This is what we're celebrating or observing This Week
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January 7, 2018
Afonso IV of Portugal becomes King of Portugal upon the death of his father, Denis (1325) - Jan. 07
Boris Gudonov (brother-in-law to the tsar) seizes the throne of Russia upon the death of Ivan the Terrible'x feeble-minded son, Feodor I (1598) - Jan. 07
Catherine of Aragon (annulled wife of Henry VIII) dies at Kimbolton Castle in Cambridgeshire England (1536) - 1/7
Feast of the Nativity of Christ - Jan. 07
Harlem Globtrotters Day (commemorates the founding of the Harlem Globetrotters by Abe Saperstein - 1926) - Jan. 07
Hirohito (124th Emperor of Japan) dies from complications of duodenal cancer (1989) - Jan. 07
Mark Essex shoots and kills 9 people and injures 13 from the New Orleans Howard Johnson's Hotel (1973) - 1/7
International Programmers Day (celebrates the contributions made by computer programmers) - Jan. 07
Nikola Tesla (Serbian-born inventor known as "The Father of Physics") dies alone from heart failure in the New Yorker Hotel (1943) - Jan. 07
Golden Globe Awards - hosted by Seth Meyers on NBC 8 ET with arrivals starting at 7 CT (2018) - Jan. 7
Iberia Flight 602 (EC-ATV Sud Caravelle VI-R) crashes into Sa Talia hill in San Jose on approach to Ibiza Airport killing all 104 on board (1972) - Jan. 07
Baptism of Jesus - held on Sunday after 1/6 (2018) - 1/7
January 8, 2018
Anne of Brittany (Duchess of Brittany and Queen of France) marries Louis XII of France, formerly Duke of Orleans (1499) - 1/8
National English Toffee Day - Jan. 8
Francois Mitterrand (former President of France) dies from prostrate cancer (1996) - Jan. 08
National JoyGerm Day (occasion intended to spread joy as if it were a germ) - Jan. 08
British Midland flight 092 crashes onto the M1 motorway near East Midlands airport killing 46 people (1989) - 1/8
Elvis Presley (aka "The King of Rock 'n' Roll") is born in East Tupelo, MS (1935) - Jan. 08
Monaco gains its independence under the House of Grimaldi (1297) - Jan. 08
Old Midwife's or Women's Day (commemorates the midwives who disobeyed their Pharoah's order to kill all newborn sons thus sparing Moses) - Jan. 08
Yvonne De Carlo (Canadian-born American film and television actress best known for playing Lily Munster) dies in California (2007) - 1/8
African Air (Antonov 32B freighter RA-26222) crashes shortly after takeoff from Kinshasa-N'Dolo Airport into a crowded marketplace killing 237 on the ground (1996) - Jan. 08
RMS Queen Mary 2 (Ocean Liner) is christened by Queen Elizabeth II (2004) - Jan. 08
USS San Francisco (Los Angeles class submarine) collides with an undersea mountain approx. 350 miles south of Guam killing 1 and injuring 23 seamen (2005) - Jan. 08
Gabrielle Giffords (Arizona US Rep-D) along with 18 others is shot by Jared Lee Loughner during a public meeting held in a supermarket parking lot (2011) - Jan. 08
Bubble Bath Day - 1/8
Crown Princess Mary of Denmark gives birth to twins at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen and is pictured six days later (14th) with Crown Prince Frederik (2011) - Jan. 08
National Clean off Your Desk Day - 2nd Monday in January (2018) - Jan. 8
Eat Something Raw Day - 1/8
January 9, 2018
Apricot Day - Jan. 9
First balloon flight in North America is conducted by Jean-Pierre Blanchard flying from Philadelphia to Deptford, NJ (1793) - Jan. 09
Play God, Lend a Hand Day
Connecticut is admitted into the Union as the fifth state (1788) - 1/9
Horatio Nelson (British Admiral who lost his life during the Battle of Trafalgar) receives a state funeral and is entombed in St. Pauls (1806) - Jan. 09
Dance Day - Jan. 09
Bloody Sunday Massacre occurs in St. Petersburg Russia when unarmed, peaceful demonstrators are gunned down by the Imperial Guard (1905) - Jan. 09 (O.S.)
