Tuesday, January 31, 2012

31st of January

Today is the 31st day of the year, with only 334 days remaining until the end of the year.

1606 - Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting and involvement in the Gunpowder Plot against Parliament and James I of England.

1747 - The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital.

1848 - John C. Fremont is court-martialed for mutiny and disobeying orders.

1865 - The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, submitting it to the states for ratification.

1865 - Confederate General Robert E. Lee, becomes general-in-chief.

1876 - The United States orders all Native Americans to move into reservations.

1915 - Germany uses poison gas against Russia.

1917 - Germany announces that is U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.

1929 - The Soviet Union exiles Leon Trotsky.

1930 - 3M begins marketing Scotch Tape.

1944 - During Anzio campaign 1st Ranger Battalion, Darby's Rangers, is destroyed behind enemy lines in a heavily outnumbered encounter at Battle of Cisterna, Italy.

1945 - US Army private Eddie Slovik is executed for desertion, the first such execution of an American soldier since the civil War.

1950 - President Harry Truman announces a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

1958 - Explorer 1 is the first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.

1968 - Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.

1990 - Interestingly enough, the first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.

Monday, January 30, 2012

30th of January

It is the 30th day of the year, with 335 days remaining until the new year.

1661 - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed two years after his death, on the anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.

1790 - The first boat specializing as a lifeboat is test on the River Tyne.

1835 - In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen.

1862 - The first American ironclad warship, the USS Monitor is launched.

1933 - Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

1945 - The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,400 people.

1959 - MS Hans Hedtoft, said to be the safest ship afloat and "unsinkable" like the RMS Titanic, struck an iceberg on her maiden voyage and sank, killing all 95 on board.

1969 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London.  The impromptu is broken up by police.

1971 - Carole King's Tapestry album is released, it would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide.

1982 - Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is only 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program known as Elk Cloner.

1994 - Peter Leko becomes the youngest chess grand master at the age of 14.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

29th of January

Today is the 29th day of the year, with only 336 days remaining.

1834 - President Andrew Jackson orders first use of federal soldiers to suppress a labor dispute.

1845 - "The Raven" is published in the New York Evening Mirror, the first publication with the name of the author, Edgar Allan Poe.

1850 - Henry Clay introduces the Compromise of 1850 to the United States Congress.

1861 - Kansas is admitted as the 34th U.S. state.

1886 - Karl Benz patents the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

1891 - Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaii, its last monarch.

1900 - The American League is organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with 8 founding teams.

1916 - Paris is first bombed by German zeppelins.

1936 - The first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame are announced.

1963 - The first inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame are announced.

2002 - In his State of the Union Address, President George W. Bush, describes "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of Evil, in which he includes Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

28th of January

Today is the 28th day of the year, with only 337 days remaining until the new year.

1547 - King Henry VIII dies.  His nine-year-old son, Edward VI becomes king and the first Protestant ruler of England.

1624 - Sir Thomas Warner founds the first British colony in the Caribbean, on the island of Saint Kitts.

1855 - The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway.

1887 - In a snowstorm at Fort Keogh, Montana, the world's largest snowflakes are reported, 15 inches wide and 8 inches thick.

1896 - Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding.  He is fined 1 shilling, plus costs for speeding 8 mph, thus being 6 mph over the contemporary limit of 2 mph.

1909 - United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, after being there since the Spanish-American War.

1915 - An act of Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.

1917 - Municipally owned streetcars take to the streets of San Francisco, California.

1934 - The first ski tow begins operation in Vermont.

1956 - Elvis Presley makes his first US television appearance.

1958 - The LEGO company patents the design of its famous bricks, still compatible with the construction blocks they produce today.

1985 - Supergroup United Support of Artists for Africa, records the hit single, We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.

Friday, January 27, 2012

27th of January

Today is the 27th day of the year, with only 338 days remaining until the end of the year.

98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva.

1606 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators on the Gunpowder Plot, begins.

