National Popcorn Day Day 19 of 2008 347 days left in this year

PIDGIN WORD OF THE DAY— Winim kot: Acquitted
HAWAIIAN PROVERB OF THE DAY

On January 20, 1881, King Kalakaua named Princess Liliuokalani as the Hawaiian Regent in his absence, as he boarded a boat to travel the world. No one knew, of course, that he would never return, as he died in San Francisco exactly 10 years later, January 20, 1891. No one in Hawaii knew the King had died until his body arrived by boat on January 28. One wonders if the illegal overthrown of the monarchy just two years later would have succeeded if the King was still around.On this date in 1898, the Pali Road connecting Honolulu with Windward Oahu was finished.

Also on this date in 1900, the fire set in Chinatown to rid Oahu of Bubonic plague (reported earlier in the Maui Almanac) finally burns itself out, with nearly all of Chinatown destroyed.  The plague returned to Hawaii in three years anyway.

On January 19, 1938, the U.S. War Department decided to move lots of shps to Pearl Harbor over the next 16 months, to beef-up security. Those ships did move, and most were destroyed two years later in the attack on Pearl Harbor.

And in the closing of a famous trial — that of the Hawaii 7,  seven men who advocated the overthrow of the U.S. Government in Hawaii — the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned their convictions for treasons, and set them free on this date.

HISTORICAL EVENTS ON THIS DAY — January 19th

• 1825: Ezra Daggett and his nephew, Thomas Kensett, are granted a patent for food storage in tin cans 
• 1919: A “tidal wave” of molasses, 15 meters high x 25 meters wide, kills dozens of workers (Boston) 
• 1937: Millionaire Howard Hughes sets the transcontinental air record
• 1966: Indira Gandhi is elected to be India’s 3rd prime minister 
• 1977: President Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino (Tokyo Rose) 
• 1988: The Beatles are inaugurated into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 
• 1989: President Reagan pardons George Steinbrenner for donating illegal funds to Nixon 
• 2001: President Clinton acknowledges, for the first time, making false statements under oath

BORN ON THIS DAY — January 19th