Today is Tuesday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2017 with 363 to follow.
The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Evening stars are Neptune, Venus, Mars and Uranus.
Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Roman philosopher Cicero in 106 B.C.; feminist and abolitionist Lucretia Mott in 1793; St. Damien of Molokai, a missionary to lepers in Hawaii, in 1840; British Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1883; J.R.R. Tolkien, author of "The Lord of the Rings," in 1892; actors ZaSu Pitts in 1894, Ray Milland in 1907 and Betty Furness in 1916; entertainer Victor Borge in 1909; Maxene Andrews, of the Andrews Sisters singing trio, in 1916; football Hall of Fame Coach Hank Stram in 1923; Beatles record producer George Martin in 1926; Italian film director Sergio Leone and Brazilian composer Ernst Mahle (age 88), both in 1929; actors Robert Loggia in 1930 (age 87) and Dabney Coleman in 1932 (age 85); hockey Hall of Fame member Bobby Hull in 1939 (age 78); musician Van Dyke Parks in 1943 (age 74); Rock and Roll Hall of Fame members Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1945 (age 72) and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) in 1946 (age 71); actor Victoria Principal in 1950 (age 67) and actor/director Mel Gibson in 1956 (age 61); German racing champion Michael Schumacher in 1969 (age 48); actor Danica McKellar in 1975 (age 42); and pro football quarterback Eli Manning in 1981 (age 36).
On this date in history:
In 1777, the Continental Army commanded by Gen. George Washington defeated the British at Princeton, N.J.
In 1870, construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, begins.
In 1933, Minnie Craig becomes the first female Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives. Craig was the first woman to hold a speakership in the United States.
In 1938, the March of Dimes was established by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
In 1944, USMC fighter ace Pappy Boyington is shot down over the Pacific by Japanese pilot Masajiro Kawato.
In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state of the United States.
In 1961, the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba after Fidel Castro announced he was a communist.
In 1962, Cuban leader Fidel Castro is excommunicated by Pope John XXIII.
In 1967, Jack Ruby, who killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the assumed assassin of President John F. Kennedy, died of cancer in Dallas.
In 1969, police in Newark, N.J., confiscated a shipment of the John Lennon-Yoko Ono album "Two Virgins" because the cover photo, featuring full frontal nudity, violated pornography laws.
In 1990, deposed Panamanian dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega left his refuge in the Vatican Embassy in Panama City and surrendered to U.S. troops. He was taken to Florida to face narcotics trafficking charges.
In 1991, AIDS was removed from the list of diseases that would automatically bar an infected person from entering the United States.
In 1993, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the START II treaty reducing strategic nuclear arsenals by two-thirds.
In 2004, a Flash Airline Boeing 737 crashed shortly after takeoff in Egypt, killing 148 people.
In 2006, Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist, agreed to plead guilty to fraud, public corruption and tax evasion charges, and to testify against politicians and former colleagues.
In 2009, the Genesis block, the first block of the blockchain of the decentralized payment system Bitcoin, is established by Satoshi Nakamoto.
In 2012, the Taliban in Afghanistan announced they would open a political office in Qatar. Observers saw the move as a positive sign that could lead to peace talks between the insurgents and the U.S.-led Afghan coalition.
In 2014, Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers ("Bye Bye Love," "Wake up Little Susie," "All I Have to do is Dream") died at age 74 in Burbank, California. Everly and his brother, Don, were among the first performers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
A thought for the day: Henry David Thoreau said, "Be true to your work, your word and your friend."
