This past week Pope Benedict retired and Mississippi finally ratified the amendment to abolish slavery after over a century.
Queen Elizabeth II takes the reins of power in the U.K. and the gas chamber is used for the first time for the U.S. Death penalty.
The oldest known hominid footprints are found and volleyball becomes a sport.
All this Trivia plus interesting Quotes of the Week, Videos, and more
Happened Last Week and Year in Life.
Monday February 6, 2023
Saint Paul Miki and Companions, Martyrs
Tea with Tolkien@TeawithTolkien (February 6, 2023)
� BREAKING: the ring previously belonging to Bilbo Baggins has just been confirmed to be the One Ring, the Ruling Ring, forged by the Dark Lord Sauron himself
Day 37: The Mystical Works of God — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 37: The Divine Economy — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1579 – The Archdiocese of Manila is made a diocese by a papal bull with Domingo de Salazar being its first bishop.
- 1778 – New York became the third state to ratify the Articles of Confederation.
- 1788 – Massachusetts becomes the sixth state to ratify the United States Constitution.
- 1918 – British women over the age of 30 who meet minimum property qualifications, get the right to vote when Representation of the People Act 1918 is passed by Parliament.
- 1919 – The American Legion is founded.
- 1937-“Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck is published.
“As happens sometimes, a moment settled and hovered and remained for much more than a moment. And sound stopped and movement stopped for much, much more than a moment.”
― Of Mice and Men
- 1950-Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York is born.
- 1952 – Elizabeth II becomes Queen of the United Kingdom and her other Realms and Territories and Head of the Commonwealth upon the death of her father, George VI. At the exact moment of succession, she was in a tree house at the Treetops Hotel in Kenya.
- 1978 – The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of four inches an hour.
- 2012 – A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits the central Philippine island of Negros, leaving 112 people dead.
- 2016 – An earthquake of magnitude 6.6 strikes southern Taiwan, killing 117 people.
- 2023 – Two earthquakes of magnitudes 7.8 and 7.5 Mw strike near the border between Turkey and Syria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent). The earthquake resulted in numerous aftershocks and a death toll of more than 3,000 people.
Bishop Thomas Tobin@ThomasJTobin1 (February 7, 2023) Praying for the victims of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Behind the massive and widespread destruction, there will be so many tragic stories of loss for individuals and families. May God grant each of them consolation, peace and hope.
Quote of the Day
R Bratten Weiss@Prof_RBW (February 6, 2023) You know what, if you let yourself get fascinated with insects, you will very rarely be bored. They are everywhere, and so weird and intriguing. Like moths alone. Just moths.
Tuesday February 7, 2023
Day 38: The Ten Commandments — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 38: Summary of the Trinity — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1497 – In Florence, Italy, supporters of Girolamo Savonarola burn cosmetics, art, and books, in a “Bonfire of the vanities“.
- 1795 – The 11th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
- 1900 – A Chinese immigrant in San Francisco falls ill to bubonic plague in the first plague epidemic in the continental United States.
- 1940 – The second full-length animated Walt Disney film, Pinocchio, premieres.
- 1979 – Pluto moves inside Neptune‘s orbit for the first time since either was discovered.
- 1991 – Haiti‘s first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, is sworn in.
- 1995 – Ramzi Yousef, the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is arrested in Islamabad, Pakistan.
- 2013 – The U.S. state of Mississippi officially certifies the Thirteenth Amendment, becoming the last state to approve the abolition of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment was formally ratified by Mississippi in 1995.
- 2014 – Scientists announce that the Happisburgh footprints in Norfolk, England, date back to more than 800,000 years ago, making them the oldest known hominid footprints outside Africa.
- 2016 – North Korea launches Kwangmyŏngsŏng-4 into outer space violating multiple UN treaties and prompting condemnation from around the world.
- 2023-President Joe Biden accused the GOP of threatening to take away Americans’ Medicare and Social Security, prompting boos and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., to shout, “Liar!”
