Daily Almanac for Monday, December 18, 2023

By Vickie Sellers

Born on this date in 2001 is singer Billie Eilish, who is 22. This is Billie Eilish performing at a 2022 concert in The O2 Arena. By Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O’Connell (/ˈaɪlɪʃ/ EYE-lish; born December 18, 2001) is an American singer and songwriter. She first gained public attention in 2015 with her debut single “Ocean Eyes“, written and produced by her brother Finneas O’Connell, with whom she collaborates on music and live shows. In 2017, she released her debut extended play (EP), titled Don’t Smile at Me. Commercially successful, it reached the top 15 of record charts in numerous countries, including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.

Eilish’s first studio album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart. It was one of the best-selling albums of the year, buoyed by the success of its fifth single “Bad Guy“, Eilish’s first number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100. This made her the first artist born in the 21st century to release a chart-topping single. The following year, Eilish performed the theme song “No Time to Die” for the James Bond film of the same name, which topped the UK Singles Chart and won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2022. Her subsequent singles “Everything I Wanted“, “My Future“, “Therefore I Am“, and “Your Power” peaked in the top 10 in the US and UK. Her second studio album, Happier Than Ever (2021), topped charts in 25 countries. She wrote and performed “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie (2023), which became her second number one single in the UK.

Eilish has received multiple accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, two Guinness World Records, three MTV Video Music Awards, three Brit Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award. She is the first woman and the youngest artist in Grammy history to win all four general field categories—Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, as well as Best New Artist—in the same year. She is also the first person born in the 21st century to win an Academy Award. She was featured on Time magazine’s inaugural Time 100 Next list in 2019 and the Time 100 in 2021. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Billboard, Eilish is the 26th-highest-certified digital singles artist and one of the most successful artists of the 2010s. She was honored as one of the BBC 100 Women in December 2022.

Eilish has a history of political activism, focusing on climate change awareness, body positivity, women’s reproductive rights and gender equality.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

When making meringue pie, should refrigerated eggs or room temperature eggs be used?

Use eggs at room temperature next time you make a meringue pie. Cold eggs cause problems in foam and sponge recipes because, when beaten, they do not increase in volume as much as warm eggs do. In general, all ingredients should be brought to room temperature (between 65 and 70°F) before baking.

Advice of the Day

Kindnesses, like grain, increase by sowing.

Home Hint of the Day

To get any part of your project perfectly vertical, hang a plumb line. A plumb line is a heavy object on a string. When the object is at rest, the string is perfectly vertical. For the most accurate readings, use a tool called a plumb bob.

Word of the Day

Alaska

Alaska’s name comes from an Aleut word meaning “great land.”

Puzzle of the Day

When a person falls out a window, what does he always fall against?

Against his will

Born

Edward MacDowell (composer) – 1860
Ty Cobb (baseball player) – 1886
Betty Grable (actress) – 1916
Steven Spielberg (director) – 1946
Ray Liotta (actor ) – 1954
Brad Pitt (actor) – 1963
Katie Holmes (actress) – 1978
Christina Aguilera (singer) – 1980
Billie Eilish (singer) – 2001

Died

Chris Farley (actor) – 1997
Joe Barbera (half of the Hanna-Barbera animation team that made cartoon characters such as Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, and the Flintstones) – 2006
Majel Barrett-Roddenberry (actress and producer) – 2008
Connie Hines (actress) – 2009
Zsa Zsa Gabor (actress and socialite) – 2016

Events

The Great Comet reached perihelion– 1680
New Jersey became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution– 1787
John William Draper took the first photo of the Moon– 1839
The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting slavery, went into effect– 1865
National Anti-Saloon League was founded– 1895
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson married Edith B. Galt, a descendent of Pocahontas– 1915
Civil rights activist Rosa McCauley married Raymond Parks– 1932
Giant panda, Basi, celebrated her 25th birthday at China’s Fuzhou Zoo. (She far surpassed the normal panda life expectancy of 12 years!)– 2005

Weather

Central Park in New York City experienced a record low temperature of 10 degrees below zero F– 1919
A sudden gale of wind of almost cyclonic force blew through Howe, Indiana, and caused snowballs to form spontaneously and roll along the ground like tumbleweeds– 1933
Freezing rain in the Memphis, Tennessee, area caused 170 evening auto accidents– 1989

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