Onward and Upward

We're all feeling it, right? Getting back to reality and still feeling lagged after the holidays, some of us, like me, not feeling so hot. Lots of people have been sick lately. I'm still trying to catch my second wind, and have battled some sinus pains with our weather fluctuations, seems everyone stays ill around here... Lovely, lovely Memphis. It's dangerous out there, everywhere, so no matter what neighborhood you're passin through, be careful and show em who's boss!

After all of the regurgitation of holiday muck, how could anybody even think about 'how many days until Christmas'? But some evil thing made me look. So I can now tell you that as I write this, there are 355 days until Christmas. { sigh... deep breath } Ok, enough's enough right? :)

We're all in it together with high hopes of this year being far greater than the last year. Maybe it will not dissappoint, we'll try to think positive anyways. Thinking positive is supposed to be the key, right?

I feel at a loss of anything interesting to bring to the table, so I'll rely a bit on useless trivia (well, you never know). So I bring you this: Today in history looked pretty interesting... lots of neat stuff happened on this date... just thought I would share.

Jan 3rd in History:

• 1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.
• 1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
• 1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
• 1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
• 1777 - American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
• 1815 - Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.
• 1823 - Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
• 1825 - Rensselaer School, the first engineering college in the U.S. is opened in Troy, New York. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
• 1833 - Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
• 1834 - The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.
• 1848 - Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.
• 1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
• 1868 - Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chōshū seize power.
• 1871 - Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine.
• 1888 - The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
• 1888 - Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw.
• 1899 - The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in The New York Times.
• 1920 - Curse of the Bambino: The Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a sum of $125,000 and a loan of more than $300,000.
• 1921 - Turkey makes peace with Armenia.
• 1924 - English explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.
• 1925 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
• 1932 - Martial law declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.
• 1938 - The March of Dimes is established by Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• 1938 - Woman in White is first broadcast on the NBC Red network. The program remains on the radio for the next ten years.
• 1945 - Admiral Chester W Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa and Japan itself.
• 1947 - Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
• 1951 - Dragnet is first broadcast on NBC-TV.
• 1953 - Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
• 1957 - Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
• 1958 - The West Indies Federation is formed.
• 1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
• 1961 - The United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba.
• 1961 - The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaks radiation, killing three workers.
• 1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.
• 1966 - The first Acid Test at the Fillmore, San Francisco, California.
• 1966 - The Psychedelic Shop, the world's first Head shop, opened on Haight Street near Ashbury in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.
• 1973 - Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) sells the New York Yankees for $12 million to a 12-person syndicate led by George Steinbrenner.
• 1983 - Tony Dorsett of the Dallas Cowboys makes the longest run from scrimmage (99 yards) in NFL history.
• 1983 - CiTV launches on ITV1 in the UK.
• 1987 - Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
• 1988 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century.
• 1990 - Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
• 1991 - Hockey Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal.
• 1991 - Gulf War: The British government announces the expulsion of 75 Iraqis from the country.
• 1993 - In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
• 1993 - In an AFC Wild Card game, the Buffalo Bills comeback from a 35-3 deficit against the Houston Oilers and win the game in overtime 41-38, the largest comeback in NFL history.
• 1994 - An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkhutsk, Russia, killing 125 people including one on the ground.
• 1997 - The People's Republic of China announces it will spend $27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys.
• 1999 - The Mars Polar Lander launches.
• 1999 - Israel detains, later to expel, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
• 2000 - The last "Peanuts" comic strip is created by Charles Schulz.
• 2003 - Ohio State University becomes the first NCAA Division I football team to complete a season 14-0 by winning the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl over the University of Miami 31-24, and is crowned BCS National Champion.
• 2004 - Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people aboard.