Day: January 21 Today is Wednesday, January 21, 2015. This is the 21st day of the year, with 344 days remaining in 2015. Fact of the Day: gun salute Gun or cannon salutes, used to honor distinguished persons or to mark special occasions, originate from the practice of firing all guns of a battery, fort or ship as a token of disarming them, because early guns were not speedily reloaded. Modern gun salutes are fired with blank cartridges or charges. The number of shots is prescribed by international custom and agreement. Referred to as the royal salute, the 21-gun salute is fired for chiefs of state, heads of government, members of a reigning royal family and others of comparable rank. Salutes of 17, 15, 13, 11, seven, and five shots are fired for people of lesser rank. Firing an odd number of shots is believed to stem from an ancient naval superstition that an even number of shots is unlucky. Events 1785 - Chippewa, Delaware, Ottawa, and Wyandot Indians signed the treaty of Fort McIntosh, ceding present-day Ohio to the United States. 1908 - New York City prohibited women from smoking in public. 1954 - The USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, was launched at Groton, Connecticut. 1976 - The first supersonic Concordes with commercial passengers simultaneously took off from Londons Heathrow and the Paris Orly airports. 1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders. 1997 - Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s manager of 22 years, died of a stroke in Las Vegas (age 87). Parker wasn’t a real colonel and his real name wasn’t Tom Parker. According to James L. Dickerson in his book Colonel Tom Parker, his colonelcy was bestowed upon him in 1948 by the governor of Louisiana and was purely of the honorary variety, though immediately upon receiving it Parker told an underling, “From now on, see to it that everyone addresses me as the Colonel.” His name may (or may not) have been Andreas Cornelius van Kuijk, and he may (or may not) have been born in the Netherlands in 1909, from which he may (or may not) have immigrated to the United States as a teenager. Parker became Presley’s manager in 1955 when Elvis was on the verge of becoming a rock ’n’ roll star. He had firm control over Elvis’ career, taking between 25 and 50 per cent of the singer’s earnings.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 11:45:59 +0000