January 23 - Vacation

Vacation

"...a refuge for the weary and the oppressed, and a treasury of good counsel and wise lore." (The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, pg. 298)

This Day In History

971

In China, the war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops.

1533

Anne Boleyn, second wife of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant

1570

James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such

1789

Georgetown College, the first Catholic University in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland

1849

Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor

1897

Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction

1943

Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time

1957

American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, who later rename it the "Frisbee"

2003

Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10

Famous Birthdays

1737

John Hancock, American patriot (d. 1793)

1832

Édouard Manet, French artist (d. 1883)

1855

John Moses Browning, American inventor (d. 1926)

1897

Sir William Samuel Stephenson, Canadian soldier, W.W.II codename, Intrepid. Inspiration for James Bond. (d. 1989)

1923
Walter Michael Miller, Jr., American science fiction author 

1933

Chita Rivera, Puerto Rican actress and dancer

1950

Richard Dean Anderson, American actor