Today's Trivia and What Happened on January 14

Can you figure out the phrase?

Can you figure out the phrase? Close Large View

Foreign Policy.

Thumbs Up
12
Thumbs Down
1

Quote: The problem with closed-minded people is their mouth is always open. - Anonymous

Quote: The problem with closed-minded people is their mouth is always open. - Anonymous Close Large View

Thumbs Up
6
Thumbs Down
0

What Happened On

Kurt Gödel Starves Himself to Death

Kurt Gödel Starves Himself to Death Close Large View

Kurt Gödel Starves Himself to Death

January 14, 1978

Although Kurt Gödel is considered one of the greatest logicians in history, he suffered mental instability in his later years. The 71-year-old mathematician starved to death after developing a fear of being poisoned. His paranoia was so great that he would only eat food prepared by his wife. When she became ill and was hospitalized for six months and unable to prepare his food, he refused to eat and ultimately starved to death. He weighed only 65 pounds (29 kg) at the time of his death.
His two incompleteness theorems (1931) of mathematical logic demonstrate the inherent limitations of every formal axiomatic system containing basic arithmetic and is considered a groundbreaking achievement.
Gödel left Austria in 1939 after it became part of Nazi Germany. His association with Jewish scientists made it difficult for him to find work and he was in danger of being drafted, so he and his wife moved to Princeton, New Jersey, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1947. At Princeton he befriended and worked with Albert Einstein.

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

Dave Garroway, Today's first host and J. Fred Muggs and Phoebe B. Beebe Dave Garroway, Today's first host and J. Fred Muggs and Phoebe B. Beebe

Dave Garroway, Today's first host and J. Fred Muggs and Phoebe B. Beebe Dave Garroway, Today's first host and J. Fred Muggs and Phoebe B. Beebe
Close Large View

Today

January 14, 1952

Network TV's first early-morning show, Today, debuts on NBC. Dave Garroway was Today's first host, hosting until 1961. Still running, it is now the fifth-longest-running U.S. television series.
In 1953, to boost sagging ratings the chimpanzee J. Fred Muggs was added to the cast. He was an instant hit and it's estimated that Muggs earned the network over $100 million in advertising and merchandising.

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

Nannygate

January 14, 1993

The New York Times runs a story that Zoë Baird, U.S. President Bill Clinton's choice for U.S. Attorney General (who is in charge of INS), had hired illegal aliens and not paid their social security taxes. Her nomination was later withdrawn.

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

Join Us on Facebook

America's Funniest Home Videos

America's Funniest Home Videos Close Large View

America's Funniest Home Videos

January 14, 1990

The TV series America's Funniest Home Videos debuts on ABC. It originally aired in 1989 as a special based on the Japanese variety show Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan. Bob Saget hosted the show for the first eight seasons.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

The Bionic Woman

The Bionic Woman Close Large View

The Bionic Woman

January 14, 1976

The TV show The Bionic Woman debuts on ABC. It starred Lindsay Wagner as Jamie Sommers who uses her bionic powers to carry out high-risk government missions. It was spin-off of The Six Million Dollar Man.

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii

Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii Close Large View

Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii

January 14, 1973

Elvis Presley makes TV history when a claimed "estimated" 1½ billion viewers worldwide tune in to watch the live broadcast of Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii Via Satellite. However, this estimated viewership is somewhat inflated, considering there were less than 1 billion total viewers in the countries in which it aired.
It was also the most expensive entertainment special up to that time, costing $2.5 million.
This concert was a way for Elvis to perform live overseas, since his manager Col. Tom Parker was an illegal immigrant and feared that if he tried to leave the country he might be deported back to his native Holland.

Thumbs Up
3
Thumbs Down
0

Edgar Allan Poe's Metzengerstein

Edgar Allan Poe's Metzengerstein Close Large View

Edgar Allan Poe's Metzengerstein

January 14, 1832

Metzengerstein: A Tale in Imitation of the German, Edgar Allan Poe's first published short story appears in Philadelphia's Saturday Courier magazine. The story was Poe's entry to a writing contest held by the magazine, though it did not win.

Thumbs Up
6
Thumbs Down
0

First Written Constitution in America

January 14, 1639

The Fundamental Orders are created for the government of Connecticut. These earned Connecticut its nickname of The Constitution State.

