Tuesday 23 January 2024 Calendar with holidays, observances and special days

Ed Roberts Day in California

Edward Verne Roberts was born January 23, 1939. He contracted polio as an adolescent in 1953. For the first year of his illness, he spent nearly all of his time in a hosp..→

Holidays and observances

• Democracy Day in Venezuela
• Handwriting Day (The day was basically started by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association in 1977)
• Japan Post Holdings Day
• Measure Your Feet Day
• National Musician Day in Argentina
• National Pie Day in USA
• Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's Jayanti (Orissa, Tripura, and West Bengal, India)

Events

• In 2017 researchers demonstrate a prototype 3D printer that can print fully functional human skin.
• In 2017 scientists at the Scripps Research Institute create the first stable semisynthetic organism. This can hold two synthetic bases, called X and Y, in its genetic code indefinitely. The team says it could lead to entirely new life forms using synthetic DNA, with many potential uses in medicine.
• 1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
• 1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
• 1973 – United States President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
• 1967 – Milton Keynes (England) is founded as a new town by Order in Council, with a planning brief to become a city of 250,000 people. Its initial designated area enclosed three existing towns and twenty one villages. The area to be developed was largely farmland, with evidence of continuous settlement dating back to the Bronze Age.
• 1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
• 1957 – American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee".
• 1943 – World War II: Australian and American forces defeat Japanese army and navy units in the bitterly-fought Battle of Buna–Gona.
• 1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• 1909 – RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.
• 1899 – Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
• 1899 – The Malolos Constitution is inaugurated, establishing the First Philippine Republic.
• 1870 – In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in what becomes known as the Marias Massacre.
• 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.
• 1789 – Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.)
• 1656 – Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.
• 1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.

