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Handsel Monday
According to Scottish custom, the first Monday of the new year was the time to give children and servants a small gift, or handsel. Literally something given into the hands of someone else, the gift itself was less important than the good luck it signified. The handsel was popular as a new year’s gift from the 14th to 19th centuries, but it also had a broader application to mark any new situation. It continues today in the form of a housewarming gift to someone moving into a newhome.
New Year's Day
Happy New Year’s Day! January was named for the Roman god Janus, the two-faced god of beginnings.
Janus looks simultaneously to the future and the past, a fitting symbol for this first day of the year. It’s natural for us to reflect on the past year and also look forward to the new. The weather of the first 12 days of the year is said to be indicative of the following 12 months. Also, Janus was known as the protector of gates and doorways, bridges, and passageways, which also symbolize beginnings and ends.
Interesting, January was originally the 11th month, not the 1st, until at least 153 B.C. In Rome, this month was often a time of peace when the gates of the temple were closed. Only when the gates were open was Rome at war.
Janus am I; oldest of potentates!
Forward I look and backward.
-Henry WadsworthLongfellow
Leap Day
It’s a Leap Year! Here are the rules for leap year, just to set the record straight. A year is a leap year if it is divisible by 4, but century years are not leap years unless they are divisible by 400. A person born today is called a leapling. And always remember this: Leap year was ne’er a good sheepyear.”
See our Leap Year page for more facts, folklore, and fun!”
Question of the Day
When did ancient cultures celebrate the newyear?
* In ancient Egypt, the new year was celebrated when the star Sirius rose around the time of sunrise. This roughly coincided with the summer solstice and the annual flooding of the Nile River.
* The original Roman calendar contained only ten months, with the new year starting on March 1.
* The ancient Celts celebrated the new year (Samhain) beginning at dusk on October31.
Advice of the Day
The month of January is like a gentleman; as he begins, so he goeson.
Home Hint of the Day
Soak tarnished silverware in sour milk for half an hour. Then wash in soapy water to polish andbrighten.
Word of the Day
Nipper
A fore tooth of a horse. The nippers are four innumber.
Puzzle of the Day
Why do birds fly south in thewinter?
Because it is too far towalk.
Born
- Paul Revere (patriot) –
- Betsy Ross (patriot) –
- E.M. Forster (novelist) –
- J. Edgar Hoover (director of U.S. Federal Bureau ofInvestigation) –
- Hank Greenberg (baseballplayer) –
- J.D. Salinger (author) –
- Carole Landis (actress) –
- Terry Moore (actress) –
- Don Novello (actor) –
- Kathleen Casey-Kirschling (official first baby boomer in UnitedStates) –
- Nancy Lopez (golfer) –
Died
- Johann Christian Bach (composer) –
- Maurice Chevalier –
- Ray Walston (actor) –
- Julia Phillips (first woman to win an Oscar Award [for co-producing the movie TheSting”]”) –
- Shirley Chisholm (an advocate for minority rights who became the first black woman elected toCongress) –
- Patti Page (singer) –
- Donna Douglas (actress) –
Events
- First U.S. flag, The Grand Union, was displayed by George Washington; it became the unofficial national flag, preceding the 13-star, 13 stripeversion–
- Legislative Union of Great Britain with Ireland under the name of United Kingdom becameeffective–
- President John Adams held the first New Year’s reception in the WhiteHouse–
- Importation of enslaved people into the U.S. officiallybanned–
- First recorded ten-pin bowling match played at Knickerbocker Alleys, NYC–
- The Emancipation Proclamation became law, marking the end of legalized slavery in the U.S.–
- State of New York introduced the electric chair for capitalpunishment–
- The U.S. government opened an immigrant processing station at Ellis Island, NewYork–
- First Rose Bowl football game played at Pasadena,California–
- U.S. Parcel Post servicebegan–
- The British battleship Formidable was sunk in the English Channel by a German submarine with the loss of 600 lives (WWI)–
- Fiorello La Guardia is inaugurated as mayor of NewYork–
- The U.S. Navy commissioned its first woman doctor, MarySproul–
- Kurt Waldheim inaugurated as Secretary General of the UnitedNations–
- John Ehrlichman, H.R. Haldeman, and John Mitchell were found guilty of obstructing justice in the WatergateIncident–
- Episcopal Church of the U.S. ordained its first womanpriest–
- American Telephone & Telegraph Co. officially divested itself of 22 Bell Systemsubsidiaries–
- First U.S. electronic highway toll collection, inOklahoma–
- The Coney Island Polar Bear Club observed its 100th anniversary the same way it celebrated the previous 99—with a New Year’s Day plunge in the AtlanticOcean–
- A strong earthquake rocked Mexico City andAcapulco–
- New England Patriots quarterback Doug Flutie converted the first successful drop kick in an NFL game since1941–
- Twelve-year-old Aidan Murray Medley caught a 551-pound bull shark just north of Palm Beach Inlet,Florida–
Weather
- Twenty-four degrees below zero F in Northfield,Vermont–
- Bethlehem, New Hampshire, recorded a temperature of -20 degreesF–
- VanBuren, Maine, recorded a temperature of -32 degreesF–
- Six day Great Plains and N. Rockies blizzard began, most adverse conditions in history ofwest–
- Maybell, Colorado, set a record low temperature of -60 degreesF–
Explore Other Dates on the Calendar
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