Stepfathers' Day - Jan. 9
Umberto I becomes King of Italy upon the death of his father, Victor Emmanuel II, (1878) - Jan. 09
January 10, 2018
Beachy Head England - a chalk pinnacle known as the Devil's Chimney collapsed into the sea after a winter of heavy rains (2001) - Jan. 10
Buffalo Bill Cody (American soldier, bison hunter and showman) dies of Kidney failure in Denver, CO (1917) - Jan. 10
Common Sense (a pamphlet written by Thomas Paine) is first published ananymously (1776) - Jan. 10
La Conchita, CA - 26" of rain in 16 days triggers a massive mudslide that buries 4 blocks in over 30 feet of earth and kills 10 people (2005) - 1/10
London Underground opens with the Metropolitan Line offering service between London Paddington and Farringdon station (1863) - Jan. 10
Paul Lynde (American comedian and actor known his role of Uncle Arthur on Bewitched and his stint on Hollywood Squares game show) dies (1982) - Jan. 10
National Cut Your Energy Costs Day - Jan. 10
Peculiar People Day - Jan. 10
Positively Penguin Day - Jan. 10
Napoleon Bonaparte divorces his wife Josephine because she is unable to have children (1810) - Jan. 10
The Treaty of Versailles (signed on June 28, 1919) takes effect ending World War I (1920) - Jan. 10
January 11, 2018
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California (1935) - Jan. 11
Edmund Hillary (New Zealand mountaineer and explorer best known for being one of the first climbers to reach the summit of Mt Everest) dies (2008) - 1/11
Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day - Jan. 11
Grand Canyon National Park is declared to be a National Monument by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1908) - Jan. 11
William Herschel discovers both Titania and Oberon (two moons of Uranus - 1787) - 1/11
An avalanche in Huscaran Peru causes 4,000 deaths (1962) - Jan. 11
Insulin is first used on a human being for the treatment of diabetes by Dr. Frederick Banting (1922) - 1/11
Jack Gilbert Graham is executed for planting a bomb in his mother's luggage, which caused UA Flight 629 to crash 11 minutes after takeoff (1957) - Jan. 11
Milk Day commemorates the day that milk was delivered in bottles for the first time (1878) - Jan. 11
Rio de Janeiro is struck by a series of floods and mudslides in the worst weather-related natural disaster in Brazilian history (2011) - Jan. 11
Dr. Luther Terry (U.S. Surgeon General) publishes a first of its kind statement for the US Gov't that smoking may be hazardous to your health (1964) - 1/11
Write your Thank You Notes Day - Jan. 11
Kingsland, NJ 84 acre munitions plant complex (Canadian Car Foundry) explodes due to a fire set by German saboteurs with 1,400 lives saved by Tessie McNamara (1917) - Jan. 11
Lawrence, MA becomes the site of an immigrant textile workers strike over lowered wages due to the law shortening the work week (1912) - Jan. 11
January 12, 2018
Agatha Christie (Popular English Novelist) dies (1976) - Jan. 12
Port-au-Prince Haiti experiences an earthquake registering 7.0 on the Richter scale affecting as many as 3 million people with a death toll exceeding 100,000 (2010) - 1/12
Comet McNaught reaches perhelion and becomes the brightest comet seen by the naked eye since Comet Ikeya-Seki in 1965 (2007) - Jan. 12
Gustav I of Sweden is crowned King at Uppsala Cathedral nearly 5 years after he was elected (1528) - Jan. 12
Hattie Caraway is confirmed by a special election as the first woman elected to the US Senate (1932) - 1/12
James Bedford (University of California psychology professor) becomes the first human being to be cryonically preserved (1967) - Jan. 12
National Handwriting Day celebrates John Hancock's birthday (1737) - Jan. 12 (OS)
The National Trust (a conservation organization in England) is founded (1895) - Jan. 12
National Pharmacist Day - Jan. 12
Charleston Museum becomes the first museum in Colonial America (1773) - The building itself burned to the ground in the late 1880s - Jan. 12
Organize Your Home Day - 1/12
Queen Mary 2 makes her maiden voyage (2004) - 1/12
January 13, 2018
Accordian Day - Jan. 13
Callisto, moon of Jupter, is discovered by Galileo (1610) - Jan. 13
Earthquake in San Salvador leaves 300,000 people homeless (2001) - 1/13
Henry Howard, cousin to Anne Boleyn, is sentenced to death for an unsubstantiated claim that he was attempting to seize the throne (1547) - Jan. 13
J'Accuse (Emile Zola's open letter accusing the French government of the unlawful jailing of Alfred Dreyfus) is published (1898) - 1/13
Lexington (a paddlewheel steamship carrying cotton) catches fire and sinks near the north shore of Long Island with only 4 survivors (1840) - Jan. 13
Make Your Dreams Come True Day - 1/13
Sesame Street Rubber Duckie Day - Jan. 13
St Knut's Day marks the last day of Christmas (20th day) in Sweden and Finland - Jan. 13
Door-to-Door Salespeople Day - Jan. 13
Patrick McGoohan (American-born actor best known for his roles in Secret Agent and The Prisoner) dies at age 80 in Santa Monica, CA following a brief illness (2009) - Jan. 13
Poetry Break Day
January 14, 2018
Donna Reed (American Academy Award-winning film and television actress) dies from pancreatic cancer in Beverly Hills, CA (1986) - Jan. 14
Dress Up Your Pet Day - Jan. 14
Humphrey Bogart (American actor and cultural icon) dies from Esophogeal Cancer after falling into a coma (1957) - Jan. 14
Makar Sankranti (Hindu holiday honoring the movement of the earth from Sagittarius to capricorn in the northern hemisphere) - Jan. 14
Pongal (Thai Harvest Festival) - Jan. 14
Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne to his eldest son, Louis I (1724) - Jan. 14
Queen Margrethe of Denmark ascends to the throne as the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 (1972) - Jan. 14
Ray Kroc (owner of the San Diego Padres and McDonalds) dies of a heart ailment in San Diego, CA at the age of 81 (1984) - Jan. 14
Shelley Winters (Oscar-winning American actress) died from heart failure in Beverly Hills, CA (2006) - Jan. 14
Anais Nin (Cuban-French author famous for her published journals and erotica) dies in Los Angeles, CA (1977) - Jan. 14
Doomsday Clock is set from five to six minutes to midnight in response to worldwide cooperation to reduce nuclear arsenals and limit effect of climate change (2010) - Jan. 14
Ricardo Montalban (Mexican-born, American radio, TV, theatre and film actor) dies in his CA home from congestive heart failure at age 88 (2009) - Jan. 14
Most captions and photos are courtesy of Wikipedia
