Interrogatories
Have you owned any iPhones? How many?
If you could play God for a day, who would you strike with lightning? Making the punishment fit the crime, what creative punishments would you devise for your favorite Republicans?
Have you ever flown in a hot air balloon? Do you have any desire to?
The Twitter Emitter
blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
I think the delicious schadenfreude with Christie is like seeing a bully getting hauled to the principal's office by his ear.
— roadkillrefugee (@rkref)
January 8, 2014
On This Day
In 1788, Connecticut became the 5th state.
In 1793, Jean-Pierre Blanchard was the first person to fly a hot air balloon over the U.S.
In 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union, the second state to do so.
In 1903, Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota was established.
In 1908, Muir Woods National Monument (where the trees are definitely the right height) in Marin County, California, was established.
In 1956, Dear Abby, the syndicated advice column, first appeared in newspapers.
In 1979, the Supreme Court struck down (6-3) a Pennsylvania law requiring doctors performing abortions to try to preserve lives of potentially viable fetuses.
In 2007, the iPhone was announced by Steve Jobs.
Born on This Day
1590 - Simon Vouet, Parisian Baroque painter (d. 1649)
1671 - Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, Flemish painter (d. 1737)
1830 - Arthur Nikutowski, German painter (d. 1888)
1854 – Jennie Jerome, American socialite and mother of Winston Churchill (d. 1921)
1859 – Carrie Chapman Catt, American suffragist leader (d. 1947)
1886 - Albert Baertsoen, Flemish painter/etcher (d. 1922)
1875 – Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, American socialite (d. 1942)
1898 – Vilma Banky, Hungarian actress (d. 1991)
1898 – Gracie Fields, English music hall performer (d. 1979)
1911 – Gypsy Rose Lee, American burlesque entertainer, dancer, actress, and author (d. 1970)
1913 – Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (d. 1994)
1914 – Kenny (Klook) Clarke, American jazz drummer and composer (Modern Jazz Quartet) (d. 1985)
1915 – Fernando Lamas, Argentine actor (d. 1982)
1915 – Anita Louise, American actress (d. 1970)
1925 – Lee Van Cleef, American actor (d. 1989)
1939 – Susannah York, British actress (d. 2011)
1941 – Joan Baez, American singer and activist
1944 – Jimmy Page, British musician and producer (The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin)
1944 - Ian Hornak, U.S. realist painter (d. 2002)
1965 – Eric Erlandson, American musician (Hole and RRIICCEE)
1965 – Joely Richardson, British actress
1967 – Steve Harwell, American singer and musician (Smash Mouth)
1967 – Dave Matthews, South African singer and musician (Dave Matthews Band)
1982 – Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge
1987 – Paolo Nutini, Scottish singer-songwriter
Died on This Day
1645 - François de Troy, French portraitist and father of painter Jean-Francois de Troy (d. 1730)
1677 – Aert van der Neer, Dutch painter (b. 1603)
1805 – Noble Wimberly Jones, American Continental Congressman (b. 1723)
1821 - Pierre-Alexandre Wille, French painter (b. 1748)
1851 - Michel Martin Drolling, French painter (b. 1786)
1858 – Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (suicide) (b. 1798)
1877 - Alexander Brullov, Russian painter (b. 1798)
1891 - Johan Jongkind, Dutch painter (b. 1819)
1898 - Henry Stacy Marks, English painter (b. 1829)
1908 – Wilhelm Busch, German illustrator and painter (b. 1832)
1916 - Tadeusz Ajdukiewicz, Polish painter (b. 1852)
1936 - John Gilbert, American silent film star (b. 1897) See Tipple Jar
1972 – Ted Shawn, American dancer (b. 1891)
1975 – Pierre Fresnay, French actor (b. 1897)
1982 - Thyra Knut-Ekwall, Swedish painter (b. 1881)
1995 – Peter Cook, British actor and comedian (b. 1937)
Today is
Positively Penguins Day
Play God Day
National Apricot Day
National Static Electricity Day
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