Quote of the Day
Owl! at the Library ��♀️@SketchesbyBoze (February 7, 2023) Hard to take Sherlock Holmes seriously when you remember that Arthur Conan Doyle waged a public campaign to convince the world that fairies were real after seeing this photograph. Obviously fairies are real but they would *never* allow themselves to be photographed.
Wednesday February 8, 2023
Saint Jerome Emiliani; Saint Josephine Bakhita, Virgin
Day 39: Slavery in the Old Testament — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 39: The Father Almighty — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1587 – Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
- 1837 – Richard Johnson becomes the first Vice President of the United States chosen by the United States Senate.
- 1865 – Delaware refuses to ratify the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Slavery was outlawed in the United States, including Delaware, when the Amendment was ratified by the requisite number of states on December 6, 1865. Delaware ratified the Thirteenth Amendment on February 12, 1901, which was the ninety-second anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln.
- 1924 – Capital punishment: The first state execution in the United States by gas chamber takes place in Nevada.
- 1960 – The Hollywood Walk of Fame is established.
- 1974 – After 84 days in space, the crew of Skylab 4, the last crew to visit American space station Skylab, returns to Earth.
- 1978 – Proceedings of the United States Senate are broadcast on radio for the first time.
- 1990-George de Mestral (June 19, 1907 – February 8, 1990) dies. He was the Swiss electrical engineer genius who gave us the revolutionary hook and loop fastener known as Velcro in 1952.
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Quote of the Day
Pope Francis@Pontifex (, 2023) May we work together against human trafficking, walking with those who are destroyed by the violence of sexual and labour exploitation, as well as with migrants and displaced persons. May we courageously reaffirm the value of human dignity! #PrayAgainstTraffickingLet’s #PrayTogether for the peoples of Türkiye and Syria hard hit by the earthquakes that have caused thousands of deaths and injuries. I thank those who are working to provide relief, and I encourage everyone to offer their solidarity.
Thursday February 9, 2023
Miguel Febres Cordero (1854–1910), De La Salle Brother (Ecuador)
Day 40: Laws of Justice — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 40: God Is the Creator — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1621 – Gregory XV becomes Pope, the last Pope elected by acclamation.
- 1825 – After no candidate receives a majority of electoral votes in the US presidential election of 1824, the United States House of Representatives elects John Quincy Adams as sixth President of the United States in a contingent election.
- 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis is elected the Provisional President of the Confederate States of America by the Provisional Confederate Congress at Montgomery, Alabama
- 1870 – US president Ulysses S. Grant signs a joint resolution of Congress establishing the U.S. Weather Bureau.
- 1889 – US president Grover Cleveland signs a bill elevating the United States Department of Agriculture to a Cabinet-level agency.
- 1895 – William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
- 1964 – The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, performing before a record-setting audience of 73 million viewers across the United States.
- 2021 – Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump begins.
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Quote of the Day
Fr. Paul Keller, CMF@keller_cmf (Feb 9, 2023) Official documents and statements of the magisterium of the Church are…well…magisterial…not the blog post of the Catholic commentator who agrees with you that you were able to find in your Google search results.
Friday February 10, 2023
José Sánchez del Río/Saint Scholastica
Song of the Week
Saint Scholastica, Virgin
Day 41: The Day of Atonement — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 41: Origins and Ends — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1355 – The St Scholastica Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days.
- 1861 – Jefferson Davis is notified by telegraph that he has been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America.
- 1933 – In round 13 of a boxing match at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocks out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf dies four days
- 1954 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns against United States intervention in Vietnam.
- 1962 – Cold War: Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.
- 1967 – The 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified.
- 1982-Phase 10 is created by game inventor Kenneth R. Johnson in Detroit, Michigan at age 22, Phase 10 is a rummy-type game with a twist.
