On This day January 4th

 OTD

January 4th is the fourth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 361 days remain until the end of the year.

 

 Events

871 – Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex and his brother Alfred are defeated by a Danish invasion army.

1642 – English Civil War: King Charles I, accompanied by 400 soldiers, attempts to arrest five members of Parliament for treason, only to discover the men had been tipped off and fled.

1762 – Great Britain declared war on Spain, which meant the entry of Spain into the Seven Years' War.

1878 – Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Sofia is liberated from Ottoman rule.

1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death.

1946 – The first day of a three-day “disastrous” tornado outbreak across the south-central United States leaves 41 people dead and at least 412 others injured.

1958 – Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, falls to Earth from orbit

1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as Minnesota's United States governor.

2004 – Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.

 

Birthdays

1643 (NS) – Isaac Newton, English mathematician and physicist (d. 1726/27)

1710 – Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Italian composer, violinist, and organist (d. 1736)

1785 – Jacob Grimm, German philologist and mythologist (d. 1863)

1813 – Isaac Pitman, English linguist and educator (d. 1897)

1878 – Augustus John, Welsh painter and illustrator (d. 1961)

1905 – Sterling Holloway, American actor (d. 1992)

1930 – Don Shula, American football player and coach (d. 2020)

1957 – Patty Loveless, American singer-songwriter and guitarist

1963 – Till Lindemann, German singer, songwriter, and poet

1992 – Kris Bryant, American baseball player

2004 – Victor Wembanyama, French basketball player

Holiday Spotlight

  The oldest version of the weighing scale dates back to 2400 B.C. in the Indus River valley. These were balance scales used for banking and exchange, with uniform polished stone cubes as measuring stones on one side of the scale. They had a varying range of masses used for calculation. In 1878 B.C., Egyptian merchants used scales to measure gold. Marks on stones with the hieroglyphic symbol for gold are evidence of this gold measuring system, with scales depicted through signs or murals on ancient walls. In the 4th Century B.C., weighing scales whose balance was made of wood with bronze masses were discovered in a tomb in China.

 By the 19th century, European soldiers were being weighed on simple balance scales to deem them fit or unfit. One soldier would stand on one side of the scale while standard weights were on the other. This criterion of fitness was later popularly known as BMI or Body-Mass-Index. Around the 1900s, this fitness criterion started being applied to people outside the military. People began to become conscious of their weight, and until the 1970s, weighing scales could be seen at train stations and public places where people could consider themselves using a coin. By the 20th century, this self-measuring tendency became restricted to more private spaces, and weighing scales became compact and digital.

 Informally, Weigh-In Day has existed for as long as weighing scales and overeating during the holidays have. The Christmas feast of stuffed roast turkey, mashed potatoes, pudding, and fruit cake has been a tradition since medieval England when King Henry VIII was the first British monarch to have a Christmas dinner that included them. Thomas Tusser, an English farmer who was also a poet, wrote that by 1573, roast turkey was a Christmas feast staple. Holiday meals have gotten more affluent and calorie-filled since those times, and Weigh-In Day pushes people to step back after the holidays and be aware of the effects of all those calories on the body. This holiday is about fighting the urge to relinquish yourself and finding the courage to stand on a scale.

 The scale can be a double-edged sword when trying to lose weight. Sometimes, your diet and exercise are going great, so you’re happy to step on a scale; other times, you’ve hit a slump and might have overindulged once or twice, and you would rather smash it than get on it. Either way, the weighing scale is handy in your fitness journey. All that’s needed is the proper knowledge of the time and ways to use it. Checking the scales regularly helps you stay on track with your weight management and fitness goals so that you can make changes before any weight gain gets out of hand. However, people with eating disorders or anxiety related to weight or even going on the scale should take breaks from weighing and regularly speak with a psychologist or mental health professional to avoid a breakdown.

 

Other Include

Dimpled Chad Day

Free Flower Basket Day

I Am a Mentor Day

National Missouri Day

National Spaghetti Day

National Trivia Day

Pop Music Chart Day

Tom Thumb Day

Trivia Day

World Braille Day

World Hypnotism Day