1825 - Congress approves Indian Territory, clearing the way for forced relocation of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears.

1939 - Marks the first flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

1943 - The VIII Bomber Command dispatched 91 B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-Boat construction yards at Wilhemshafen, Germany.  The first American bombing attack on Germany.

1944 - The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

1945 - In Poland, the Red Army liberates the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

1951 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flat.

1967 - Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft.

1973 - The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War.  Colon William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.

1984 - Pop singer Michael Jackson suffers second degree burns to his scalp during the filming of a Pepsi commercial in the Shrine Auditorium.

1996 - Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

2003 - The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.

2006 - Western Telegram discontinues its Telegram and Commercial Messaging service.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

26th of January

Today is the 26th day of the year, with only 339 days remaining.

1564 - The Council of Trent issues its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th state to the Union.

1861 - The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.

1863 - General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac, after the disastrous Fredericksburg Campaign.  He is replaced with Joseph Hooker.

1863 - John Albion Andrew, Governor of Massachusetts, receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.

1905 - The world's largest diamond ever, the Cullinan weighing 3,106.75 carats, is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.

1907 - The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III is officially introduced into British Military Service, and remains the second oldest military rifle still in official use.

1911 - Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful American seaplane.

1920 - Former Ford executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company, then later sold to his former employer.

1934 - The Apollo theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.

1945 - The Red Army begins encircling the German Fourth Army near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia, which will end in destruction of the 4th Army two months later.

1960 - Danny Heater sets a worldwide high school basketball scoring record when he records 135 points Burnsville High School in West Virginia.

1998 - On American television, President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

2001 - An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.

2004 - A whale explodes in the town of Tainan, Taiwan.  A build-up of gas in the decomposing sperm whale is suspected as the cause of the explosion.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

25th of January

Today is the 25th day of the year, with only 340 days remaining until the new year.

41 - After one night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.

1787 - American Daniel Shays leads a rebellion to seize a Federal arsenal to protest debtor's prisons.

1858 - The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria and Friedrich of Prussia.

1881 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.

1890 - Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

1919 - The League of Nations is founded.

1945 - The famous Battle of the Bulge ends.

1949 - At the Hollywood Athletic Club, the first Emmy Awards are presented.

1961 - In Washington, D.C., John F. Kennedy, delivers the first live presidential television news conference.

1971 - Charles Manson and three female "family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.

1996 - Billy Bailey becomes the last person to be hanged in the United States of America.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

24th of January

Today is the 24th day of the year with 341 days remaining.

41 - Gaius Caesar, known as Caligula, and his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards.  Claudius succeeds his nephew.

1848 - James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.

1943 - Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude their conference at Casablanca.

1961 - The Goldsboro B-52 crash occurs, when a bomber carrying two hydrogen bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina.  The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.

1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale to the public.

1986 - Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 kilometers, over 50,600 miles of Uranus.

2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

Monday, January 23, 2012

23rd of January

It is the 23rd day of the year with only 342 days remaining.

393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I, proclaims is nine-year-old son Honrius co-emperor.

971 - In China, the war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao, by crossbow fire fron Song Dynasty troops/

1510 - Henry VIII of England, then 18-years-old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.

1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history, hits Shaanxi province, China.  The death toll may have been as high as 830,000 people.

1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her doctorate, by the Geneva Medical College in New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.

1870 - In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kills 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the Maris Massacre.

1897 - Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.  The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.

1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American United States Senator.

1941 - Charles Lindbergh, testifies before Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

1943 - Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

1960 - The babyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 meters or 35,798 feet in the Pacific Ocean.

1964 - The 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

1973 - President Richard Nixon that a peace accord has been established in Vietnam.

1986 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis Presley.

1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

2002 - Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped while on assignment in Karachi, Pakistan.  He is subsequently was murdered by beheading by members of Al-Qaeda in a national incident.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

22nd of January

Today is the 22nd day of the year, with only 343 days remaining until the end of the year.

