Dear Readers,
January jottings with an Italian connection.
For all my readers born before 1945 consider the changes we have witnessed as we begin 2023. We were born before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen food, Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, frisbees, and the pill. We were born before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ballpoint pens. Before pantyhose, dishwashers, clothes dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners, drip-dry clothes … and before man walked on the Moon.
We got married first and then lived together. How quaint can you be? In our time, closets were for clothes, not for “coming out of.” Bunnies were small rabbits, and bugs were not Volkswagens. We thought fast food was what you ate during Lent, and chip meant a piece of wood. Hardware meant hardware, and software wasn’t even a word.
“Grass” was mowed, “coke” was a cold drink and “pot” was something your nonna boiled water in to cook spaghetti for the family…
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January Almanac (Italic Institute of America):
Named after the Roman god Janus who was depicted with two faces, one looking to the past, the other to the future.
January 1
Astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid in 1801 from his observatory in Palermo. He named it Ceres, after the mythological patroness of Sicily.
January 2
Singer Julius La Rosa, born in 1930, sang E Cumpari to the top of the charts in every Italian American neighborhood in the U.S., Canada, and beyond.
January 3
Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero was born in 107 BC.
Benito Mussolini assumed dictatorial powers in 1925.
January 4
In 1954 RAI, Italy’s national radio and television network initiated its first broadcast.
January 5
The city of Rome began the use of gas street lamps in 1854.
Catherine de Medici, who brought Italian culture and cuisine to France, died in 1589 at the age of 69.
January 6
Count Giacomo Beltrami died in 1855. He first explored the Mississippi river to its source in 1825. Beltrami County, MN, is named after him.
January 7
In 1610, Galileo discovered the four largest satellites of the planet Jupiter.
January 8
Ella Grasso of CT was inaugurated in 1975 as the first elected female governor in the U.S.
Marco Polo died in Venice in 1324 after a life of travel and adventures. His tales of the Orient inspired Europe to search for shorter routes to East Asia. The discovery of America was one of the surprising results.
January 9
Legend has it that pretzels were invented by an Italian monk in AD 610 to resemble arms across the chest in prayer.
January 10
In 49 BC, Roman consul Gaius Julius Caesar led his army across the Rubicon river and marched to Rome to assert his power. Two millennia later, the phrase “crossing the Rubicon” will still be used to describe any bold or decisive action.
January 11
In 1964, U.S. surgeon general Luther Terry issued the first government warning stating that smoking may be hazardous to a person’s health.
January 12
Teatro San Carlo opened in Naples in 1817.
The first Italian rocket was launched off the island of Sardegna in 1961, reaching an altitude of one hundred miles.
January 14
Puccini’s Tosca premiered in 1900, in Rome.
January 16
Italian dramatist/poet Vittorio Alfieri was born in 1749. He is considered the “Founder of Italian tragedies.”
January 17
In 1943, Italian military commanders in France refused German demands to turn over all Jews in their zones of occupation.
January 18
Italian racer Alberto Ascari in a Ferrari took first place in the first edition of the Formula One Argentine Grand Prix in Buenos Aires in 1953.
January 19
Verdi’s Il Trovatore premiered in 1853, in Rome.
January 20
Film director Federico Fellini was born in 1920.
January 21
Albert Dean Rosellini was born in 1910. He served as governor of Washington State from 1957 to 1965, the first Italian American and Roman Catholic governor elected west of the Mississippi river.
January 22
Angelo Rossi was born in 1878. He served as mayor of San Francisco from 1931 to 1944. The Golden Gate Bridge project was undertaken during his administration.
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New Year’s Resolutions by Father Larry N. Lorenzoni, S.D.B.:
Last year I made a list of things
That I resolved to do
I’ll use that list again this year,
It’s still as good as new!
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