January 22 Birthday
Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. She had been queen for sixty-three years, longer than any British monarch before her. Her reign saw the Industrial Revolution transform Britain into the world's leading power, the expansion of the empire to cover a quarter of the globe, and the deaths of her husband Albert (1861), which sent her into a mourning that lasted forty years. She wore black every day after Albert's death. Her last word was reportedly "Bertie" — the name of her son, who would become Edward VII. The Victorian era ended with her, and the 20th century truly began. On January 22, 1973, the Supreme Court decided Roe v. Wade by a vote of 7-2. The opinion, written by Harry Blackmun, held that the right to privacy included a woman's right to choose an abortion. The decision was controversial from the start — it was based on legal reasoning that even supporters found shaky, and it preempted a democratic process that was already liberalizing state laws. Roe was overturned by Dobbs v. Jackson in 2022, fifty years later. The reversal did not settle the question — it moved it back to the states, where it has become more contested than ever. Whatever your position, the fact that the Supreme Court established and then removed a constitutional right is unprecedented in American history. Francis Bacon, born this day in 1561, was the father of empiricism and the scientific method. He argued that knowledge should come from observation and experiment, not from authority and deduction. This was radical — the medieval scholastic tradition held that truth could be reached by reasoning from first principles. Bacon said: go look at the world. He died in 1626 after stuffing a chicken with snow to test whether cold could preserve meat. He caught pneumonia and died. He was right about the chicken. Lord Byron, born this day in 1788, was the most famous poet of his age. He was also the most scandalous — bisexual, incestuous, and exiled from England for behavior that the press could not adequately describe without violating obscenity laws. He sailed to Greece to join the war of independence against the Ottoman Empire and died there at thirty-six, probably of sepsis. The Greeks consider him a national hero. People born on January 22 fall under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 22 include 1901: Queen Victoria dies after 63-year reign, 1973: Supreme Court decides Roe v. Wade, 2006: Evo Morales becomes first indigenous president of Bolivia. Famous people born on January 22 include Francis Bacon (1561), Lord Byron (1788), Linda Blair (1959).