1506 - The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.

1927 - The first live radio commentary of a soccer match in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

1944 - The Allies commences Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio, Italy.

1957 - The New York City "Mad Bombeer," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

1973 - The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe Vs. Wade, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.

1984 - The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous television commercial.

1987 - Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself during a televised press conference, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism.

1990 - Robert Tappan Morris Jr., is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet Computer worm.

2002 - Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

21st of January

It is the 21st day of the year and there are only 344 days remaining.

1525 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zurich.  This breaks a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.

1793 - After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI is executed by guillotine.

1861 - Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.

1899 - Opel manufactures its first automobile.

1911 - The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.

1950 - Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.

1954 - The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, First Lady of the United States.

1960 - Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.

1968 - The Battle of Khe Sanh begins, as one of the most publicized and controversial battles of the Vietnam War.

1968 - A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures.  One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.

1977 - President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam Wat draft evaders.

1981 - Production of the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland.

1997 - Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.

1999 - In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms or 9,500 pounds of cocaine on board.

Friday, January 20, 2012

20th of January

It is the 20th day of the year, with only 345 days remaining until the new year.

In ancient astronomy, it was the cusp day between Capricorn and Aquarius.  In some years it is Aquarius, but in others Capricorn.

1265 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster.

1783 - The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American War of Independence.

1801 - John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.

1885 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.

1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.

1929 - In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, is released.

1934 - Fujifilm, the photographic and electric company, is founded in Tokyo, Japan.

1942 - At The Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the "Final Solution to the Jewish Question."

1945 - Germany begins evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task will take nearly two months.

1959 - The first flight of the Vickers Vanguard takes place.

1981 - Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated, at age 69 the oldest man ever to be U.S. President, Iran releases 52 American hostages.

1986 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

2007 - A three-man team, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile trek to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1958 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

19th of January

Today is the 19th day of the year, with 346 days remaining.

1861 - Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.

1862 - The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict at the Battle of Mill Springs.

1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1915 - Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertsiing.

1915 - German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more thatn 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1935 - Coopers Inc sells the world's first briefs.

1937 - Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, and 25 seconds.

1945 - Soviet forces liberate the Lodz ghetto.  Out of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

1953 - 68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy, in order to watch Lucy give birth.

1977 - President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino, more commonly known as Tokyo Rose.

1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida.  This is the only time that snow has fallen, and the white stuff also reached the Bahamas.

1978 - The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves the plant in Emden, Germany.  Beetle production continued in Latin America until 2003.

1983 - Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

1983 - The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc., to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

1986 - The first computer virus is released into the wild is one dubbed (c)Brain, created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.

2006 - The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

18th of January

Today is the 18th day of the year, with 347 days remaining.

1535 - Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds Lima, the capital of Peru.

1778 - James Cook is the first European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, he names them the Sandwich Islands.

1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany, is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War.  To the native Germans, the empire is known as the Second Reich.

1886 - Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.

1896 - The x-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.

1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII, the first transatlantic radio transmission.

1911 - Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Franciso harbor, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

1919 - The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.

1919 - Bentley Motors Limited is founded.

1943 - The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

1944 - The Metropolitan Opera House, hosts a jazz concert for the first time.  The performers include Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge, and jack Teagarden.

1944 - Soviet forces finally liberate Leningrad, effectively ending the three year siege by Nazi occupation forces.

1958 - Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian Hockey League player, makes his National Hockey League debut.

1967 - Albert DeSalvo, known as the Boston Strangler, is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

1983 - The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.

1993 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all fifty states.

2005 - The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

17th of January

It is the 17th day of the year, with only 348 days remaining until the new year.

1608 - Emperor Susenyos of Ethiopia surprises an Oromo army at Ebenat, his army reportedly kills 12,000 Oromo at the cost of 400 of his own men.

1773 - Captain James cook and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.

1781 - At the Battle of Cowpens, Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton in South Carolina.

