Almanac for January 31st

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 31: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-31-Footloose-T6T519KBBH

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: The Feast of Great Typos
Artist Birthday: Zane Grey

Beatles Trivia

January 31
January 31, 1967: On Johnny Rotten’s 11th birthday, John Lennon is shopping at an antiques store in Sevenoaks in the English county of Kent. He finds and purchases a vintage circus poster, the text of which becomes the basis for the Beatles song “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”

Bummer January 31st

January 31, 1915: During the World War I Battle of Bolimów, Germany deploys toxic chemicals in its attack on Russian troops. It’s Germany’s first large-scale use of chemical weapons, a strategy that will unfortunately become all too common in the Great War.

January 31, 1957: A Douglas DC-7B aircraft takes off from Santa Monica Airport on a test flight, accompanied by two U.S. Air Force Northrop F-89 Scorpion fighter jets. The role of the jets is to test the DC-7B’s radar capabilities. At 11:18 a.m. local time, one of the Scorpions collides with the DC-7B. The pilot of the Scorpion is killed in the crash; the radar operator ejects from the jet, and despite severe burns and a broken leg, survives. 

All four crew members aboard the DC-7B are killed when the craft crashes, partially into the grounds of Pacoima Congregational Church and partially into the grounds of Pacoima Junior High School, where a boys’ gym class is taking place outdoors. Three students are killed, and approximately 75 students are injured by falling debris. 

Among the witnesses of the mid-air collision is musician Ritchie Valens, 15 years old at the time. Valens himself will die in a plane crash two years and three days later. 

Almanac for January 30th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 30: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-30-In-a-Dark-Dark-House-R6R419KB8R

Artist Birthday: Christian Bale

Beatles Trivia

January 30, 1969: The Beatles perform a 42-minute concert on the roof of their Apple Corporation record company building in London, as documented in the concert film Let It Be. It will be their last public performance together.

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Romeo and Juliet

Bummer January 30th

January 30, 2006: 55-year-old playwright Wendy Wasserstein dies of lymphoma.

January 30, 2021: 34-year-old electronic musician Sophie Xeon dies from injuries suffered from an accidental fall from a roof in Athens, Greece, where Sophie had climbed to look at the full moon.

Almanac for January 29th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 29th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-29-The-Raven-M4M319KAUE

Bummer January 29th

January 29, 1916: During the Great War, Germany uses zeppelins to bomb Paris. The physical damage is minimal, but the aerial bombardment has the effect of psychologically terrorizing Parisians.

January 29, 1933: Poet Sara Teasdale overdoses on sleeping pills, an apparent suicide. She is 48 years old.

January 29, 1964: Actor Alan Ladd, age 50, dies at his home in bed from cerebral edema caused by an overdose of alcohol and prescription medications. His life had been difficult as you will see on July 3rd, November 2nd, and November 29th.

January 29, 2003: A dust explosion caused by highly flammable polyethylene dust at the West Pharmaceutical Plant in Kinston, North Carolina, kills six people, injures 36 workers, and subsequently injures two firefighters who arrive to fight the fire caused by the explosion.

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Almanac for January 28th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 28th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-28-Pride-and-Prejudice-N4N319KARB

Bummer January 28th

January 28, 1856: Robert and Margaret (called Peggy) Garner and their four children, an enslaved family running for their freedom along the Underground Railroad, shelter at the home of free person of color Joseph Kite on the west side of Cincinnati, Ohio. U.S. Marshalls, required by the cruel Fugitive Slave Act to track down escaping enslaved persons, surround Mr. Kite’s home and demand the surrender of the Garner party. To their horror, Peggy has attempted to kill her two sons and two daughters rather than seeing them returned to slavery in Kentucky. She’s succeeded in killing her second-youngest child, her 2-year-old daughter Mary. She’d intended to kill her children and then herself; the other three children were wounded but survived. After a trial, the surviving Garners were forced back into enslavement. Peggy Garner’s story became the basis of Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved.

January 28, 1960: African-American folklorist and novelist Zora Neale Hurston dies from heart disease after suffering a stroke.

