Browsing: January 21

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on January 21st.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On January 21, 1535, in the aftermath of “The Affair of the Placards,” French Protestants were burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris. On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI of France was convicted of treason and taken to the guillotine where he was promptly beheaded, just one of the many instances of famous beheadings…

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A Brief History On January 21, 2023, we celebrate Squirrel Appreciation Day, one of the greatest holidays in all of the Rodent Kingdom! Digging Deeper Yes, squirrels are rodents, cousins to mice and rats, although with a much more attractive coat.  Tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, prairie dogs and flying squirrels are all in this expansive family.   Although squirrels are native to the Americas, Asia, and Africa, they had to be introduced to Australia and Europe.  Often accused of crimes such as stealing food from bird feeders and burglarizing houses, squirrels provide a lot of visual enjoyment as they scurry…

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A Brief History On January 21, 1793, King Louis XVI of France was convicted of treason and taken to the guillotine where he was promptly beheaded, just one of the many instances of famous beheadings in a long history of human violence, both intentional and accidental, both by the state as an execution or by criminal action, and even by our animal “friends.”  Sometimes, people are even decapitated posthumously for some sort of extra emphasis. Today we list 10 of these cases of human decapitation, both famous and infamous.  Execution by beheading has been a long historical means of capital…

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A Brief History On January 21, 2019, the citizens of the United States of America celebrate another national holiday, this one in remembrance of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., an icon of the Civil Rights Movement.  Unfortunately, not everyone has honored Reverend King’s legacy in a commendable way this past month.  Yet, those who have disrespected Reverend King are but some of our fellow citizens who have disappointed our society in various ways in January 2019.  Although we have nearly a third of the month of January yet to go, we feel compelled to list “Jerks of the Month”…

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A Brief History On January 30, 2018, evil runs in the family in the first trailer for writer and director Ari Aster’s Hereditary, a 2018 American horror film that premiered on January 21, 2018 at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in the Midnight section. Digging Deeper In the film, when Ellen, the matriarch of the Graham family, passes away, her daughter’s family begins to unravel cryptic and increasingly terrifying secrets about their ancestry.  The more they discover, the more they find themselves trying to outrun the sinister fate they seem to have inherited.  Making his feature debut, Aster unleashes a nightmare vision of a…

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