KIU News

  • Home /
  • KIU News /
  • KIU Trivia: January 19 in the Present and the Past

KIU Trivia: January 19 in the Present and the Past

kiu-trivia-january-19-in-the-present-and-the-past

What’s Happening Today?

National Popcorn Day (USA). This time-honoured snack can be sweet or savoury, caramelized, buttered or plain, moulded into a candied ball, or tossed with nuts and chocolate. However, it is enjoyed, enjoy it on National Popcorn Day, January 19th. The word “corn” in Old English meant “grain” or, more specifically, the most prominent grain grown in a region. When Native Americans introduce their most common grain, maize, to early Europeans, they aptly applied the word “corn.”

Good Memory Day (USA). Why not try one of those on-line brain games to test your memory skills? Or devise your own test at work – cover your eyes and try to remember all the items on your colleague’s desk? Or what about trying to remember the lines from your favourite TV show’s theme song from back when you were a child?

What Happened Today? 

1. In 1915, Georges Claude patented his neon discharge tube. Neon lighting soon became popular for outdoor advertising.

2. In 1966, Indira Gandhi became India's first female prime minister. She was however assassinated on October 31, 1984.

3. In 2007, Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated. The murderer was a 17-year old Turkish nationalist who disagreed with Dink's view on the Turkish denial of the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

Birthdays

1943 – Edward Ssekandi, Uganda’s Vice-President.

1946 – Dolly Parton, legendary American country music artiste.

Sources: Wikipedia, checkiday & bornglorious.com

Picture credit: CNN