Births

• 1994 – Addison Russell, American baseball player. Addison Wayne Russell (born January 23, 1994) is an American professional baseball shortstop who is currently a free agent.
• 1985 – Jeff Samardzija, American baseball player. Jeffrey Alan Samardzija (/səˈmɑːrdʒə/; born January 23, 1985), nicknamed Shark, is an American professional baseball pitcher for the San Francisco Giants of Major League Baseball (MLB).
• 1982 – Andrew Rock, American sprinter. Andrew Rock (born January 23, 1982) is an American sprinter who specializes in the 400 meter dash.
• 1979 – Larry Hughes, American basketball player. Larry Darnell Hughes (born January 23, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player who played for eight different teams during a 14-year career in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
• 1976 – Brandon Duckworth, American baseball player and scout. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, Houston Astros, and Kansas City Royals, and in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles.
• 1975 – Phil Dawson, American football player. He played college football at Texas.
• 1974 – Tiffani Thiessen, American actress. Thiessen has also starred in other TV series such as Fox's Fastlane (2002–03), ABC's What About Brian (2007), and USA Network's White Collar (2009–14), as well as in a number of TV movies, and she has also appeared in several films like Son in Law (1993), Shriek If You Know What I Did Last Friday the 13th (2000), Hollywood Ending (2002), and Cyborg Soldier (2008).
• 1971 – Kevin Mawae, American football player and coach. Kevin James Mawae (/məˈwaɪ/; born January 23, 1971) is a former American football center who played in the National Football League (NFL) for sixteen seasons, primarily with the New York Jets.
• 1971 – Marc Nelson, American singer-songwriter. His mother was the late American singer Phyllis Nelson, best known for the songs "I Like You" and "Move Closer".
• 1966 – Haywoode Workman, American basketball player and referee. Haywoode Wilvon Workman (born January 23, 1966) is an American former basketball player who is a referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA).
• 1965 – Louie Clemente, American drummer. Louie Clemente (born January 23, 1965) is a former drummer for the Bay Area thrash metal band Testament.
• 1964 – Jonatha Brooke, American singer-songwriter and guitarist. She has been a performer, writer, and artist since the late 1980s, and her songs have been used in television shows and movies.
• 1964 – Mariska Hargitay, American actress and producer. Mariska Magdolna Hargitay (born January 23, 1964) is an American actress known for her role as New York Police Department Captain Olivia Benson on the NBC drama series Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
• 1953 – Antonio Villaraigosa, American politician, 41st Mayor of Los Angeles, was the 41st Mayor of Los Angeles, California, from 2005 to 2013.
• 1953 – John Luther Adams, American composer. John Luther Adams (born January 23, 1953) is an American composer whose music is inspired by nature, especially the landscapes of Alaska, where he lived from 1978 to 2014 (Garland 2007).
• 1953 – Robin Zander, American rock singer-songwriter and guitarist. Zander was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2016 as a member of Cheap Trick.
• 1951 – Chesley Sullenberger, American captain and pilot. Sullenberger is a speaker on aviation safety and has helped develop new protocols for airline safety.
• 1951 – Margaret Bailes, American sprinter. Margaret Johnson Bailes (born January 23, 1951) is an American athlete who competed in the 100 and 200 meters.
• 1950 – Bill Cunningham, American bass player and keyboard player. Bill Cunningham is the name of:
• 1950 – Richard Dean Anderson, American actor, producer, and composer. Jeff Webber in the American soap-opera series General Hospital, then rose to prominence as the lead actor in the television series MacGyver (1985–1992).
• 1950 – Suzanne Scotchmer, American economist and academic (d. 2014), was an American Professor of Law, Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and also a noted author on many economic subjects. She earned her B.A. from University of Washington magna cum laude in 1970, her M.A. in Statistics from UC Berkeley in 1979, and her PhD in Economics from UC Berkeley in 1980.
• 1948 – Anita Pointer, American R&B/soul singer-songwriter. Anita Marie Pointer (born January 23, 1948) is an American R&B/Soul singer–songwriter, best known as a founding member of the Grammy Award–winning vocal group The Pointer Sisters.
• 1947 – Tom Carper, American captain and politician, 71st Governor of Delaware. Thomas Richard Carper (born January 23, 1947) is an American politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Delaware, serving since 2001.
• 1946 – Don Whittington, American racing driver. Reginald Donald "Don" Whittington, Jr. (born January 23, 1946) is an American former racing driver from Lubbock, Texas, who won the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans together with his brother Bill Whittington and Klaus Ludwig on a Porsche 935, although Ludwig, a multiple winner at Le Mans and elsewhere, did most of the driving in the heavy rain as the brothers did not have any real racing experience prior to the late 1970s.
• 1943 – Gary Burton, American vibraphone player and composer. This approach caused him to be heralded as an innovator, and his sound and technique are widely imitated.
• 1943 – Gil Gerard, American actor and producer. Gerard (born January 23, 1943) is an American actor, most notable for his role as Captain William "Buck" Rogers in the 1979–81 television series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.
• 1940 – Alan Cheuse, American writer and critic (d. 2015), was an American writer, editor, professor of literature, and radio commentator.
• 1940 – Joe Dowell, American pop singer (d. 2016). He was born in Bloomington, Indiana, but moved to Bloomington, Illinois, as a child.
• 1938 – Giant Baba, Japanese wrestler and promoter, founded All Japan Pro Wrestling (d. 1999), was a Japanese professional wrestler. Baba is best known as a co-founder of All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), a promotion he founded in 1972 along with Mitsuo Momota and Yoshihiro Momota, the sons of Rikidōzan.
• 1936 – Jerry Kramer, American football player and sportscaster. Gerald Louis Kramer (born January 23, 1936) is a former professional American football player, author and sports commentator, best remembered for his 11-year National Football League (NFL) career with the Green Bay Packers as an offensive lineman.
• 1935 – Tom Reamy, American author (d. 1977), was an American science fiction and fantasy author and a key figure in 1960s and 1970s science fiction fandom. He died prior to the publication of his first novel; his work is primarily dark fantasy.
