The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.

Today is Memento Mori Day, a tradition started in ancient Rome that serves as a reminder that we will all die, one day soon.



It is said that in ancient Rome, when a victorious general would return to the city for his triumph (victory parade),

a slave would walk behind him, whispering in his ear: “Remember you are just a man. Remember you will die.”


Today's gift count (220): you currently have 10 Leaping Lords, (the ten lords represent the Ten Commandments,) 18 Rockettes, 24 young milkmaid, 28 Swans making a racket, 30 geese a' laying, 30 golden rings, 28 calling birds, 24 French hens, 18 turtledoves and 10 partridges in their respective pear trees.

Today is also the feast day of St. Genevieve. St. Genevieve is a French saint who lived from circa 419 to 512. At the young age of seven a prophecy was made by St. Germaine that through the example of her life many would be brought to faith. She is credited with saving the city of Paris from being attacked by Atilla the Hun when she implored the inhabitants of France to remain rather than flee and devote themselves to prayer and penance. The approaching army turned towards another city and left Paris untouched.



Do not take the example of St. Genevieve, seriously contemplate fleeing the country (with the gold rings) and living in Canada under an assumed name.


January 3, 1952 -
The ominous, four-note introduction to the brass and tympani theme music, then the staccato voice over intoned, Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to hear is true.



The first regularly scheduled episode of Dragnet premiered on this date (Badge 714 is the name of the syndication version of the series.)


January 3, 1964 -
A month before The Beatles make their iconic live debut in the US on the Ed Sullivan Show, Americans get their first look at the Fab Four when Jack Paar shows a film clip of the band performing She Loves You on his TV show.



In the fall of 1963, TV host Jack Paar was visiting England and witnessed the pandemonium surrounding the mop-headed lads from Liverpool. He wasn't terribly impressed by their performance, bringing back footage mostly for laughs. "I never knew that these boys would change the history of the world's music, which they did," recalls Paar. "I thought it was funny, and I had 'em filmed and brought it to America months before Sullivan."


January 3, 1970 –
B. J. Thomas mega hit song, Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head went to the No. #1 spot on the Billboard charts on this date.



Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this song for the film Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It was the first million-seller for the legendary songwriters.


January 3, 2000 -
The last daily Peanuts strip ran on this date. The comic strip, which centered around the iconic Charlie Brown, his dog Snoopy, and their friends, had been running since 1950.

Almost 20,000 strips were published in total, not to mention the musicals, movies, and television specials that featured the Peanuts gang.


Word of the Day


Today in History:
January 3, 1496 -
Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine of his own design on this date. He designed many flying machines, some of which have actually tested successfully in modern times.



In the 2002 BBC television series Leonardo, it was theorized that da Vinci, who was a devout pacifist, purposefully designed the flying machine to fail, so that it could not be put to a military use.


January 3, 1521 -
Pope Leo X still angry about the defacing of Castle Church of Wittenberg, released his papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem and excommunicated Martin Luther for challenging church doctrine on this date.

A little known fact but Luther was an excellent matador and waived his 95 theses in front of the bull


January 3, 1543 -
Spanish (or Portuguese born) explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, best known for his exploration of the coast of California in 1542–1543, died of gangrene and was buried at San Miguel.



He was injured in December while helping defend his men fight off an indigenous tribe in the Channel Islands off California.


January 3, 1868 -
Emperor Meiji ascended the throne and assumed power, re-established the authority of Japan's emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns.



The feudal clan system was abolished and industrialism was started. Japan opened itself up to the West, thereby obtaining the benefits of western technology.


January 3, 1870 -
... the grandest physical habitat and surroundings of land and water the globe affords ...



The construction of the Brooklyn-side wooden caisson of the Brooklyn Bridge began on this date.


January 3, 1871 –
Henry W. Bradley of Binghamton, New York was issued a patent (U.S. Patent #110,626) for an "improved compound for culinary use" called Oleomargarine on this date.



Faithful readers know that French chemist Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès invented a substance he called Oleomargarine in 1867, which he patented in England in 1869.


January 3, 1953 -
Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, became the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.

I wonder if she kept telling him to sit up straight and stop talking to his neighbor while they were at work?


January 3, 1959 -
A new U.S. flag of 13 stripes and 49 stars waved in the air, on this date.



Alaska, Seward's icebox, became the 49th state in the United States.


January 3, 1962 -
Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro on this date.

Pope John had the last laugh over that one.


January 3, 1967 -
Jack Ruby died of natural causes at Parkland Hospital, on this date, where Lee Harvey Oswald had died and President Kennedy had been pronounced dead after his assassination.



He could possibly be one of the only people involved in this sordid affair that did.


January 3, 1969 -
In New Jersey, 30,000 copies of John and Yoko's album Two Virgins are confiscated because the cover is deemed obscene.

There is nothing more shocking than two naked multimillionaires on the cover of your Rock and Roll Album.

Kids, go ask your parents what albums were.


January 3, 1973 -
The Columbia Broadcasting System sold the New York Yankees to a 12-man syndicate headed by George Steinbrenner for $10 million.

As of May 2021, Forbes Magazine valued the team at $5.25 Billion dollars



And so it goes