By StephanieLee
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer and songwriter. A classically trained pianist, Keys started composing songs when she was 12 and was signed at 15 years old by Columbia Records. After disputes with the label, she signed with Arista Records and soon released her debut studio album, Songs in A Minor (2001) through J Records. The album became a critical and commercial success, selling over 12 million copies worldwide and receiving five Grammy Awards in 2002. It contained the Billboard Hot 100 number-one single “Fallin’.” Her second album, The Diary of Alicia Keys (2003) was met with continued success, selling eight million units worldwide and spawning the singles “You Don’t Know My Name,” “If I Ain’t Got You“, and “Diary.” The album earned an additional four Grammy Awards.
Her 2004 duet with Usher, “My Boo” became her second number-one single. Keys released her first live album, Unplugged (2005), and became the first female artist to have an MTV Unplugged album debut at number one. Her third album, As I Am (2007) sold seven million units worldwide and produced the Hot 100 number-one single “No One.” In 2007, Keys made her film debut in the action-thriller film Smokin’ Aces, and performed the theme song to the James Bond film Quantum of Solace with her single “Another Way to Die” (with Jack White) the following year. Her fourth album, The Element of Freedom (2009) became her first chart-topping album in the United Kingdom, and sold four million copies worldwide. The album included the hit singles “Doesn’t Mean Anything“, “Try Sleeping with a Broken Heart“, “Un-Thinkable (I’m Ready)“. Keys’s collaboration with Jay-Z on his 2009 single “Empire State of Mind“, became her fourth number-one single in the United States. Her fifth album, Girl on Fire (2012) became her fourth non-consecutive album to peak the Billboard 200—supported by its successful lead single of the same name—while her sixth studio album, Here (2016) peaked at number two. Her seventh and eighth studio albums, Alicia (2020) and Keys (2021), spawned the singles “Show Me Love” (featuring Miguel), “Underdog“, “Lala” and “Best of Me“. In 2022, she released her ninth studio album and first independent release, Santa Baby. In 2023, she wrote, composed and co-produced her first Off-Broadway musical, Hell’s Kitchen.
Keys has sold over 90 million records worldwide, making her one of the world’s best-selling music artists. She was named by Billboard as the R&B/Hip-Hop Artist of the Decade (2000s); and placed tenth on their list of Top 50 R&B/Hip-Hop Artists of the Past 25 Years. She has received numerous accolades in her career, including 15 Grammy Awards, 17 NAACP Image Awards, 12 ASCAP Awards, and an award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame and National Music Publishers Association. VH1 included her on their 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and 100 Greatest Women in Music lists, while Time has named her in their 100 list of most influential people in 2005 and 2017. Keys is also acclaimed for her humanitarian work, philanthropy, and activism, e.g. being awarded Ambassador of Conscience by Amnesty International; she co-founded and serves as the Global Ambassador of the nonprofit HIV/AIDS-fighting organization Keep a Child Alive.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
In 2023, the full Moon rises on January 6. Traditionally, this full Moon was called the “Wolf Moon,” appearing when wolves howled outside the villages in hunger. The January Moon has also been called the Old Moon. To some Native American tribes, this was the Snow Moon, but most applied that name to the next full Moon, in February. See our Full Moon for January Guide.
The birthday of Scotland’s most famous poet, Robert Burns (1759-1796), has become an occasion for Scots all over the world to gather together in his honor. A Burns Night supper usually includes haggis, a traditional dish of the heart, lungs, and liver of a sheep or calf minced with suet, onions, oatmeal, and seasonings. Burns’s words, Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!” greets the dish’s entry into the room. Men wear kilts and women their tartan sashes, and the evening’s celebration includes reading Burns’s poems and singing his songs, ending with one of his most famous, “Auld Lang Syne.” Most of us are familiar with the first verse, “Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And never brought to mind? Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne.”“
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Born
- Robert Burns (poet) –
- Charles Curtis (U.S. vice president) –
- Virginia Woolf (author) –
- Edwin Newman (news commentator) –
- Dean Jones (actor ) –
- Alicia Keys (musician) –
Died
- Al Capone (gangster) –
- Ava Gardner (actress) –
- Philip Johnson (architect) –
- Mary Tyler Moore (actress) –
- Cindy Williams (actress ) –
Events
- Henry VIII of England and Anne Boleyn were secretly married, he for the second time–
- Hot drinks served on frozen Hudson River to warm pedestrians crossing between New Jersey and New York City–
- Mendelssohn’s Wedding March was played at the wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Victoria, to Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia. It is believed that this is where the tradition of playing the Wedding March at weddings came from–
- G. D. Dows patented an improved soda fountain–
- S.S. City of Boston disappeared–
- Reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) of the New York World received a tumultuous welcome home after she completed a round-the-world journey in 72 days, 6 hours and 11 minutes–
- Elecktra, by Richard Strauss, premiered at the Dresden Royal Opera House–
- First transcontinental telephone call was made, between New York and San Francisco; Alexander Graham Bell and Dr. Thomas A. Watson exchanged greetings–
- The Paris Peace Conference of WW I adopted President Wilson’s resolution for the creation of a League of Nations as part of the peace agreement–
- The governor general of Canada, the Earl of Bessborough, declared the Trans-Canada telephone system officially open–
- Guiding Light debuted on radio–
- President John F. Kennedy was the first United States president to hold a live televised news conference–
- Constance Baker Motley was named U.S. District Judge for southern NY and became the first African American female federal judge–
- 44-pound 10-ounce cod caught at Five Fathom Bank near Delaware–
- Nazi war criminal, Klaus Barbie, was arrested in Bolivia–
- The Infrared Astronomical Satellite launched into orbit to gather information on distant stars and the solar system–
- Iraq opened outlet valves at Kuwait refinery to create the world’s largest oil spill (450 million gallons estimated)–
- Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute founded–
Weather
- Hot drinks were served on the frozen Hudson River, between New Jersey and New York City–
- Boston received 22.1 inches of snow–
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