Throwback Thursday 1/5!

by Susan Gall

The first FactCite #TBT of 2017! Here's what happened on January 5th!

  • The month of January is named after the Roman god Janus. The Romans believed that Janus presided over all beginnings and endings. All new beginnings were sacred to Janus. That is why the first month of the year carries his name.
    (Mythology)

  • 1412: Honorary Mention: Joan of Arc was born tomorrow - January 6 - in France. The French military leader and patron saint of France once said "One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. But to sacrifice what you are and to live without belief, that is a fate more terrible than dying." 
    (Shapers of Society)

  • 1779: Zebulon Pike was born in Lamberton, New Jersey. The American explorer and soldier climbed a mountain in Colorado and it is now named after him. It is called “Pike’s Peak.”
    (Biography for Beginners)

  • 1855: King Gillette, inventor of the safety razor, was born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Gillette claimed the idea came to him one morning, in 1895, as he was shaving. “As I stood there with the razor in my hand, my eyes resting on it as lightly as a bird settling down on its nest—the Gillette razor was born.”
    (Biography for Beginners)

  • 1931: Founder of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and pioneer of modern dance, Alvin Ailey was born in Rogers, Texas. The themes of his dances were often drawn from the African-American experience.
    (Biography for Beginners)

  • 1933: President Calvin Coolidge died of a heart attack at the age of 60. The shy president was called “Silent Cal.”
    (American History)

  • 1942: Following the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the War Department classified Japanese American men of draft age as “4C, enemy aliens.”
    (Essential Information)

  • 1943: George Washington Carver died. He is buried next to his friend, Booker T. Washington, on the Tuskegee Institute campus. Nearly 40 years after his death, he was among the first individuals inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame.
    (Biography for Beginners)

  • 1953: George Tenet was born in Queens, New York. He was the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1997 to 2004.
    (Defining Moments Online)

  • 1963: Rogers Hornsby died of a heart attack. The professional baseball player is considered one of the greatest right-handed hitters of all time. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942.
    (Sports Champions)

  • 1999: Professional baseball player Nolan Ryan was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He once said “One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something.”
    (Sports Champions)

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