FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

The Fourteen Points was a statement of principles for peace that was to be used for peace negotiations in order to end World War I. The principles were outlined in a January 8, 1918 speech on war aims and peace terms to the United States Congress by President Woodrow Wilson. However, his main Allied colleagues (Georges Clemenceau of France, David Lloyd George of the United Kingdom, and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy) were skeptical of the applicability of Wilsonian idealism.

The United States had joined the Triple Entente in fighting the Central Powers on April 6, 1917. Its entry into the war had in part been due to Germany’s resumption of submarine warfare against merchant ships trading with France and Britain and also the interception of the Zimmermann Telegram. However, Wilson wanted to avoid the United States’ involvement in the long-standing European tensions between the great powers; if America was going to fight, he wanted to try to separate that participation in the war from nationalistic disputes or ambitions. The need for moral aims was made more important when, after the fall of the Russian government, the Bolsheviks disclosed secret treaties made between the Allies. Wilson’s speech also responded to Vladimir Lenin’s Decree on Peace of November 1917, immediately after the October Revolution in 1917.

The speech made by Wilson took many domestic progressive ideas and translated them into foreign policy (free trade, open agreements, democracy and self-determination). Three days earlier United Kingdom Prime Minister Lloyd George had made a speech setting out the UK’s war aims which bore some similarity to Wilson’s speech but which proposed reparations be paid by the Central Powers and which was more vague in its promises to the non-Turkish subjects of the Ottoman Empire. The Fourteen Points in the speech were based on the research of the Inquiry, a team of about 150 advisers led by foreign-policy adviser Edward M. House, into the topics likely to arise in the anticipated peace conference.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

How come longitude lines start in Greenwich, England?

The Royal Observatory Greenwich is located at the National Maritime Museum in London. The original site of the observatory was arbitrarily chosen as longitude 0 degrees in 1884. A plaque in the original structure marks the zero point from which longitude is calculated. The observatory was founded in 1675 by King Charles II to keep accurate tables of the position of the Moon for the calculation of longitude by English ships. In 1750 those tables were published as the Astronomical Observations, and after 1838 they were published annually. Meridian observations of the Sun, stars, and planets also were made at the observatory. Photographs of the Sun were taken daily, conditions permitting, and a continuous photographic record of sunspots was kept starting in 1873. Today the observatory is primarily a museum with a small planetarium.

Advice of the Day

A dash of salt makes cream and egg whites whip more rapidly.

Home Hint of the Day

If your candles warp, immerse them in a pan of warm water to make them pliable enough for straightening.

Word of the Day

Bloomer

From Mrs. Bloomer, an American, who sought to introduce this style of dress. A costume for women, consisting of a short dress, with loose trousers gathered round ankles, and (commonly) a broad-brimmed hat.

Puzzle of the Day

What key is the hardest to turn?

Donkey

Died

• Galileo (astronomer) – 1642
• Eli Whitney (inventor) – 1825
• Terry-Thomas (comedian) – 1990
• Dave Thomas (Wendy’s fast food entrepreneur) – 2002
• Alexander Prokhorov (Russian scientist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1964 for work that led to the development of the laser) – 2002
• Yvonne De Carlo (actress best known as Lily Munster on The Munsters) – 2007
• Iwao Takamoto (cartoonist; created Scooby Doo) – 2007
• Art Clokey (creator of Gumby and Pokey) – 2010

Born

• Jonathan Belcher (Colonial governor and merchant) – 1682
• John Carrol (founded Georgetown University) – 1735
• Alfred Wallace (naturalist) – 1823
• Frank Nelson Doubleday (publisher) – 1862
• Larry Storch (actor) – 1923
• Bill Graham (producer) – 1931
• Elvis Presley (American entertainer ) – 1935
• Bob Eubanks (game show host) – 1938
• Graham Chapman (actor) – 1941
• Stephen Hawking (physicist) – 1942
• David Bowie (singer) – 1947
• Jeff Francis (baseball player) – 1981
• Gaby Hoffmann (actress) – 1982

Events

• First State of the Union message, delivered by President George Washington– 1790
• President George Washington delivered first State of the Union address– 1790
• The 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, modifying the power of the Supreme Court, was ratified– 1798
• First soup kitchens opened in London for the relief of the poor– 1800
• Lewis and Clark saw a 105-foot-long whale skeleton in NW Oregon– 1806
• Andrew Jackson defeated the British at the Battle of New Orleans (War of 1812)– 1815
• Joseph Lister published the results of his study of antiseptic surgical methods. His use of carbolic acid to sterilize instuments and wounds trebles the survival rate of his patients– 1870
• President Wilson delivered his Fourteen Points speech, suggesting the creation of a League of Nations– 1918
• The Dow Jones industrial stock average passed the 2,000 mark– 1987
• In Singapore, a barge accidentally rammed Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso, causing it to sink in the harbor (it was later raised)– 1996

Weather

• New York City stayed below zero degrees F all day– 1859
• Record cold hit Nevada, -50 degrees F at San Jacinto– 1937
• January 6 to 8: A Nor’easter dumped record snow along the U.S. East Coast – 1996
• Operation Recuperation began after ice storm hit New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec– 1998
• 15,000+ troops began aid during a multiday ice storm in Ontario and Quebec.– 1998

COURTESY www.almanac.com