December 16th
 

1689 ~ The English Bill of Rights adopted.

1770 ~ Birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven, Composer.

1775 ~ Birthday of Jane Austen, Writer.

1893 ~ World premiere of Antonin Dvorak's "New World Symphony".

1901 ~ Birthday of Margaret Mead, Anthropologist.

1917 ~ Birthday of Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer.

1928 ~ Birthday of Philip K. Dick, Science Fiction Writer.

1944 ~ The Battle of the Bulge began.

1944 ~ A V-2 rocket hit the Rex Cinema in Antwerp killing 567 people.

1950 ~ President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency in order to fight “Communist imperialism”.

1998 ~ President Clinton ordered a sustained series of air strikes against Iraq by American and British forces in response to Saddam Hussein's continued defiance of UN weapons inspectors.

December 17th
 

1830 ~ Death of Simón Bolívar, Latin American politician & Activist.

1843 ~ A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, was first published.

1903 ~ The first controlled, powered heavier-than-air flight occurred when the Wright brothers took to the air, both of them twice at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1942 ~ Britain condemned the massacre of Jews.

1961 ~ India seized Goa from Portugal.

1969 ~ The USAF, in closing Project Blue Book, announced that its UFO investigations found no evidence of extraterrestrial spacecraft.

1973 ~ The American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses.

1982 ~ ”Tootsie” opened in theaters.

1989 ~ Brazil held its first free election in 25 years.

2003 ~ “The Return of the King” opened in theaters worldwide.

December 18th
 

1737 ~ Death of Antonio Stradivari, Italian violin maker.

1786 ~ Birthday of Carl Maria von Weber, Composer.

1863 ~ Birthday of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria (d. 1914)

1865 ~ With the proclamation by Secretary of State William Seward, of the passing of the 13th Amendment, slavery was abolished in the United States.

1912 ~ Official presentation of the discovery of Piltdown Man.

1936 ~ Death of Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist.

1957 ~ The first U.S. civilian nuclear facility to generate electricity went online.

1989 ~ The British Labour Party under Neil Kinnock dropped its policy on trade union closed shops.

1996 ~ "Ebonics" was declared a language or dialect by the outgoing school board of Oakland, California, whose vote was overturned by the incoming board. The Clinton administration declared "black English" a form of slang that did not belong in the classroom.

2002 ~ California Governor Grey Davis announced that the state would face a budget deficit of $35 billion, roughly double the figure reported during his reelection campaign one month earlier. The budget issue was used to support his 2003 recall from office.

December 19th
 

1733 ~ Benjamin Franklin first published Poor Richard's Almanack.

1848 ~ Death of Emily Brontë, Author.

1888 ~ Birthday of Fritz Reiner, Conductor.

1906 ~ Birthday of Leonid Brezhnev, Soviet politician.

1962 ~ Nyasaland seceded from Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

1979 ~ ”Kramer vs. Kramer”, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep, opened in theaters.

1984 ~ The UK and People's Republic of China signed the Sino-British Joint Declaration, which returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.

1997 ~ "Titanic" the highest-grossing movie of all-time, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, opened in theaters.

1988 ~ The House of Representatives passed articles of impeachment against President Clinton over the Lewinsky scandal.

2003 ~ Libya announced that it would begin to destroy its weapons of mass destruction.

December 20th
 

1833 ~ Birthday of Samuel Mudd, physician, convicted conspirator in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.

1860 ~ South Carolina became the first state to secede from the US.

1901 ~ Birthday of Robert Van de Graaff, Physicist & Inventor.

1915 ~ Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.

1968 ~ Death of John Steinbeck, Writer.

1989 ~ American troops invaded Panama to remove dictator Manuel Noriega.

1995 ~ NATO begins peacekeeping in Bosnia.

1996 ~ Death of Carl Sagan, Astronomer & Writer.

1999 ~ Vermont's Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples are entitled to the same benefits and protections as married heterosexual couples.

1999 ~ Macau was returned to the People's Republic of China by Portugal.

December 21st
 

1118 ~ Birthday of Thomas Becket, Lord Chancellor & Archbishop of Canterbury.

1804 ~ Birthday of Benjamin Disraeli, Politician & Writer.

1898 ~ Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium.

1913 ~ The first crossword puzzle was published, in the New York World.

1933 ~ Newfoundland becomes a crown colony.

1940 ~ Death of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Writer.

1945 ~ Death of George S. Patton, U.S. General.

1958 ~ Charles de Gaulle became the first leader of the Fifth Republic.

1979 ~ Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.

