Daily Almanac for Wednesday, January 31, 2024

By Vickie Sellers

 

Ellen DeGeneres’ wife, actress Portia de Rossi, born in 1973, is 51 today. Here she is in 2007. By Pulicciano, CC BY-SA 2.0, https commons.wikimedia.org

FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS

Portia Lee James DeGeneres (born Amanda Lee Rogers; 31 January 1973), known professionally as Portia de Rossi, is an Australian-American retired actress. She played Nelle Porter on the American drama series Ally McBeal (1998–2002), for which she won a Screen Actors Guild AwardLindsay Bluth Fünke on the American television sitcom Arrested Development (2003–2006, 2013, 2018–2019), and Elizabeth North on the American political thriller series Scandal (2014–2017). She is the founder and CEO of the art company General Public.

She also portrayed Olivia Lord on the American television drama series Nip/Tuck (2007–2009) and Veronica Palmer on the American television sitcom Better Off Ted (2009–2010). De Rossi is married to comedian, actress, and television host Ellen DeGeneres.

TODAY’S ALMANAC

Question of the Day

How can I get a chocolate drink stain out of a white T-shirt?

You can try scrubbing the area with a little ammonia, then washing the shirt as you normally would.

Advice of the Day

To cure hiccups eat a spoonful of peanut butter.

Home Hint of the Day

If the winters are hard where you live, try to have an R-value (thermal resistance) of at least R-33 in ceiling insulation and R-19 in wall insulation.

Word of the Day

Dewpoint temperature

The temperature to which a given parcel of air must be cooled before it becomes saturated; the temperature of an object when dew first forms on it.

Puzzle of the Day

What is it that goes when a wagon goes, stops when a wagon stops, is of no use to the wagon, and yet the wagon cannot go without it?

The noise of the wheels.

Born

  • Franz Peter Schubert (Austrian composer) – 
  • Zane Grey (novelist) – 
  • Eddie Cantor (comedian) – 
  • John Henry O’Hara (author) – 
  • Jersey Joe Walcott (boxer) – 
  • Garry Moore (TV personality) – 
  • Jackie Robinson (first African American baseball player in major leagues) – 
  • Carol Channing (actress) – 
  • Mario Lanza (singer & actor) – 
  • Norman Mailer (author) – 
  • Jean Simmons (actress) – 
  • Ernie Banks (baseball player) – 
  • Phillip Glass (musician) – 
  • Nolan Ryan (baseball player) – 
  • Anthony LaPaglia (actor) – 
  • Portia de Rossi (actress) – 
  • Justin Timberlake (singer) – 
  • Tyler Seguin (ice hockey player) – 

Died

  • Timothy Eaton (retailer) – 
  • A. A. Milne (author) – 
  • Sam Goldwyn (movie mogul) – 
  • Francis Gabreski (retired colonel who recorded 37.5 kills and was known as “America’s Greatest Living Ace” ) – 
  • Horace Hagedorn (founder of Miracle-Gro plant food) – 
  • Eunice Sanborn (American supercentenarian) – 

Events

  • Anton Chekov’s play, Three Sisters, premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre– 
  • A Napier was the first car to go over 100 mph– 
  • The German government informed the U.S. that unrestricted submarine warfare would begin on February 1, 1917– 
  • The Green Hornet made its radio debut– 
  • Yugoslavia adopted its constitution and officially became a people’s republic– 
  • The U.S. released 33 former Nazis incarcerated for war crimes, including Alfred Krupp– 
  • Explorer I, first U.S. satellite, launched– 
  • Explorer 1, first successful U.S. satellite, was launched – 
  • Ham, a male chimpanzee, was recovered alive in the Caribbean after being carried to a height of 155 miles in a U.S. space capsule launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida– 
  • National Traffic Safety Agency issued the first set of U.S. federal safety standards for vehicle safety– 
  • North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, attacking South Vietnamese towns– 
  • Limited telephone service re-established between East and West Berlin for the first time in 19 years– 
  • Apollo 14 manned spacecraft launched– 
  • Paul and Linda McCartney appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone. This made Linda McCartney the first person to have both taken a photo, and to have been photographed, for the front cover of the magazine.– 
  • The first McDonald’s opened in Moscow, Russia– 
  • Samuel Alito was sworn in as the 110th U.S. Supreme Court justice– 

Weather

  • Snowy month left 54 inches of snow on the ground at low levels, Northfield, Vermont– 
  • Big snow in Oregon set a record: Portland 16 inches; Salem 25 inches– 
  • A record low of 0 degrees F hit San Antonio, Texas– 

 

 

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