January 2, 2024
QUOTE
The human mind is a wonderful thing, it starts working from before you’re born and doesn’t stop till you sit down to write a song.
--Roger Miller
BIRTHDAYS
1901 – Bob Marshall, American activist, co-founded The Wilderness Society
1909 – Barry Goldwater, American politician, businessman, and author
1920 – Isaac Asimov, American writer and professor of biochemistry
1936 – Roger Miller, American singer-songwriter, musician, and actor
1940 – Jim Bakker, American televangelist
1968 – Cuba Gooding, Jr., American actor and producer
IN MEMORY
1904 – James Longstreet, American general and diplomat
1953 – Guccio Gucci, Italian businessman and fashion designer, founder of Gucci
1974 – Tex Ritter, American actor
1990 – Alan Hale Jr., American film and television actor
2022 – Richard Leakey, Kenyan paleontologist and politician
IN ON THIS DAY
1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
1900 – Chicago Canal opens.
1920 – The second Palmer Raid, ordered by the US Department of Justice, results in 6,000 suspected communists and anarchists being arrested and held without trial.
1959 – Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.
1974 – United States President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum U.S. speed limit to 55 mph in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.
2004 – Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth.