January 29 Birthday
On January 29, 1845, "The Raven" appeared in the New York Evening Mirror under the pseudonym "Quarles." Edgar Allan Poe was paid approximately $9 for it — possibly $15, accounts vary. The poem was immediately popular. It was reprinted in newspapers across the country and recited at social gatherings. Poe became famous, though not wealthy, from a single poem. "The Raven" is a masterpiece of sound — the internal rhymes, the repetition of "Nevermore," the trochaic meter that mimics a heartbeat accelerating and then slowing. Poe was found semiconscious on a Baltimore street on October 3, 1849, wearing someone else's clothes. He died four days later. The cause of death remains unknown. The Baseball Hall of Fame elected its first class on this day in 1936: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. The Hall of Fame did not yet have a building — it would open in Cooperstown, New York, in 1939. Cobb received the most votes, 222 out of 226 ballots. The selection criteria stated that a player had to be retired for at least five years. Cobb had retired in 1928. He was widely hated by fellow players and fans — he once climbed into the stands to beat a man with no hands — but his batting average of .367 remains the highest in Major League Baseball history. On January 29, 2002, President George W. Bush delivered his State of the Union address, in which he named Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as an "axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." The phrase was written by speechwriter David Frum. The speech set the rhetorical framework for the invasion of Iraq, which occurred fourteen months later. No weapons of mass destruction were found. The war killed over 4,400 American service members and an estimated 200,000 to 600,000 Iraqi civilians. The three nations named had no operational alliance — the term "axis" was a rhetorical echo of the Axis powers of World War II. Oprah Winfrey, born this day in 1954, was so poor as a child in rural Mississippi that she wore dresses made of potato sacks. She became the first Black billionaire in North America and the most influential media figure of her era. Her endorsement of Barack Obama in 2008 was estimated by economists to have brought him one million votes. She has given away more than $400 million to educational causes. People born on January 29 fall under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 29 include 1845: Edgar Allan Poe publishes "The Raven" in the New York Evening Mirror, 1936: Baseball Hall of Fame elects its first inductees (Cobb, Ruth, Wagner, Mathewson, Johnson), 2002: George W. Bush delivers "axis of evil" State of the Union address. Famous people born on January 29 include Tom Selleck (1945), Oprah Winfrey (1954), Greg Louganis (1960).