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

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. 

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.