1988 ~ A terrorist bomb exploded in Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland killing 270, including 11 on the ground.

December 22nd
 

1858 ~ Birthday of Giacomo Puccini, Composer.

1864 ~ Savannah, Georgia fell to the Union army of General Sherman.

1880 ~ Death of George Eliot, Writer.

1944 ~ During the Battle of the Bulge, Germany demanded the surrender of American troops at Bastogne, Belgium; Brigadier Gen. Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied: ''Nuts!''.

1989 ~ Ion Iliescu assumed executive power of Romania, ending Nicolae Ceauşescu's Communist dictatorship.

1989 ~ Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opened, ending the division of East and West Germany.

1990 ~ Lech Wałęsa sworn in as President of Poland.

2001 ~ The Afghan Northern Alliance, handed over power in Afghanistan to the government headed by President Hamid Karzai.

2001 ~ Richard Reid tried to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes.

2001 ~ Cc the cat, the first cloned pet, was born.

December 23rd
 

1790 ~ Birthday of Jean François Champollion, Egyptologist. He deciphered the Rosetta Stone.

1823 ~ “A Visit From St. Nicholas”, by Clement Clarke Moore, was first published.

1834 ~ Death of Thomas Malthus, Demographer and Economist.

1888 ~ Vincent Van Gogh cut off his ear.

1947 ~ The transistor was first demonstrated at Bell Laboratories.

1953 ~ Death of Lavrenty Beria, Soviet Communist leader.

1956 ~ British and French forces withdrawn from Suez, Egypt.

1979 ~ Soviet military occupies Kabul, Afghanistan.

1986 ~ Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, around-the-world flight without refueling.


Feastdays & Holidays

Fans of Seinfeld - Festivus (for the restofus) held.

December 24th
 

1491 ~ Birthday of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits.

1818 ~ "Silent Night" composed by Franz Xaver Gruber.

1910 ~ Birthday of Fritz Leiber, Science Fiction writer.

1914 ~ World War I: The "Christmas truce" begins.

1914 ~ Death of John Muir, Naturalist.

1951 ~ Gian Carlo Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors", the first opera written specifically for TV, was first broadcast

1957 ~ Birthday of Hamid Karzai, first democratically elected President of Afghanistan.

1968 ~ The Apollo 8 astronauts, orbiting the moon, read passages from the Old Testament Book of Genesis during a Christmas Eve TV broadcast.

1974 ~ Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, Australia.

1992 ~ President Bush pardoned 6 people involved in the Iran-Contra scandal.

December 25th
 

800 ~ Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

1066 ~ Coronation of William the Conqueror as king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.

1223 ~ Saint Francis of Assisi assembled the first Nativity scene.

1642 ~ Birthday of Sir Isaac Newton, Physicist & Mathematician.

1821 ~ Birthday of Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross.

1918 ~ Birthday of Anwar Sadat, Egyptian president.

1938 ~ Birthday of Karel Čapek, Czech author, inventor of the word robot.

1973 ~ A programming bug routed all ARPANET traffic through the server at Harvard, causing the server to freeze - crashing the network.

1989 ~ Death of Nicolae Ceauşescu, Romanian dictator (executed).

1991 ~ Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev went on TV to announce his resignation as the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

Feastdays & Holidays

The Nativity of Jesus.

DM..It was good to see you at "you know where" Thanks for keeping in touch hun. :) Merry Christmas.

December 26th
 

1610 ~ Elizabeth Bathory's crimes were uncovered.

1791 ~ Birthday of Charles Babbage, Mathematician and designer of computing machines.

1792 ~ Final trial of Louis XVI of France began.

1890 ~ Death of Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist.

1893 ~ Birthday of Mao Zedong, Chinese Politician.

1941 ~ Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

1948 ~ Cardinal Mindszenty arrested in Hungary.

1966 ~ The first Kwanzaa was celebrated.

1991 ~ Supreme Soviet meets and formally dissolved the USSR.

2004 ~ A tsunami triggered by an earthquake beneath the Indian Ocean left more than 216,000 people dead or missing, mostly in southern Asia.

I sure do love this thread jseal and appreciate the work you put into it.

Loved that link for the 1610 tidbit today.

December 27th
 

1571 ~ Birthday of Johannes Kepler, astronomer.

1822 ~ Birthday of Louis Pasteur, Scientist.

1831 ~ Charles Darwin embarked on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle.

1871 ~ The world's first cat show was held at the Crystal Palace in London.

1904 ~ James Barrie's play Peter Pan premiered in London.

1932 ~ Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City.

1945 ~ The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 28 nations.