- 2021 – The traditional Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is canceled for the first time because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Quote of the Day
Father Jim Sichko@JimSichko (February 10, 2023) Today, at a very tense breakfast meeting someone pointed at me with their ruler and said: “At the end of this ruler is an idiot!!” I paused and then calmly asked the person, to which end they were referring? EEEEEEEEEEHenry Alt on FB (February 10 ,2023)I just reread e.e. cummings’ “the cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls,” and now I think my life as a writer is vanity, vanity, all of it is vanity.
The part about the moon “rattling like a fragment of angry candy.” I feel like a miserable pretender beside that description. I’ll have writer’s block for months because of it.
Saturday February 11, 2023
Day 42: Moral Laws — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 42: The Work of Creation — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 660 BC – Traditional date for the foundation of Japan by Emperor Jimmu.
- 1534 – Henry VIII of England is recognized as supreme head of the Church of England.
- 1794 – First session of United States Senate opens to the public.
- 1858 – Bernadette Soubirous‘s first vision of the Blessed Virgin Mary occurs in Lourdes, France.
- 1906 – Pope Pius X publishes the encyclical Vehementer Nos.
- 1938 – BBC Television produces the world’s first ever science fiction television programme, an adaptation of a section of the Karel Čapek play R.U.R., that coined the term “robot“.
- 1990 – Nelson Mandela is released from Victor Verster Prison outside Cape Town, South Africa after 27 years as a political prisoner.
- 1990 – Buster Douglas, a 42:1 underdog, knocks out Mike Tyson in ten rounds at Tokyo to win boxing‘s world Heavyweight title.
- 1997 – Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on a mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope.
- 1999 – Pluto crosses Neptune’s orbit, ending a nearly 20-year period when it was closer to the Sun than the gas giant; Pluto is not expected to interact with Neptune’s orbit again until 2231.
- 2013 – The Vatican confirmed that Pope Benedict XVI would resign the papacy as a result of his advanced age.
- 2020 – COVID-19 pandemic: The World Health Organization officially names the coronavirus outbreak as COVID-19, with the virus being designated SARS-CoV-2.
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Quote of the Day
Jan �������@RosaryMum (Feb 11, 2023)
We are the smile of God �“Mary first taught Bernadette to know her smile, this being the most appropriate point of entry into the revelation of her mystery.”
Pope Benedict XVI
Homily, Lourdes, September 2008Our Lady of Lourdes – pray for us
Sunday February 12, 2023
Day 43: The Ark of the Covenant — The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube
Day 43: Creation Is Good — The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) – YouTube

Here’s What Happen Last Week and Year in Life.
- 1404 – The Italian professor Galeazzo di Santa Sophie performed the first post-mortem autopsy for the purposes of teaching and demonstration at the Heiligen–Geist Spital in Vienna.
- 1855 – Michigan State University is established.
- 1909 – The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is founded.
- 1946 – African American United States Army veteran Isaac Woodard is severely beaten by a South Carolina police officer to the point where he loses his vision in both eyes. The incident later galvanizes the civil rights movement and partially inspires Orson Welles‘ film Touch of Evil.
- 1947 – The largest observed iron meteorite until that time creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union.
- 1993 – Two-year-old James Bulger is abducted from New Strand Shopping Centre by two ten-year-old boys, who later torture and murder him.
- 1994 – Four thieves break into the National Gallery of Norway and steal Edvard Munch‘s iconic painting The Scream.
- 1999 – United States President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the United States Senate in his impeachment trial.
- 2016 – Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill sign an Ecumenical Declaration in the first such meeting between leaders of the Catholic and Russian Orthodox Churches since their split in 1054.
- 2019 – The country known as the Republic of Macedonia renames itself the Republic of North Macedonia in accordance with the Prespa agreement, settling a long-standing naming dispute with Greece.
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Quote of the Day
Pedro Gabriel Writer@pedrogabwriter (February 12, 2023) The Christian gospel is “God incarnated, gave His life for us to save us, and resurrected so we’ll have eternal life. He did this without any merits of our own, which means he loves us as we are, but he wants to lead us away from sin. Repent and correspond to His love”