IT’S ELMO’s BIRTHDAY!
Head on over to Elmo’s Facebook Page or the PBS Kids Facebook page to wish him a happy birthday.
Don’t forget, Sesame Street’s on Tumblr!
Would you like to share some Tumblr love for Elmo?
JANUARY 17: Happy 90th, Betty
Watch Betty White on the Early Days of TV on PBS.
Play the Betty White Quiz!
JANUARY 12, 2010: MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE STUNS HAITI
On this day in 2010, a magnitude-7 earthquake rocked Haiti, killing some 223,000 people and leaving 1.5 million homeless.
Two years later, the capital Port-au-Prince shows many signs of rebuilding among the remnants of the quake.
The PBS Newshour presents a photo essay highlighting the progress in Haiti over the last two years.
Photo: Larisa Epatko
JANUARY 11, 1908:
THE GRAND CANYON IS NAMED A NATIONAL MONUMENT
On this day in 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt, an avid outdoorsman, designated the Grand Canyon as a National Monument. Nine years later, it was made into a fully protected National Park.
In 1905, on a tour of the West, President Roosevelt had briefly visited the Grand Canyon. He had never before seen it and was overwhelmed by the sight.
Here is a selection of a few remarks he made to the crowd that had gathered to greet him:
“I want to ask you to do one thing in connection with it, in your own interest and in the interest of the country.
Keep this great wonder of nature as it now is. Leave it as it is. You cannot improve it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it.
What you can do is to keep it for your children, your children’s children, and for all who come after you, as one of the great sights that every American, if he can travel at all, should see.”
Click on the image or go here to watch an excerpt of Ken Burns’s National Parks documentary.
JANUARY 10, 1946: FIRST UN ASSEMBLY MEETS
On January 10, 1946, the first assembly of the United Nations met in London.
Read the full United Nations charter, signed a year earlier on June 26, 1945.