1811 - In the Battle of Calderon Bridge, a heavily outnumbered Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats nearly 100,000 Mexican revolutionists during their War of Independence.

1917 - The United States pays Denmark $25 million or the Virgin Islands.

1929 - Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic ctrip.

1944 - Allied forces launch the first of four battles with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties.

1945 - The Nazis begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.

1950 - The Great Brinks Robbery occurs, when 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car Company's offices in Boston, Massachusetts.

1966 - A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.

1983 - The tallest department store in the world, Hudson's, flagship store in downtown Detroit, Michigan close due to high cost of operating.

1991 - Operation Desert Storm, begins early in the morning, Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

1998 - Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair on his website The Drudge Report.

2007 - The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea nuclear testing.

Monday, January 16, 2012

16th of January

Today is the 16th day of the year, with 349 days remaining until the new year.

27 BC - The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.

1492 AD - The first grammar of the Spanish language is presented to Queen Isabella I.

1547 - Ivan IV of Russia, Ivan the Terrible, becomes Tsar of Russia.

1847 - John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

1909 - Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1920 - The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris.

1938 - The Benny Goodman Orchestra performs the first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall.

1945 - Adolf Hitler decides to move into his underground bunker, so called the Fuhrerbunker.

1991 - The United States goes to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.

2001 - President Bill Clinton, awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor, for his service in the Spanish-American War.

2003 - The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final mission.  The ship disintegrated 16 days later upon re-entry.

Sunday, January 15, 2012

15th of January

Today is the 15th day of the year, with only 350 days remaining until the end of the year.

588 BC - Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon, lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah's reign.  The siege lasts for two years, six months, and eight days.

69 AD - Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but rules for only three months before committing suicide.

1493 - Christopher Columbus sets sail for Spain from Hispaniola, ending his first voyage to the New World.

1782 - Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before Congress, to recommend the establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.

1865 - Fort Fisher in North Carolina, falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.

1870 - A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party, with a donkey.  It is drawn by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly.

1889 - The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is originally incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia.

1892 - James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

1919 - A large molasses tank in Boston, bursts and a wave of molasses rushes through the streets, killing 21 people and injuring 150 others.

1943 - The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1947 - The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia, is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles.

1951 - Illse Koch, The Witch of Buchenwald, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany.

1967 - The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles, California.  The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs by a score of 35 to 10.

1974 - Dennis Rader, the BTK killer, kills his first victims by binding, torturing, and murdering the Otero family in their house.

1976 - Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

1991 - The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

1992 - Slovenia and Croatia declare their independence from Yugoslavia.

2001 - Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

2005 - ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.

2009 - US Airways Flight 1549, makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff.  All passengers and crew members survive after a successful landing by the pilot.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

14th of January

Today is the 14th day of the year and there are 351 days remaining.

1129 - The formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes.

1784 - United States Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.

1943 - Roosevelt and Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.

1950 - The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.

1973 - Elvis Presley's concert Aloha from Hawaii, is broadcast live via satellite, and sets a record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.

1978 - The English punk rock band the Sex Pistols, break up amidst their U.S. tour.

2005 - The landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon, named Titan.

Friday, January 13, 2012

13th of January

Today is the 13th day of the year with only 352 days remaining.

1733 - James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina.

1842 - Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.

1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War.

1915 - An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills a total of 29,800 people.

1942 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.

1942 - First use of aircraft ejection seat by a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.

1966 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African-American cabinet member by being appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

1968 - Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison.

1990 - L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African-American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

12th of January

It is the 12th day of the year, with only 353 days remaining until the new year.

1773 - The first public Colonial American museum opens in Charleston, South Carolina.

1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.

1915 - The Rocky Mountain National Park is formed by an act of Congress.

1921 - Acting to restore confidence in baseball after the Black Sox Scandal, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, is slected as Major League Baseball's first commissioner.

1966 - President Lyndon Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.

1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with the intent of future resuscitation.

