St. Charles’s Day

Charles I, crowned king of England in 1625, was illegally executed on January 30, 1649, primarily for defending the Anglican Church. His body was secretly buried in Windsor Castle, and he was widely acclaimed as a martyr. A royal decree ordered a special service on this day to be in the Book of Common Prayer from 1662 to 1859. It also ordered it to be a day of national fasting. The anniversary of this event is commemorated by the Society of Charles the Martyr with an annual service at the site of his execution in Whitehall, London.

Source: The Free Dictionary

Hitler Is Appointed Chancellor of Germany (1933)

Hitler’s rise to power began long before 1933, with his development of the Nazi party in the early 1920s and the release of his book, Mein Kampf. When the Nazis were elected the largest party in the Reichstag in 1932, German President Paul von Hindenburg offered Hitler a subordinate position in the cabinet. Hitler held out for a more powerful post and only had to wait six months to be named chancellor. How did Hitler then work to eliminate the communists as a political opponent?

Source: The Free Dictionary

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882)

Elected to an unprecedented four presidential terms, Roosevelt guided the US through the Great Depression and World War II. He instituted the New Deal program to promote economic recovery and social reform and, as war spread in Europe, prepared for the possibility that the US would enter the war. When it finally did, he led the nation to the threshold of victory, dying in office less than a month before Germany’s surrender to the Allies. What quote about fear is attributed to FDR?

Source: The Free Dictionary

Depression Glass

Depression glass is clear or colored translucent glassware that was distributed throughout the US during the Great Depression era of the 1920s and 30s. During that time, the Quaker Oats Company began putting glassware in boxes of food as an incentive to purchase, much like modern cereal box prizes. Movie theaters and businesses sometimes offered pieces simply for coming in the door. Though of marginal quality, Depression glass has become highly collectible. In what colors was it made?

Source: The Free Dictionary

NASA Day of Remembrance

NASA established the Day of Remembrance to honor those who have died in America’s space program. The day focuses on those who died in three NASA space tragedies: the Apollo 1 fire on January 27, 1967; the Shuttle Challenger disaster of January 28, 1986; and the Shuttle Columbia tragedy of February 1, 2003. The day also remembers NASA employees who died in training and maintenance accidents. NASA headquarters observes the day with a roll call of all those who have died. At Cape Canaveral in Florida, a moment of silence is observed at noon.

Source: The Free Dictionary

Edgar Allan Poe Publishes “The Raven” (1845)

Like Poe’s other works, “The Raven” conveys the dreamlike and often macabre forces that pervaded the author’s sensibility. While his wife suffered from a protracted illness, Poe composed this poem, which became an instant sensation when it appeared in the Evening Mirror in 1845. In the poem, the speaker, who is mourning the death of his love, Lenore, is mysteriously visited by a talking raven and asks the bird a series of questions. What is the raven’s one-word response to each query?

Source: The Free Dictionary