January 28, 1986: A tragic cultural touchstone of my young life occurs when the space shuttle Challenger breaks apart shortly after launch. I’m eight years old and, I should note, not watching the live TV broadcast with my third grade class when it happens. We watched some of the coverage of the aftermath on a TV in the school gym after the school principal entered our classroom and told our teacher what had happened, to the best of my recollection.

January 28, 1993: Celina Shribbs becomes the second 2-year-old child to die of kidney failure from the Jack In the Box E. coli O157:H7 contamination incident. Celina didn’t eat the contaminated beef directly but contracted a secondhand infection from contact with another child.

Toni Morrison at Dorothy Surrenders: https://dorothysurrenders.blogspot.com/search/label/Toni%20Morrison

Almanac for January 27th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 27th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-27-Historical-Hotties-P5P119KAOE

The Casper (Wyoming) Daily Tribune, January 27, 1926

Artist birthday: Lewis Carroll

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Swan Lake

Bummer January 27th
January 27, 1967: Aspiring astronauts Roger B. Chaffee, Virgil “Gus” Grissom, and Edward H. White die when fire breaks out in their Apollo 1 space capsule as it sits on the launch pad. The high oxygen content of the air inside the capsule, plus an inefficient escape procedure, virtually guarantee they could not have survived the fire. 

Almanac for January 26th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 26th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-26-Hungry-Womans-Blues-O4O419KACM

Bummer January 26th

January 26, 1946: Two teenage sailors in the U.S. Navy, LeRoy Robert Bragg and Stanford Fluitt, die aboard the SS Frederick Galbraith of saltpeter poisoning after drinking saltpeter mixed with water as part of a tradition for a sailor’s first crossing of the Equator.

January 26, 1966: On Australia Day, the three children of the Beaumont family left their home in the Somerton Park suburb of Adelaide, Australia, and took a bus to Glenelg Beach, about three kilometers away. 9-year-old Jane, 7-year-old Arnna, and 4-year-old Grant didn’t return on the noon bus like their parents expected them to. Their father Jim drove to the beach to look for them. The baker at a local bakery reported selling them a meat pie and some pasties, allegedly for more money than the children were thought to have on them when they left, leading to speculation that a man at the beach had abducted the children, but they were never seen again.

January 26, 1972: JAT Yugoslav Airlines Flight 367 explodes mid-flight over the village of Srbská Kamenice, Czechia (then part of Czechoslovakia). Although no one is ever arrested for the crime, authorities suspect a Croatian separatist group smuggled a suitcase bomb aboard the plane. All 23 passengers and four crew members died in the explosion and subsequent crash. 

The fifth crew member, flight attendant Vesna Vulović, survived with a fractured skull, a fractured pelvis, broken legs, broken ribs, and broken vertebrae. Villager Bruno Honke, who had been a medic during World War II, discovered her unconscious body and rendered aid until rescuers arrived to take the flight attendant to the hospital. 22-year-old Vulović fell 33,330 feet from the plane to the ground, believed to be the longest fall a human being without a parachute has ever survived. Vulović lived for almost 45 more years after her fall.

January 26, 2001: Lacrosse coach Diane Whipple is mauled to death by two Presa Canario dogs being cared for by Whipple’s neighbors. The neighbors, married attorneys Marjorie Knoller and Robert Noel, cared for the dogs belonging to their client while their client, a member of a violent white supremacist gang, served time in prison. Knoller was attempting to control both dogs while carrying groceries when the dogs escaped from her control and attacked Whipple. 

Whipple dies of her injuries at San Francisco Memorial Hospital. Both dogs are euthanized. Knoller is convicted of second-degree murder. Noel is disbarred and convicted of manslaughter.

January 26, 2005: Juan Manuel Álvarez parks his Jeep on a railroad track north of Los Angeles, later testifying that he was intent on killing himself, but changed his mind at the last moment. The abandoned Jeep is struck by Metrolink commuter train #100, which jackknifes, striking two trains, one on either side of it. Eleven people are killed. Álvarez is ultimately sentenced to eleven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for their deaths.

January 26, 2010: Boa Sr, an approximately 65-year-old woman of the Bo people on her mother’s side and the Jeru people on her father’s side, dies. She was the last fluent native speaker of the Aka-Bo language of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, part of India.

