Last Week and Year In Life Week 1 2023-Beginning Again

Back in 2021 I attempted to chronicle all the major Catholic and non-Catholic news stories of the week. I called it  Last Week in Life.  I did it successfully for a year which is quite an accomplishment writing wise for me.   In March of 2021 I started adding things that had happen in history on a particular day of the week to my articles. I mentioned the Catholic feast days of saints in the universal  and American church and perhaps on occasion, I also mentioned a particular order (Carmelite) or other country (Ireland) connected to my wife or I in some way. I have included personal days of significance (birthdays, anniversary) to the authors of this blog as well.

Octave Day of Christmas, Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

New Years Day

Saint Zygmunt Gorazdowski (November 1, 1845 –January 1, 1920)

Public Domain Day (Media from 1927)

Day 1: To Know and Love God — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 1: In the Beginning — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Click on Article to Read what Happen On This Day

2022-

January

… which begins with the world entering the third or possibly eighth year — nobody remembers anymore — of the pandemic. The American public is seriously divided: Everybody who is wearing a mask hates everybody who is not wearing a mask, and vice versa. Both sides are 100 percent supported by The Science. Dave Barry’s 2022 Year in Review (msn.com)

 Saints Basil the Great (1 or 2 January 379) and Gregory Nazianzen (c. 329  – 25 January 25, 390)
bishops and doctors of the Church – Memorial

Mark and Kristin’s Wedding Anniversary (2010)

Day 2: How the Catechism Works — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 2: The Fall of Adam and Eve — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Click on Article to Read what Happen On This Day

The Most Holy Name of Jesus– Optional Memorial

Day 3: What We Believe (Part 1 Introduction with Jeff Cavins) – YouTube 
Day 3: Noah’s Ark — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

• 250 – Emperor Decius orders everyone in the Roman Empire (except Jews) to make sacrifices to the Roman gods. 
• 1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
• 1840-Father Damien  (January 3, 1840 – April, 15, 1889) the leaper priest is born.
• 1956-Mel Gibson (Director of the Passion of the Christ and star of Mad Max) is Born.
• 1957- The third part of the secret of Fatima was written down “by order of His Excellency the Bishop of Leiria and the Most Holy Mother”. In June 1944, the sealed envelope containing the third secret was delivered to Silva, where it stayed until 1957, when it was finally delivered to Rome. If you want some sane theories regarding the mysterious 3rd secret listen to Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World episode on the matter.
• 1957 – Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
• 1959-Alaska becomes the 49th State.
• 1962 – 441 years after a pope excommunicated provocator of the protestant reformation, another pope,  Pope John XXIII, excommunicates the leader of the revolution in Cuba, Fidel Castro.
  1964– Pedro Edralin Flores (April 26, 1896 – January 3,  1964) dies. Pedro was a Filipino businessman and yo-yo maker who has been credited with popularizing yo-yos in the United States in 1928)
• 1973- J.R.R. Tolkien author of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings is born. (January 3rd, 1892 –September 2nd, 1973)
• 1993 – In Moscow, Russia, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
• 1993-“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” debuts in the United States with “Emissary.”
• 1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.
• 2015 – Boko Haram militants destroy the entire town of Baga in north-east Nigeria, starting the Baga massacre and killing as many as 2,000 people.
• 2018 – For the first time in history all five major storm surge gates in the Netherlands are closed simultaneously in the wake of a storm.
• 2023 – Singapore’s Jurong Bird Park permanently closes.

• 1884 – The British socialist organisation, the Fabian Society is founded in London, United Kingdom.
• 1896 – This is a good week for states to be added to the U.S. as Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
• 1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison film company records the film Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy’s death.
• 1912 – The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter.
• 1957 – After 69 years, the last issue of Collier’s Weekly magazine is published in the United States.
• 1958-Edmund Hillary‘s Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the third overland journey to the South Pole, the first to use powered vehicles.
• 1958 – As we continue to explore our planet below meanwhile outside the planet, Sputnik 1, the first artificial Earth satellite, launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, falls to Earth from orbit. 
• 1959 – A year later another Russian craft in space known as  the Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon. 
• 1972 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey ( The Central Criminal Court of England and Wales )London, UK.
• 1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura (actor in Predator) is sworn in as governor of Minnesota, United States.
• 2007 – Congress elects Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
• 2023- Jeremy Renner shares photo from hospital bed after snowplow accident: ‘Thank you all for your kind words’

U.S. Catholic magazine@USCatholic (Jan 4, 2023): Maybe we need to fall madly in love with the things of God: charity, beauty, justice, mercy, truth, peace, forgiveness, kindness, faithfulness, hope. It would be awkward to spend forever in the company of someone with whom we have little in common.

St. John Neumann (March 28, 1811 – January 5, 1860)

Day 5: How We Know God — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 5: Tower of Babel — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by traitor Benedict Arnold.
• 1846-St. Mariam Baouardy  (January 5, 1846 –  August 26, 1878) a Discalced Carmelite nun of the Easter Rite Melkite Greek Catholic Church is born.
• 1914– Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday, and a daily wage of $5.
• 1919– The German Workers’ Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded in Munich. 
• 1925– Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States. 
• 1933– Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay. 
• 1939-Amelia Mary Earhart (July 24, 1897 – disappeared July 2, 1937) is declared dead. Want to learn more about Ms. Earhart? Tune into Jimmy Akin’s Mysterious World to find out more.
• 1941– Amy Johnson, a 37-year-old pilot and the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia, disappears after bailing out of her plane over the River Thames, and is presumed dead. 
• 1944– The Daily Mail becomes the first major London newspaper to be published on both sides of the Atlantic.
• 1947– Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer a round-the-world ticket.
• 1949 – In his “State of the Union” address, United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program. 
• 1950 – In the Sverdlovsk air disaster, all 19 of those on board are killed, including almost the entire national ice hockey team (VVS Moscow) of the Soviet Air Force – 11 players, as well as a team doctor and a masseur. 
• 1959- George Reeves, (January 5, 1914 – June 16, 1959) is born. He starred in Adventures of Supermanon television from 1952 to 1958, and died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 45
• 1973-The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland was signed into law, thus canceling the Catholic Churches “special position”.  It now recognizes certain other named religions instead of just the Catholics.
• 2021 – 2020 United States Senate elections: The Democratic Party wins both seats and by extension control of the US Senate in the Georgia runoff elections; Jon Ossoff defeats GOP incumbent senator David Perdue in the regular election, and Rev. Raphael Warnock defeats GOP incumbent senator Kelly Loeffler in the special election.
• 2023-Funeral mass for Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is held in St. Peter’s Square
• 2023-The House adjourned Thursday for a third day without a speaker, after Republican leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) fell short of the votes he needs to become House speaker in an 11th ballot, breaking a 100-year-old record with the 10th vote. 10 things you need to know today: January 6, 2023 | The Week
• 2023- Mark and Kristin celebrate their 13th wedding anniversary in downtown providence.