This Week in History: December 28-January 2

This is the first entry I’m writing on my new laptop! It was a gift I gave myself for Christmas and so far all this gift has done is freak me out. It is so new and different than what I am used to. I am trying not to dwell on it and to power through these last blogs before the end of the year. So let’s take a look at what happened this week in history, if my new laptop will cooperate and not freak me out for that long.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: DECEMBER 28
A lot of really interesting things worth writing about happened today, but I didn’t want to write about any of them when I spotted that today is Sienna Miller’s birthday. She is just four months older than me but already she has been engaged to Jude Law and had an affair with the married Balthazar Getty. And what have I done? I don’t even know anyone named Balthazar.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: DECEMBER 29
According to Wikipedia, today is the day that the Russians finally killed ol’ Rasputin back in 1916. But I clicked on Rasputin’s entry to learn more and found that this is only true if you recognize the Gregorian calendar rather than the Julian calendar because if you’re going by the old style than it’s a whole other date entirely. That made me tired and I didn’t want to read any more on the matter.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: DECEMBER 30
For those of you who are fans of the Today Show, today is both Meredith Viera AND Matt Lauer’s birthday. The question is, what significance does this day have for Al Roker? That’s not really a good question, but I didn’t have anywhere to go with the Meredith Viera/Matt Lauer thing other than a Where in the World is Matt Lauer joke, which could hardly be considered a joke at all.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: DECEMBER 31
Oh man, if you think lots happened on this day, being New Year’s Eve, then you are right. All sorts of important stuff happened as folks tried to get their milestones in before the start of the new year. But the one I am choosing to highlight is extremely personal, as today is the date of birth of my reputed ancestor, George Gordon Meade. I have written of this connection before: http://iwiggleitjustalittlebit.blogspot.com/2007/07/if-you-take-away-e-its-also-delicious.html This got me wondering, could I be related to anyone else celebrating a birthday this day? I looked over the options and here are my top three choices for possible relatives: Henri Matisse, Elizabeth Arden, and Ben Kingsley.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 1
Wikipedia has so many historic events listed for this day that I found it overwhelming, much as I find my new computer overwhelming. For simplicity’s sake, I’ll send a shout-out to Barry Goldwater, born this day in 1909. My dad recently said that he would have liked to have seen what a Goldwater presidency would have been like, and I have spent many hours hunting down Goldwater buttons with him. His middle name is Morris.

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: JANUARY 2
On this day in 1942, former speaker of the house Dennis Hastert was born. I’m not going to lie…sometimes I see the name Dennis Hastert and think they’re talking about the guy who played Mr. Belding on Saved by the Bell. But that was Dennis Haskins, which is totally different; he was born on November 18, 1950, if Wikipedia is to be believed.