1945 ~ Queen Juliana of the Netherlands granted Indonesia sovereignty.

1985 ~ Naturalist Dian Fossey was found murdered in Rwanda.

2001 ~ The U.S. announced plans to hold Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Just filling in for a few days while jseal is away ...

December 28th

1065 ~ Westminster Abbey consecrated.

1836 ~ Spain recognized Mexico’s independence.

1869 ~ William F. Semple patented chewing gum.

1895 ~ The Lumiere Brothers gave birth to Cinema at the Grand Cafe in Paris.

1937 ~ Death of Maurice Ravel, French composer.

1951 ~ The Peak District became the UK’s first National Park.

1969 ~ Birthday of Linus Torvalds, Benevolent Dictator for Life of Linux.

1973 ~ Alexander Solzhenitsyn published Gulag Archipelago.

1983 ~ Death of Dennis Wilson, the only Beach Boy who could surf.

2000 ~ Montgomery Ward announced it was going out of business after 128 years.

December 29th

1170 ~ Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered by knights acting under the orders of Henry II.

1845 ~ Texas became the 28th state of the United States.

1851 ~ The first Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in the U.S. opened in Boston.

1890 ~ Defeat at the Battle of Wounded Knee effectively ended American Indian resistance to European settlement of the U.S.

1916 ~ Death of Grigori Rasputin, Russian monk.

1937 ~ The Constitution of Ireland, changing the Irish Free State into Eire, went into effect.

1940 ~ The Luftwaffe began dropping incendiary bombs on London.

1986 ~ Death of Harold Macmillan, former Prime Minister of the UK.

1989 ~ Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia.

1998 ~ Khmer Rouge leaders apologized for the 1970s genocide in Cambodia that claimed 1 million lives.

December 30th

1691 ~ Death of Robert Boyle, the first modern Chemist.

1853 ~ The U.S. bought some 45,000 sq miles of land from Mexico in the Gadsden Purchase.

1879 ~ The Pirates of Penzance was first performed.

1896 ~ Jose Rizal, hero of the Philippine Revolution, was executed by firing-squad by the Spanish.

1911 ~ Sun Yat-sen was elected the first president of the Republic of China.

1922 ~ The Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formed by the confederation of Russia, Byelorussia, Ukraine, and Transcaucasian Federation.

1924 ~ Edwin Hubble announced the existence of other galaxies.

1937 ~ Birthday of Gordon Banks, the best Goalkeeper ever.

1981 ~ Wayne Gretzky scored his 50th goal in 39 games.

1993 ~ Israel and the Vatican established diplomatic relations.

2006 ~ Saddam Hussein hanged for crimes committed during brutal reign.

December 31st

404 ~ The last gladiatorial contest took place in Rome.

1879 ~ Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.

1880 ~ Birthday of George Marshall, U.S. Secretary of State, recipient of 1953 Nobel Peace Prize.

1938 ~ The first breath test for drivers, "drunkometer," was introduced.

1960 ~ The farthing coin ceased to be legal tender.

1964 ~ One of my boyhood heroes, Donald Campbell set the world water speed record, the only man to set both the world land and water speed records in the same year.

1980 ~ Death of Marshall McLuhan, Canadian writer.

1987 ~ Robert Mugabe sworn in as Zimbabwe's president.

1995 ~ The last new Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip was published.

1999 ~ Russian President Boris Yeltsin resigned. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was designated acting president.

jseal didn't actually give me a post for today, but just in case he's not back, I'll put one out here ...

January 1st

1892 ~ the Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York formally opened.

1898 ~ New York City was consolidated into five boroughs.

1901 ~ the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.

1953 ~ country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, died of a drug and alcohol overdose while en route to a concert date in Canton, Ohio.

1959 ~ Fidel Castro led Cuban revolutionaries to victory over Fulgencio Batista.

1984 ~ the breakup of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement.

1993 ~ Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

1994 ~ the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.

1999 ~ the euro, the new single currency of 11 European countries (later 12), officially came into existence with the start of the New Year.

January 2nd
 

1492 ~ Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, surrendered.

1727 ~ Birthday of James Wolfe, British general in French and Indian War.

1872 ~ Brigham Young was arrested for bigamy (25 wives).

1882 ~ John D. Rockefeller united his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust.

1904 ~ Death of James Longstreet, Confederate general.

1905 ~ The Russian fleet surrender at Port Arthur, China brought the Russo-Japanese War to a close.

1920 ~ Birthday of Isaac Asimov, Russian-born American science fiction author.

1929 ~ Canada and the United States agreed on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls.

