According to Scottish custom, the first Monday of the new year was the time to give children and servants a small gift, or handsel. Literally something given into the hands of someone else, the gift itself was less important than the good luck it signified. The handsel was popular as a new year’s gift from the 14th to 19th centuries, but it also had a broader application to mark any new situation. It continues today in the form of a housewarming gift to someone moving into a new home.
Daily Calendar for Monday, January 4, 2027
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Daily Calendar
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Monday, January 4, 2027
Born
- Sir Isaac Newton (physicist) –
- Jacob Ludwig Carl Grimm (folklorist) –
- Louis Braille (Educator and creator of a tactile writing system for the visually impaired; was born in Coupvray, France) –
- General Tom Thumb (circus performer and little person) –
- Thornton W. Burgess (author) –
- Sterling Holloway (actor) –
- Barbara Rush (actress) –
- Don Shula (football coach; born in Grand River, Ohio) –
- Don Schula (football coach) –
- Floyd Patterson (boxer) –
- David Bradley (Control-Alt-Delete computer code author) –
- Dave Foley (actor) –
Died
- Commodore Vanderbilt (entrepreneur) –
- Gary Calkins (scientist) –
- T.S. Eliot (author) –
- Mae Questel (actress and voice of Betty Boop, Olive Oyl, and Casper the Friendly Ghost) –
- Tsutomu Yamaguchi (only person certified by Japan as having survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Second World War atomic bombings) –
Events
- Utah admitted to the Union as the 45th state –
- Mahatma Gandhi arrested and began a fast unto death to win suffrage for the untouchables –
- Seoul captured by Chinese Communists and North Koreans (Korean War) –
- The first man-made satellite, Sputnik I, disintegrated on re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere –
- Countries outside the Common Market formed the European Free Trade Association –
- The Orphan Drug Bill was signed into law. It encouraged pharmaceutical companies to produce drugs for unusual illnesses with limited markets –
- Doctors at the University of Miami and the Centers for Disease Control published information on one of the first cases of heterosexual transmission of AIDS in the U.S. –
- The worst Amtrak accident in history occured when a freight train collided with a passenger train in Chase, MD –
- U.S. Navy F-14s shot down two Libyan MiGs over Mediterranean –
- The first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, was sworn in –
- Minnesota representative Keith Ellison was sworn in as the first Muslim elected to Congress –
- A 7.5-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Alaska –
Weather
- Twenty inches of snow fell in upstate New York –
- A temperature of -40F was recorded in Canton, New York. –
- Eight inches of rain fell in 12 hours in Marin County, California –
- Blizzard hit New England and eastern Canada –