John Ronald Reuel Tolkien
(3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973
    
    
    

English writer and philologist J.R.R. Tolkien was the author of
the high fantasy works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

The great success of these two books led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused him to be popularly
identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature—or, more 
precisely, of high fantasy.   
    

President Franklin Roosevelt (left) and Basil O’Connor
count dimes at the White House desk in 1944, after the
President founded March of Dimes to fight polio.
(March of Dimes)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, an adult victim of polio, founded the
National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which he later
renamed the March of Dimes Foundation, on January 3, 1938.

The biblical site of the Pool of Siloam will be fully open to the
public for the first time in 2,000 years following excavation,
according to a recent announcement from the Israel Antiquities
Authority (IAA), the Israel National Parks Authority (INPA) and
the City of David Foundation (CDF).

The Pool of Siloam is recorded in the Bible in 2 Kings 20:20 after
King Hezekiah made the pool to bring water to Jerusalem and
again in John 9:1-11 when Jesus healed a blind man with mud,
according to the Biblical passage. The IAA announced the
excavation on its Facebook page last week.

Jesus Heals the Blind Man at Pool of Siloam.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Multnomah County is set to swear
in its first female sheriff  Wednesday.

Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell was elected by voters in May. She
currently serves as undersheriff and will be replacing outgoing
Sheriff Mike Reese, who is leaving the position due to term limits.

O’Donnell will become the 41st sheriff of Multnomah County, and
the first woman to serve in the role.

She grew up in Clatskanie, Oregon and moved to the Portland area
to attend the University of Portland. She was first hired as a
corrections deputy with the sheriff’s office in 1996.

Aretha Louise Franklin (March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018)

(FOX NEWS) – Aretha Franklin, whose booming vocals and
powerful personal presence made her one of the great
entertainers in global history, became the first woman
inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on this day in
history, Jan. 3, 1987.

"Aretha Franklin was an artist of passion, sophistication
and command, whose recordings remain anthems that
defined soul music," the Rock Hall writes in its biography
of the performer.

She "was only 25 when she clinched the title of Lady Soul
with her unforgettably proud, sexy, candid and confident
1967 version of Otis Redding’s ‘Respect.’"