It's the eve of the Epiphany (Twelfth Night)

You may begin to put your decorations away.



The final gift tally (365 gifts): you would have received 12 drummers drumming,



22 flutist, 30 members from the house of Lords, hopping and bopping to the Crocodile Rock, 36 Fan dancers, 40 angry dairy workers, on permanent coffee break, 42 Swans, trying to mate in your dining room (avert the childrens eyes) , 42 geese a' laying, 40 golden rings, 36 calling birds, 30 French hens, 22 turtledoves and 12 partridges in their respective pear trees.



Take the rings, set fire to the house and start a new life.


January 5, 1944 -
Another great movie from Preston Sturges, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, premiered on this date.




When the film was released, it was such a huge hit, it was literally standing room only for many performances.


January 5, 1961 -
Mister Ed, the talking horse (with a daily diet was twenty pounds of hay, washed down with a gallon of sweet tea.,) debuted on CBS-TV on this date.



The horse wouldn't respond to any of his co-stars, just his trainer, Les Hilton. This meant that Hilton had to be on the set at all times, calling out commands or giving them with hand signals. When Mr. Ed was tired of working, he'd just walk off the set.


January 5, 1969 -
Brian Hugh Warner was born on this date.



He was always kind to his mother.


January 5, 1980 -
The Sugar Hill Gang's Rapper's Delight, was the first hip-hop song to made it to the Top 40 on this date.



Before the song took off, it was almost impossible to buy hip hop albums in record stores, and it was almost unheard of to play hip hop on the radio.


Today in History:
January 5, 1757 -
Mad man Robert Damiens attempted to kill King Louis XV of France on this date. The king survived the attack.



Damiens did not survive his execution.


January 5, 1919 -
The Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei was founded by Anton Drexler and others at the Furstenfelder Hof tavern in Munich on this date.

Why does so much of early Nazi history seems to center around beer halls?  It must have been something in those Bavarian Beer Purity laws.


January 5, 1925 -
Nellie Tayloe Ross, became the first female governor in the US when she was elected the governor of Wyoming, one month after her husband William B. Ross, the previous governor, died in office a month earlier.



Wyoming was also the first state to grant suffrage to women — nearly 40 years before the rest of the US.


January 5, 1933 -
Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began on the Marin County side, which spans the deep channel at the entrance to San Francisco Bay on this date.



People had to line up for more than four years before suicides can begin (The Golden Gate Bridge is the most prevalent place in the USA to commit suicide.)


January 5, 1941 -
Amy Johnson CBE, pioneering English aviatrix, drowned after bailing out into the Thames Estuary on this date. Although she was seen alive in the water, a rescue attempt failed and her body was never recovered.



In 1999, it was reported that she was accidentally shot down by British forces when she twice failed to give the correct identification code during the flight.

Oops.


January 5, 1995 -
On Eye to Eye, Connie Chung's interview with House Speaker Newt Gingrich's mother, Kathleen, aired on CBS, on this date, complete with the whispered comment from Kathleen that Newt thought first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was a 'bitch' .



I wonder what Newt thinks of the former Secretary of State's potential presidential campaign.


January 5, 1998 -
Congressman Sonny Bono finally meets something that ends his bizarrely successful career - a pine tree at Heavenly Valley Ski Area on this date.



I guess the beat doesn't go on for him.



And so it goes.


Before I let you go:

What were the gifts of the Magi?