***

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Almanac for January 25th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 25th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-25-Burns-Supper-X8X2199WHE

January 25, 1926

Today's Observation: Burns Night (in honor of Robert Burns)

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Virginia Woolf

Bummer January 25th

January 25, 1960: Actor Diana Barrymore, aunt of actor Drew Barrymore, dies at the age of 38. Her death is initially thought to have been caused by an accidental drug overdose, but no evidence of drug overdose is found during her autopsy. The cause of her death remains undetermined.

Drew Barrymore at the Lucky You film premiere on May 1, 2007. Public domain.

January 25, 1979: Robert Nicholas Williams, working at Ford Motor Company Flat Rock Casting Plant in Flat Rock, Michigan, becomes the first human being known to have been killed by a robot. The 5-story robot, called the Parts Retrieval System, is either retrieving parts incorrectly or not quickly enough. Therefore, Williams attempts to either fix the machine or at least get a closer look. Williams climbs to the third story of the robot and is struck from behind by one of the one-ton transfer vehicles used to move the robotic arms. The vehicle crushes him, killing him instantly.

January 25, 1980: University of South Carolina student Lurie "Barry" Ballou chokes to death on his own vomit after a night of heavy drinking as part of a Sigma Nu fraternity hazing ritual. At the time of death, Ballou’s blood-alcohol level was 0.46. Impairment begins at a blood-alcohol level of 0.08, and anything above 0.40 can cause fatal respiratory failure.

January 25, 2006: Bailiffs arrive to repossess the bedsit flat occupied by Joyce Carol Vincent in Wood Green, North London. Vincent owes £2,400 in back rent. Authorities are shocked to discover Vincent’s mostly skeletal, decomposed body lying on her back next to Christmas presents that Vincent had apparently wrapped but never delivered. Food in her refrigerator has expiration dates from 2003, and although the TV is still on and the heat is working, it appears that Vincent had died in December 2003 of natural causes and her body has lain undiscovered until that January day.

With no sign of foul play, her cause of death is suspected to be either an asthma attack or complications from a peptic ulcer, both of which she’s documented to have suffered from. Vincent had a sister, but apparently had distanced herself from her family and they didn’t try to contact her during the more than two years that her body lay undiscovered in her flat.

Almanac for January 24th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 24th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-24-Wharton-G2G619775E

Happy birthday, Edith Wharton.

Bummer January 24th

January 24, 1925: 28-year-old Swedish ice hockey player Ejnar Olsson, who competed in the 1924 Olympics, drowns when an unusually warm Swedish winter causes him to fall through the ice into the lake on which he’s playing hockey.

January 24, 1939: The worst earthquake in the history of Chile strikes at approximately 11:30 p.m., devastating the regional capital city of Chillán. The 8.3 surface wave magnitude earthquake kills an estimated 28,000 people. In addition to the collapse of about half of the buildings in Chillán and almost all the buildings in the city of Concepción, the massive earthquake causes numerous fires and renders the local water supply undrinkable. 

Almanac for January 23rd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 23rd: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-23-Django-G2G519772Y

Bummer January 23rd

January 23, 1943: Algonquin Round Table wit Alexander Woollcott, who regularly performed on the radio, appeared in a panel discussion about Adolph Hitler on CBS Radio. Listeners notice he is uncharacteristically quiet during the discussion. In fact, Woollcott is having a heart attack. He writes “I am sick” on a pad to paper to let the other participants know he needs medical attention. He dies in the hospital a few hours later.

January 23, 1978: 31-year-old Terry Kath, a founding member of the musical group Chicago, places a gun he believes is unloaded to his head and pulls the trigger. The gun has a round in the chamber, killing Kath instantly.

January 23, 1989: Spanish artist Salvador Dalí dies of cardiac arrest. He is 84 and suffering from heart failure.

January 23, 2008: A Pennsylvania woman dies in the hospital after suffering electrical shock in her home; she and her husband had been using homemade nipple clamps, allegedly as a sexual stimulant. Her husband, who had a prior conviction for domestic violence, was charged with involuntarily manslaughter for his role. He was convicted in May 2009 and sentenced to 20-40 years in prison. Jurors seemed to be skeptical of the man’s claim that the electrical shock was part of the couple’s sexual activity and tended toward the theory that it was, instead, torture.