• 1933 – Chita Rivera, American actress, singer, and dancer. She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
• 1932 – Larri Thomas, American actress and dancer (d. 2013). She began her career by participating in a string of television commercials.
• 1929 – Myron Cope, American journalist and sportscaster (d. 2008), was an American sports journalist, radio personality, and sportscaster. He is best known for being "the voice of the Pittsburgh Steelers".
• 1927 – Lars-Eric Lindblad, Swedish-American businessman and explorer (d. 1994), was a Swedish-American entrepreneur and explorer, who pioneered tourism to many remote and exotic parts of the world. He led the first tourist expedition to Antarctica in 1966 in a chartered Argentine navy ship, and for many years operated his own vessel, the MS Lindblad Explorer, in the region.
• 1925 – Marty Paich, American pianist, composer, producer, and conductor (d. 1995), was an American pianist, composer, arranger, record producer, music director, and conductor. He came to prominence on the West Coast Jazz scene of the 1950s as both a pianist and a composer.
• 1924 – Frank Lautenberg, American soldier, businessman, and politician (d. 2013), was an American politician who served as United States Senator of New Jersey as a member of the Democratic Party. He was originally from Paterson, New Jersey.
• 1923 – Cot Deal, American baseball player and coach (d. 2013), was a pitcher and coach in Major League Baseball. Listed at 5 ft 10.5 in (1.79 m), 185 lb (84 kg), Deal was a switch-hitter and threw right-handed.
• 1923 – Horace Ashenfelter, American runner, was an American athlete. He competed in international athletics from 1947 to 1956.
• 1923 – Walter M. Miller, Jr., American soldier and author (d. 1996), was an American science fiction writer. He is known primarily for A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959), the only novel he published in his lifetime.
• 1922 – Leon Golub, American painter and academic (d. 2004). He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, and his BFA and MFA at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1949 and 1950, respectively.
• 1920 – Walter Frederick Morrison, American businessman, invented the Frisbee (d. 2010), was an American inventor and entrepreneur, who invented the Frisbee.
• 1919 – Ernie Kovacs, American actor and game show host (d. 1962), was an American comedian, actor, and writer.
• 1919 – Frances Bay, Canadian-American actress (d. 2011), was a Canadian-American character actress. In a career that spanned 35 years, she acted in a variety of roles both in film and television.
• 1918 – Florence Rush, American social worker and theorist (d. 2008), was an American certified social worker (M.S.W. from the University of Pennsylvania), feminist theorist and organizer best known for introducing The Freudian Coverup in her presentation "The Sexual Abuse of Children: A Feminist Point of View" about childhood sexual abuse and incest at the April 1971 New York Radical Feminists (NYRF) Rape Conference. Rush's paper at the time was the first challenge to Freudian theories of children as the seducers of adults rather than the victims of adults' sexual/power exploitation.
• 1918 – Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist and pharmacologist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999), was an American biochemist and pharmacologist, who shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with George H. Hitchings and Sir James Black for their use of innovative methods of rational drug design for the development of new drugs.
• 1916 – David Douglas Duncan, American photographer and journalist, was an American photojournalist who is best known for his dramatic combat photographs.
• 1915 – Potter Stewart, American lawyer and judge (d. 1985), was an American lawyer and judge who served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1958 to 1981. During his tenure, he made, among other areas, major contributions to criminal justice reform, civil rights, access to the courts, and Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.
• 1913 – Wally Parks, American businessman, founded the National Hot Rod Association (d. 2007), was an American writer. He was the founder, president, and chairman of the National Hot Rod Association, better known as NHRA.
• 1907 – Dan Duryea, American actor and singer (d. 1968), was an American actor in film, stage, and television. Known for portraying a vast range of character roles as a villain, he nonetheless had a long career in a wide variety of leading and secondary roles.
• 1901 – Arthur Wirtz, American businessman (d. 1983), was an American entrepreneur. He was the founder of Wirtz Corporation, a holding company that owned Chicago Stadium, the Bismarck Hotel in Chicago, the Chicago Black Hawks, and the Chicago Bulls.
• 1898 – Randolph Scott, American actor (d. 1987), was an American film actor whose career spanned the years from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals (albeit in non-singing and non-dancing roles), adventure tales, war films, and a few horror and fantasy films.
• 1872 – Jože Plečnik, Slovenian architect, designed Plečnik Parliament (d. 1957), was a Slovene architect who had a major impact on the modern architecture of Slovenia, Prague and of Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, most notably by designing the iconic Triple Bridge and the Slovene National and University Library building, as well as the embankments along the Ljubljanica River, the Ljubljana open market buildings, the Ljubljana cemetery, parks, plazas etc. His architectural imprint on Ljubljana has been compared to the impact Antoni Gaudí had on Barcelona.
• 1855 – John Browning, American weapons designer, founded the Browning Arms Company (d. 1926), was an American firearms designer who developed many varieties of military and civilian firearms, cartridges, and gun mechanisms – many of which are still in use around the world. He made his first firearm at age 13 in his father's gun shop, and was awarded the first of his 128 firearm patents on October 7, 1879, at the age of 24.
• 1838 – Marianne Cope, German-American nun and saint (d. 1918), was a German-born American religious sister who was a member of the Sisters of St Francis of Syracuse, New York, and founding leader of its St. Joseph's Hospital in the city, among the first of 50 general hospitals in the country.
• 1786 – Auguste de Montferrand, French-Russian architect, designed Saint Isaac's Cathedral and Alexander Column (d. 1858), was a French classicist architect who worked primarily in Russia. His two best known works are the Saint Isaac's Cathedral and the Alexander Column in St.
• 1737 – John Hancock, American general and politician, 1st Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1793). John Hancock (January 23, 1737 [O.S.

