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January 1
In 1944, the American magazine Billboard published its first chart ranking the top-performing country music songs in the United States, under the title Most Played Juke Box Folk Records. The Juke Box Folk listing was compiled based on reports from "Billboard representatives" detailing the most-played songs of the genre in jukeboxes from "all the country's leading operating centers", which were averaged to give an overall chart. The first number-one song listed was "Pistol Packin' Mama", which remained in the top spot for the first seven weeks. The song, originally recorded by Al Dexter (pictured) in 1942, had remained hugely popular ever since, and been recorded by many different singers. Dexter was the artist with the most different songs at number one in 1944, topping the chart with "Pistol Packin' Mama", "Rosalita", "Too Late to Worry" and "So Long Pal". Red Foley had the longest unbroken run at number one, spending thirteen consecutive weeks in the top spot in the fall with the patriotic wartime song "Smoke on the Water". (Full list...)
January 5
Old Guildfordians are former pupils of the Royal Grammar School, a selective English independent day school for boys in Guildford, Surrey. Its foundation dates to the death in 1509 of Robert Beckingham, who left a provision in his will to "make a free scole at the Towne of Guldford"; in 1512 a governing body was set up to form the school. The school moved to the present site (pictured) in the upper High Street after the granting of a royal charter from King Edward VI on 27 January 1553. Since the school's founding, notable alumni have included the 75th archbishop of Canterbury, Olympic athletes, the longest-serving speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, several other members of Parliament of the United Kingdom, a founding member of the East India Company, and the 11th premier of New Zealand. (Full list...)
January 8
American singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo has recorded songs for two studio albums. Interested in music from a young age, she took vocal lessons in kindergarten. In 2016, Rodrigo and Madison Hu recorded four original songs for Bizaardvark. Rodrigo contributed several songs to the soundtracks of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, including the solo-written "All I Want" (2019) and "The Rose Song" (2021). In early 2020, she began meeting with record labels and subsequently signed with Geffen Records and Interscope Records. Rodrigo wrote material with Dan Nigro, including the song "Drivers License", which was released as her debut single in January 2021 and experienced commercial success. Nigro produced all eleven tracks on her debut studio album, Sour (2021), a pop, pop-punk, alternative-pop, and bedroom-pop album. They continued working together on Rodrigo's second studio album, Guts (2023), which features twelve tracks. It was preceded by the pop rock single "Vampire" (2023). (Full list...)
January 12
The first season of late-night talk and news satire television program Last Week Tonight with John Oliver originally aired between April 27, 2014, and November 9, 2014, on HBO in the United States. The season was produced by Avalon Television, and the executive producers were host John Oliver, Tim Carvell, James Taylor, and Jon Thoday, with Joe Perota as director. The season contained 24 episodes, each featuring a main segment on that week's news story and several other smaller segments. Last Week Tonight aired on Sundays at 11 pm, each episode having been taped hours before. The show's fifth episode, which dealt with net neutrality in the United States, was credited with influencing the Federal Communications Commission's decision to strongly regulate net neutrality, beginning a phenomenon dubbed the "John Oliver effect". (Full list...)
January 15
The American television miniseries WandaVision won 28 awards from 109 nominations. Created by Jac Schaeffer for the streaming service Disney+ and based on Marvel Comics, it features the characters Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Vision. Elizabeth Olsen (pictured) and Kathryn Hahn received the most acting nominations for the series. It was nominated for twenty-three Primetime Emmy Awards (the most of any limited series in 2021), including for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, and won three Creative Arts Emmy Awards. From major guilds, the series was nominated for a Producers Guild of America Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and a Directors Guild of America Award. The American Film Institute named WandaVision as one of the top television programs of 2021. (Full list...)
January 19
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Ochotonids, colloquially known as pikas, are members of the family Ochotonidae, which consists of small mammals in the order Lagomorpha. They are widespread throughout Asia and western North America, and are generally found in grassland, shrubland, and rocky biomes. Pikas are all roughly the same shape and size, with no tails, ranging from the 11 cm (4 in) long Gansu pika to the 29 cm (11 in) long northern pika (pictured). No species have population estimates and many have not yet had their conservation status evaluated, though the Helan Shan pika, Hoffmann's pika, Ili pika, and Koslov's pika are considered endangered. The 29 extant species of Ochotonidae are contained within a single genus, Ochotona, though that genus is sometimes split into four subgenera: Alienauroa, Conothoa (mountain pikas), Ochotona (shrub-steppe pikas), and Pika (northern pikas). (Full list...)
January 22
Henrikh Mkhitaryan, an Armenian professional footballer, scored 32 international goals between 2007 and 2022 in 95 appearances for the national team. He is Armenia's all-time top scorer, and has the second most appearances for Armenia, behind only Sargis Hovsepyan. He made his debut for the country on 14 January 2007 in a 1–1 draw with Panama and scored his first international goal over two years later against Estonia in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification match. Mkhitaryan scored his only international hat-trick against Guatemala on 29 May 2016 in an official friendly. Guatemala is also statistically his joint favourite opponent, along with Bosnia and Herzegovina, who also conceded three goals from Mkhitaryan. In 2017, he scored six goals for Armenia. It was Mkhitaryan's most prolific year for the team; he scored his final goal for Armenia against Germany on 14 November 2021. (Full list...)
January 26
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The Richard Dawkins Award is an annual prize awarded by the Center for Inquiry (CFI), an American nonprofit organization. Established in 2003, it was initially awarded by the Atheist Alliance of America in coordination with Richard Dawkins and the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. The award was formally moved to CFI in 2019. The award was initially presented by the Atheist Alliance of America to honor an "outstanding atheist" who taught or advocated scientific knowledge and acceptance of nontheism, and raised public awareness. The award is currently presented by the Center for Inquiry to an individual associated with science, scholarship, education, or entertainment, and who "publicly proclaims the values of secularism and rationalism, upholding scientific truth wherever it may lead". The recipient must be approved by Dawkins himself. The first Richard Dawkins Award was received by James Randi, a magician who investigated and debunked various paranormal claims. (Full list...)
January 29
There are forty-two Grade I listed buildings in Maidstone. In the United Kingdom, the term listed building refers to a building or other structure officially designated as being of special architectural, historical or cultural significance; Grade I structures are those considered to be "buildings of exceptional interest". In the Borough of Maidstone, a local government district in the English county of Kent, Grade I buildings include Allington Castle and Leeds Castle (pictured), and many Norman- or medieval-era churches or church related buildings. The greatest concentration of Grade I listed buildings is in central Maidstone, where the Archbishop's Palace, Church of All Saints, the Tithe Barn and the College Gateway form a related group next to the River Medway. (Full list...)