January 9, 2024
QUOTE
As I looked out into the night sky, across all those infinite stars, it made me realize how insignificant they are.
--Peter Cook
BIRTHDAYS
1870 – Joseph Strauss, engineer, co-designed the Golden Gate Bridge
1875 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, sculptor and art collector, founded the Whitney Museum of American Art
1913 – Richard Nixon, commander, lawyer, and politician, 37th President of the United States
1925 – Lee Van Cleef, Actor
1935 – Bob Denver, Actor
IN MEMORY
1873 – Napoleon III, French politician, 1st President of France
1939 – Johann Strauss III, Austrian violinist, composer, and conductor
1995 – Peter Cook, English actor and screenwriter
1997 – Jesse White, Actor
IN ON THIS DAY
1349 – The Jewish population of Basel, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated.
1431 – The trial of Joan of Arc begins in Rouen.
1806 – Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral and is interred in St Paul’s Cathedral.
1941 – First flight of the Avro Lancaster.
2007 – Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduces the original iPhone at a Macworld keynote in San Francisco.