On This Day January 6th

 OTD

January 6th is the sixth day of the year in the Gregorian calendar; 359 days remain until the end of the year.

 

 Events

1540 – King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.

1724 – Sie werden aus Saba alle kommen, BWV 65, a Bach cantata, for Epiphany, is performed for the first time.

1838 – Alfred Vail and colleagues demonstrate a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code).

1847 – Samuel Colt obtains his first contract for selling revolver pistols to the United States government.

1893 – Congress charters the Washington National Cathedral. President Benjamin Harrison signs the charter.

1912 – German geophysicist Alfred Wegener first presents his theory of continental drift.

1941 – United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.

1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.

 1994 – U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and injured by an assailant hired by her rival Tonya Harding's ex-husband during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

2000 – The last natural Pyrenean ibex, Celia, is killed by a falling tree, thus making the species extinct.

 

Birthdays

1367 – Richard II of England (d. 1400)

1412 – Joan of Arc, French martyr and saint (d. 1431)

1811 – Charles Sumner, American lawyer and politician (d. 1874)

1878 – Carl Sandburg, American poet and historian (d. 1967)

1880 – Tom Mix, American cowboy and actor (d. 1940)

1912 – Danny Thomas, American actor, comedian, producer, and humanitarian (d. 1991)

1920 – John Maynard Smith, English biologist and geneticist (d. 2004)

1924 – Earl Scruggs, American banjo player (d. 2012)

1937 – Lou Holtz, American football player, coach, and sportscaster

1946 – Syd Barrett, English singer-songwriter and guitarist (d. 2006)

1953 – Malcolm Young, Scottish-Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (d. 2017)

1955 – Rowan Atkinson, English actor, producer, and screenwriter

1994 – Jameis Winston, American football player

 

Holiday Spotlight

Epiphany, or Three Kings Day

  Epiphany is a Christian feast day celebrating the revelation of God incarnate as Jesus Christ. The feast commemorates the Three Wise Men's visit in Western Christianity, who followed an angel to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. The day has also been called Three Kings Day and Little Christmas by Irish and Amish Christians. The Feast of the Epiphany concludes the twelve days of Christmastide and is the traditional end of the Christmas season.

 As early as the fourth century, churches of the Eastern Roman Empire were celebrating Christmas on January 6. Those in the West celebrated on December 25, so some places refer to the Feast of the Epiphany as Old Christmas. Since then, many cultures have developed their names and traditions to celebrate this day. For example, Scandinavia celebrates Little Christmas Eve on December 23. In Spain, children traditionally did not receive their presents on Christmas Day but instead on January 6, commemorating the Wise Men arriving in Bethlehem bearing gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. In Ireland, they also call Little Christmas Women’s Christmas because Irish men take on the household duties for the day. Other famous traditions include singing, chalking the door, having one’s house blessed, eating a Three Kings cake, attending church, and winter swimming. It is also customary for many Christians to remove their Christmas decorations on Epiphany Eve, although other Christian countries historically remove them on Candlemas, the conclusion of the Epiphanytide. According to the first tradition, those who forget to remove their Christmas decorations on Epiphany Eve must leave them untouched until Candlemas.

 

  Other Include

Apple Tree Day

Armenian Christmas

Cuddle Up Day

National Play Outside Day

National Shortbread Day

National Smith Day

National Take a Poet to Lunch Day

National Take Down the Christmas Tree Day

National Technology Day

National Tempura Day

World Day for War Orphans

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