, was hosted on alternate weeks by big band leaders and brothers Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. After his first appearance, on January 28, introduced by disc jockey Bill Randle, Presley stayed in town to record at RCA's New York studio'.
- In 1958, The Lego company patents a design of bricks - a design that Lego would continue to use to present.
From Wikipedia: 'Lego is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of colorful interlocking plastic bricks accompanying an array of gears, figurines called minifigures, and various other parts. Lego pieces can be assembled and connected in many ways, to construct objects such as vehicles, buildings, and working robots. Anything constructed can then be taken
apart again, and the pieces used to make other objects.'
'The Lego Group began in the workshop of Ole Kirk Christiansen (1891–1958), a carpenter from Billund, Denmark, who began making wooden toys in 1932. In 1934, his company came to be called "Lego", derived from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means "play well". In 1947, Lego expanded to begin producing plastic toys.In 1949 Lego began producing, among other new products, an early version of the now famous Lego interlocking bricks, calling them "Automatic Binding Bricks"'.
- In 1965, The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.
From Wikipedia: 'The National Flag of Canada, also known as the Maple Leaf and l'Unifolié (French for "the one-leafed"), is a flag consisting of a red field with a white square at its centre, in the middle of which is featured a stylized, red, 11-pointed maple leaf.[1] It is the first ever specified by law for use as the country's national flag'.
- In 1973,The TV show 'Barnaby Jones' starring Buddy Ebsen, premieres.
From Wikipedia: 'Barnaby Jones is a television detective series starring Buddy Ebsen and Lee Meriwether as a father and daughter-in-law who run a private detective firm in Los Angeles, California. The show ran on CBS from January 28, 1973, to April 3, 1980, beginning as a midseason replacement. Halfway through the series run, Mark Shera was added to the cast as the cousin of Ebsen's character, who joins the firm'.
- In 1985, The song, We Are the World, was recorded. than 40 artists were involved. The proceeds went toward worldwide hunger prevention.
From Wikipedia: 'We Are the World is a song and charity single originally recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, and produced by Quincy Jones and Michael Omartian for the album We Are the World. With sales in excess of 20 million copies, it is one of the fewer than 30 all-time singles to have sold at least 10 million copies worldwide'.
- In 1986, The 25th Space Shuttle (51L)-Challenger 10 explodes 73 seconds after liftoff.
From Wikipedia: 'The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when the NASA Space Shuttle orbiter Challenger (OV-099) (mission STS-51-L) broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members, which included five NASA astronauts and two Payload Specialists. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:39 EST (16:39 UTC). Disintegration of the vehicle began after an O-ring seal
in its right solidrocket booster (SRB) failed at liftoff. The O-ring failure caused a breach in the SRB joint it sealed, allowing pressurized burning gas from within the solid rocket motor to reach the outside and impinge upon the adjacent SRB aft field joint attachment hardware and external fuel tank. This led to the separation of the right-hand SRB' s aft field joint attachment and the structural failure of the external tank. Aerodynamic forces broke up the orbiter.'
'The disaster resulted in a 32-month hiatus in the shuttle program and the formation of the Rogers Commission, a special commission appointed by United States President Ronald Reagan to investigate the accident. The Rogers Commission found NASA's organizational culture and decision-making processes had been key contributing factors to the accident. NASA managers had known since 1977 that contractor Morton Thiokol's design of the SRBs contained a potentially catastrophic flaw in the O-rings,
but they had failed to address this problem properly. They also disregarded warnings (an example of "go fever") from engineers about the dangers of launching posed by the low temperatures of that morning, and failed to adequately report these technical concerns to their superiors'.
No. 1 song
Top movie
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