All of the Presidents pictured above were sworn into office on this day.

1569 – The translator of the Bible into English, Miles Coverdale, dies at 80

1942 – Slim Whitman, yodeler and country singer, was born.  Below are two videos of him singing “Indian Love Call.”  The first is from Mars Attacks.

1948 - Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated.  A few quotes from him follow.

“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”

“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.”

1993 - Audrey Hepburn, actress in My Fair Lady, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Roman Holiday, dies of colon cancer in Switzerland at 63.

“A strong conviction that something must be done is the parent of many bad measures.”
“There is nothing so powerful as truth, and often nothing so strange.”
“I mistrust the judgment of every man in a case in which his own wishes are concerned.”

1788 – The first English settlers arrived in Australia’s Botany Bay to establish a penal colony

1882 – A.A. Milne, author and creator of Winnie the Pooh, was born.

1913 – The American actor and comedian Danny Kaye was born.  Here he is singing the song “Inchworm” from the movie Hans Christian Anderson.

1980 – One of my favorite albums of all time, Pink Floyd’s The Wall hits number 1 on Billboard.  Below is the song “Another Brick in the Wall.”

1706 – Benjamin Franklin, statesman and inventor, was born.  At the age of 26, he outlined a list of virtues, which he then attempted to emulate in his daily life.  The following is taken from wikipedia:

These are the virtues[13] that Benjamin Franklin used to develop what he called ‘moral perfection’. He had a checklist in a notebook to measure each day how he lived up to his virtues. They became known through Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography.

1. Temperance: Eat not to Dullness. Drink not to Elevation.
2. Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling Conversation.
3. Order: Let all your Things have their Places. Let each Part of your Business have its Time.
4. Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
5. Frugality: Make no Expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. Waste nothing.
6. Industry: Lose no Time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary Actions.
7. Sincerity: Use no hurtful Deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. Justice: Wrong none, by doing Injuries or omitting the Benefits that are your Duty.
9. Moderation: Avoid Extremes. Forbear resenting Injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. Cleanliness: Tolerate no Uncleanness in Body, Clothes or Habitation.
11. Tranquility: Be not disturbed at Trifles, or at Accidents common or unavoidable.
12. Chastity: Rarely use Venery but for Health or Offspring; Never to Dullness, Weakness, or the Injury of your own or another’s Peace or Reputation.
13. Humility: Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

1931 – James Earl Jones, Actor and the voice of Darth Vader, was born.  If my life was to be narrated by anyone, I would have it be James Earl Jones, followed by Morgan Freeman.  Here Jones is in a scene from one of my favorite movies:  Field of Dreams.

1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazis, was arrested by secret police in Hungary and never heard from again.  To read more about Wallenberg, click here.  Wallenberg once said, “I encounter one example after another of how relative truth is.”

1956 – Paul Young, Rock singer, was born.  Young was one of my favorites in the early 80s.  Below is a video:  Love of the Common People.

1740 - English revivalist George Whitefield wrote in a letter: ‘If I see a man who loves the Lord Jesus in sincerity, I am not very solicitous to what…communion he belongs. The Kingdom of God, I think, does not consist in any such thing.’

1749 - Vittorio Alfieri (died 8 October 1803), poet, playwright and philosopher, was born.  Alfieri is often considered the “founder of Italian tragedy.”  A few quotes from him, that I found interesting, follow.

“Ofttimes the test of courage becomes rather to live than to die.”

“To err is human; but contrition felt for the crime distinguishes the virtuous from the wicked.”

“First thoughts are not always the best.”

On this day in 1973, the final episode of the long-running western “Bonanza” aired on NBC.  Featuring the exploits of the Cartwright family (including Little Joe and Hoss) on the Ponderosa, “Bonanza” was one of the longest running Western television series (it ran for 14 seasons) and continues to air in syndication.

Two versions of the Bonanza theme song follow.  The first is the original as seen on the TV series, and the second is one with words sung by the Ponderosa patriarch himself, Lorne Greene.

Today in Norway is Tyvendedagen (Twentieth Day, after Christmas). As this site explains:

“Saint Knut drives Christmas away,” is an old folk saying which explains why, in many country areas it was customary on this day to hold the traditional “Christmas race.” People piled into their sleighs and sledges and drove madly across ice-bound lakes and frosty roads to the accompaniment of joyous shouts and merrily jingling bells; for, according to ancient superstition trolls, led by the troll woman herself, Kari-Tretten, or Karl the Thirteenth, raced over the frozen countryside on the night of January 13.

