plus three times the square root of four,
divided by seven,
plus five times eleven,
is nine squared and not a bit more!
Holidays
National Trivia Day
National Trivia Day is celebrated on January 4th in the U.S. So spend some time reading this list without feeling guilty.
What Happened On
Robert Baden-Powell
Robert Baden-Powell
Boy Scouts
January 4, 1912
The Boy Scouts Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by Royal charter for "the purpose of instructing boys of all classes in the principles of discipline loyalty and good citizenship." The Boy Scouts Association had formed in 1910 to provide a national body in the United Kingdom to organize and support the growing number of Scout Patrols and Troops, which had begun to form spontaneously following the 1908 publications of the book Scouting for Boys, by Robert Baden-Powell, and The Scout magazine. He and wife would also form the Girl Guides.
Colt Walker, 1847
Photo Credit: Older Firearms
Colt Walker, 1847Photo Credit: Older Firearms
Colt Revolver
January 4, 1847
Samuel Colt makes his first sale to the U.S. government. Captain Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers had used Colt revolvers and was impressed by them when his 15-man unit defeated 70 Comanches in Texas. He placed an order with Colt for 1,000 revolvers for use by the Rangers in the Mexican-American War.
Jesse Jackson's 24-Hour Addiction
January 4, 1988
Jesse Jackson reveals that he was once addicted to a pain killer, although only for less than a day.
Oral Roberts - Send Money or God Will Call Me Home
January 4, 1987
The Reverend Oral Roberts announces "God will call me home" if he doesn't raise $4,500,000 in three months. At the end of the three months, he declared he had reached his goal, but that God told him he now had to raise a total of $8 million or "I'm going to call you home in one year". He was able to raise $9.1 million.
Sally Forth
January 4, 1982
Sally Forth comic strip, by Greg Howard, begins syndication.
First Woman Major League Baseball Play-by-Play TV Announcer
January 4, 1977
Mary Shane is hired by the Chicago White Sox as the first full-time woman major league baseball play-by-play TV announcer. However, by mid-season her lack of knowledge of baseball situations and rules were noticeable and Shane's broadcasts centered on the families of the players instead of the events of the game and statistics that Chicago baseball fans wanted. Shane was pulled from the White Sox Broadcasts before the 1977 season ended.
Billboard Hit Parade
January 4, 1936
Billboard magazine publishes its first hit parade.
Utah
January 4, 1896
Utah becomes the 45th state. Utah is Navajo for "higher up."
Birthdays
Aftermath of Elser's bomb
Photo Credit: Bundesarchiv
Aftermath of Elser's bombPhoto Credit: Bundesarchiv
Tried to Assassinate Hitler
Georg Elser
Born January 4, 1903 d. 1945
German worker, would-be Hitler assassin. He attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1939 by placing a bomb near a podium where Hitler was to give a speech. The speech was Hitler's yearly speech given on the anniversary of his abortive 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. Elser had built a bomb with a 144-hour timer. He then spent several weeks secretly hollowing out a cavity in a stone pillar behind the speaker's platform where he knew Hitler planned on giving his speech. After installing the bomb, he set it to explode at 9:20 p.m., which would be halfway through Hitler's planned speech. However, due to a forecast of fog preventing him from flying back in the morning, Hitler moved his speech from 8:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. and shortened it from 2 hours to about one hour so that he could catch a train. He finished the speech and left the building eight minutes before the bomb went off. Eight people were killed and over 60 others were injured, but Hitler was unharmed. Elser was captured that night and spent the next five years in Nazi concentration camps, where he was executed less than a month before Germany surrendered.
Father of the Animated Cartoon
Émile Cohl (Émile Eugène Jean Louis Courtet)
Born January 4, 1857 d. 1938
French caricaturist, "The Father of the Animated Cartoon." He made what is considered the first fully-animated film (Fantasmagorie, 1908). He also made the first puppet animation film.
Tom Thumb Marries Lavinia Warren (1863)
Tom Thumb Marries Lavinia Warren (1863)
General Tom Thumb (Charles Sherwood Stratton)
Born January 4, 1838 d. 1883
American dwarf. At 102 cm (3.35 ft) tall, he traveled with P.T. Barnum. His marriage to Lavinia Warren (81 cm (2.66 ft) tall) made front page news and had 10,000 guests. The wedding couple was then received by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at the White House.
Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm
Born January 4, 1785 d. 1863
German author. He and his brother Wilhelm Grimm created Grimms' Fairy Tales (1812-15), a collection of German folk tales. This included Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Hansel and Gretel, Rumpelstiltskin, and The Pied Piper of Hamlin. Critics of the time considered some of the tales as unsuitable for children. They made changes from the originals in future editions, such as switching the "evil mother" to the "evil stepmother" in the stories of Snow White and Hansel and Gretel.
Jakob Grimm was also famous for his books on German grammar and he discovered Grimm's Law, describing the Proto-Indo-European stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic (the common ancestor of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family) in the 1st millennium BC.
James Ussher
Born January 4, 1581 d. 1656
Irish religious leader. Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland (1625-56). He formulated a Biblical chronology that placed the time and Day of Creation at around 6 pm on October 22, 4004 BC. He also calculated dates for Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden and Noah's Ark.
Dyan Cannon (Samille Diane Friesen)
Born January 4, 1937
American actress. Film: Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) and Heaven Can Wait (1978).
Floyd Patterson
Born January 4, 1935 d. 2006
American heavyweight hall of fame boxing champion (1956-59, 1960-62). He was the youngest boxer up to that time to win the world heavyweight title (21 years old) and then first to regain the title. He won gold in the middleweight division at the 1952 Summer Olympics. Quote: "They said I was the fighter who got knocked down the most, but I also got up the most."
Sorrell Booke as Boss Hogg
Sorrell Booke as Boss Hogg
Sorrell Booke
Born January 4, 1930 d. 1994
American actor. TV: Dukes of Hazzard (1979-85, Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg).
Thomas Noguchi
Born January 4, 1927
Los Angeles County coroner, performed autopsies on Marilyn Monroe (1962), Robert F. Kennedy (1968), Janis Joplin (1970), and John Belushi (1982).
Sterling Holloway, Jr.
Born January 4, 1905 d. 1992
American actor. Voice of Winnie the Pooh, the snake in Jungle Book, and the Cheshire Cat in Disney's Alice in Wonderland.
Washington Charles DePauw
Born January 4, 1822 d. 1887
American banker, for whom DePauw University is named.
Louis Braille
Born January 4, 1809 d. 1852
French teacher of the blind. Blind since the age of three, he created the Braille reading system for the blind.
Benjamin Rush
Born January 4, 1746 d. 1813
American physician, signer of the Declaration of Independence. He co-founded the first U.S. anti-slavery society (1774), and established the first U.S. free medical dispensary (1786). He earned his B.A. from College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) at the age of fourteen.
Deaths
Iron Eyes Cody (Espera Oscar DeCorti)
Died January 4, 1999 b. 1904
American actor. Iron Eyes Cody was featured in the teary-eyed ecology TV commercials (1970s and 80s). Although he claimed Cherokee/Cree heritage, he had no native American blood. His parents were Italian immigrants. Film: Sitting Bull (1954) and A Man Called Horse (1970).
Mae Questel (Mae Kwestel)
Died January 4, 1998 b. 1908
American actress. Mae Questel voiced the cartoon character Betty Boop (1931-39), Olive Oyl (1933-38, 1944-1967), Swee'Pea (1936-38), and even voiced Popeye for a few episodes while the usual voice actor was off to serve in World War II.
She also played Aunt Bethany in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989) and voiced Betty Boop for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988).
She started her career as a voice impersonator, of voices such as Fanny Brice and Mae West. Max Fleischer hired her when he saw her doing an impersonation of Helen Kane's "Boop-boop-a-doop" routine. Fleischer had based the Betty Boop character on Helen Kane and was looking for someone to voice his cartoon character.
Soul (left) in Starsky & Hutch
Soul (left) in Starsky & Hutch
David Soul (David Richard Solberg)
Died January 4, 2024 b. 1943
American-British actor, singer. Two of David Soul's five wives were cast members of his TV show Here Comes the Brides.
TV: Starsky & Hutch (1975-79, Hutch), Here Comes the Brides (1968-70, Joshua Bolt),The Merv Griffin Show (1966-67, as the hooded singer known as "The Covered Man"), and Salem's Lot (1979). Music: Don't Give Up On Us (1976 #1 US & UK) and Silver Lady (1977 #1 UK).
Christopher Isherwood
Died January 4, 1986 b. 1904
English-born American author. Writings: Goodbye Berlin (1939, a collection of short stories including Sally Bowles upon which the musical Cabaret was based).
T.S. Eliot (Thomas Stearns Eliot)
Died January 4, 1965 b. 1888
American Nobel-winning poet, playwright.
Dudley Nichols
Died January 4, 1960 b. 1895
American screenwriter. He was the first person to refuse an Oscar (1935, Best Screenplay for The Informer).
Albert Camus
Died January 4, 1960 b. 1913
French Nobel-winning writer, philosopher. Quote: "Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
Henri Louis Bergson
Died January 4, 1941 b. 1859
French philosopher, Nobel-winning author. His Creative Evolution redefined evolution.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Died January 4, 1877 b. 1794
American railroad magnate, and for whom Vanderbilt University is named.
Thomas Campbell
Died January 4, 1854 b. 1763
Irish Presbyterian minister. He and his son founded the Church of the Disciples of Christ in America.
Elizabeth Ann Seton
Died January 4, 1821 b. 1774
first American-born Roman Catholic saint (canonized 1975). She founded the U.S. branch of the Sisters of Charity (1809).
See also Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first naturalized American saint.
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Died January 4, 1789 b. 1738
American patriot. Signer of the Declaration of Independence, governor of Virginia (1781).
Blackbeard's head hanging from Maynard's ship
Blackbeard's head hanging from Maynard's ship
Lt. Robert Maynard
Died January 4, 1751 b. 1684
British naval officer. He killed Blackbeard the Pirate in hand-to-hand combat (1718).
Blackbeard's severed head was then hung from Maynard's ship. The English pirate had served as a privateer in the War of the Spanish Succession. Afterwards, he turned to a life of crime.