1942 ~ Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.

1996 ~ U.S. peacekeepers arrive in Bosnia.

January 3rd
 

106 BC ~ Birthday of Cicero, Roman Statesman & Philosopher.

1521 ~ Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther.

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

1861 ~ Delaware voted to not secede from the United States.

1892 ~ Birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien, South African-born Writer & Philologist.

1945 ~ Birthday of Stephen Stills, American Singer, Songwriter, & Guitarist.

1956 ~ Birthday of Mel Gibson, Australian Actor & Director.

1979 ~ Death of Conrad Hilton, American hotelier.

1959 ~ Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. state.

1993 ~ Presidents George Bush and Boris Yeltsin signed the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Moscow. (START).

January 4th
 

1643 ~ Birthday of Isaac Newton, Scientist & Philosopher.

1710 ~ Birthday of Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, Composer.

1785 ~ Birthday of Jakob Grimm, German philologist, elder half of the Grimm Brothers.

1809 ~ Birthday of Louis Braille, Inventor of a writing system for the blind.

1948 ~ Burma gained its independence from the UK.

1960 ~ Death of Albert Camus, French Philosopher & Writer.

1961 ~ Death of Erwin Schrödinger, Austrian Physicist.

1965 ~ In his State of the Union address, President Johnson outlined his ''Great Society'' goals.

1967 ~ Donald Campbell died while trying to break the water speed record.

2004 ~ The first of two NASA Mars Rovers, Spirit, landed successfully on Mars.

1463 - Poet François Villon is banned from Paris.
1477 - Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, was executed by drowning.
1554 - A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
1675 - Battle of Colmar: the French army beats Brandenburg.
1757 - Louis XV of France survives the assassination attempt by Robert–François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France with the traditional and gruesome form of death penalty used for regicides.
1759 - George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis.
1781 - American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1854 - The San Francisco steamer sinks, killing 300 people.
1895 - Dreyfus Affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
1896 - An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
1909 - Colombia recognizes the independence of Panama.
1912 - Prague Party Conference.
1914 - Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor.
1919 - Free Committee for a German Workers Peace founded, which would become the Nazi party.
1925 - Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first female governor in the United States.
1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first time.
1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
1945 - The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
1948 - Warner Brothers shows the first color newsreel (Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl).
1957 - Major league baseball player Jackie Robinson retires.
1964 - Pope Paul VI meets the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem: the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439.
1968 - Alexander Dubček comes to power: "Prague Spring" begins in Czechoslovakia.
1970 - Soap opera: All My Children premieres.
1972 - President of the United States Richard Nixon orders the development of a space shuttle program.
1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
1975 - The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
1976 - Cambodia is renamed Democratic Kampuchea by the Khmer Rouge.
1984 - Richard Stallman starts developing GNU.
1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
1997 - Russian forces withdraw from Chechnya.
2000 - The first day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit.
2005 - Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, was discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.
2006 - Independence Air ceases operations.

January 5th
 

1781 ~ British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Virginia.

1914 ~ Ford Motor Company announced a $10,000,000 employee give away, and the eight-hour workday.

1929 ~ Birthday of Walter Mondale, American Politician

1933 ~ Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began in San Francisco Bay.

1952 ~ PM Churchill began his last visit to the U.S.

1968 ~ The "Prague Spring" began in Czechoslovakia when Alexander Dubček came to power.

1972 ~ President Nixon funded the Space Shuttle program development .

1997 ~ Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya.

2000 ~ The Al Qaeda Summit began.

2003 ~ Death of Roy Jenkins, British Politician.