On Tyvendedagen, which marks the official end of Yuletide and is the last day the greeting “Glaedelig Jul,” “Merry Christmas,” is used, Christmas trees are dismantled and decorations carefully packed away until the following year. Generally the tree is chopped up and burned in the fireplace. The last Christmas parties are held, the final festivities attended on this day.

1695 – Jonathan Swift was ordained an Anglican priest in Ireland

1832 – Horatio Alger was born. Alger, the American author of boy’s adventure stories whose heroes lead exemplary lives and strive to succeed in the face of adversity and poverty, also has the following epitaph on his tombstone: “Here lies a good fellow who spent his life while he had it.”

1884 – Sophie Tucker, American entertainer/singer and the “last of red hot mammas.” was born in Russia. Below is her signature song Some of These Days.

1901 – A.B. Jr. Guthrie, American novelist, was born. Guthrie once said: “Nouns and verbs are the guts of the language. Beware of covering up with adjectives and adverbs.”

1981- The Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to May Swenson & Howard Nemerov.  A poem by each is found below.

The Lowering
by May Swensen

The flag is folded
lengthwise, and lengthwise again,
folding toward the open edge,
so that the union of stars on the blue
field remains outward in full view;
a triangular folding is then begun
at the striped end,
by bringing the corner of the folded edge
to the open edge;
the outer point, turned inward along the open edge,
forms the next triangular fold:
the folding continued so, until the end is reached,
the final corner tucked between
the folds of the blue union,
the form of the folded flag is found to resemble that
of a 3-cornered pouch, or thick cocked hat.

Take this flag, John Glenn, instead of a friend;
instead of a brother, Edward Kennedy, take this flag;
instead of a father, Joe Kennedy, take this flag;
this flag instead of a husband, Ethel Kennedy, take this flag;
this 9-times-folded red-white-striped, star-spotted-blue flag,
tucked and pocketed neatly,
Nation, instead of a leader, take this folded flag.
Robert Kennedy, coffin without coverlet,
beside this hole in the grass,
beside your brother, John Kennedy,
in the grass,
take, instead of a country,
this folded flag;
Robert Kennedy, take this
hole in the grass.

A Life
by Howard Nemerov

Innocence?
In a sense.
In no sense!

Was that it?
Was that it?
Was that it?

That was it.

1858 – English poet and hymnist Frances R. Havergal wrote the words to her first popular hymn while on a trip to Germany

“I Gave My Life for Thee”
by Frances R. Havergal, 1836-1879

I gave My life for thee,
My precious blood I shed,
That thou might’st ransomed be
And quickened from the dead.
I gave My life for thee;
What hast thou given for Me?

I spent long years for thee
In weariness and woe
That an eternity
Of joy thou mightest know.
I spent long years for thee;
Hast thou spent one for Me?

My Father’s home of light,
My rainbow-circled throne,
I left for earthly night,
For wanderings sad and lone.
I left it all for thee;
Hast thou left aught for Me?

I suffered much for thee,
More than My tongue may tell,
Of bitterest agony,
To rescue thee from hell.
I suffered much for thee;
What canst thou bear for Me?

And I have brought to thee
Down from My home above
Salvation full and free,
My pardon and My love.
Great gifts I brought to thee;
What hast thou brought to Me?

Oh, let thy life be given,
Thy years for Me be spent,
World’s fetters all be riven,
And joy with suffering blent!
I gave Myself for thee:
Give thou thyself to Me.

1894 – Uri Zvi Greenberg, Hebrew and Yiddish poet, was born.  Below is his poem “The Man Who Stepped Out of His Shoes.”

I stood, and my two eyes saw this:
I didn’t know who the man was,
his name, or his tangled history.

It was a morning all of gold,
and this man marched up to the electric pole
as if to a borderline that he had chosen,
and there he stepped out of his shoes,
and leaving them behind, as if on a threshold,
he began walking barefoot,
to somewhere beyond this final point,
towards an endless beginning far in the distance:
without house, or bed, or bosom;
without a loaf of bread or a jar of water…
light and empty-handed.

I saw his broad shoulders,
his high stature, his manly steps
going away, going from here to his distances,
without the memory of his shoes,
which wait for him here.
(Translated by T. Carmi)

Today is the birthday of the American dancer and actor Ray Bolger, who was born on this day in 1904 and died on January 15, 1987.  Bolger a contract player for many years at MGM studios, is perhaps best known for his role as the Scarecrow in “The Wizard of Oz.”

Below you will find a video celebrating Mr. Bolger:  his famous scene from “Oz,” featuring his song “If I Only Had a Brain.”  It includes footage ultimately cut from the movie as well.  Enjoy.

