On January 19, 1953, nearly three-fourths of all televisions in America were tuned in to watch the sixteenth episode (of Season 2) of I Love Lucy titled “Lucy Goes To the Hospital.”
During the episode (which was recorded the previous November) Lucy gives birth to Little Ricky.
In reality, Lucille Ball gave birth to her son, Desi Arnaz Jr., on January 19, 1953, the same day the episode aired.
Throughout the series, there were six actors who played the role of Little Ricky. This count includes the actor who played the baby in the episode mentioned above.
Image of Lucille Ball with twin boys, Mike (left) and Joe Mayer, who played Little Ricky as a toddler on I Love Lucy via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
“All should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the effects of war, and to restore the blessings of peace.”
– Robert E. Lee who was born on January 19, 1807, in Stratford Hall, Virginia.
Image: A portrait of Robert E. Lee from around 1851 via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
First Lady Betty Ford dancing on the Cabinet Room table the day before she and her husband, President Gerald Ford, departed the White House
January 19, 1977
Image by David Hume Kennerly via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Writer, poet, and soldier Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809. Not only master of the macabre, he is also regarded as a pioneer in penning detective tales. Will there ever be another writer quite like Poe? Like that raven says, “Nevermore.”
Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
On January 19, 1937, Howard Hughes flew from Los Angeles to Newark in just under 7 & 1/2 hours. His flight was a new transcontinental record.
Image: Hughes in the 1940s via Wikimedia Commons, public domain
On January 19, 1966, Simon & Garfunkel released their hit song Homeward Bound.
The tune is also a track on their third album Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme that was released later that year.
Image of Simon & Garfunkel in 1966 from Joost Evers via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 nl
The death of Confederate General Felix Zollicoffer during the Battle of Mill Springs in Kentucky on January 19, 1862.
Due to poor visibility, Zollicoffer erroneously moved to a position near Union troops from Kentucky thinking that they were fellow Confederates.
Happy Birthday to country music legend Dolly Parton who was born in a one-room cabin on January 19, 1946 in Pittman Center, Tennessee.
Historic view of a popcorn wagon in Raleigh, North Carolina c. 1913
Happy National Popcorn Day!
“These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. When a mind is raised, and animated by the scenes that engage the heart, then those qualities which would otherwise lay dormant, wake into life and form the character of the hero and the statesman.”
From a letter written by Abigail Adams to her son John Quincy Adams on January 19, 1780
Tippi Hedren, who played the role of Melanie Daniels in Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” was born on January 19, 1930 in New Ulm, Minnesota.
She’s also Melanie Griffith’s mother.
Here’s a publicity photo of Tippi and Alfred Hitchcock for the movie “Marnie” in 1964
The Prime Minster of Japan, Eisaku Satō, independently granted permission for the USS Enterprise to port at the U.S. Naval base in Sasebo, Japan on January 19, 1968.
Many in Japan were outraged and protested this decision because it was the first time that a nuclear-powered ship visited their nation. Sasebo is a little over an hour’s drive north of Nagasaki.
Janis Joplin, born January 19, 1943, spent her teen years in Port Arthur, Texas listening to blues records by Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Lead Belly. She was inspired to develop her own unique singing style, giving legendary performances at the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock and releasing popular albums.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, no known copyright, public domain in the US.
