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Almanac ~ Friday, 1/27/17

Happy Birthday, Wolfgang!
  • Sunrise:  7:17am
  • Sunset: 5:28pm

A mere 1% of the waning moon will be visible, setting at 5:31pm.

Tides at the Golden Gate:

  • High: 10:39am
  • Low: 4:35am/5:19pm

Special international celebrations today:

  • Feast of St. Sava - Serbia
  • Vietnam Day - Vietnam
  • WWII Genocide Memorial Day – Germany, UK

It’s also…

  • Auschwitz Liberation Day
  • Holocaust Memorial Day
  • National Geographic Day
  • National Pre-school Fitness Day
  • National Big Wig Day
  • National Chocolate Cake Day

On this day in…

1606 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31.

1870 - Kappa Alpha Theta, the first women’s sorority, was founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, IN.

1880 - Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp.

1888 - The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.

1900 - In China, foreign diplomats in Peking, fearing a revolt, demanded that the imperial government discipline the Boxer rebels.

1926 - John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called television.

1927 - United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network with contracts with 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

1931 - NBC radio debuted "Clara, Lu ’n’ Em" on its Blue network (later, ABC radio).

1943 - During World War II, the first all American air raid against Germany took place when about 50 bombers attacked Wilhlemshaven.

1944 - The Soviet Union announced that the two year German siege of Leningrad had come to an end.

1945 - Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

1948 - Wire Recording Corporation of America announced the first magnetic tape recorder. The ‘Wireway’ machine with a built-in oscillator sold for $149.50.

1951 - In the U.S., atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.

1957 - The "CBS Radio Workshop" was heard for the first time.

1967 - At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.

1967 - More than 60 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty which banned the orbiting of nuclear weapons and placing weapons on celestial bodies or space stations.

1973 - The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

1977 - The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.

1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.

1985 - The Coca-Cola Company, of Atlanta, GA, announced a plan to sell its soft drinks in the Soviet Union.

1996 - Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, was overthrown by a military coup. Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara declared himself head of state.

1997 - It was revealed that French national museums were holding nearly 2,000 works of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

1998 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on NBC's "Today" show. She charged that the allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

1999 - The U.S. Senate blocked dismissal of the impeachment case against President Clinton and voted for new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses.

2002 - A series of explosions occurred at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria. More than 1,000 people were killed in the blast and in the attempt to escape.

2003 - Altria Group, Inc. became the name of the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris Capital Corporation.

2010 - Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPad.

Birthday celebrants today include (or included)...

  • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1756
  • Juan Crisostomo Jacobo Antonio de Arriaga 1806
  • Edouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo 1823
  • Lewis Carroll 1832
  • Jerome Kern 1885
  • Harry Ruby (Rubinstein) 1895
  • Hyman Rickover 1900
  • William Randolph Hearst Jr. 1908
  • Milt Raskin 1916
  • Skitch (Lyle) Henderson 1918
  • David Seville (Chipmunks) 1919
  • Donna Reed 1921
  • Giovanni Verga 1922
  • Bobby 'Blue' Bland 1930
  • George Follmer 1934
  • Troy Donahue 1936
  • James Cromwell 1940
  • Tommy Cromwell 1940
  • Nick Mason (Pink Floyd) 1944
  • Nedra Talley (The Ronettes) 1947
  • Mikhail Baryshnikov 1948
  • Carl Mannerheim 1951
  • Brian Downey (Thin Lizzy) 1951
  • Seth Justman (The J. Geils Band) 1951
  • Cheryl White (The Whites) 1955
  • Richard Young (The Kentucky Headhunters) 1955
  • Mimi Rogers 1956
  • Cris Collinsworth 1959 - Football player
  • Gillian Gilbert (New Order) 1961
  • Margo Timmins (Cowboy Junkies) 1961
  • Bridget Fonda 1964
  • Tracy Lawrence 1968
  • Mike Patton (Faith No More) 1968
  • Mark Owen 1972
  • Mackenzie Lynn Adkins 1998
David Latulippe is host of On the Arts, KALW's weekly radio magazine of the performing arts, as well as for Explorations in Music, and the Berkeley Symphony broadcasts. He has also hosted and produced the radio series From the Conservatory, Music from Mills, and Music at Menlo, and is principal guest host for Revolutions Per Minute.