It's National Nothing Day, set aside each year for people to sit around for the entire day and just hang out. No celebrating, observing or honoring anything.
It was created by newspaperman, Harold Pullman Coffin in 1972 and first celebrated in 1973. While you celebrate (or not), please continue to read today's postings though
It's also National Fig Newton Day, (named not after Sir Isaac Newton but the town of Newton in Massachusetts, near the Kennedy Biscuit Works, which first made the cookie back in 1891.)
Please celebrate responsibly
January 16, 1932 -
Funny and definitely risque, Paramount released the Betty Boop animated short, Boop-Oop-A-Doop, on this date.
Please - don't take her boop-oop-a-doop away - Betty is supposed to be just 16.
January 16, 1938 -
Clarinetist Benny Goodman, breaks through cultural barriers to play the first-ever jazz concert at Carnegie Hall. It was considered instrumental in establishing jazz as a legitimate form of music.
The LP, The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert by Benny Goodman, issued in 1950, was the first ever double album, and one of the first records on the new long-playing format to sell over a million copies.
January 16, 1965 -
You finally get control back of the vertical and horizontal of your television set - ABC-TV aired the final episode of The Outer Limits on this date.
When this episode, the series' last show, was originally aired, a live announcer spoke over the Control Voice's closing statement about returning "next week at this same time." The live announcer stated that The King Family Show would be seen "next week in this time period." The regular Control Voice closing for The Probe was heard only in re-runs.
January 16, 1973 -
NBC-TV presented the 440th, and final episode of Bonanza (which began airing on NBC on September 12, 1959) on this date.
Michael Landon wrote and directed this episode. The script was only 39 pages long, making it the shortest script of the series.
January 16, 1976 -
Peter Frampton's platinum live album, Frampton Comes Alive, was released by A & M Records on this date.
Frampton used a talkbox, a device hooked up to his guitar amp that allowed him to make distorted vocal sounds through a tube in his mouth. Other groups had success with the device around that time (Aerosmith used it on Sweet Emotion the year before), but Frampton became known for it because he played a talkbox solo on this. Every time he formed words, the crowd went nuts, especially when he sounded out "I want to thank you," which came out sounding like "I want to f*ck you."
January 16, 1988 -
George Harrison hits #1 with Got My Mind Set On You, becoming the act with the longest time between #1 hits - it was 24 years since Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth).
When George Harrison conceived the Cloud Nine album, he looked for a producer who could carry some of the load and not be intimidated by working with a former Beatle. He sought out Jeff Lynne of ELO for the role even though he had never met him - he connected with Lynne by having their mutual friend, Dave Edmunds, get him the message. It ended up being a great fit. Lynne brought his distinctive production sheen to the tracks and helped out writing some of the songs. Lynne's influence can be heard in the backing vocals of the Got My Mind Set On You chorus. Along with Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty, Harrison and Lynne formed The Traveling Wilburys in 1988.
Today's moment of Zen
Today in History:
January 16, 1547 -
Ivan IV was crowned Tsar of Russia. He is better known by his nickname: Ivan the Terrible. He was the first king of Russia to call himself a Caesar, probably in the hopes that Shakespeare would write a play about him.
He couldn’t pronounce Caesar, however, so he simply called himself "zar," and subsequent arguments over whether that should be spelled czar, tsar, zar, or tzar became so heated that they eventually resulted in Russian History.
January 16, 1865 -
General William T. Sherman issues Special Field Order No. 15, entitling the household of each freed slave "a plot of no more than forty acres of tillable ground" along the Carolina coastline between Charleston and Jacksonville.
After the Confederate surrender, the Johnson administration makes a halfhearted attempt to follow through on the acreage, but all efforts to parcel out the land in question are abandoned just a few months later.
January 16, 1908 -
I've made a wonderful living playing that theatrical character - the professional brassy dame..
Ethel Merman, actress, singer and the woman who learned love at the hands of Ernest Borgnine, was born on this date.
January 16, 1920 -
Please save some of your brain cells for another weekend of binge drinking,
and remember that Prohibition went into effect in the U.S. on this date.
January 16, 1939 –
The Superman newspaper comic strip debuted on this date.
January 16, 1942 -
Raising money for the war, actress Carole Lombard, her mother, 18 passengers and three crew, were killed when their plane crashed into Mount Potosi, 32 miles southwest of Las Vegas on this date.
Lombard was much loved for her unpretentious personality and well known for her earthy sense of humor and blue language.
January 16, 1959 -
People are so used to having their lives filmed, they're not even conscious of having cameras around. I still have that sort of suspicion when a camera comes out. I view it as a thing to fear.
Helen Folasade Adu, OBE, singer-songwriter, composer, and record producer, was born on this date.
January 16, 1969 -
Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first docking of manned spacecraft in orbit as well as the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another.
Yevgeny Khrunov became the first astronaut to transfer between linked capsules. It is the only time such a transfer will ever be accomplished with a space walk.
January 16, 1991 -
Operation Desert Storm commenced as Baghdad was pummeled live on TV, on this date. Targeted with smartbombs were "command and control facilities" and Saddam Hussein himself.
We seem to miss both, but did manage to kill about 100,000 Iraqi soldiers in the surreal bombardments that follow.
January 16, 2003 -
NASA launched the Space Shuttle Columbia on its 28th and final mission on this date.
The shuttle's mission ended in tragedy when, 16 days later, on February 1st, the Columbia disintegrated as it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere, killing all seven of the shuttle’s crew members. The disaster shocked the nation, and set the space shuttle program back.
And so it goes
BTW - There are 350 days left until next year. Plan accordingly
Start thinking about all the great things you are going to do this year.
And so it goes
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