Almanac for January 22nd

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 22nd: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-22-Oh-The-Places-Youll-Go-C0C7197708

And then I made a fan edit with Ghost's "Kiss the Go Goat" as the soundtrack. And then I made another, better one that looks like the goats are at the goat disco.

TRIGGER WARNING FOR FLASHING LIGHTS/IMAGES:

Artist birthday: George Gordon, Lord Byron

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Sir Francis Bacon

Bummer January 22nd

January 22, 1915: More than 600 people die in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a trains derails and plunges into a canyon. The 20 cars of the train are filled with soldiers who had fought for General Victoriano Huerta. When Huerta’s army was overthrown by Venustiano Carranza and Pancho Villa, the revolutionaries ordered Huerta’s troops to be deported from Guadalajara to Colima. The train derails on its way to Colima in one of North America’s worst railroad disasters.

January 22, 1987: R. Budd Dwyer, the treasurer of the state of Pennsylvania, knows he is soon to be arrested on corruption charges, of which he claims to be innocent. At a televised press conference, he passes out a 20-page statement to the reporters in his office. He then pulls out a handgun, places it in his own mouth, and dies by suicide. His death is captured by the traumatized reporters and, as of 2022, could readily be accessed to watch online. 

This event is the inspiration behind the Filter song "Hey Man, Nice Shot."

Filter lead singer Richard Patrick is the brother of actor Robert Patrick, who was in Terminator 2. 

January 22, 1993: Two-year-old Brenda Nole dies of kidney failure in a Seattle hospital after eating food contaminated with E. coli O157:H7, a species of bacteria that creates a toxin that causes hemolytic-uremic syndrome in humans. Hers is the second of four eventual deaths of children traceable to contaminated hamburger meat from the Jack In the Box fast food chain. More than 730 people become sick from eating the same contaminated beef.

January 22, 2008: Actor Heath Ledger dies from an apparently accidental overdose of prescription anti-anxiety and painkiller medications. He’s 28 years old and leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter, Matilda Rose. 

Almanac for January 21st

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 21: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-21-Baby-Spice-M4M41976XR

Artist Birthday: Emma Bunton

Beatles Trivia

January 21
Friday, January 21, 1966: George Harrison and Pattie Boyd get married.

This is an affiliate link.

Bummer January 21st

January 21, 1793: Convicted of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI is executed by guillotine. 

January 21, 1984: American R&B singer Jackie Wilson dies of complications of pneumonia at age 49. He has been semi-comatose since collapsing on stage while performing in New Jersey on September 29, 1975.

January 21, 2023: A 30-year-old man in Kansas was shot by his own gun as it sat in the rear seat of his pickup truck after the man’s dog stepped on the firearm and inadvertently pulled the trigger.

Almanac for January 20th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 20th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-20-Inaugural-Z8Z11976V2

Today's Observance: St. Sebastian's Day

Bummer January 20th

January 20, 1985: Czech-Canadian stunt performer Karel Souček dies from the injuries he sustained in a failed stunt the previous day. Souček, sealed inside a barrel, attempted to drop 180 feet into a tank of water inside the Houston Astrodome. The barrel is released prematurely, spins, and hits the rim of the tank. Souček is cut free of the barrel but is severely injured and dies in the hospital.

January 20, 2020: Former NBA player Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, basketball coach Christina Mauser, pilot Ara Zobayan, and five others are killed when their helicopter crashes in poor weather in Calabasas, California.

Almanac for January 19

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 19: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-19-Edgar-Allan-Poe-and-Dolly-Parton-O5O319738N

Artist Birthday: Edgar Allan Poe

Dolly Parton movie 9 to 5 by Movies of the 80s
Dolly Parton at Dorothy Surrenders

Today's Observance (United States): Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Beatles Trivia

January 19
January 19, 1971: During Charles Manson’s murder trial, Manson’s defense attorneys introduce the Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter” into evidence. According to Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, one of Manson’s delusion beliefs was that the song, written by Paul McCartney, referred to a coming race war. 