Thumbs Up
19
Thumbs Down
0

Birthdays

William Bendix

William Bendix Close Large View
This is a birthday

The Life of Riley Star

William Bendix

Born January 14, 1906 d. 1964

American actor. William Bendix is best known for playing Chester A. Riley on radio (1944-51), film (1949), and TV (1953-58). Riley's exclamation of "What a revoltin' development this is!" became one of the most famous catchphrases of the 1940s.
At age 15, Bendix was a bat boy for the New York Yankees, and became a personal favorite of Babe Ruth. He said he saw Babe Ruth hit more than 100 home runs at Yankee Stadium. However, he was fired after fulfilling Ruth's request for a large order of hot dogs and soda before a game, which resulted in Ruth not being able to play that day. Bendix played Ruth in the 1948 movie The Babe Ruth Story.
Bendix died at the age of 58 as a result of a chronic stomach ailment that brought on malnutrition and ultimately lobar pneumonia.
TV: The Life of Riley (1953-58, Chester A. Riley). Film: The Babe Ruth Story (1948, title role - critics said it was one of the worst movies ever made) and The Life of Riley (1949, Chester A. Riley). Radio: The Life of Riley (1944-51, Chester A. Riley).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

The Story of Dr. Dolittle (1920) The Story of Dr. Dolittle (1920)

The Story of Dr. Dolittle (1920) The Story of Dr. Dolittle (1920)
Close Large View
This is a birthday

Creator of Doctor Doolittle

Hugh John Lofting

Born January 14, 1886 d. 1947

English-born American children's author, illustrator. Writings: The Story of Dr. Dolittle (1920) and its 10 sequels.

Thumbs Up
3
Thumbs Down
0

Add Trivia to Your Web Page

Richard Felton Outcault

Richard Felton Outcault Close Large View
This is a birthday

Creator of the Modern-Style Comic Strip

Richard Felton Outcault

Born January 14, 1863 d. 1928

American cartoonist. He is considered the creator of the modern-style comic strip. He created the first recurring comic strip character (1894), the Yellow Kid of Hogan's Alley. He also popularized the use of word balloons (1896) and multi-paneled comics. Outcault also created Buster Brown (1902).
The Yellow Kid represented the kids of the New York slums of the late 1800s. His head was shaved, as was common in children that had been treated for lice, and wore a nightshirt that was a hand-me-down from an older sister.

Thumbs Up
3
Thumbs Down
0

Benedict Arnold

Benedict Arnold Close Large View
This is a birthday

Benedict Arnold

Born January 14, 1741 d. 1801

American general, traitor. He attempted to betray West Point to the British during the American Revolution. Before this, he was considered an American hero of the Revolution: Arnold helped capture the British garrison of Fort Ticonderoga, hindered a British invasion of New York at the Battle of Lake Champlain, and played a crucial role in the surrender of British General John Burgoyne's army at Saratoga. However, he began spying for the British and plotted to surrender West Point. When his plot was exposed, he began fighting for the British.

Thumbs Up
1
Thumbs Down
102

Mark Antony

Mark Antony Close Large View
This is a birthday

Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius)

Born January 14, 83  d. 30 

Roman general, politician. Antony married Cleopatra, although he was married to Octavian's sister when they met. Cleopatra bore him three children. After Antony was defeated by Octavian's forces at the Battle of Actium, he and Cleopatra fled to Egypt, where they separately committed suicide.

Thumbs Up
3
Thumbs Down
1

This is a birthday

Jason Bateman

Born January 14, 1969

American actor. TV: The Hogan Family (David Hogan).

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

This is a birthday

Faye Dunaway

Born January 14, 1941

American Oscar-winning actress. Film: Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Chinatown (1974), and Network (1976, Oscar).

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

Frank Aletter

Frank Aletter Close Large View
This is a birthday

Frank Aletter

Born January 14, 1926 d. 2009

American actor. He had appearances in almost every TV series between 1955 and 1991. His first wife was Lee Meriwether.
TV: Bringing Up Buddy (1960-61, title role) and It's About Time (1966-1967, Mac). Film: Mister Roberts (1955, Gerhart) and Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Guy Williams

Guy Williams Close Large View
This is a birthday

Guy Williams (Armando Catalano)

Born January 14, 1924 d. 1989

American actor. TV: Zorro (1957-61, title role) and Lost in Space (1965-68, Dr. John Robinson, father of the family).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

