FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Akebono Tarō (Japanese: 曙 太郎, Hepburn: Akebono Tarō, born Chadwick Haheo Rowan; 8 May 1969) is an American-born Japanese former professional sumo wrestler and professional wrestler from Waimānalo, Hawaii. Joining sumo in Japan in 1988, he was trained by pioneering Hawaiian wrestler Takamiyama and rose swiftly up the rankings, reaching the top division in 1990. After two consecutive yusho or tournament championships in November 1992 and January 1993 he made history by becoming the first non-Japanese-born wrestler ever to reach yokozuna, the highest rank in sumo.

One of the tallest and heaviest wrestlers ever, Akebono’s rivalry with the young Japanese hopefuls, Takanohana and Wakanohana, was a big factor in the increased popularity of sumo at tournament venues and on TV in the early 1990s. During his eight years at the yokozuna rank, Akebono won a further eight tournament championships, for a career total of eleven, and was a runner-up on thirteen other occasions, despite suffering several serious injuries. Although his rival yokozuna Takanohana won more tournaments in this period, their individual head-to-heads remained very close.

Akebono became a Japanese citizen in 1996, and after retiring in 2001 he worked as a coach at Azumazeki stable before leaving the Sumo Association in 2003. After an unsuccessful period as a K-1 fighter, he became a professional wrestler. In All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) he has been a two-time Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, two-time World Tag Team Champion, and two-time All Asia Tag Team Champion, as well as winning the 2015 Champion Carnival. In 2017, as a result of health problems, he became inactive from professional wrestling.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

International Holocaust Remembrance Day

Commemorates the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp by Soviet troops on January 27th, 1945.

Question of the Day

What does the military abbreviation “SOP” stand for?In military parlance, SOP” stands for standing operating procedure, to indicate a set of instructions that lends itself to a definite or standardized procedure without loss of effectiveness. It is assumed something is SOP unless otherwise ordered.”

Advice of the Day

Potatoes, tomatoes, and hot spices are foods for fidelity.

Home Hint of the Day

Don’t store or place candles near excessive heat, such as near a sunny window. If the heat bends them, they’ll burn too fast and drip more than usual.

Word of the Day

Mean temperatureThe average of the maximum and the minimum temperatures for a particular period; the mean equals the sum of the max and min divided by two.

Puzzle of the Day

When will there be but 24 letters in the alphabet?When U and I are 1.

Born

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (composer) – 1756
• Lewis Carroll (author) – 1832
• Samuel Gompers (labor union official) – 1850
• Jerome Kern (composer) – 1885
• Hyman George Rickover (U.S. naval officer) – 1900
• Donna Reed (actress) – 1921
• Sabu Dastagir (actor) – 1924
• Ingrid Thulin (actress) – 1929
• Troy Donahue (actor) – 1936
• Beatrice Tinsley (astronomer) – 1941
• John Roberts (Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) – 1955
• Bridget Fonda (actress) – 1964
• Patton Oswalt (actor) – 1969

Died

• John James Audubon (ornithologist) – 1851
• Giuseppe Verdi (composer) – 1901
• Thomas Crapper (inventor) – 1910
• Lilli Palmer (actress) – 1986
• Claude Atkins (actor) – 1994
• Milt Bernhart (big band trombonist) – 2004
• Jack Paar (humorist who turned late-night television into a national institution when he was host of The Tonight Show from 1957 to 1962) – 2004
• George Doc Abraham (wisecracking gardening guru who teamed up with his wife, Katy, to host one of the longest-running shows on American radio) – 2005
• Nick McDonald (policeman who arrested Lee Harvey Oswald at a Dallas movie theater after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963) – 2005
• Tige Andrews (actor) – 2007
• John Updike (Pulitzer Prize-winning author) – 2009
• J.D. Salinger (author) – 2010

Events

• Thomas Edison granted patent for incandescent electric lamp– 1880
• National Geographic Society incorporated– 1888
• The first public demonstration of a true TV was given in London by John Baird– 1926
• Honeymoon Bridge over Niagara Falls collapsed due to ice jam– 1938
• First U.S. air attack on Germany staged by the Eighth Air Force on the docks of Wilhelmshaven (WW II)– 1943
• German guards closed the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp as the Soviet army approached, moving as many prisoners as possible to Western camps– 1945
• Last performance of Peter Pan at New York City’s Imperial Theater– 1951
• Georgia legislature repealed the state’s public school segregation laws– 1961
• Three astronauts died in a flash fire at Cape Kennedy, Florida, while training for the first launch of the Apollo 1 spacecraft– 1967
• Representatives from over 60 nations, including the U.S. and USSR, signed the Outer Space Treaty– 1967
• Vietnam War Cease-Fire signed in Paris, ending U.S. combat role in Vietnam– 1973
• Laverne and Shirley made its television debut– 1976
• Michael Jackson’s hair caught fire during filming of a commercial– 1984
• Carl Lewis made a long jump of 28 feet 10.06 inches, in New York City– 1984
• American sumo wrestler Chad Rowan was awarded the Japanese sport’s highest rank, becoming the first foreign Yokozuna– 1993
• National Recording Registry’s first 50 selections announced– 2003
• Western Union sent its last telegram– 2006

Weather

• Great 48-hour snowstorm dropped 24 inches on New York City– 1805
• Florida had 3-day freeze, $10 million in crop loss– 1940
• Chicago, Illinois, was covered with 23 inches of snow– 1967
• Frigid arctic air in place over New England and New York caused record-breaking temperatures. Burlington, Vermont, broke its old record daily low by 9 degrees, with a reading of -29F, and Caribou, Maine, set a record low for the third day in a row, with a temperature of -23F.– 1994

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