In reality, the lyrics refer to the literal meaning of a helter skelter, an English amusement ride consisting of a tower with a slide curling around it.

Bummer January 19

January 19, 1729: Restoration-era playwright William Congreve dies of complications from internal injuries he suffered in a September 1728 carriage accident.

January 19, 1903: Newspaper publisher and political powerbroker Narciso Gener Gonzales dies of a gunshot wound inflicted by James H. Tillman, the lieutenant governor of South Carolina. Gonzales was critical of Tillman’s uncle Ben Tillman, a U.S. senator. Tillman was a strict segregationist who favored harsh repression of African-American voting rights in South Carolina. Gonzales, although himself a segregationist, was also an anti-lynching activist who abhorred Tillman’s support for violence.

January 19, 1991: 20-year-old Austrian ski racer Gernot Reinstadler, competing in a qualifying race in Wengen, Switzerland, veers slightly to the right during the course of the downhill race. This slight deviation causes one of the tips of his skis to become tangled in the side netting while Reinstadler is still moving at a high speed. Reinstadler suffers a severe injure that essentially threatens to split his body in two from the pelvis upward. Although flown by helicopter to the nearest hospital and given multiple blood transfusions, the young man dies from the injury.

Almanac for January 18th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 18th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-18-The-Abbot-Secluded-Him-W7W11972JS

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Pooh Day (birthday of A.A. Milne)

The extremely specific Simpsons meme that goes with that almanac entry:

Bummer January 18th

January 18, 2019: A gasoline pipeline explosion in Tlahuelilpan, Hidalgo, Mexico, kills 137 people and injures an unknown number of people. The Mexican government compensates the families of the victims approximately $800 each.

January 18, 2024: Sanjay Shah, the 55-year-old CEO of Chicago-based software company Vistex, attends an event in honor of the company’s 25th anniversary in Hyderabad, India. As part of a presentation on a film set, Shah and company president Raju Datla are lowered onto the stage in an apparatus made to look like a hot air balloon. A cable supporting the apparatus snaps, sending Shah and Datla plummeting onto the stage below. Shah dies shortly afterward. Datla dies at a Chicago hospital on July 19, 2024. 

Almanac for January 17th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 17th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-17-E1E6ZRHFK

Bummer January 17th

January 17, 1893: An alliance of U.S. and European business interests lead a coup d’etat that overthrows the sovereign government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Queen Liliʻuokalani is forced to surrender, fearing that her kingdom won’t withstand a war with the United States.

January 17, 1995: More than 6,000 people die when a 6.9 magnitude earthquake centered on the city of Kobe strikes Japan.

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***

First appearance of Popeye in the Thimble Theater comic strip: January 17, 1929

Almanac for January 16th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 16th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-16th-X8X1ZOPZW

Bummer January 16th

January 16, 1862: A coal mining accident in Northumberland, England, kills 204 workers, some of them children as young as ten, and the pit pony. Most of them die of asphyxiation when the ventilation system breaks down, allowing the mine to fill with carbon monoxide.

January 16, 1942: TWA Flight 3 crashes into Potosi Mountain, Nevada, due to pilot error, killing all 22 people on board, including the actress Carole Lombard.

January 16, 1979: Ted Cassidy, the 6'9", deep-voiced actor who played Lurch on The Addams Family tv series, dies at age 46 from complications of surgery to remove a tumor from his heart. The tumor is a symptom of his acromegaly, the health condition responsible for his unusual height.

Carole Lombard at Dorothy Surrenders: https://dorothysurrenders.blogspot.com/search/label/Carole%20Lombard

What was Diane Meyer grateful for on January 16, 2024?

https://bottlecap.press/products/ordinarygratitude

pesto pasta
new books
packages
French press coffee
saying what I want to say
hugs
motivation
how far I've come
bagels with cream cheese
birthday cake
banana bread
being proud of others
short stories
making plans -- keep making them! Life is too short to want to see people and not follow through.

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Almanac for January 15th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 15: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-15th-O4O7ZOP2Q

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Martin Luther King Day

Bummer January 15th

January 15, 1890: 26-year-old circus performer Lucía Zárate, who was born with Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II that gave her an extremely small stature, is traveling on a circus train with her fellow performers when the train breaks down in the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California. Zárate, who weighed only 4.7 pounds (2.1 kg) at age 17, dies of hypothermia while the train is stranded.

