New Years Day

Paul Revere: silversmith, writer, publisher of music, printer of money, born 1735.  FACTOID: Paul Revere's famous "The British are coming!" ride was on April 18, 1775.

Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln in 1863, freed slaves in all areas of the Confederacy still in rebellion.

Georgia became the 4th state (settled in 1733), 1788.

Betsy Ross commemorates the raising of the 1st U.S. flag by the Continental Army, 1776   FACTOID: The U.S. flag with 13 stripes and stars, adopted by Congress April 4, 1818.

National Day of Mourning - Gerald R. Ford (d. 2007)

Sir Isaac Newton, scientist who devised a theory of gravitation, born 1642.

Utah became the 45th state (settled in 1847), 1896.

Louis Braille, French inventor of printing and writing for the blind, born 1809.

Phyllis Naylor, Author and Children's Book Illustrator, born 1933.

George Washington Carver, American black scientist, born of slave parents around 1846, left his life savings to further agriculture researches when he died in 1943.

Joan of Arc, 15th Century French saint and heroine, born 1412. FACTOID: Born a peasant girl, she heeded God's call to save France from the English.  Burned at the stake May 30, 1431.

New Mexico became the 47th state (settled in 1610), 1912.

Millard Fillmore, 13th President (1850), born 1800.  FACTOID:  Became president after Zachary Taylor died in office and was a member of the conservative "Whig Party" To find out more go to http://gi.grolier.com/presidents/aae/side/whig.html

Singer Elvis Presley, born 1935.   FACTOID: August 16th, 1977 is considered Elvis Presley Day; he died at the age of 42 on that date.

Jackson Day - Celebrates the Battle of New Orleans in 1815 when the United States forces commanded by Andrew Jackson defeated the British.

Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th president (1969), born 1913.   FACTOID:  Only president of the U.S. to resign from office while facing certain impeachment for the Watergate scandal.

Connecticut became the 5th state (settled in 1634), 1788. FACTOID: One of the 13 colonies.

Media we have on the Industrial Revolution.

Captain James Cook discovers the Hawaiian Islands, 1778.

Milk sold in bottles for first time, 1878.

U.S. Surgeon General declares smoking hazardous to health, 1964.

Alexander Hamilton, American statesman, born 1757. FACTOID: Was killed by Aaron Burr in a duel on July 11, 1804. 

First x-ray invented 1896.

Charles Perrault born 1628.   FACTOID:  The French writer and his son are credited with writing "The Mother Goose Tales."

Jack London who wrote "The Call of the Wild", born 1876.

John Hancock served as President to the Continental Congress from 1775 to 1777 and was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence in 1776, was born on this day in 1737.

Pentagon completed 1943.

"Donkey" emblem drawn by Thomas Nast in 1879 for Democratic Party first published.

Martin Luther King, Jr. born, 1929.  FACTOID: On March 24, 1965, he led a march of 25,000 black & white sympathizers to Montgomery, Alabama.   Assassinated, April 4, 1968, by James Earl Ray; who denied it until his death.

World Religion Day      FACTOID: Celebrates the 1786 historic law, drafted by Thomas Jefferson, which provided the inspiration and the framework for the religious freedom clauses in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Persian Gulf War began on this day in 1991 and ended on April 6, 1991.

Ben Franklin, born 1706.  FACTOIDS: Used a kite to prove that lightning contained electric current on June 15, 1752, published Poor Richards Almanac, a yearly calendar with important dates and events to remember. Was one of America's Founding Fathers, helping draft the Declaration of Independence and was also the only person who signed the four key documents that created the United States: The Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Alliance with France, Peace Treaty with Britain, and the U.S. Constitution.

Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) born 1942.

Sir William W. Gull, 1st Baronet, English physician, documented the first case of anorexia nervosa, 1866.

Pooh Day  (In observance of the birthday of the Winnie the Pooh author A.A. Milne, 1882.)

Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro, 1535.

Robert E. Lee, Confederate general born 1807. (d. 10-12-1870)

Process for tin-canning of food established 1825.

Edgar Allen Poe born 1809.

Paul Cezanne, Post Impressionist painter, born 1839. (d. 1906)

U.S. Hostages freed by Iran after 444 days captivity, 1981.

U.S. Presidential Inauguration Day (held every 4 years) since 1937.

Confederate General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson born 1824.    FACTOID: Died in 1863 from "friendly fire" war injuries.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (2007-2008 SY)  FACTOID:  Also celebrates the birthdays of Robert E. Lee (1807-1870) and Stonewall Jackson (1824-1863) Lee-Jackson-King Day. This holiday is legal in only 12 southern states.

Blair Lent, Illustrator of "Rikki, Tikki, Tembo" born today.

Red Sunday in St. Petersburg, Russia   FACTOID:  The Czar's soldiers fired on 15,000 Russian working men as they marched to beg the Czar for better working and living conditions. Hundreds were killed and 5,000 were arrested and sent to Siberian labor camps.

Edouard Manet, French Realist/Impressionist painter, born 1832. (d. 1883)

Gold discovered at Sutter's Mill, California in 1848.

First scheduled transcontinental flight, 1959.

Writer Virginia Wolfe, born in England, 1882.

Michigan became the 26th state (settled in 1668), 1837.

Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to get her pilot's license, born 1893.

WWI American General Douglas Mac Arthur, born 1880.

Christa McAuliffe Day    FACTOID: First teacher to go into space who unfortunately was one of those who died in the Challenger Shuttle explosion, 1986.