1991 - An act of Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

2010 - An earthquake strikes Haiti, killing an estimated 316,000 people and destroying the majority of the capital of Port-au-Prince.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

11th of January

It is the 11th day of the year, with only 354 years days remaining until the new year.

630 - Muhammad, leads an army of 10,000 to conquer Mecca.

1569 - This marks the first recorded lottery in England.

1759 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.

1794 - Robert Forsythe, a U.S Marshal is killed in Augusta, Georgia when trying to serve court papers.  He is the first Marshal to die while carrying out his duties.

1805 - Michigan Territory is created.

1861 - Alabama secedes from the United States.

1863 - General John McClernand and Admiral David DixonPorter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.

1908 - Grand Canyon National Monument is created.

1922 - The first use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.

1927 - Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at a banquet in Los Angeles.

1935 - Amelia Earhart is the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1949 - The first recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.

1962 - An avalanche on Huascaran in Peru causes 4,000 deaths.

1964 - United States Surgeon General, Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, publishes a landmark report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking national and worldwide anti-smoking efforts.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

10th of January

Today is the 10th day of the year, with only 355 days remaining.

1776 - Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.

1861 - Florida decides to secede from the Union.

1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.

1920 - The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending the War to End All Wars.

1946 - The first General Assembly of the United States opens in London.  Fifty-one nations are represented.

1946 - The U.S. Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the moon and receiving the reflected signals.

1990 - Time Warner is formed from the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc.

Monday, January 9, 2012

9th of January

It is the 9th day of the year, with only 356 days remaining until the end of the year.

1349 - The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated.

1768 - In London, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.

1788 - Connecticut becomes the 5th state admitted to the United States.

1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard becomes the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.

1806 - Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, receives a state funeral and is interred in St. Paul's Cathedral.

1861 - The "Star of the West," incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina.  It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War."

1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the War of Secession.

1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.

1909 - Ernest Shackleton, leading the Nimrod Expedition, plants the British flag, 97 nautical miles from the South Pole.

1918 - The Battle of Bear Valley, marks the last battle of the American Indian Wars.

1941 - The first flight of the Avro Lancaster during World War II.

1937 - Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia, is last seen alive.

Sunday, January 8, 2012

8th of January

Today is the 8th day of the year with only 357 days remaining until the new year.

1780 - An earthquake hits the city of Tabriz, Iran, killing about 80,000 people and causing major damage.

1815 - At the Battle of New Orleans, during the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.

1835 - The United State national debt is zero for the only time.

1838 - Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes, the forerunner of Morse code.

1877 - Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.

1918 - President Woodrow Wilson announces his Fourteen Points for the aftermath of World War I.

1963 - Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

1964 - President Lyndon Johnson declares a War on Poverty in the United States.

1973 - The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into the Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins/

2002 - President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act.

Saturday, January 7, 2012

7th of January

It is the 7th day of the year, with only 358 days remaining until the new year.

1610 - Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four moons of Jupiter: Ganymede, Callisto, Io, and Europa, although he is not able to distinguish the last two until the following day.

1782 - The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens.

1894 - W.K. Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film.

1904 - The ditress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS."

1945 - British General Bernard Montgomery holds a press conference in which he claims credit for victory in the Battle of the Bulge.

1952 - President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb.

1980 - President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

1990 - The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns.

Friday, January 6, 2012

6th of January

Today is the 6th day of the year, with only 359 days remaining.

1838 - Samuel Morse first successfully tests the electrical telegraph.

1910 - The Great White Fleet passes through the Suez Canal, the largest group of ships to pass through up to that time.

1912 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.

1929 - Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin her work among India's poorest and sickest people.

1930 - The first diesel-engined automobile trip is completed, from Indianapolis, Indiana to New York City.

1931 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.

1942 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.

1967 - United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch Operation Deckhouse Five in the Mekong River delta.

1994 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the knee at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, Michigan.

1995 - A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Phillipines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

5th of January

Today is the 5th day of the year, with only 360 days remaining until the new year.