1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.
1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.
1494 - First Mass celebrated in the New World at La Isabela, Hispaniola.
1540 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.
1579 - The Union of Atrecht was signed.
1661 - The fifth monarchy men unsuccessfully attempt to seize control of London.
1690 - Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.
1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble publishes its findings.
1838 - Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph.
1853 - American President-Elect Franklin Pierce, wife Jane, and son Ben are involved in a train wreck near Andover, Massachusetts. Franklin and Jane survive but eleven-year-old Ben is killed.
1870 - The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).
1887 - `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II early in the morning; prepared for the assault, the Negus orders a counter-attack which routs the enemy, resulting with the capture of Harar a few days later.
1893 - Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
1900 - Boers attack Ladysmith, South Africa - over 1,000 people killed
1907 - Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
1912 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th U.S. state.
1929 - King Alexander of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes suspends his country's constitution (the so-called January 6th Dictatorship, Šestojanuarska diktatura.)
1929 - Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin a legacy of work amongst India's poorest and diseased people
1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip is completed (Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City).
1931 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
1936 - Supreme Court of the United States rules the 1933 Agricultural Adjustment Act unconstitutional in the case United States v. Butler et al..
1936 - Porky Pig premieres.
1940 - Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the city of Poznań, Warthegau.
1941 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms Speech in the State of the Union Address.
1941 - Keel of USS Missouri (BB-63) is laid at New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn
1942 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world.
1950 - The United Kingdom recognizes the People's Republic of China. The Republic of China severs diplomatic relations with Britain in response.
1961 - A fire at the Thomas Hotel in San Francisco kills 20 people.
1967 - United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
1974 - In response to the energy crisis, daylight saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
1977 - The music publisher EMI ends its contract with the notorious punk rock group Sex Pistols after reports of abusive behaviour at Heathrow Airport, London.
1978 - The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after the Second World War.
1994 - Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on the right leg by an assailant under orders from figure skating rival Tonya Harding.
1995 - A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack.
2004 - Jaya Bharata Jananiya Tanujate is declared the official anthem of Karnataka
2005 - Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect for the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights workers.
2005 - First World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace begins in Brussels, Belgium.
2006 - Tropical Storm Zeta (2005) dissipates, ending the notorious 2005 hurricane season.

January 6th
 

1412 ~ Birthday of Joan of Arc, Saint & French Patriot.

1822 ~ Birthday of Heinrich Schliemann, Archaeologist.

1838 ~ Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrated his telegraph, in Morristown, NJ.

1838 ~ Birthday of Max Bruch, German composer.

1884 ~ Death of Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics.

1918 ~ Death of Georg Cantor, German mathematician.

1942 ~ The Pan American Airways “Pacific Clipper” returned to New York after making the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airplane.

1946 ~ William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) hanged for treason.

1994 ~ Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked at Cobo Arena in Detroit. Four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding, were later sentenced to prison.

2000 ~ With Vice President Al Gore presiding, Congress certified George W. Bush the winner of the 2000 presidential election.

January 7th
 

1610 ~ The astronomer Galileo Galilei sighted the four moons of Jupiter which are now known as the “Galilean moons”.

1785 ~ Jean-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries became the first men to cross the English Channel by air.

1899 ~ Birthday of Francis Poulenc, French composer.

1916 ~ Birthday of Paul Keres, Estonian chess player.

1922 ~ Birthday of Jean-Pierre Rampal, French flutist.

1943 ~ Death of Nikola Tesla, Inventor & Electrical Engineer.

1953 ~ President Truman, in his State of the Union address, announced that the U.S. had developed a hydrogen bomb.

1972 ~ Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the Supreme Court.

1979 ~ Vietnamese forces captured Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.

1999 ~ President Clinton's impeachment trial began in the Senate. (He was later acquitted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.)

January 8th
 

1324 ~ Death of Marco Polo Italian explorer.

1642 ~ Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.

1735 ~ Birthday of John Carroll, first Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S.

1815 ~ U.S. forces led by Gen. Andrew Jackson defeated the British in the closing engagement of the War of 1812, the Battle of New Orleans.

1925 ~ Birthday of Gerald Durrell, Naturalist & Writer.

1926 ~ Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud became the King of Saudi Arabia.

1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist.

1958 ~ Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Chess Championship.

1994 ~ Valeri Polyakov began his record setting 437 days in space.

1999 ~ Cosmologists announced that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing.

January 9th
 

1431 ~ Start of the heresy trial of Joan of Arc.

1793 ~ Jean-Pierre Blanchard became the first person to fly in a balloon in the U.S.

1839 ~ The Daguerreotype photography process publicly demonstrated.

1861 ~ Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union.

1903 ~ Hallam Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, became the second Governor-General of Australia.

1913 ~ Birthday of Richard Nixon, U.S. President.

1941 ~ Birthday of Joan Baez, Singer & Activist.

1951 ~ United Nations headquarters officially opened.

1968 ~ The Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon,.

2005 ~ Mahmoud Abbas won the election for a successor to Yasser Arafat.

January 10th
 

1776 ~ Thomas Paine published Common Sense.

1862 ~ Death of Samuel Colt, Inventor.

1927 ~ The film Metropolis by Fritz Lang premiered.

1929 ~ Tintin, a comic book character created by Hergé, made his debut.

1943 ~ Birthday of Jim Croce, American Singer.

1945 ~ Birthday of Rod Stewart, English Rocker.

1946 ~ The first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.

1951 ~ Death of Sinclair Lewis, Author.

1994 ~ Lorena Bobbitt went on trial for cutting off the penis of her husband John.

