Benedict Arnold (January 14, 1741 – June 14, 1801) was an American military officer. He was a general in the Revolutionary War fighting for the Continental Army and had George Washington’s complete trust. He betrayed that trust and was paid £6,000 as a lump sum and then received a monthly pension of £360. King George III and the Tories loved him in England while the Whigs disapproved of his decision. Arnold lived in Canada for some time before moving to London, where he died basically of old age. The quote above is probably apocryphal. But a nice thought.

Michael Bond (January 13, 1926 – June 27, 2017) was a British author. He wrote children’s books featuring Paddington Bear. There have been more than 35 million of his books sold around the world. His first book in the series was called A Bear Called Paddington and was printed in 1958. He wrote 70 books in the series and two films were made based on his title character. A final book was published posthumously and issued on June 27, 2018 to mark the anniversary of the author’s death and the 60^th anniversary of Paddington Bear’s creation.

Edmund Burke (January 12, 1729 – July 9, 1797) was an Anglo-Irish philosopher and statesman. He was born in Dublin and served as a member of parliament in the House of Commons as a member of the Whig Pary. He was a supporter of the American colonies and their resistance to extreme taxation. He supported Catholic emancipation and was noted as a supporter of the Warren Hastings impeachment from the East India Company.

* Photo by unknown at Flickr a State Library of Queensland, CC 2.0 https://www.flickr.com/photos/statelibraryqueensland/3989364752

Abraham Joshua Heschel (January 11, 1907 – December 23, 1972) was a Polish born American rabbi. He was one of the leading Jewish philosophers and theologians of the 20^th century. In 1938, while living in Germany, he was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Poland. He fled Poland just six weeks before the German invasion. He made his way to London and eventually to the US. He worked as a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America and wrote several books on the topics of philosophy and theology in the Jewish religion. He was also active in the civil rights movement.

Linda Lovelace (January 10, 1949 – April 22, 2002) was an American pornographic actress best known for her performance in Deep Throat. In her autobiography, Ordeal written in 1980 she wrote that her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor, forced her to perform in the above movie. She was married to Traynor from 1971 to 1974 and after freeing herself from his abuse, she became a born again Christian and a spokesperson for the anti-pornography movement.

Richard Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was an American politician who served as the US President from 1969 until his resignation in 1974 – the only President to resign from office. During his campaign for a second term, five men were caught breaking into the Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate complex. It was this debacle that led to Nixon’s resignation on August 9, 1974.

Carl Rogers (January 8, 1902 – February 4, 1987) was an American psychologist. As one of the founders of the humanistic or client centered approach to psychology, he is considered to be one of the fathers of the science. In 1956, he received an Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions from the American Psychological Association (APA). In 1972 they also awarded him the Distinguished Professional Contributions to Psychology award.

Nicolas Kim Coppola (a.k.a. Nicolas Cage) (January 7, 1964) is an American actor and filmmaker. His first film appearance was in Fast Times at Ridgemont High and he won an Academy Award for his performance in Leaving Las Vegas. He made his directorial debut with Sonny, made in 2002. He is divorced from his fourth wife – filing for an annulment just four days after they were married. His only son was born to Christina Fulton, not one of his wives.

Kahlil Gibran (January 6, 1883 – April 10, 1931) was a Lebanese-American writer, poet, and visual artist. While others considered him to be a philosopher, this is a job description he rejected. He is the author of The Prophet which is one of the best selling books of all times and has been translated into over 100 languages. It has not been out of print since it was first published in 1923.

Jeane Dixon (January 5, 1904 – January 25, 1997) was an American psychic and astrologer. She ran a syndicated newspaper astrology column which helped to increase her popularity. Some of her predictions came true while others, including her prediction that Richard Nixon would win the Presidential election in 1960 were dismal failures.