FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
THE “I HAVE A DREAM” SPEECH
King delivered a 17-minute speech, later known as “I Have a Dream”. In the speech’s most famous passage – in which he departed from his prepared text, possibly at the prompting of Mahalia Jackson, who shouted behind him, “Tell them about the dream!” – King said:
I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
“I Have a Dream” came to be regarded as one of the finest speeches in the history of American oratory. The March, and especially King’s speech, helped put civil rights at the top of the agenda of reformers in the United States and facilitated passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The original typewritten copy of the speech, including King’s handwritten notes on it, was discovered in 1984 to be in the hands of George Raveling, the first African-American basketball coach of the University of Iowa. In 1963, Raveling, then 26 years old, was standing near the podium, and immediately after the oration, impulsively asked King if he could have his copy of the speech, and he got it.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday (observed)
Since 1986, the third Monday in January has been a federal holiday in observance of the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and civil rights leader dedicated to nonviolence. This is a day to honor King’s principles, perhaps best exemplified by his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963: “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’” Learn more about Martin Luther King Jr. Day and how to celebrate.
Question of the Day
Who are the three oldest people in the Bible?
Among the biblical people whose ages are noted, the three oldest are Methuselah, who lived 969 years; Jared, who lived 962 years; and Noah, who lived 950 years.
Advice of the Day
Add a tablespoon or two of honey to cake batter for a moister cake.
Home Hint of the Day
Here’s a way to stop your plumb line from tangling: Wind it onto the reel of an old chalk-line holder. If you have a broken or worn-out chalk line, save the holder for just such a use.
Word of the Day
Keelhaul
To haul under the keel of a ship, by ropes attached to the yardarms on each side. It was formerly practiced as a punishment in the Dutch and English navies.
Puzzle of the Day
Why is there a difference of only two letters of the alphabet between an accepted and a rejected love?
One kisses his miss, and the other misses his kiss.
Born
- Robert Service (poet) – 1874
- Ethel Merman (singer & actress) – 1908
- William Kennedy (American writer) – 1928
- Marilyn Horne (opera singer) – 1934
- Ronnie Milsap (singer) – 1944
- Debbie Allen (actress, dancer, & choreographer) – 1950
- Sade (singer) – 1959
- Kate Moss (supermodel) – 1974
- Aaliyah (singer) – 1979
Died
- Carole Lombard (actress) – 1942
- Ted Cassidy (actor) – 1979
- Leland Stowe (journalist) – 1994
- Andrew Wyeth (artist) – 2009
- Carl Milton Smith (American country music singer) – 2010
- Pauline Friedman Phillips, pen name Abigail Van Buren (Dear Abby advice columnist) – 2013
- Russell Johnson (actor) – 2014
Events
- Ivan the Terrible crowned as first Russian czar– 1547
- Prohibition went into effect in the U.S.– 1920
- US Department of State issues a ban on travel to Cuba– 1961
- Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians became the first tribe in the U.S. to issue tribal license plates– 1974
- Operation Desert Storm launched– 1991
- 121.5-pound blue catfish caught, Lake Texoma, Texas– 2004
Weather
- Last day of “The Great Snowstorm” raged from Georgia to Maine: 30+ inches in New York, New Jersey, and New England, with unusually high tides– 1831
- Avalanche in northern Idaho– 2005
- -40 degrees F in Coggon, Iowa– 2009
- An arctic blast dropped temperatures across the Midwest and Northeast: -50 degrees F at Big Black River, Maine; -46 degrees F at Embarrass, Minnesota; -39 F at Berlin, New Hampshire; and -38 F at Monticello, Iowa– 2009
COURTESY www.almanac.com
