January 31

 Guy Fawkes is executed (1606); 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery, passes in Congress (1865); Jackie Robinson born (1919); HBD actress Kerry Washington (1977); HBD Justin Timberlake (1981).

January 28

Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” published (1813); Painter Jackson Pollock born (1912); Modern US Coast Guard is founded (1915); Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after launch, killing all seven astronauts on board (1986); RIP actress Cicely Tyson (2021).

January 27

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born (1756); Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated (1945); Paris Peace Accords brings end to Vietnam War (1973); RIP Andre the Giant (1993); RIP American author JD Salinger (2010).

January 26

Actor Paul Newman born (1925); HBD Ellen DeGeneres (1958); RIP football coaching great Bear Bryant (1983); Condoleezza Rice becomes first Black woman appointed US secretary of state (2005); Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna among nine deaths in California helicopter crash (2020).

January 25

First Winter Olympics take place in Chamonix, France (1924); Battle of the Bulge comes to an end (1945); Al Capone dies (1947); HBD Alicia Keys (1981); RIP Mary Tyler Moore (2017).

Alva Myrdal

"It is not worthy of a human being to give up." Alva Myrdal

With this optimistic sentiment, Swedish diplomat Alva Myrdal assures us that even in the face of extreme difficulty, resilience and tenacity are innate qualities of the human spirit. Myrdal was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1982 for her distinguished work with the nuclear disarmament movement, which sought to convince the United States and Soviet Union to abandon their nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Her work and words show that it is always possible for hope, virtue, and peace to triumph.

"The meaning of life is to find your gift. To find your gift is happiness." Terry Pratchett

We are often told that happiness, or at least its pursuit, is the most important goal in life. But many of us struggle to figure out just how to achieve this elusive joy. In his 2010 novel “I Shall Wear Midnight,” from his 41-book “Discworld” fantasy series, author and literary icon Sir Terry Pratchett offers us a hint: If we spend life’s precious days intentionally unearthing our own greatest talents, passions, and abilities, happiness will follow where they lead.

Yohannes Gebregeorgis

"The beginning of wisdom is to do away with fear." Yohannes Gebregeorgis

As many of us know, fear is often the greatest roadblock to our happiness and inner peace. What’s more, as Ethiopian philanthropist Yohannes Gebregeorgis points out here, it is also the enemy of wisdom. A champion of literacy in his home country and beyond, Gebregeorgis recognizes that we cannot begin to learn and grow until we conquer the things that scare us, and move forward with courage.

January 24

RIP Winston Churchill (1965); Ted Bundy executed (1989); Actress Sharon Tate born (1943); RIP Thurgood Marshall (1993); Department of Homeland Security opens (2003).

Bruce Lee

When Bruce Lee’s TV series “The Green Hornet” was canceled after a single season in 1967, the actor began teaching private martial arts lessons to famous students such as Steve McQueen, James Coburn, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Pressed to name his unique fight style, 26-year-old Lee obliged with Jeet Kune Do, a Cantonese phrase meaning “The way of the intercepting fist.” This quote — uttered before Lee became a film icon with 1973’s “Enter the Dragon,” which was released just six days after his death — appears in Lee's posthumously published “Tao of Jeet Kune Do.” With it, Lee suggests that a meaningful goal equates to a steep climb. Even if you don’t achieve your highest objective, the steps taken will lead you somewhere satisfying.

January 21

Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine (1793); Fashion designer Christian Dior born (1905); HBD golf great Jack Nicklaus (1940); Founding father of American cinema Cecil B. DeMille dies (1959); First Women’s March sees large-scale protests in more than 160 countries (2017).

January 20

HBD astronaut Buzz Aldrin (1930); Iran hostage crisis ends as 52 Americans are released after 444 days (1981); Martin Luther King Jr. Day is observed for first time (1986); RIP actress Audrey Hepburn (1993); Barack Obama becomes first Black president of the US (2009).

Christopher Morley

With more than 100 books to his credit, Christopher Morley’s oeuvre includes novels as well as essay and poetry collections. Perhaps his best-known work is 1939’s “Kitty Foyle,” a novel that sold more than a million copies and was adapted into a film starring Ginger Rogers. The source of this quote, however, is a satirical novel that the American writer debuted 17 years earlier. In “Where the Blue Begins,” all the characters are anthropomorphized dogs, starting with Gissing, the protagonist. When three puppies fall under his care, Gissing travels to the city and attempts to earn money in various ways, such as managing a department store. His adventures in the workforce remind him that accomplishments are defined by individuals, not society, and self-awareness can clarify our own unique sense of success.

