- Cat Herders Day
- Bill Of Rights Day
- National Lemon Cupcake Day
- Navidades-Puerto Rico
- Constitution Day-Nepal
- Koninkrijksdag/Kingdom Day-Nederlands
- On This Day
- 1791 --- Virginia becomes the last state to ratify the Bill of Rights, making the first ten amendments to the Constitution law and completing the revolutionary reforms begun by the Declaration of Independence. Before the Massachusetts ratifying convention would accept the Constitution, which they finally did in February 1788, the document's Federalist supporters had to promise to create a Bill of Rights to be amended to the Constitution immediately upon the creation of a new government under the document.
- 1816 --- Jane Austen's "Emma" was published.
- 1854 --- The first practical street cleaning machine began operation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A series of brooms attached to a cylinder was turned by a chain driven by the turning of the cart's wheels.
- 1890 --- After many years of successfully resisting white efforts to destroy him and the Sioux people, the great Sioux chief and holy man Sitting Bull is killed by Indian police at the Standing Rock reservation in South Dakota. One of the most famous Native Americans of the 19th century, Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotake) was a fierce enemy of Anglo-Americans from a young age. After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull and his followers fled to Canada for four years. Faced with mass starvation among his people, Sitting Bull finally returned to the United States and surrendered in 1883. Sitting Bull was assigned to the Standing Rock reservation in present-day South Dakota, where he maintained considerable power despite the best efforts of the Indian bureau agents to undermine his influence. When the apocalyptic spiritual revival movement known as the Ghost Dance began to grow in popularity among the Sioux in 1890, Indian agents feared it might lead to an Indian uprising. Wrongly believing that Sitting Bull was the driving force behind the Ghost Dance, agent James McLaughlin sent Indian police to arrest the chief at his small cabin on the Grand River. The Indian police rousted the naked chief from his bed at 6:00 in the morning, hoping to spirit him away before his guards and neighbors knew what had happened. When the fifty-nine-year-old chief refused to go quietly, a crowd gathered and a few hotheaded young men threatened the Indian police. Someone fired a shot that hit one of the Indian police; they retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the chest and head. The great chief was killed instantly. Before the ensuing gunfight ended, twelve other Indians were dead and three were wounded. The man who had nobly resisted the encroachment of whites and their culture for nearly three decades was buried in a far corner of the post cemetery at Fort Yates. Two weeks later, the army brutally suppressed the Ghost Dance movement with the massacre of a band of Sioux at Wounded Knee, the final act in the long and tragic history of the American war against the Plains Indians.
- 1903 --- Italo Marchiony received U.S. patent # 746,971 for an ice cream cup mold. Initially, he would fold warm waffles into a cup shape. He then developed the 2-piece mold that would make 10 cups at a time.
- 1939 --- The cinema spectacular,”Gone With the Wind”, premiered at Loew’s Grand Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia. It was the first movie premiere ceremony to be televised. The governor of Georgia proclaimed the day a state holiday in commemoration of the event and the holiday celebrations continued for three days.
- 1941 --- A musical standard was recorded on Victor Records. Lena Horne sang the torch classic that became her signature: Stormy Weather.
- 1961 --- Former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann was sentenced to death in Jerusalem by an Israeli court. He had been tried on charges for organizing the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.
- 1964 --- Canada adopted the maple leaf as the official symbol for its national flag.
- 1965 --- Two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered within 10 feet of each other while in orbit around the Earth.
- 1967 --- The Silver Bridge, on U.S. 35 between Point Pleasant, WV and Gallipolis, OH, collapsed during afternoon rush hour. 46 people died. Although many states (including California and New York) had instituted bridge inspection programs, it was not until this tragedy that the issue of bridge safety was brought into national focus.
- 1969 --- John Lennon gave his last live performance in England. It was a UNICEF benefit in London.
- 1970 --- The Soviet probe Venera 7 became the first spacecraft to land softly on the surface of Venus. The probe only survived the extreme heat and pressure for about 23 minutes and transmitted the first data received on Earth from the surface of another planet.
- 1973 --- Jean Paul Getty III, the grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, five months after his kidnapping by an Italian gang. J. Paul Getty, who became the richest man in the world in 1957, had initially refused to pay his 16-year-old grandson's $17 million ransom but finally agreed to cooperate after the boy's severed right ear was sent to a newspaper in Rome. He eventually secured his grandson's release by paying just $2.7 million, the maximum amount that he claimed he was able to raise.
- 1988 --- Legendary singer James Brown, also known as the "Godfather of Soul" and the "Hardest Working Man in Show Business," becomes inmate number 155413 at the State Park Correctional Institute in South Carolina. Brown had had several run-ins with the law during the summer of 1988 that landed him on probation, but his reckless spree on September 24 resulted in numerous criminal charges, including assault and battery with intent to kill.
- 1993 --- Schindler’s List, starring Liam Neeson in the true story of a German businessman who saves the lives of more than a thousand Polish Jews during the Holocaust, opens in theaters. The film was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and took home seven Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director.
- 1995 --- European Union leaders agreed to call the new, single European currency the "Euro" and confirmed it would be introduced on Jan 1, 1999.
- 1997 --- The San Francisco 49ers retired Joe Montana's number 16 during halftime of a game against the Denver Broncos.
- 2001 --- Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after a team of experts spent 11 years and $27 million to fortify the tower without eliminating its famous lean. In the 12th century, construction began on the bell tower for the cathedral of Pisa, a busy trade center on the Arno River in western Italy, some 50 miles from Florence. While construction was still in progress, the tower's foundation began to sink into the soft, marshy ground, causing it to lean to one side. Its builders tried to compensate for the lean by making the top stories slightly taller on one side, but the extra masonry required only made the tower sink further. By the time it was completed in 1360, modern-day engineers say it was a miracle it didn't fall down completely. Though the cathedral itself and the adjoining baptistery also leaned slightly, it was the Torre Pendente di Pisa, or Leaning Tower of Pisa, that became the city's most famous tourist attraction. By the 20th century, the 190-foot-high white marble tower leaned a dramatic 15 feet off the perpendicular. Fearing it was about to collapse, officials appointed a group of 14 archeologists, architects and soil experts to figure out how to take some--but not all--of the famous tilt away. Though an initial attempt in 1994 almost toppled the tower, engineers were eventually able to reduce the lean by between 16 and 17 inches by removing earth from underneath the foundations. When the tower reopened on December 15, 2001, engineers predicted it would take 300 years to return to its 1990 position.
- Birthdays
- J Paul Getty
- Emperor Nero
- Gustave Eiffel
- George Romney
- Alan Freed
- Edna O’Brien
- Clyde McPhatter
- Tim Conway
- Cindy Birdsong
- Paul Simonon
- 349th Day of 2014 / 16 Remaining
- Winter Begins in 6 Days
- Sunrise:7:18
- Sunset:4:52
- 9 Hours 34 Minutes
- Moon Rise:12:47am
- Moon Set:12:49pm
- Moon Phase:38%
- Full Moon January 4 @ 8:54pm
- Wolf Moon
- Old Moon
- Moon After Yule
Amid the cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. Thus, the name for January’s full Moon. Sometimes it was also referred to as the Old Moon, or the Moon After Yule. Some called it the Full Snow Moon, but most tribes applied that name to the next Moon.
- Tides:
- High Tide:5:22am/5:46pm
- Low Tide:12:14pm/11:24pm
- Rainfall
- This Year to Date:10.89
- Last Year:2.09
- Avg YTD:6.62
- Annual Avg:23.80