January 15, 1919: More than two million gallons of molasses spill from a tank that bursts in the North End of Boston, Massachusetts, flooding the streets. Over 150 people are injured; 21 people and an unknown number of horses die.

January 15, 1947: Betty Bersinger takes her 3-year-old daughter for a walk in their South Los Angeles neighborhood. Bersinger spots what she initially thinks is a mannequin lying in an empty lot. To her horror, she soon realizes the naked, bisected figure is a woman’s corpse. Bersinger phones the police from a nearby home.

The victim of this hideous crime is Elizabeth Short, 22 years old, last seen alive on the 9th of January. The murderer of the Boston native has never been arrested. 

Some family members of Dr. George H. Hodel suspect their relative was involved in the crime; Hodel died in 1999 and this cannot be proven.

As of 2026, Michael Connelly, the journalist-novelist known for the Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer novels series, hosts a podcast called Killer In the Code. It looks into a theory that the killer of Elizabeth Short and the self-named Zodiac Killer are the same person. 

January 15, 1951: Mount Lamington on the island of Papua begins to erupt, spouting tall plumes of smoke. Its eruptions will continue until July 1956, resulting in the deaths of approximately 3,000 people. Many of them are residents of the village of Sangara, and most of their deaths come about either by burns from the dense pyroclastic flow or by inhaling and breathing superheated gases and toxic materials.

January 15, 2008: 25-year-old actor Brad Renfro dies of an accidental heroin overdose.

January 15, 2018: Limerick, Ireland’s alternative rock band The Cranberries’s lead singer Dolores O’Riordan dies at age 46 after becoming intoxicated with champagne and five small bottles of liquor and then accidentally drowning in a London hotel bathtub.

Dolores O'Riordan at Dorothy Surrenders: https://dorothysurrenders.blogspot.com/2020/06/music-monday_22.html

Almanac for January 14

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 14: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-14-O5O2ZOOYF

French Republican Calendar Day Name (25 Nivôse): Cat

Bummer January 14

January 14, 1898: Mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the name Lewis Carroll, dies of pneumonia while suffering from influenza.

Lewis Carroll, photographed by Oscar Gustav Rejlander in 1863. Public domain.

January 14, 1957: Actor Humphrey Bogart dies of esophageal cancer after unsuccessful surgery that removed his esophagus, two lymph nodes, and a rib. He receives chemotherapy, but lapses into a coma. At the time of his death his weight is reduced to around 85 pounds.

January 14, 1986: Actress Donna Reed dies of pancreatic cancer. She’s been diagnosed with the disease only three months earlier.

January 14, 1990: A 31-year-old man from the Chicago suburb of Roselle suffered an apparent medical condition that caused him to behave impulsively while on vacation in Trinidad and Tobago. A friend who’d been staying in a Trinidad hotel with the man said he, the friend, was awakened that morning by the man trying to strangle him. They struggled and the man ran off, nude. After this, the man apparently scaled a barbed wire fence, entered the airport, struggled with security guards, and stole a vehicle. He drove the vehicle directly into a British Airways jet with its engines running, then jumped into an engine, killing himself immediately.

Almanac for January 13th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 13: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-13-Y8Y1ZOODI

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Edmund Spenser

Bummer January 13th

January 13, 1908: One hundred seventy-one people die as a result of a fire that started during the intermission of a stage play at Rhoads Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania. The audience was in its seats to watch a Magic Lantern show. A Magic Lantern machine was a technology somewhat in between a slide show and a movie projector, with slide-like images that gradually faded into the next image.

The gases used to run the Magic Lantern caught fire after someone knocked over one of the kerosene lamps being used to light the stage. The dead include 170 audience members and one firefighter killed while responding. This tragedy spurs the Pennsylvania state legislature to pass a variety of safety laws governing indoor public spaces.

Incidentally, the playwright of the drama being performed was Harriet Earhart Monroe. Mrs. Monroe was not present, but her sister Della Earhart Meyers was on stage as the narrator or chorus of the drama. Della Earhart Myers was among those who perished. Harriet and Della were the sisters of Samuel Stanton Earhart, who was the father of aviator Amelia Earhart.