This is a birthday

Mary Ann Jackson

Born January 14, 1923 d. 2003

American actress, one of The Little Rascals (older sister of Wheezer). She appeared in 32 Our Gang films (1928-31).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Ken Sailors

Ken Sailors Close Large View
This is a birthday

Popularized the Jump Shot

Ken Sailors (Kenneth Lloyd Sailors)

Born January 14, 1921 d. 2016

American pro basketball player. College basketball player of the year (1943). At 5′10″ (1.78 m) he popularized the jump shot, which he developed while playing against his much taller brother.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Andy Rooney Photo Credit: Stephenson Brown

Andy Rooney Photo Credit: Stephenson Brown
Close Large View
This is a birthday

Andy Rooney

Born January 14, 1919 d. 2011

American Emmy-winning commentator. TV: 60 Minutes (1978-2011, "Did you ever wonder…").
He was one of the first American journalists to visit and write about Nazi concentration camps at the end of World War II. Rooney stated that he had been opposed to World War II because he was a pacifist, but what he saw in the concentration camps made him ashamed that he had opposed the war and permanently changed his opinions about whether "just wars" exist.
He built the walnut table he used on 60 Minutes himself.

Thumbs Up
6
Thumbs Down
0

This is a birthday

Mark Goodson

Born January 14, 1915 d. 1992

American producer. TV: To Tell the Truth, What's My Line?, The Price Is Right, and Family Feud.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Harold Russell

Harold Russell Close Large View
This is a birthday

Harold Russell

Born January 14, 1914 d. 2002

Canadian-born American Oscar-winning actor. He was the first visibly handicapped person to appear in a major motion picture, having lost both hands in World War II. He won an Oscar for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) which he sold in 1992, making him the first person to publicly sell their own Oscar. He needed the money for his wife's medical expenses.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

This is a birthday

Hal Roach

Born January 14, 1892 d. 1992

American Oscar-winning film director, producer. His films starred Harold Lloyd, Laurel & Hardy, and the Little Rascals.

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
1

This is a birthday

Albert Schweitzer

Born January 14, 1875 d. 1965

German Nobel-winning medical missionary, philosopher.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Thornton Waldo Burgess

Thornton Waldo Burgess Close Large View
This is a birthday

Thornton Waldo Burgess

Born January 14, 1874 d. 1965

American author of children's books. Creator of Peter Rabbit and the briar patch, Reddy Fox, and Grandfather Frog.
Burgess' Peter Rabbit was based on Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit.

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

Deaths

Ray Kroc

Ray Kroc Close Large View
This is a death

Ray Kroc

Died January 14, 1984 b. 1902

American businessman. Kroc built McDonald's into a hamburger empire. The brothers Dick McDonald and Maurice "Mac" McDonald started the chain in 1940. Kroc met the McDonald's brothers while trying to sell them Multimixers. After seeing their operation he decided to open one of his own in Des Plaines, Illinois. His first day sales were $366.12. It was the ninth restaurant in the chain. Kroc eventually bought out the brothers and built McDonalds's into the hamburger empire it is now.
The McDonald brothers introduced the "Speedee Service System" in 1948. The original McDonald's mascot was a chef hat on top of a hamburger called "Speedee." Speedee was replaced in 1962 by the Golden Arches. The clown Ronald McDonald was introduced in 1965.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Kurt Friedrich Gödel

Kurt Friedrich Gödel Close Large View
This is a death

Kurt Friedrich Gödel

Died January 14, 1978 b. 1906

Austrian-born American mathematician. Although considered one of the most significant logicians in history, in his later years Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned. His paranoia was so great that he would only eat food prepared by his wife. But, when she became ill and was hospitalized for six months and could no longer prepare his food, he refused to eat, eventually starving to death. He weighed only about 65 pounds (30 kg) when he died.
His two incompleteness theorems (1931) of mathematical logic demonstrate the inherent limitations of every formal axiomatic system containing basic arithmetic.
Gödel had left Austria in 1939 after it became part of Nazi Germany. His association with Jewish scientists made it difficult for him to find work and he was in danger of being drafted, so he and his wife moved to Princeton, New Jersey, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1947. At Princeton he befriended and worked with Albert Einstein.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart Close Large View
This is a death

Humphrey Bogart (Humphrey DeForest Bogart)

Died January 14, 1957 b. 1899

Oscar-winning actor. Film: The Maltese Falcon (1941), Casablanca (1943), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), and The African Queen (1952). According to legend, his upper lip was scarred and partially paralyzed while transporting a prisoner in the Navy during World War I and that this was the cause of his lisp.
Bogart was a founding member of the Hollywood Rat Pack, along with Frank Sinatra, Judy Garland, David Niven, Angie Dickinson, and others. They got their name in 1955, when after a long night of partying Lauren Bacall quipped, "You look like a goddamn rat pack."
A heavy smoker and drinker, Bogart died of esophageal cancer.

