January 13 Birthday
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash walked into Folsom Prison and recorded a live album. He had been performing at prisons since 1957, but the Folsom recording was different — it was raw, confrontational, and electric. The opening song, "Folsom Prison Blues," includes the line "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die," and the inmates erupted. Cash performed for men who understood that line literally. The album was produced by Bob Johnston, who had to fight Columbia Records to release it. It became Cash's best-selling album and revitalized his career. He had been in decline, addicted to pills, and the prison performances were his way of reconnecting with the audience that mattered most to him. He followed up with a recording at San Quentin in 1969. In 1842, Dr. William Brydon rode into Jalalabad on a dying horse, the only European to survive the British retreat from Kabul. The British Army of the Indus, 16,500 soldiers and camp followers, had left Kabul a week earlier under a promise of safe passage. They were ambushed repeatedly in the mountain passes. The last stand was at Gandamak, where the remaining twenty men fought with bayonets until overwhelmed. Brydon was the only one to reach the British garrison. The First Anglo-Afghan War was a catastrophic humiliation for the British Empire, and it taught them nothing. They invaded Afghanistan again in 1878, 1919, and 2001. The Council of Troyes, on this day in 1129, formally recognized the Knights Templar as a religious order. The Templars were founded in 1119 by Hugues de Payens, a French knight who gathered eight companions to protect pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem. They took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and wore white mantles with red crosses. They became the first international banking system — pilgrims could deposit money at a Templar house in Europe and withdraw it in the Holy Land using a coded letter. The Templars grew wealthy, which made them dangerous to kings. Philip IV of France, deeply in debt to the order, arrested every Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307, and tortured them into confessions of heresy. The superstition about Friday the 13th may originate here. Sophia Loren was born on this day in 1934. She grew up in Pozzuoli, a fishing town near Naples, so poor that she was nicknamed "the toothpick" by neighbors. She became the first actor to win an Oscar for a performance in a language other than English, for Two Women in 1961. She is still alive. People born on January 13 fall under the zodiac sign of Capricorn. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 13 include 1129: Council of Troyes formally approves the Knights Templar, 1842: Dr. William Brydon, sole European survivor of Kabul retreat, reaches Jalalabad, 1968: Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison. Famous people born on January 13 include Sophia Loren (1934), Robert Stack (1919), Liam Hemsworth (1990).