January 13, 1985: Actor Carol Wayne, perhaps best remembered by American tv viewers as the Matinee Lady on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, dies of an apparently accidental drowning after walking by herself along the beach. Wayne is visiting Manzanillo, Mexico, with a companion. The two argue and Wayne goes for a walk by herself. Her body is found by a fisherman three days later.

Almanac for January 12th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 12th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-12-V7V0ZONPA

Artist Birthday: Melanie C

Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4jB1IFi

Beatles Trivia
January 12, 1963: The Beatles release their second single, “Please Please Me,” which goes on to be their first #1 single in the U.K. My Baby Boomer parents are each 10 years old on this date.

Bummer January 12

January 12, 1888: The so-called Schoolhouse Blizzard strikes the Great Plains of the United States. The unexpected severe weather on what had been a relatively warm day in the morning catches many by surprise, resulting in 235 deaths. Most of these people died of hypothermia or from frostbite and complications of frostbite.

January 12, 1965: Author Lorraine Hansberry dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 34.

Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4pE9aBc

January 12, 2000: Bobby Phills, a professional basketball players for the Charlotte Hornets, drives his Porsche at over a hundred miles per hour, following teammate David Wesley (who is driving at a similar speed). Phills loses control of his car, crosses the center line, and hits a car head-on, causing that car to be rear-ended by a minivan. The drivers of the other car and the minivan are injured, but recover; Phills is killed at the scene of the accident.

January 12, 2007: 28-year-old Jennifer Strange dies of acute water intoxication in her Rancho Cordova, California, home. Strange had taken part in the “Hold Your Wee of a Wii” competition hosted by radio station KDND 107.9, which offered a Nintendo Wii video game system as its prize. Participants were encouraged to drink as much water as they could without going to the bathroom. Hours after the contest, Strange went to work, but told coworkers she had a headache and went home. 

The amount of water she’d ingested is unknown, but in general, drinking more than one liter of water per hour can cause water intoxication, in which the body loses more electrolytes than it needs to sustain bodily functions. KDND’s parent company was ultimately ordered to pay $16,577,118 to Strange’s family for failing to inform her of the dangers of drinking too much water.

January 12, 2010: The second-deadliest earthquake in recorded history (as of 2022) occurs near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. An estimated 316,000 die as a result of building collapses and lack of access to basic necessities. A cholera outbreak in October 2010 among survivors contributes to the death toll. 

In unrelated and less tragic news (we'll talk about how he died later), it's Tim Horton's birthday.

Almanac for January 11th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 11th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-11-B0B8ZOF4O

Britain’s appetite for books increases

London, January 11th, 1926, A.P. The average Briton’s appetite for reading has grown remarkably, or authors have been putting in some overtime. More books were printed during 1925 than in any previous year in the history of British book production. The total published was thirteen thousand, two hundred eight, or four hundred ninety-six more than in 1924.

Fiction apparently holds first place in public taste, for two thousand, seven hundred sixty-nine volumes of it were published last year. Religious books came second.

Books First Published in 1926:

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf https://bookshop.org/a/118698/9780156628709

The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham https://bookshop.org/a/118698/9781400034215

The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie https://bookshop.org/a/118698/9780062986443

Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Woodhouse https://bookshop.org/a/118698/9781959891406

Simon the Coldheart by Georgette Heyer https://bookshop.org/a/118698/9781773236346

Those Barren Leaves by Aldous Huxley https://bookshop.org/a/118698/9781950330720

Portrait of a Man with Red Hair by Hugh Walpole https://bookshop.org/a/118698/9789361471872

French Republican Calendar Day Name (22 Nivôse): Salt

Bummer January 11

January 11, 1879: The Birmingham Central Library in England catches fire and loses about 49,000 of its 50,000 books and other circulating materials.

January 11, 1979: Louisiana State University student Bruce Wiseman is struck by a car and killed while being guided, blindfolded, across a street by members of the Theta Xi fraternity as part of a hazing ritual. To their credit, the fraternity members did attempt to get Wiseman out of harm’s way in time. Two others suffer broken bones.