2003 ~ North Korea withdrew from a global treaty barring it from making nuclear weapons.

314 - Pope Miltiades ends his reign as the Catholic Pope.
532 - Nika riots in Constantinople.
1158 - Vladislav II becomes King of Bohemia.
1569 - First recorded lottery in England.
1571 - Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion.
1693 - Mt. Etna erupts in Sicily, Italy.
1759 - In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated.
1779 - Ching-Thang Khomba crowned King of Manipur
1787 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.
1794 - Robert Forsythe, a US Marshal was killed in Augusta, Georgia when trying to serve court papers, the first US Marshal to die in action.
1805 - Michigan Territory is created.
1861 - Alabama secedes from the United States.
1863 - American Civil War: Battle of Arkansas Post - General John McClernand and Admiral David Dixon Porter capture the Arkansas River for the Union.
1867 - Benito Juárez becomes Mexican president again.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War begins.
1880 - Total solar eclipse blackens the sky of San Francisco one day after the funeral of Emperor Norton.
1902 - Popular Mechanics magazine was published for the first time.
1908 - Grand Canyon National Monument is created.
1912 - Lawrence textile strike begins in Lawrence, Massachusetts.
1919 - Romania annexes Transylvania.
1922 - First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.
1923 - Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to pay its reparation payments.
1935 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.
1938 - Frances Moulton is the first woman to become president of a U.S. national bank.[citation needed]
1942 - Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
1942 - The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.
1943 - The United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China.
1946 - Enver Hoxha declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as dictator.
1946 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob's ashes go back to Colombia.
1949 - First recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.
1957 - The African Convention is founded in Dakar.
1960 - Chad declares its independence.
1962 - Eruption of the Huascaran volcano in Peru; 4,000 deaths.
1963 - The Whisky a Go Go night club in Los Angeles, the first disco in the USA, is opened.
1964 - United States Surgeon General Luther Leonidas Terry reports smoking may be hazardous to health. First such statement from U.S. government.
1972 - East Pakistan becomes Bangladesh.
1973 - Beginning of the Watergate burglars trial.
1974 - The world's first surviving set of sextuplets are born to Susan Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa.
1980 - Nigel Short, 14, is the youngest chess player to be awarded the degree of International Master.
1982 - A cold snap sends temperatures to record lows in dozens of cities throughout the Midwestern United States.
1986 - The Gateway Bridge, Brisbane in Queensland, Australia is officially opened.
1990 - 300,000 march in favor of Lithuanian independence.
1992 - Paul Simon is the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott.
1994 - Irish Government announces the end of a 15-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin
1995 - The WB Television Network begins operations.
1996 - Haiti becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
1998 - Sidi-Hamed massacre in Algeria; over 100 people killed.
2001 - The Federal Trade Commission approved the merger of AOL and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner.
2003 - Illinois governor George H. Ryan announces decision to grant clemency to all inmates of death row.
2005 - Black Tuesday bushfires swept across the southern Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

January 11th
 

1693 ~ Eruption of Mt. Etna.

1787 ~ William Herschel discovered the first two moons of Uranus, Titania & Oberon.

1801 ~ Death of Domenico Cimarosa, Italian Composer.

1843 ~ Death of Francis Scott Key, Lawyer.

1935 ~ Amelia Earhart began a trip from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif., becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.

1938 ~ Birthday of Arthur Scargill, Union Leader.

1964 ~ U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to one's health.

1973 ~ American League baseball teams voted to adopt the designated-hitter rule on a trial basis.

1980 ~ Nigel Short became the youngest chess player, at 14 years old, to be awarded the degree of International Master.

1992 ~ Paul Simon became toured South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott of apartheid.