Deaths

• 2017 – Bobby Freeman, American singer, songwriter and record producer (b. 1940)
• 2016 – Bobby Wanzer, American basketball player and coach (b. 1921)
• 2015 – Ernie Banks, American baseball player and coach (b. 1931)
• 2015 – Prosper Ego, Dutch activist, founded the Oud-Strijders Legioen (b. 1927)
• 2012 – Bingham Ray, American businessman, co-founded October Films (b. 1954)
• 2012 – Maurice Meisner, American historian, author, and academic (b. 1931)
• 2012 – Wesley E. Brown, American lawyer and jurist (b. 1907)
• 2011 – Jack LaLanne, American fitness instructor, author, and television host (b. 1914)
• 2010 – Earl Wild, American pianist and composer (b. 1915)
• 2010 – Kermit Tyler, American colonel and pilot (b. 1913)
• 2009 – Robert W. Scott, American farmer and politician, 67th Governor of North Carolina (b. 1929)
• 2007 – E. Howard Hunt, American CIA officer (b. 1918)
• 2005 – Johnny Carson, American talk show host, television personality, and producer (b. 1925)
• 2004 – Bob Keeshan, American television personality and producer (b. 1927)
• 2003 – Nell Carter, American actress and singer (b. 1948)
• 2002 – Paul Aars, American race car driver (b. 1934)
• 2002 – Robert Nozick, American philosopher, author, and academic (b. 1938)
• 1999 – Jay Pritzker, American businessman, co-founded the Hyatt Corporation (b. 1922)
• 1993 – Keith Laumer, American soldier, author, and diplomat (b. 1925)
• 1992 – Freddie Bartholomew, American actor (b. 1924)
• 1990 – Allen Collins, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1952)
• 1988 – Charles Glen King, American biochemist and academic (b. 1896)
• 1981 – Samuel Barber, American pianist and composer (b. 1910)
• 1978 – Jack Oakie, American actor (b. 1903)
• 1978 – Terry Kath, American guitarist and songwriter (b. 1946)
• 1977 – Toots Shor, American businessman, founded Toots Shor's Restaurant (b. 1903)
• 1976 – Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, and activist (b. 1898)
• 1973 – Alexander Onassis, American-Greek businessman (b. 1948)
• 1973 – Kid Ory, American trombonist, composer, and bandleader (b. 1886)
• 1943 – Alexander Woollcott, American actor, playwright, and critic (b. 1887)
• 1893 – Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar II, American lawyer and politician, 16th United States Secretary of the Interior (b. 1825)
• 1803 – Arthur Guinness, Irish brewer, founded Guinness (b. 1725)
• 1800 – Edward Rutledge, American captain and politician, 39th Governor of South Carolina (b. 1749)