🗞️Today’s Headlines

Everything important that’s ever happened on January 3:

2004 ─ After a nearly seven-month voyage, NASA's Exploration Rover Spirit reached Mars. It was in contact with NASA scientists for more than six years as it studied Mars’ rocks and minerals.

2001 ─ Hillary Clinton was officially sworn in as the US senator from New York while also serving as First Lady. She was elected to two terms but resigned before finishing the second, instead becoming Obama’s secretary of state. 

1990 ─ Panamanian military leader and de facto dictator Manuel Noriega surrendered to the United States, after enduring 10 days of extremely loud Van Halen music and other psychological warfare tactics while besieged in the Vatican’s Panamanian embassy.  

1959 ─ More than ninety years after being purchased from Russia, Alaska became the 49th US state, despite having fewer than 250,000 residents.

1777 ─ George Washington won an important victory against the British in the Battle of Princeton. The last shots were fired on the campus of Princeton University.

1521 ─ Reformation leader Martin Luther was excommunicated by Pope Leo, five years after Luther published his 95 Theses and refused to recant the document, which was highly critical of the Catholic Church.

🎂 Today’s Birthdays

On January 3, we’re singing to:

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892) ─ English author and professor most well known for the beloved fantasy novels The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, which have sold more than 150 million copies. 

Sergio Leone (1929) ─ Influential Italian director who popularized “spaghetti Westerns,” with Clint Eastwood films like The Good, The Bad and the Ugly and A Fist Full of Dollars. His final film, Once Upon a Time in America, is considered an all-time classic.  

Mel Gibson (1956) ─ Actor and director best known for Lethal Weapon, The Passion of the Christ, and Braveheart, for which he won both Best Picture and Best Director at the 1996 Academy Awards. 

Michael Schumacher (1969) ─ German race–car driver who competed in Formula One for seventeen years and won a record seven championship titles in his Hall of Fame career. 

Greta Thunberg (2003) ─ Swedish activist who began her activism as a fifteen-year-old and reached international fame for organizing a very effective school strike over her deep convictions regarding climate change.

 🪦Who Died Today?

On January 3, we’re saying goodbye to:

Luca Giordano (1705) ─ A Baroque-period Italian painter who was so prolific he was known as “Fa Presto,” meaning “does it quickly.”

Jack Ruby (1967) ─ American nightclub owner who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who assassinated President John F. Kennedy Jr. Ruby was sentenced to death for the killing, but the sentence was thrown out and he died of cancer before his retrial. 

Conrad Hilton (1979) ─ American hotelier who started with a single property in Cisco, Texas, and eventually owned more than 240 hotels worldwide. 

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