January 12th
 

475 - Basiliscus becomes Byzantine Emperor, with a coronation ceremony in the Hebdomon palace in Constantinople.
1528 - Gustav I of Sweden crowned king of Sweden.
1592 - Titus Andronicus first staged at the Rose Theatre.
1773 - The first public Colonial American museum opens in Charleston, South Carolina.
1777 - Mission Santa Clara de Asís is founded in what is now Santa Clara, California.
1838 - In order to avoid prosecution under laws banning polygamy, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his followers leave Ohio for Missouri.
1848 - The Palermo rising in Sicily rises against the Bourbon kingdom of the Two Sicilies
1866 - Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.
1872 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum, the first imperial coronation in that city in over 200 years.
1875 - Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.
1898 - Ito Hirobumi begins his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
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 U.S. Congress.
1915 - United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote.
1926 - Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll premiere their radio program Sam 'n' Henry, a precursor to Amos 'n' Andy; possibly the first situation comedy.
1932 - Hattie W. Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.
1940 - World War II: Russia bombs cities in Finland.
1942 - President Franklin Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board.
1945 - World War II: The Soviets begin a large offensive in Eastern Europe against the Nazis.
1964 - Rebels in Zanzibar begin a revolt known as the Zanzibar Revolution and proclaimed a republic.
1966 - Lyndon B. Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.
1966 - Batman the TV series debuts on ABC.
1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
1969 - Led Zeppelin's debut album released.
1969 - Joe Namath and the New York Jets defeat the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III, becoming the first team from the American Football League to win American Football's top championship.
1970 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
1971 - All in the Family debuts on CBS.
1971 - Harrisburg Six: The Reverend Philip Berrigan and five others are indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels of federal buildings in Washington, DC.
1976 - UN Security Council votes 11-1 to allow the Palestinian Liberation Organization to participate in a Security Council debate (without voting rights).
1981 - American soap opera Dynasty debuts on ABC.
1986 - Space Shuttle program: STS-61-C mission - Space Shuttle Columbia takes-off with the first Hispanic-American astronaut, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz. It was the last successful mission before STS-51-L.
1991 - Persian Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorizes the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.
1992 - A new constitution, providing for freedom to form political parties, is approved by referendum in Mali.
1995 - Malcolm X's daughter, Qubilah Shabazz, is arrested for conspiring to kill Louis Farrakhan.
1998 - Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning.
2005 - Deep Impact (space mission) launches from Cape Canaveral by a Delta 2 rocket.
2006 - The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany declare that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have reached a dead end and recommend that Iran be referred to the United Nations Security Council. (ABC)
2006 - A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims. (BBC)
2006 - Turkey releases Mehmet Ali Ağca from jail after serving 25 years for shooting Pope John Paul II. (BBC)
2006 - The French warship Clemenceau reaches Egypt and is barred access to the Suez Canal. Greenpeace activists board the ship. (BBC)

January 12th
 

1665 ~ Death of Pierre de Fermat, Mathematician.

1893 ~ Birthday of Hermann Göring, Nazi official.

1915 ~ The U.S. House of Representatives defeated a proposal to give women the right to vote.

1976 ~ Death of Agatha Christie, Mystery Writer.

1991 ~ U.S. Congress authorized the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

1992 ~ In the film ”2001: A Space Odyssey”, the computer HAL 9000 was activated on this date.

2003 ~ Death of Maurice Gibb, Bee Gee.

2003 ~ Death of Leopoldo Galtieri, Dictator of Argentina.

2005 ~ Deep Impact, the first space mission to look inside a comet, was launched from Cape Canaveral.

2006 ~ A stampede broke out during the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, killing 363 people.

532 - Nika riots in Constantinople.
888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
1328 - Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault, daughter of the Count of Hainault.
1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey sentenced to death.
1559 - Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey.
1602 - William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is published.
1605 - The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison.
1607 - Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th moon of Jupiter.
1622 - Work on the printing of the First Folio of William Shakespeare is suspended.
1625 - John Milton is admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge at the age of 16.
1733 - James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina.
1785 - John Walter publishes first issue of the Daily Universal Register (later renamed The Times).
1830 - Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins.
1832 - President Andrew Jackson writes Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.
1840 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
1842 - On this day Dr.William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, became famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reached the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
1847 - The Treaty of Cahuenga ends the Mexican-American War in California.
1869 - National convention of black leaders meets in Washington D.C..
1893 - The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting.
1893 - US Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1898 - Emile Zola's J'accuse exposes the Dreyfus affair.
1910 - Opera was broadcast on the radio for the first time — Enrico Caruso singing from the stage of New York's Metropolitan Opera House.
1915 - An Earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.
1930 - Mickey Mouse comic strip makes its first appearance.
1934 - the Candidate of Science degree is established in the USSR.
1935 - A plebiscite in Saarland shows that 90.3% of those voting wish to join Nazi Germany.
1938 - Church of England accepts theory of evolution.
1942 - Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car.
1942 - The United States begins Japanese American internment.
1953 - Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen as President of Yugoslavia.
1957 - Wham-O Company produces the first Frisbee.
1958 - Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.
1966 - Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American Cabinet member by being appointed United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.
1968 - Johnny Cash records his landmark album At Folsom Prison live at Folsom State Prison
1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Col. Ignatius Kutu Acheamphong.
1982 - Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90 737 jet crashes into Washington, DC's 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists. In a freaky coincidence, a Washington DC Metro Rail train derailed, killing 3 people.
1986 - A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.
1990 - L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.
1991 - Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius.
1992 - Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.
2001 - An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.