1066 - Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman Conquest of England.

1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zurich, is executed by drowning.  The Anabaptist church relates to its successors the Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites.

1757 - Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-Francois Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.

1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.

1914 - The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.

1918 - The Free Committee for a German Workers Peace, which would become the Nazi part, is founded.

1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.

1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time.

1972 - President Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.

1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging, the last legal hanging in America.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

4th of January

It is the 4th day of the year, with only 361 days remaining until the end of the year.

1847 - Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol in the United States government.

1865 - The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.

1885 - The first successful appendectomy is performed by William W. Grant on Mary Gartside.

1896 - Utah is admitted as the 45th state to the United States.

1944 - Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.

1958 - Sputnik I falls to Earth from its orbit.

1965 - President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his Great Society during his State of the Union address.

1999 - Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.

2007 - The 100th U.S. Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

3rd of January

Today is the 3rd day of the year, with only 362 days remaining.

The Perihelion, the point in the year when the Earth is closest to the Sun, occurs around this date.

1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to the Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1749 - Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

1777 - General George Washington defeats British General Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.

1823 - Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.

1861 - Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

1870 - Construction begins on the Brooklyn Bridge.

1925 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1944 - Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.

1945 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is placed in command of all U.S. Naval forces in preparation for planned assaults against Iwo Jima, Okinawa, Japan.

1956 - A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.

1977 - Apple Computer is incorporated.

Monday, January 2, 2012

2nd of January

Today is the 2nd day of the year, with only 363 days remaining until the new year.

1788 - Georgia becomes the fourth sate to ratify the United States Constitution.

1935 - Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.

1942 - The FBI convicts 33 members of a German spy ring by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history.

1974 - President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum speed limit to 55 mph in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo.

2004 - Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting smaples that are returned to Earth.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

1st of January

Today is the first day of the year in the Gregorian calendar.  There are 364 days remaining until the end of the year.

153 BC - Roman consuls begin their year in office.

45 BC - The Julian calendar takes effect for the first time.

1700 AD - Russia begins using the Anno Domini era and no longer uses the Anno Mundi era of the Byzantine Empire.

1772 - The first traveler's cheques, which can be used in 90 European cities, go on sale in London, England.

1781 - 1,500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne's command rebel against the Continental Army's winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey as part of the Pennsylvania Mutiny of the year.

1800 - The Dutch East India Company is dissolved.

1801 - The dwarf planet Ceres, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi.

1804 - French rule ends in Haiti.  It becomes the first black republic and second independent country on the North American continent.

1808 - The importation of slaves into the United States is banned.

1847 - The world's first Mercy Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by the Sisters of Mercy.  The name will go on to grace over 30 major hospitals throughout the world.

1863 - The Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in the Confederate territories.

1890 - The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California is first held.

1892 - Ellis Island opens to begin processing immigrants into the United States.

1898 - New York Ctiy annexes land from surrounding counties, creating Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx.

1902 - The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.

1908 - For the first time, a ball is dropped in New York City's Times Square to signify the start of the New Year at midnight.

1932 - The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington's birth.

1934 - Alcatraz Island becomes a United States federal prison.

1939 - William Hewlett and David Packard found Hewlett-Packard.

1945 - Operation Nordwind, the last major German offensive on the Western Front begins.

1947 - The American and British forces merge occupation zones, that later become the Federal Republic of Germany.

1954 - NBC makes the first coast-to-coast color broadcast when it telecasts the Tournament of Roses Parade, with public demonstrations given across the United States on prototype color receivers.

1959 - Fulgencio Batista, dictator of Cuba, is overthrown by Fidel Castro's forces during the Cuban Revolution.

1960 - The Republic of Cameroon achieves its independence.

1962 - The United States Navy SEALs is established.

1971 - Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.

1983 - The ARPANET officially changes to using another protocol, creating the Internet.

1990 - David Dinkins is sworn in as New York City's first black mayor.

1995 - The World Trade Organization goes into effect.