Picture of the Day and B'Days for Jan. 17

Posted January 16, 2009, 10:00 pm in


Today is Saturday, January 17, 2009, the 17th day of 2009.  There are 348 days left in the year.

On Jan. 17, 1942, actress Carole Lombard died in a plane crash at the age of 34. Lombard, married to Clark Gable since 1939, was one of Hollywood's most glamorous stars of the 1930s, best known for her comedies, "My Man Godfrey"  and  "To Be or Not to Be."

Michelle Obama

On Jan. 17, 1949, the first Volkswagen Beetle arrived in the U.S. from Germany. The little Volkswagen ("people's car") was a sturdy vehicle designed by Ferdinand Porsche at the request of Adolf Hitler. The car was meant to be a durable workhorse car for the common German man.

On Jan. 17, 1961, outgoing President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American people to keep a careful eye on what he called the "military-industrial complex" that has developed in the post-World War II years in his farewell address to the nation.

Today's Birthdays: Actress Betty White is 87. Former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission Newton Minnow (who famously called TV a "vast wasteland") is 83. Actor James Earl Jones is 78. Baseball coach Don Zimmer is 70. Talk show host Maury Povich is 70. Boxer Muhammad Ali is 67. Musician Mick Taylor (The Rolling Stones) is 60. Environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is 55. Comedian Steve Harvey is 52. Musician Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles) is 50. Actor Jim Carrey is 47. Author Sebastian Junger is 47. Future First Lady Michelle Obama is 45.

Picture of the Day: A piece of history will see action for the first time in nearly 150 years. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on Tuesday, he will place his right hand on the same Bible that Abraham Lincoln used in 1861.




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