Pope Francis

(born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is pope of the Catholic Church, in which capacity he is Bishop of Rome and absolute Sovereign of the Vatican City State.

Louis Daniel Armstrong

 (August 4, 1901– July 6, 1971), nicknamed Satchmo, Satch or Pops, was an American trumpeter, composer, singer and occasional actor who was one of the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades, from the 1920s to the 1960s, and different eras in the history of jazz.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi

Born: 2 October 1869 Porbandar, Bombay Presidency, British India

Died: 30 January 1948 (aged 78) New Delhi, Union of India

The pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He pioneered satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon ahimsa, or total nonviolence, which helped India to gain independence, and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is often referred to as Mahatma Gandhi “Great Soul”, an honorific first applied to him by Rabindranath Tagore, and in India also as Bapu (Gujarati: b?pu or “Father”). He is officially honoured in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi Jayanti, a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

Theodore Roethke

Theodore Roethke’s poem “In a Dark Time” opens with an assertion: Hardships clarify who we are and what matters to us most. Without challenges to illuminate needs from wants, we risk taking aspects of our lives for granted. The Pulitzer Prize winner, who lost his father at age 14, understood the necessary alliance between darkness and light. As the poem continues, images are invoked of birds and insects, forests and caves, and the wind and the moon. Roethke believed his lifelong pull toward nature came from his father, who had owned and operated a 25-acre greenhouse in Michigan. “In a Dark Time” was included in Roethke’s posthumous 1964 book “The Far Field,” which won him his second National Book Award for Poetry.

Chester William “Chet” Powers, Jr.

 (October 7, 1937 – November 16, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter, and the lead singer of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. He was also known by the stage name Dino Valenti (alternatively rendered as Dino Valente) and, as a songwriter, as Jesse Oris Farrow. He is best known for writing the quintessential 1960s love-and-peace anthem “Let’s Get Together.”

Henry David Thoreau

 (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) American author, poet, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, philosopher, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay, Civil Disobedience, an argument for individual resistance to civil government in moral opposition to an unjust state.

Joyce Meyer

 (born Pauline Joyce Hutchison; June 4, 1943) is a  Christian author and speaker.

Chester William “Chet” Powers, Jr.

 (October 7, 1937 – November 16, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter, and the lead singer of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. He was also known by the stage name Dino Valenti (alternatively rendered as Dino Valente) and, as a songwriter, as Jesse Oris Farrow. He is best known for writing the quintessential 1960s love-and-peace anthem “Let’s Get Together.”

January 19

Author Edgar Allan Poe born (1809); HBD musician Dolly Parton (1946); Indira Gandhi becomes first female prime minister of India (1966); RIP actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr (2000).

January 18

President John Tyler dies (1862); WWI Paris Peace Conference begins (1919); RIP Rudyard Kipling (1936); Willie O’Ree becomes first Black player in the National Hockey League (1958); Martin Luther King Jr. Day is first observed in all 50 US states (1993). 

Mary Ellis Stevens

 (14 years) has staged what she calls a School Strike for Climate outside Charlotte Mecklenburg Government Center.

Bob Dylan

 (May 24, 1941) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.

Joanne “Jo” Rowling

(31 July 1965), pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British novelist, best known as the author of the Harry Potter fantasy series. The Potter books have gained worldwide attention, won multiple awards, and sold more than 400 million copies.

Dorothy Counts

 (born 1942) was one of the first black students admitted to the Harry Harding High School, in Charlotte, North Carolina. After four days of harassment that threatened her safety, her parents forced her to withdraw from the school.

Albert Einstein

 (14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and the most influential physicist of the 20th century.

January 17

Benjamin Franklin born (1706); Actress Betty White born (1922); Muhammad Ali born (1942); UN Security Council holds its first meeting (1946); HBD Michelle Obama (1964).

Mahatma Gandhi

Before he was given the title of Mahatma, or "great soul," for helping lead India to independence from British rule, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born to a poor family in Porbandar, India, on October 2, 1869. Though he only received an elementary education, Gandhi was a shy child and found companionship in books, especially the Indian classics. These stories had a profound effect on him, with their overarching values of truth and love.