1964 – The Beatles’ first album in the United States, Introducing the Beatles, was released.  A video of “Love Me Do” is below.

Filed under: Hymns, Poetry, Today in History, Video Tagged: Beatles, Frances R. Havergal, I Gave My Life for Thee, January 10, Love Me Do, Thomas Paine, Today in History, Uri Zvi Greenberg ]]> http://willhumes.net/2012/01/10/on-january-10th/feed/ 0 Will January 10 http://willhumes.net/2012/01/07/on-january-7th/ http://willhumes.net/2012/01/07/on-january-7th/#comments Sat, 07 Jan 2012 11:09:05 +0000 Will http://onethingiknow.net/2009/01/07/james-merrill-one-thing-to-know-about-today-in-history/ Continue reading →]]>

1891 -  Zora Neale Hurston, one of the pre-eminent writers of twentieth-century African-American literature and closely associated with the Harlem Renaissance, was born.  A quote and a short excerpt from Their Eyes Were Watching God follow.

“If you want that good feeling that comes from doing things for other folks then you have to pay for it in abuse and misunderstanding.”

“So Janie began to think of Death. Death, that strange being with the huge square toes who lived way in the West. The great one who lived in the straight house like a platform without sides to it, and without a roof. What need has Death for a cover, and what winds can blow against him? He stands in his high house that overlooks the world. Stands watchful and motionless all day with his sword drawn back, waiting for the messenger to bid him come. Been standing there before there was a where or a when or a then. She was liable to find a feather from his wings lying in her yard any day now. She was sad and afraid too. Poor Jody! He ought not to have to wrassle in there by himself. She sen Sam in to suggest a cisit, but Jody said No. These medical doctors wuz all right with the Godly sick, but they didn’t know a thing about a case like his. He’d be all right just as soon as the two-headed man found what had been buried against him. He wasn’t going to die at all. That was what he thought. But Sam told her different, so she knew. And then if he hadn’t the next morning she was bound to know, for people began to gather in the big yard under the palm and china-berry trees. People who would not have dared to foot the place before crept in and did not come to the house. Just squatted under the trees and waited. Rumor, that wingless bird, had shadowed over the town.”  from Their Eyes Were Watching God

1896 - Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook, which is also the first to use standardized measurements.  The full text of this cookbook can be found online here.  Below is one of the recipes from it.  You will need, however, one calf’s head in order to make it.

Mock Turtle Soup.

1 calf’s head.
6 cloves.
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns.
6 allspice berries.
2 sprigs thyme.
1/3 cup sliced onion.
1/3 cup carrot, cut in dice.
2 cups brown stock.
1/4 cup butter.
1/2 cup flour.
1 cup stewed and strained tomatoes.
Juice 1/2 lemon.
Madeira wine.

Clean and wash calf’s head; soak one hour in cold water to cover. Cook until tender in three quarts boiling salted water (to which seasoning and vegetables have been added). Remove head; boil stock until reduced to one quart. Strain and cool. Melt and brown butter, add flour, and stir until well browned; then pour on slowly brown stock. Add head-stock, tomato, one cup face meat cut in dice, and lemon juice. Simmer five minutes; add Royal Custard cut in dice, and Egg Balls, or Force-meat Balls. Add Madeira wine, salt, and pepper to taste.

1948 – Kenny Loggins, American singer, was born.  Below is a song Loggins co-wrote.  Loggins and Jim Messina recorded it 1971, and it became a big hit when Anne Murray released her cover of it in 1972

1973 - James Merrill, American poet (1926 – 1995), won the Bollingen Prize for poetry.  The website Poetry Foundation says this about Merrill:

The late James Merrill was recognized as one of the master poets of his generation. Merrill’s work was praised for its elegance of style, its moral sensibilities, and its transformation of autobiographical moments into deep and complex poetry. Through a long and productive career, Merrill wrote plays, prose, and fiction, but the bulk of his artistic expression can be found in his poetry. His work won almost every important literary citation from the Pulitzer Prize to the Bollingen Prize and the National Book Award, and he was, according to New York Times Book Review essayist Petet Stitt, “one of the most cunning, elusive, thoughtful, challenging and rewarding poets writing.”

The text of his poem “About the Phoenix” follows.  To purchase his books, click on the links at the end of this post.

