On This Day:
Monday December 23, 2013 This is the 357th day of the year, with 8 days remaining in 2013. Fact of the Day: calisthenic exercises We do not use this word much any more, but calisthenics are free-body exercises performed with varying degrees of intensity and rhythm. The exercises employ such motions as bending, stretching, twisting, swinging, kicking, and jumping, as well as more specialized movements, and sometimes involve rings and wands. The exercises were developed in the mid-19th century from the work of Germans Friedrich Jahn and Adolf Spiess as part of gymnastics. They were also stressed by Per Henrik Ling of Sweden as an important part of women's education. The word was first spelled callisthenic, coming from Greek words meaning "beautifully or elegantly strong."
Holidays Feast day of the Ten Martyrs of Crete, St. Dagobert II of Austria, St. John of Kanti, Saints Victoria and Anatolia, St. Frithebert, St. Servulus, and St. Thorlac.
Japan: The Emperor's Birthday.
Mexico: Night of the Radishes/Feast of the Radishes.
Events 1783 - George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia.
1788 - Maryland voted to cede a 100-square-mile area for the seat of the national government; about two-thirds of the area became the District of Columbia.
1823 - The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was first published by Clement Clarke Moore.
1888 - Following a quarrel with Paul Gauguin, Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh cut off part of his own earlobe.
1913 - President Woodrow Wilson signed the Owen-Glass Act, creating the Federal Reserve System.
1921 - President Warren G. Harding freed Socialist Eugene Debs and 23 other political prisoners.
1922 - The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) began daily news broadcasts.
1941 - American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese in World War II.
1944 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower confirmed the death sentence of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American shot for desertion since the Civil War.
1947 - John Bardeen, Walter H. Brattain, and William Shockley invented the transistor at Bell Telephone Laboratories in New Jersey. They won the Nobel Prize for their discovery.
1948 - In Tokyo, Japan, Hideki Tojo, former Japanese prime minister and chief of the Kwantung Army, was executed along with six other top Japanese leaders for their war crimes during World War II.
1968 - The 82 crew members of the U.S. intelligence ship USS Pueblo were released by North Korea, eleven months after they had been captured.
1974 - The B-1 bomber made its first successful test flight.
1975 - Congress passed the Metric Conversion Act declaring that the SI (International System of Units) will be the country's basic system of measurement.
1986 - The experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, round-the-world flight without refueling as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1997 - A Denver federal court jury convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.
1997 - Woody Allen, 62, marries Soon-Yi Previn, 27, adopted daughter of Mia Farrow.
2003 - New York Governor George Pataki pardoned the late comedian Lenny Bruce for his 1964 obscenity conviction.
Births 1777 - Alexander I, czar of Russia.
1790 - Jean-François Champollion, French founder of Egyptology who deciphered the Rosetta Stone.
1805 - Joseph Smith, American, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
1867 - Sarah Breedlove Walker, American businesswoman and philanthropist considered to be the first black female millionaire.
1907 - Don McNeill, American radio host.
1943 - Harry Shearer, American comedic actor and writer.
1965 - Eddie Vedder, lead singer, lyricist, and one of the three guitar players for the grunge band Pearl Jam.
Deaths 1944 - Charles Dana Gibson, American artist and illustrator known for his "Gibson Girl" drawings.
2000 - Billy Barty, American film actor.
2000 - Victor Borge, Danish humorist, entertainer and world-class pianist.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment