World War II restrictions cut deep into every American pantry
as federal officials announced that sliced bread would be
rationed on this day in history, Jan. 18, 1943.

"I should like to let you know how important sliced bread is to
the morale and saneness of a household," distraught mother
Sue Forrester of Fairfield, Connecticut, claiming to speak on
behalf of America’s housewives, lamented in a New York Times
letter to the editor.

Wartime rationing had already caused severe restrictions on
the nation’s household food supply.

Basic resources were devoted in ever-growing volume to the
war effort in 1943, as the tide of battle turned and the U.S. and
its Allies went on the offensive across the vast expanse of two
oceans.

Bread rationing marked the depths of sacrifices on the home
front. 

Young boy with a war ration book at a supermarket, as
children were taught the facts of point rationing during
the war.

After a two-month ordeal, the expedition of British explorer
Robert Falcon Scott arrived at the South Pole only to find
that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded
them by just over a month. Disappointed, the exhausted
explorers prepared for a long and difficult journey back to
their base camp.

Weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad, two
members perished and Scott and the other two survivors
were trapped in their tent by a storm only 11 miles from
their base camp. Scott wrote a final entry in his diary in
late March. A search party discovered their frozen bodies
eight months later. In his final journal entry, Scott wrote,
"We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker,
of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity, but
I do not think I can write more…For God’s sake look after
our people."

        
 
Edward Adrian Wilson, Robert Falcon Scott, Lawrence
Oates, Henry Robertson Bowers and Edgar Evans at
the South Pole.

1-17-1938

Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959)

Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, designer,
writer, and educator. He designed over 1,000 structures
a creative period of 70 years and played a key role in the
architectural movements of the twentieth century, and
influenced architects worldwide.

On January 17, 1966, the National Broadcasting Corporation
ordered 32 episodes of a new TV show, "The Monkees," for
its upcoming fall schedule. Little did producers know that the
fake pop music band they were launching would become an
actual pop culture sensation—whose records would even
outsell the Beatles. The sitcom aired from 1966 to 1968.

Benjamin Franklin  (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790)

Benjamin Franklin, scientist, philosopher, author and the
most celebrated American on both sides of the Atlantic
Ocean in the era of revolution, was born on this day in
history, Jan. 17, 1706. 

The Founding Father’s bust and the words "Birthplace of
Franklin" mark the site at 17 Milk St. in downtown Boston
today. 

Benjamin Franklin statue at old Massachusetts
State house in Boston.