January 11, 2020: Officials in Wuhan, China, announce the first recorded human death from the COVID-19 virus.

January 11, 2024: Ballet dancer Órla Baxendale, age 25, dies of a severe allergic reaction. Baxendale eats a vanilla Florentine cookie made by the Cookies United company and sold at a Stew Leonard’s grocery store. The box the cookies came in didn’t list peanuts as an ingredient. Baxendale was allergic to nuts and carried an Epipen in case of allergic reaction. Sadly, in this case, even though she receives the epinephrine injection in time, her body’s reaction is too severe for this to work.

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Almanac for January 10th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 10: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-10-O5O1ZOED8

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann https://amzn.to/4aTuPl4 (affiliate link)

January 17, 1926

Bummer January 10th

January 10, 1860: Pemberton Mill, a factory in Lawrence, Massachusetts, collapses. An unknown number of factory workers, many of them young women, are killed in the tragedy. Their number is estimated to be between 88 and 145 people.

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Almanac for January 9th

Erin O'Riordan's almanac for January 9: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-9th-U6U8Z4TVA

Beatles Trivia

January 9, 1968: Look Magazine publishes Richard Avedon’s photographs of The Beatles.

Author Julie S. Howlin post of the day: Simone de Beauvoir

Bummer January 9

January 9, 1927: A crowd of about 250 people, many of them unaccompanied children, watches an afternoon comedy at the Laurier Palace movie theater in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A discarded cigarette sparks a fire. In the ensuing fire and stampede to exit the theater, 78 children are killed.

January 9, 1946: Poet Countee Cullen dies at age 42 of high blood pressure and uremic poisoning (kidney failure).

Countee Cullen

January 9, 1953: Marguerite Pitre is executed by hanging, the last woman in Canada to be subjected to the death penalty. She’s been convicted of conspiring to blow up an airplane with dynamite, resulting in 23 fatalities.

January 9, 2015: About 230 attendees at a funeral in Tete Province, Mozambique, drink home-brewed pombe beer, a traditional beer variety brewed with Schizosaccharomyces pombe yeast, from a drink stand. They become ill and 75 of them die, including the woman who owns the drink stand. The beer has accidentally been contaminated with Burkholderia gladioli bacteria, which produces deadly bongkrekic acid in the beer batch.

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Almanac for January 8th

Erin O'Riordan's Almanac for January 8th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-8th-O4O6Z4TL1

Today's Observance: National Man Watcher's Day

Bummer January 8th

January 8, 1970: Actor George Ostroska, playing the lead role in a St. Paul, Minnesota, production of Macbeth, dies of a heart attack at the beginning of the play’s second act. Ostroska is 32 years old.

January 8, 2020: Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 is shot down by the Iranian armed forces. Five days previously, the U.S. had assassinated Iran’s Major General Qasem Soleimani and Iran had retaliated by launching missiles at U.S. forces stationed in Iraq. The Iranian military apparently believe the Ukrainian civilian airliner is an incoming missile launched by the U.S. military. The missile strike kills 176 people, with no survivors.

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Almanac for January 7th

Erin O'Riordan's almanac for January 7th: https://ko-fi.com/post/January-7th-D1D2Z4T3M

Today's Observance: Eastern Orthodox Christmas
Artist Birthday: Zora Neale Hurston

Bummer January 7th

January 7, 1943: Inventor Nikola Tesla dies alone, of a heart attack, at the Hotel New Yorker.

January 7, 1948: 25-year-old Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Captain Thomas F. Mantell crashes his P-51 Mustang fighter plane near Franklin, Kentucky. Prior to the crash, Mantell told Godman Army Airfield that he had sighted an unidentified aerial object (which officials speculate may have been an unpiloted balloon collecting atmospheric data). In pursuit of the unknown object, Mantell banked sharply upward; the lack of oxygen at the higher altitude may have contributed to his loss of control of the aircraft.

January 7, 2012: Eleven people are killed when a hot air balloon over Carterton, Aotearoa (New Zealand), catches fire while attempting to land.

January 7, 2015: Two Islamist extremists target the headquarters of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Twelve people are killed, including five cartoonists and two editors.

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