Gandhi was an average student. His time at school was interrupted when, at only 13, he married the 14-year-old Kasturbai Makhanji Kapadia in an arranged marriage. He went on to graduate from high school, but dropped out of college. A family friend then recommended that Gandhi be sent to London to study law. Despite some objections from his family and concerns that England would corrupt him, Gandhi packed his bags and set off for London. He arrived in 1888 and began studying law and jurisprudence at University College, London.

At 22, Gandhi became a barrister and returned to India, but his law practice in Bombay failed. He accepted a job offer as a lawyer in South Africa, which at the time was also part of the British Empire. Gandhi knew that he would be in South Africa for at least a year, but he ended up staying for 21 years. It was in South Africa that he developed his political and ethical views, in large part due to the discrimination he was subjected to because of his skin color and heritage. Gandhi fought for the rights of both Indians and Africans in South Africa, and was later proclaimed a national hero.

In 1915, Gandhi returned to India as a known Indian nationalist and social activist. He became the leader of the Indian National Congress; 10 years later, India declared its independence from British rule. It was a long struggle. Gandhi demanded immediate independence in 1942, to which the British responded by imprisoning him and thousands of congressional leaders. Ultimately, Gandhi led India to its independence, and is now considered the father of his country. Today, he is globally respected for his policy of nonviolent protest, or satyagraha, in his political and social activities. As Gandhi once wrote, “Nonviolence is not a weapon of the weak. It is a weapon of the strongest and the bravest.”

Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist in 1948. His legacy, however, has never faded, and he left the world with many words of wisdom about the value of compassion, courage, and tolerance. They are words we can live by, whatever our path in life.

Maya Angelou

 (1928-2014) is one of the most acclaimed writers of her time. First gaining the spotlight for her heartrending 1969 memoir “I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings,” Angelou went on to write 30-plus bestselling books and was awarded over 50 honorary degrees plus many other honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2010. But Angelou’s creativity wasn’t specific to prose and poetry. Before becoming a celebrated writer and poet, she pursued an acting and singing career, gaining both Tony and Emmy award nominations. After publishing several successful books, she also delved into spoken word albums and screenwriting, becoming the first Black woman to have a screenplay produced, in 1972. Over and over, Angelou pulled from her experiences and emotions to create new work that still resonates with people the world over. Her accomplishments remind us that our creativity cannot leave us. It is inherently part of us, a muscle that gets stronger with exercise.

Robert Brault

A free-lance writer who has contributed to magazines and newspapers in the USA for over 40 years.

Steve Maraboli

He is a life-changing Speaker, bestselling Author,

and Behavioral Science Academic.

Martin Luther King Jr.

 (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) (aged 39) An American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African American civil rights movement. His main legacy is securing progress on civil rights in the United States. Because of this work, he has become a human rights icon. In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil disobedience and other non-violent means. 

Confucius

 (551–479 BC) Chinese thinker & social philosopher. His philosophy emphasized personal & governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice & sincerity. Confucius’ thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism.

January 14

RIP astronomer Edmond Halley (1742); RIP “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” author Lewis Carroll (1898); HBD actress Faye Dunaway (1941); Franklin D. Roosevelt is first president to travel on official business by airplane in office (1943); NBC’s “Today” debuts (1952).

January 13

RIP author James Joyce (1941); HBD actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus (1961); Robert C. Weaver becomes first Black US cabinet member (1966); Air Florida Flight 90 crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street bridge, killing 78 (1982); Douglas Wilder becomes first elected Black US governor (1990); 32 die as cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off coast of Italy (2012).

January 12

Author Jack London born (1876); Boxer Joe Frazier born (1944); HBD Howard Stern (1954); RIP mystery novelist Agatha Christie (1976); Earthquake in Haiti kills more than 100,000 (2010).

Stephen William Hawking CH CBE FRS FRSA

 (8 January 1942 – 14 March 2018 ) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist, author and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology within the University of Cambridge.

Sir David Frederick Attenborough

 (born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster and naturalist.

Coretta Scott King

 (April 27, 1927 – January 30, 2006) was an American author, activist, and civil rights leader. The widow of Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta Scott King helped lead the African-American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.

