Random News: January 16, 2023

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s January 16, 2023, and it’s a Monday. I think I’ve found some things that I think might be of note to someone, somewhere…

• Today in the USA, it’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It honors the Baptist minister and civil rights activist who was assassinated in 1968 at age 39.
• Dr. King got his Bachelor of Divinity (B.Div.) degree in 1951 from Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, PA, and then his Ph.D. degree in systematic theology from Boston University on June 5, 1955.
• His dissertation was titled ‘A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman’.
• King was instrumental in history-making activism, including the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott. The authorities tried jailing him, which led to the attention of national media and greatly expanded his influence as the best-known spokesman of the civil rights movement.
• He was under constant surveillance by the FBI under the Kennedy administration and J. Edgar Hoover. His phone was tapped and they tried to extort Dr. King into relinquishing his leadership position. King refused.
• His work against racism and bigotry used targeted, nonviolent resistance, specifically fighting Jim Crow laws and other forms of discrimination.
• Dr. King helped organize the March on Washington on August 28, 1963, where he gave one of the most highly-regarded speeches in American history. A portion of it is as follows…

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.



“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."



“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.



“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.



“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.



“I have a dream today.



“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.



“I have a dream today.”

• On October 14, 1964, King won the Nobel Peace Prize for combating racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.
• Almost everything he fought for ended up being successful, culminating with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
• He was assassinated by James Earl Ray at 6:01 pm on Thursday, April 4, 1968, as he stood on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, TN.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day became a federal US holiday after Ronald Reagan (who was initially against the holiday) signed it into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later in 1986.
• Some states resisted observing the holiday, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. Arizona was the only state that actually rescinded it after implementing it, resulting in millions in lost tourism money as well as multiple protests and the NFL’s removal of the 1993 Super Bowl from Phoenix.
• It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.
• In other news…
• Documents keep popping up in various locations in Joe Biden’s possession.
• As is the ongoing case with Trump, there’s no way to ascertain whether these poorly-kept documents jeopardize our national security.
• Also like FPOTUS, we need to know specifically what these documents were and who may have had access to them.
• Also, don’t blame me; I voted for Elizabeth Warren. Heh heh.
• I will once again point out that the document cases being investigated against Trump and Biden are extremely different, with Biden having made no effort to hold on to the documents or to obstruct their recovery or the investigation itself.
• And now, The Weather: “Find Another Illusion” by Death & Vanilla
• Again with weather news… it seems like we’re just about done with this parade of rainstorms that in some areas of California have been deadly.
• I know it seems like a joke to much of the rest of the world, but with years of drought and then a sudden onslaught of powerful storms for weeks, this place is simply not set up infrastructure-wise to handle all that wetness.
• Why is this happening? Global climate change. It’s going to keep happening and getting worse. This is a fact.
• Ukraine has been getting hit with a barrage of Russian missile strikes, with many of the targets being civilian areas.
• I can only hope that these war criminals in Russia face consequences for what they’re doing to citizens and families in places like Dnipro.
• From the Sports Desk… NFL playoffs are trucking along in the Wild Card round, producing some unexpectedly great games. Yesterday, the Bills just barely hung on to beat the Dolphins 34-31. The 13-4 Vikings were shocked by the 9-7-1 Giants 31-24. And then, the Bengals, who were heavy favorites over the Ravens, were on the verge of losing that game when a fumble at the 2-yard line was returned 98 yards for a what ended up being the game-winning touchdown, and they won 24-17.
• There’s one more game in this round tonight, with the Cowboys visiting the Buccaneers. Dallas is only a -2.5 point favorite, so anything can happen.
• The Sports Desk will post the Divisional Round schedule tomorrow.
• A cool story from my neck of the woods, kinda.
• Last Wednesday, they held an event at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans to honor the oldest living survivor of the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor, who happens to live in my town.
• Joseph Eskenazi of Redondo Beach, CA turns 105 on January 30. Happy birthday, sir!
• Today in history… Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire (27 BC). The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison (550). Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson (1786). The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress (1883). Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole (1909). Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker (1945). The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt (1979). The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban (2002). The first impeachment of Donald Trump formally moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate (2020). 
• January 16 is the birthday of composer Niccolò Piccinni (1728), US vice president John C. Breckinridge (1821), businessman André Michelin (1853), politician Fulgencio Batista (1901), actress/singer Ethel Merman (1908), MLB player Dizzy Dean (1910), photographer Francesco Scavullo (1921), zoologist/anthropologist Dian Fossey (1932), writer Susan Sontag (1933), singer Ronnie Milsap (1943), director John Carpenter (1948), actress/dancer/choreographer Debbie Allen (1950), singer-songwriter Sade (1959), singer Aaliyah (1979), actor/playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda (1980), MLB player Albert Pujols (1980), and NFL player Joe Flacco (1985). 

As I mentioned previously, I am not taking today off work, though I’m glad to honor Dr. King in my own way. However, since some of my clients are indeed closed, it’s going to be somewhat of a “work lite” day, with less meetings and phone calls than usual. I’ll take it. Enjoy your day.