About the Phoenix

But in the end one tires of the high-flown.
If it were simply a matter of life or death
We should by now welcome the darkening room,
Wrinkling of linen, window at last violet,
The rosy body lax in a chair of words,
And then the appearance of unsuspected lights.
We should walk wonderingly into that other world
With its red signs pulsing and long lit lanes.
But often at nightfall, ambiguous
As the city itself, a giant jeweled bird
Comes cawing to the sill, dispersing thought
Like a birdbath, and with such final barbarity
As to wear thin at once terror and novelty.
So that a sumptuous monotony
Sets in, a pendulum of amethysts
In the shape of a bird, keyed up for ever fiercer
Flights between ardor and ashes, back and forth;
Caught in whose talons any proof of grace,
Even your face, particularly your face
Fades, featureless in flame, or wan, a fading
Tintype of some cooling love, according
To the creature’s whim. And in the end, despite
Its pyrotechnic curiosity, the process
Palls. One night
Your body winces grayly from its chair,
Embarks, a tearful child, to rest
On the dark breast of the fulfilled past.
The first sleep here is the sleep fraught
As never before with densities, plume, oak,
Black water, a blind flapping. And you wake
Unburdened, look about for friends—but O
Could not even the underworld forego
The publishing of omens, naively?
Nothing requires you to make sense of them
And yet you shiver from the dim clay shore,
Gazing. There in the lake, four rows of stilts
Rise, a first trace of culture, shy at dawn
Though blackened as if forces long confined
Had smouldered and blazed forth. In the museum
You draw back lest the relics of those days
—A battered egg cup and a boat with feet—
Have lost their glamour. They have not. The guide
Fairly exudes his tale of godless hordes
Sweeping like clockwork over Switzerland,
Till what had been your very blood ticks out
Voluptuous homilies. Ah, how well one might,
If it were less than a matter of life or death,
Traffic in strong prescriptions, “live” and “die”!
But couldn’t the point about the phoenix
Be not agony or resurrection, rather
A mortal lull that followed either,
During which flames expired as they should,
And dawn, discovering ashes not yet stirred,
Buildings in rain, but set on rock,
Beggar and sparrow entertaining one another,
Showed me your face, for that moment neither
Alive nor dead, but turned in sleep
Away from whatever waited to be endured?

James Merrill, “About the Phoenix” from Collected Poems. Copyright © 2001 by James Merrill.

Selected Poems: James Merrill, J. D. Mcclatchy, Stephen Yenser: Books ISBN: 037571166X ISBN-13: 9780375711664

1744 – David Brainerd, a missionary to the American Indians, wrote in his journal: ‘We are a long time in learning that all our strength and salvation is in God.’

1873 – Saint Theresa of Lisieux, a French Carmelite nun, was born.  Two quotes from her:

“Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.”

“I know now that true charity consists in bearing all our neighbours’ defects–not being surprised at their weakness, but edified at their smallest virtues.”

1920 – Isaac Asimov, author of more than 500 books, was born. Asimov’s Foundation trilogy were the first Science Fiction books I ever read and awakened in me a love of the genre.  Two quotes from Asimov:

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”

“It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say ‘It’s as plain as the nose on your face.’ But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?”

1923 – The Ku Klux Klan carried out a surprise attack on the black residential area of Rosewood FL, killing 8 people.  To read more about this tragic event, click this link.

1945 – The University of Kentucky Wildcats begin a 130 home basketball game win streak that doesn’t end until 1955.
 
1968 – The theologian Karl Barth wrote in a letter: ‘In the Church of Jesus Christ there can and should be no non-theologians.’

1983 – The musical “Annie” closed on Broadway after 2,377 performances. And here is a video from the 1982 movie version.

Annie–Tomorrow

1780 – One of the first Methodist bishops in America, Francis Asbury, wrote in his journal: ‘My God, keep me through the water and fire, and let me rather die than live to sin against thee!’

1802 – In a letter written to the Danbury Baptist Association, Thomas Jefferson, used the phrase “a wall of separation between Church and State” for the first time.  An idea that would come  From 1947, the “wall of separation” concept gained acceptance as a constitutional guideline.

1808 — A law prohibiting the importation of slaves into the United States went into effect.

1919 –  J.D. Salinger, author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” was born in New York City. Two quotes from Salinger’s works:

“If I were God, I certainly wouldn’t want people to love me sentimentally. It’s too unreliable.” (from Nine Stories)
“The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”  (From The Catcher in the Rye)

1959 — Fidel Castro led revolutionaries to victory over Batista’s forces in Cuba.

1960 Johnny Cash plays 1st of many free concerts behind prison bars. In honor of this, here is a video of the man in black.

Johnny Cash–God’s Gonna Cut You Down

Today is also the “Feast of Holy Name of Jesus,” the day when Jesus was circumcised according to Jewish law and officially given his name.  As the book of Luke recounts in chapter 2, “After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel.”