- National Day Of The Horse
- Admission Day-Mississippi
- Dewey Decimal System Day
- National Lager Day
- Nobel Prize Day
- Human Rights Day
- International Shareware Day
- Constitution Day-Thailand
- Foundation Day-Angola
- Settler’s Day-Namibia
- Terra Madre Day (A worldwide celebration organized by Slow Food to reconnect communities with local food.)
- On This Day
- 1520 --- Martin Luther publicly burned the papal edict. The papacy demanded that he recant or face excommunication. Luther refused and was formally expelled from the church in January 1521.
- 1817 --- Mississippi, the state with the same name as the mighty river that borders it, and the 20th state, entered the USA. Although the Indian word, Mississippi, translates to ‘father of waters’, Mississippi’s nickname is the Magnolia State. Not so coincidentally, the state flower is the magnolia. The mockingbirds sitting on the branches of the magnolia trees are the state birds. Jackson, one of the largest cities in the state is also the state capital.1869 --- John Campbell, governor of the Wyoming Territory, approved the first law in U.S. history explicitly granting women the right to vote.
- 1901 --- The first Nobel Prizes are awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace. The ceremony came on the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite and other high explosives. In his will, Nobel directed that the bulk of his vast fortune be placed in a fund in which the interest would be "annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
- 1910 --- Tenor Enrico Caruso and conductor Arturo Toscanini were featured at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City for the world premiere of Puccini’s The Girl of the Golden West.
- 1927 --- The Grand Old Opry made its first radio broadcast from Nashville.
- 1930 --- Duke Ellington and his orchestra recorded the haunting Mood Indigo on Victor Records. It became one of the Duke’s most famous standards.
- 1941 --- 4,000 Japanese troops land on the Philippine Islands, while Japanese aircraft sink the British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Guam, an American-controlled territory, was also seized. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill finally exclaims, "We have lost control of the sea."
- 1948 --- The U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
- 1949 --- Fats Domino cut eight tracks during his first recording session at Cosimo Matassa’s J&M Studios.
- 1953 --- Harry Belafonte debuted on Broadway in Almanac at the Imperial Theatre. Critics hailed Belafonte’s performance as “electrifyingly sincere.” Also starring in the show: Hermione Gingold, Billy DeWolfe, Polly Bergen and Orson Bean.
- 1953 --- Hugh Hefner published the first "Playboy" magazine with an investment of $7,600.
- 1958 --- A National Airlines Boeing 707 with 111 passengers flew from New York to Miami. It was the first domestic passenger jet flight.
- 1963 --- Frank Sinatra Jr., who was kidnapped in Lake Tahoe, California, on December 8, is allowed to talk to his father briefly. The 19-year-old man, who was trying to follow in his father's footsteps by pursuing a singing career, was abducted at gunpoint from his hotel room at Harrah's Casino and taken to Canoga Park, an area of Southern California's San Fernando Valley. After the brief conversation between father and son, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of $240,000. Barry Keenan, the young mastermind behind the scheme, had also considered abducting the sons of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. But he and his partners decided upon Frank Sinatra Jr. because they thought he would be tough enough to handle the stress of a kidnapping. Although the crime was originally scheduled for November, President Kennedy's assassination delayed their plan.
- 1965 --- The Grateful Dead played their first concert at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco.
- 1967 --- When he left his final recording session in Memphis, Otis Redding intended to return soon to the song he'd been working on—he still had to replace a whistled verse thrown in as a placeholder with additional lyrics that he'd yet to write. In the meantime, however, there was a television appearance to make in Cleveland, followed by a concert in Madison, Wisconsin. On its final approach to Madison, however, the private plane carrying soul-music legend Otis Redding would crash into the frigid waters of a small lake three miles short of the runway, killing seven of the eight men aboard, including Redding. "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay" would be released in its "unfinished" form several weeks later, with Redding's whistled verse a seemingly indispensable part of the now-classic record. It would soon become history's first posthumous #1 hit and the biggest pop hit of Redding's career.
- 1971 --- Frank Zappa was pushed from a London stage by the jealous boyfriend of a Zappa fan. Zappa spent months in a wheelchair recovering from a broken leg and ankle and fractured skull.
- 1977 --- In Moscow, Soviet officials arrest four dissidents and prevent at least 20 others from attending a peaceful protest against communist political oppression on United Nations Human Rights Day. According to some of the protesters, Soviet officials threatened them with violence should the protest be held. The incident was more evidence of an increasingly hard line being taken by the Soviet government against any political protest.
- 1984 --- The single "Do They Know It's Christmas" was released by Band-Aid. The group was assembled to aid in famine relief.
- 1991 --- Alan Freed was posthumously awarded a Hollywood Walk of Fame Star. He is credited with coining the phrase "Rock & Roll."
- 1991 --- The U.S. Supreme Court struck down New York’s Son of Sam Law that forced criminals’ profits for selling their stories to be seized and given to their victims. The High Court held that the New York law was inconsistent with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
- 1996 --- South Africa's President Mandela signed into law a new democratic constitution, completing the country's transition from white-minority rule to a non-racial democracy.
- 1998 --- Six astronauts opened the doors to the new international space station.
- 1999 --- After three years under suspicion of being a spy for China, computer scientist Wen Ho Lee was arrested. He was charged with removing secrets from the Los Alamos weapons lab. Lee later pled guilty to one count of downloading restricted data to tape and was freed. The other 58 counts were dropped.
- 2001 --- "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," the first in a three-film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's epic fantasy trilogy, premiered in London.
- 2006 --- San Diego Chargers running back LaDainian Tomlinson racks up his 29th touchdown of the year, breaking the National Football League (NFL) record for touchdowns scored during a single season.
- 2007 --- NFL star Michael Vick was sentenced to 23 months in prison for bankrolling a dogfighting operation and killing dogs that underperformed.
- 2009 --- “Avatar,” a 3-D science-fiction epic helmed by “Titanic” director James Cameron, makes its world debut in London and goes on to become the highest-grossing movie in history. Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and Sigourney Weaver, the box-office mega-hit was praised for its state-of-the-art technology and earned nine Academy Award nominations, including best picture and best director.
- 2010 --- Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics for his song "The Times They Are a-Changin" sold at auction for $422,500.
- Birthdays
- Emily Dickinson
- Thomas Gallaudet
- Melvin Dewey
- Bobby Flay
- Mary Norton
- Chet Huntley
- Harold Gould
- Dorothy Lamour
- Dan Blocker
- Gloria Loring
- Susan Dey
- Walter Orange
- Nia Peeples
- Michael Clarke Duncan
- Meg White
- 344th Day of 2014 / 21 Remaining
- Winter Begins in 11 Days
- Sunrise:7:14
- Sunset:4:50
- 9 Hours 36 Minutes
- Moon Rise:9:08pm
- Moon Set:10:11am
- Moon Phase:89%
- Next Full Moon January 4 @ 8:54pm
- Full Wolf Moon
- Full 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:1:56am/12:24pm
- Low Tide:7:02am/7:23pm