By Mary Reader
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Joanna Noëlle Levesque (born December 20, 1990), known professionally as JoJo, is an American singer, songwriter and actress. She began performing in singing competitions and local talent shows as a child. In 2003, record producer Vincent Herbert noticed her after she competed on the television show America’s Most Talented Kids and asked her to audition for his record label Blackground Records. After signing with the label, JoJo released her eponymous debut studio album in 2004. It peaked at number four on the US Billboard 200 and was later certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), selling over four million copies worldwide to date.
With her debut single “Leave (Get Out)” peaking atop the US Billboard Mainstream Top 40 chart, JoJo became the youngest solo artist in history to top the chart at age 13. The song peaked at 12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was certified gold by the RIAA along with its follow-up single “Baby It’s You“. Her second studio album The High Road (2006) spawned her first top-five Hot 100 hit “Too Little Too Late“. The album was later certified gold, selling over three million copies worldwide to date. By 2007, JoJo had sold more than seven million records worldwide,[7] including 2.1 million albums in the United States.
Record label disputes delayed JoJo from commercially releasing her third studio album; she released two mixtapes independently, Can’t Take That Away from Me (2010) and Agápē (2012). After her contractual release, JoJo signed with Atlantic Records in 2014 and released her first commercial EP III (2015), followed by her third studio album Mad Love (2016), which became her third top-ten album in the US. She left Atlantic in 2017 and founded her record label Clover Music through a joint venture with Warner Records, where she re-recorded and re-released her debut and second albums as the label’s first project in 2018. JoJo’s fourth studio album Good to Know was released in May 2020, preceded by its first single, “Man“. In October, she released her first Christmas album called December Baby.
In addition to her music career, JoJo has also pursued an acting career. In 2006, she made her on-screen feature film debut in Aquamarine and later starred in R.V.. She has also had guest appearances on the television shows The Bernie Mac Show (2002), American Dreams (2004), Romeo! (2006), Hawaii Five-0 (2011) and Lethal Weapon (2017). Other films JoJo has appeared in include the Lifetime Television film True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet (2008) and G.B.F. (2013). She made her Broadway debut in 2023 playing “Satine” in Moulin Rouge! The Musical.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Ember Days happen four times a year at the start of each season. Traditionally observed by some Christian denominations, each set of Ember Days is three days, kept on a successive Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday.
Ember Days for 2023
September: 20, 22, 23
December: 20, 22, 23
Ember Days for 2024
February 21, 23, 24
May 22, 24, 25
September 18, 20, 21
December 18, 20, 21
These three days are set apart for fasting, abstinence, and prayer. The first of these four times comes in winter, after the Feast of St. Lucia, December 13; the second set comes with the First Sunday in Lent; the third set comes after Whitsunday/Pentecost Sunday; the four and last set comes after the Feast of the Holy Cross. Their dates can be remembered by this old mnemonic:
“Sant Crux, Lucia, Cineres, Charismata Dia Ut sit in angaria quarta sequens feria.”
Which means:
“Holy Cross, Lucy, Ash Wednesday, Pentecost, are when the quarter holidays follow.”
In Latin, Ember Days are known as the quattuor anni tempora (the “four seasons of the year”). Folklore has it that the weather on each of the three days foretells the weather for three successive months.
As with much folklore, this is grounded in some common sense since the beginning of the four seasons cue the changes in weather as well as a shift in how we keep harmony with the Earth and respect our stewardship of the Earth, our “garden of Eden.”“
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Harvey Samuel Firestone (tire manufacturer) –
- Irene Dunne (actress) –
- George Roy Hill (director of film) –
- Nicole DeBoer (actress) –
- Jonah Hill (actor) –
- JoJo (singer) –
Died
- Bobby Darin (singer) –
- Arthur Rubenstein (pianist) –
- Carl Sagan (astronomer) –
- J. Russell Coffey (oldest known U.S. veteran of World War I) –
- Robert Mulligan (director) –
- Brittany Murphy (actress) –
- Steve Landesberg (actor) –
Events
- Operation of first successful water-powered cotton spinning mill in U.S. began, Pawtucket, Rhode Island–
- Louisiana Purchase finalized–
- Missouri imposed a $1 tax on bachelors–
- South Carolina seceded from the Union–
- Name “Canadian National Railways” was authorized–
- 24-lb. 8-oz. horse-eye jack caught, Miami, Florida–
- California angler caught 230-pound Nile perch in Lake Nasser, Egypt–
Weather
- Temperatures in central Illinois dropped from 40 to 0 degrees F in a sudden cold snap that was said to freeze chickens in their tracks–
- Snowstorm began in Denver, Colorado, that delivered up to 30 inches of snow–
COURTESY www.almanac.com