January 13th
 

1599 ~ Death of Edmund Spenser, Poet (The Faerie Queene).

1929 ~ Death of Wyatt Earp.

1941 ~ Death of James Joyce, Writer.

1957 ~ Wham-O Company began to sell the Frisbee.

1966 ~ Robert Weaver became the first black Cabinet member as he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by President Johnson.

1977 ~ Birthday of Orlando Bloom, Actor.

1978 ~ Death of Hubert H. Humphrey, U.S. Vice President & Minnesota Senator.

1990 ~ Douglas Wilder took office as the first elected African American governor.

1992 ~ Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

1993 ~ American, British and French fighter jets bomb Iraq.

1301 - Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary.
1501 - Martin Luther, 17, enters the University of Erfurt.
1514 - Pope Leo X issues a papal bull against slavery.
1539 - Spain annexes Cuba.
1639 - The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, was adopted in Connecticut.
1690 - The clarinet is invented in Nuremberg, Germany.
1724 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne.
1784 - American Revolutionary War: The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England.
1814 - Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in return for Pomerania.
1858 - Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt.
1900 - Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome.
1907 - An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000.
1939 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
1943 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office (Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II).
1951 - The National Football League has its first Pro Bowl Game (Los Angeles, California).
1952 - The Today Show premieres on NBC.
1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.
1955 - Marilyn Monroe weds Joe DiMaggio.
1963 - George Wallace becomes governor of Alabama.
1969 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.
1970 - Sato Eisaku is elected to his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
1972 - Queen Margrethe II of Denmark accends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
1972 - The TV comedy Sanford & Son (an American import of the British comedy Steptoe and Son) premieres on NBC.
1973 - Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins. The Dolphins become the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.
1975 - Teenage heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped by Donald Neilson, aka "the Black Panther".
1978 - Johnny Rotten quits the Sex Pistols after the final show of their American tour, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
1984 - Ray Mancini defeats Bobby Chacon by a knockout in three to retain his WBA boxing world Lightweight title in Reno.
1985 - Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.
1993 - David Letterman announces he is moving his television talk show from NBC to CBS.
1994 - U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords.
1996 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
1998 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
1998 - An Afghan cargo plane crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan killing more than 50 people.
2000 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
2000 - Sport Club Corinthians Paulista defeat Vasco da Gama in the final match of the FIFA Club World Championship.
2000 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 11,722.98.
2000 - David Letterman undergoes quintuple heart bypass surgery.
2004 - Goatse.cx is suspended by the Christmas Island Internet Administration following a massive grassroots movement to close the site forever.
2004 - Amartya Sen steps down as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
2004 - The national flag of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
2005 - Landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan.
2006 - Season 6 of 24 premiers

January 14th
 

1784 ~ The Continental Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the American War of Independence.

1857 ~ Birthday of Albert Schweitzer, Christian Missionary & winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1952.

1898 ~ Death of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson - who wrote ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' under the pen name Lewis Carroll, Writer & Mathematician.

1943 ~ President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill opened a wartime conference in Casablanca.

1954 ~ Baseball player Joe Dimaggio and actress Marilyn Monroe were married at San Francisco City Hall.

1957 ~ Death of Humphrey Bogart, Actor.

1978 ~ Death of Kurt Gödel, Mathematician.

1993 ~ Whitewater prosecutors questioned first lady Hillary Clinton at the White House about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees.

2000 ~ A UN tribunal sentenced five Bosnian Croats to prison for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.

2005 ~ The Huygens probe landed on Saturn's moon Titan.

Don't know why it took me so long to read this one today, it's usually one of the first I check in the morning. Bogey passed away on Jan. 14, 1957 huh? Fifty years ago and 11 years before I was even born but it still sort of makes me sad. My favorite actor of all time.

January 15th
 

1870 ~ U.S. Democratic Party first portrayed as a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

1892 ~ James Naismith published the rules for basketball.

1908 ~ Birthday of Edward Teller, Physicist.

1918 ~ Birth of Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt.

1929 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., Civil Rights leader, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 1964.

1951 ~ The "Bitch of Buchenwald", Ilse Koch, was sentenced to life imprisonment.

1953 ~ East German authorities began a purge of senior Jewish officials.

1967 ~ The first Super Bowl was played.

1973 ~ President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam, citing progress in peace negotiations.

1983 ~ Death of Meyer Lansky, mobster.