Thumbs Up
6
Thumbs Down
0

Arthur Wynne

Arthur Wynne Close Large View
This is a death

Invented Crossword Puzzles

Arthur Wynne

Died January 14, 1945 b. 1871

British-born American puzzle maker. Invented the crossword puzzle (1913). Originally called "Word-Cross Puzzle", but due to a typesetting error it was called a "Cross-Word" and the name stuck. Can You Solve It?

Thumbs Up
7
Thumbs Down
0

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll Close Large View
This is a death

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)

Died January 14, 1898 b. 1832

English mathematician, author. While on a rowboat to a picnic, 10-year-old Alice Liddell asked Carroll to tell her and her sisters a story. He spun the story of a girl named Alice and her adventures when she fell down a rabbit hole. He then turned this into his most famous book. Writings: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

This is a death

Conrad Bain

Died January 14, 2013 b. 1923

Canadian actor. TV: Maude (1972-78, Dr. Arthur Harmon) and Diff'rent Strokes (1978-86, the father Philip Drummond).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Ricardo Montalbán

Ricardo Montalbán Close Large View
This is a death

Ricardo Montalbán (Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino)

Died January 14, 2009 b. 1920

Mexican Emmy-winning actor. Film: Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) and Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). TV: Fantasy Island (1977-84, Mr. Roarke), How the West Was Won (1978, Emmy), and pitchman for the Chrysler Cordoba with its "rich Corinthian leather."

Thumbs Up
5
Thumbs Down
0

Shelley Winters

Shelley Winters Close Large View
This is a death

Shelley Winters (Shirley Schrift)

Died January 14, 2006 b. 1920

American Oscar-Emmy-winning actress. Film: A Place In the Sun (1951), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959, Oscar as Mrs. Petronella Van Daan), A Patch of Blue (1965, Oscar), Bloody Mamma (1970, Ma Barker), and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). TV: Roseanne (1991-96, Roseanne's grandmother).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Esther Ralston

Esther Ralston Close Large View
This is a death

The American Venus

Esther Ralston (Esther Worth)

Died January 14, 1994 b. 1902

American silent-film actress. Film: The American Venus (1926, The American Venus became her moniker) and Peter Pan (1925, Mrs. Darling). TV: Our Five Daughters (the mother).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
1

Donna Reed and as Mrs. Bailey (right) Donna Reed and as Mrs. Bailey (right)

Donna Reed and as Mrs. Bailey (right) Donna Reed and as Mrs. Bailey (right)
Close Large View
This is a death

Donna Reed (Donna Belle Mullenger)

Died January 14, 1986 b. 1921

American Oscar-winning actress. Film: The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), It's A Wonderful Life (1946, Mrs. Bailey), and From Here to Eternity (1953, Oscar win as Alma the prostitute). TV: The Donna Reed Show (1958-66, Donna Stone).
Note: In an episode of The Donna Reed Show, it is revealed that Donna Reed's character's maiden name is Donna Belle Mullenger (the same as Donna Reed's birth name) and she is also from her home town of Denison, Iowa.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

Blossom Rock

Blossom Rock Close Large View
This is a death

Blossom Rock (Blossom MacDonald)

Died January 14, 1978 b. 1895

American actress. TV: The Addams Family (1964-66, Grandmama).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

This is a death

Peter Finch (William Mitchell)

Died January 14, 1977 b. 1916

British Oscar-winning actor. Film: Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971, British Film Academy Award) and Network (1976, Oscar - the first posthumously-awarded Oscar).

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0

This is a death

Sergei Korolev

Died January 14, 1966 b. 1906

Soviet scientist, rocket pioneer. He designed the rocket systems used for launching the first Soviet satellites and rockets to the Moon.

Thumbs Up
4
Thumbs Down
0