Daily Calendar for Sunday, January 5, 2025

Twelfth Night

In the olden days, the festivities of Christmas lasted twelve days, which was the time supposed to have been taken by the three wise men or kings in their journey to Bethlehem.

The final evening (January 5) was called “Twelfth Night” and marked the end of Christmas festivities and, in ancient Celtic tradition, the end of the 12 Days of Christmas.

On this night, it was customary for the assembled company to toast each other from the wassail bowl. In Old English, wassail means “Be in good health,” but the term came to be applied to the drink itself (usually spiced ale). See our recipe for wassail.

It was also traditional to cook the most wonderful pastries, cakes, and pies. Some included practical jokes. The “four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie” was no myth. Live birds were placed in a cooked pastry crust. When guests cut into the pie, the birds flew about the room, which delighted everyone. A kinder tradition included placing bread soaked with cider in tree branches for the birds to eat.

In the ancient times of the Roman Saturnalia, the “king of the feast” was elected by beans, and the Twelfth Night cake or “King Cake” included a bean—or, later, a ring or coin. Whoever was given the slice with the prize became the queen and king for the night, and much parading and merriment followed.

In the church calendar, Twelfth Night is the evening before Epiphany (January 6). Because the three wise men (or kings) arrived in Bethlehem bearing gifts for the infant Jesus, Epiphany is also called Three Kings Day and a traditional time of gift giving. “

Born

Zebulon Montgomery Pike (explorer) – 1779
King C. Gillette (inventor) – 1855
Herbert Bayard Swope (journalist) – 1882
Yves Tanguy (artist) – 1900
Myrtle Alice Cook McGowan (athlete) – 1902
Jane Wyman (actress) – 1917
Sam Phillips (record company executive) – 1923
William Dewitt Snodgrass (poet) – 1926
Alvin Ailey (dancer) – 1931
Robert Duvall (actor) – 1931
Diane Keaton (actress) – 1946
Bradley Cooper (actor) – 1975
Walker Scobell (actor) – 2009

Died

Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (explorer) – 1922
Calvin Coolidge (30th U.S. president) – 1933
George Washington Carver (educator) – 1943
Charlie Mingus (musician) – 1979
Pistol Pete Maravich (basketball player) – 1988
Thomas "Tip" O'Neill (Speaker of the House) – 1994
Sonny Bono (actor, mayor of Palm Springs, and U.S. Congressman) – 1998
Tug McGraw (baseball player) – 2004
Jean-Paul L'Allier (Quebec City mayor) – 2016
Jerry Van Dyke (actor) – 2018

Events

First divorce granted in the American Colonies– 1643
New Hampshire was the first state to adopt a constitution– 1776
A British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Virginia– 1781
The word hamburger first appeared in print in the Walla Walla Union, Walla Walla, Washington– 1889
The first successful photo of an aurora was made by physicist Martin Brendel– 1892
First Trans-Pacific (California to Hawaii) cable opened to public use– 1903
Fannie Farmer’s last lecture– 1915
Nellie Taylor Ross of Wyoming became first woman governor in American history– 1925
Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began in San Francisco, California– 1933
United Mine Workers official Joseph A. Yablonski and his wife and daughters were found slain in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania home– 1970
President Nixon ordered NASA to begin work on a manned space shuttle– 1972
Arkansas law requiring creationism to be taught in public schools struck down by Federal court– 1982
President Ronald Reagan submitted the first $1 trillion budget to Congress– 1987
Reggie Jackson elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame – 1993
Robert Nuranen returned a library book he had checked out for a 9th-grade assignment, along with a check for 47 year’s worth of late fees—$171.32– 2007
World’s highest cable-stayed bridge opened spanning a deep ravine in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains– 2012

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Twenty degrees below zero F, Hanover, New Hampshire– 1822
Record cold morning in East: -24 degrees F in New Haven, Connecticut, and -40 degrees F in the Berkshire Hills– 1835
Severe Artic outbreak: Des Moines -30 degrees F, Indianapolis -25 degrees F– 1884
Eleven degrees F in Athens, Georgia– 1981

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