Bob Dylan

 (May 24, 1941) is an American musician, singer-songwriter, artist, and writer. He has been an influential figure in popular music and culture for more than five decades.

Barack Hussein Obama II

 (born August 4, 1961) was the 44th President of the United States and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review.

He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.

Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris

 (born May 13, 1950 as Stevland Hardaway Judkins), known by his stage name Stevie Wonder, is an American musician, singer and songwriter. A child prodigy, he developed into one of the most creative and loved musical figures of the late 20th century.

Oprah Gail Winfrey

 (January 29, 1954) An American television host, actress, producer, and philanthropist, best known for her self-titled, multi-award winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history.

January 11

Alexander Hamilton born (1755 or 1757); Grand Canyon becomes a national monument (1908); First use of insulin to treat diabetes in humans (1922); HBD Mary J. Blige (1971); RIP Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two people to reach the summit of Mount Everest (2008).

January 10

UN General Assembly gathers for first time (1946); HBD George Foreman (1949); US and Holy See reestablish diplomatic relations for first time in 117 years (1984); RIP David Bowie (2016).

January 7

Galileo Galilei discovers first three Jupiter moons (1610); First US presidential election held (1789); Author Zora Neale Hurston born (1891); RIP Nikola Tesla (1943); HBD Katie Couric (1957).

January 6

Joan of Arc born (1412); Telegraph publicly demonstrated for first time (1838); RIP geneticist and botanist Gregor Mendel (1884); RIP President Teddy Roosevelt (1919). 

Timothée Chalamet

Both on the big-screen and off, Timothée Chalamet has been challenging the reigning definitions of masculinity. The actor, who first made waves with his starring role in 2017’s Call Me By Your Name, was heralded by Vogue in 2019 as one of the most influential men in fashion. The good-natured heartthrob has also had roles in such talked-about films as Dune, Little Women, Interstellar, The French Dispatch, and Don’t Look Up, and is set to portray Bob Dylan in an upcoming biopic, as well as a young Willy Wonka in the musical film Wonka.

Giorgio Vasari

He was a painter, architect, and art historian who chronicled the work of his peers, including his friend Michelangelo. While his writings are now better known than his creations, he made significant contributions to Renaissance culture, such as designing the structure of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Tintoretto

Tintoretto, or Jacopo Robusti, was a painter who explored surprising compositions and dramatic perspectives in his works, which often portrayed religious and mythological scenes.

Domenikos Theotokopoulos

Domenikos Theotokopoulos, better known as El Greco or, “the Greek,” became a prominent figure of the Renaissance in Spain. His signature style employed expressive color and elongated figures, in a break from the focus on realism many Renaissance masters embraced.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

He was a prolific artist, architect, and quintessential Renaissance man, well known for his emotionally rich and lifelike marble sculptures, the painting of the Sistine Chapel, and architectural contributions.

Raphael

 (Raffaello Sanzo) was an artist and architect, and a foremost master of the Renaissance, along with Da Vinci and Michelangelo. He created a wealth of works in multiple mediums, several of which were commissioned for the walls of the Vatican, including one of his key masterpieces, “The School of Athens.”

Titian

 (Tiziano Vecelli) was a key painter of the Venetian School, a cadre of Renaissance artists in Venice known for their focus on humanism and realism. His works were commissioned by several kings as well as Pope Paul III.

Leonardo da Vinci

He was a star of the High Renaissance, and he remains one of the most celebrated Western artists to date. Apart from his masterful paintings, he is known for his tireless curiosity and meticulous hand-drawn documentation of anatomy, flora, and fauna, feats of engineering, the nature of flight, and other wonders of existence.

January 5

Actress Jane Wyman born (1917); Dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey born (1931); Construction of Golden Gate Bridge begins (1933); RIP scientist and inventor George Washington Carver (1943); Singer and congressman Sonny Bono dies in skiing accident (1998).

January 4

Boxer Floyd Patterson born (1935); HBD biographer and journalist Doris Kearns Goodwin (1943); Luna 1 is first spacecraft to reach vicinity of the moon (1959); RIP poet T.S. Eliot (1965); Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, opens in Dubai (2010). 

January 3

"Lord of the Rings" author J.R.R. Tolkien born (1892); The US cuts diplomatic ties with Cuba (1961); Apple is incorporated (1977); Author Joy Adamson murdered (1980); Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega surrenders to the US (1990).