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January 5th
1500 ~ Duke Ludovico Sforza conquered Milan.
1781 ~ American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia was burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold. 1896 ~ An Austrian newspaper reported that Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays. 1900 ~ Irish leader John Edward Redmond called for a revolt against British rule. 1914 ~ Ford Motor Company announced an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor. 1943 ~ Death of George Washington Carver, American educator, activist, botanist. 1964 ~ Pope Paul VI met the Greek patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem, the first meeting of Catholic and Orthodox Christianity leaders since 1439. 1972 ~ President of the United States Richard Nixon ordered the development of a space shuttle program. 1997 ~ Withdrawal of Russian forces from Chechnya. 2000 ~ The 1st day of the 2000 Al Qaeda Summit. |
January 6th
1412 ~ Birthday of Joan of Arc, French Patriot & Saint.
1822 ~ Birthday of Heinrich Schliemann, German archaeologist. 1838 ~ Samuel Morse first successfully tested the electrical telegraph. 1838 ~ Birthday of Max Bruch, German composer. 1884 ~ Death of Gregor Johann Mendel, the father of genetics. 1907 ~ Maria Montessori opened her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome. 1918 ~ Death of Georg Cantor, German mathematician. 1942 ~ Pan American Airlines became the first commercial airline to have a flight go around the world. 1946 ~ William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) hanged for treason. 1995 ~ A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila, Philippines lead to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist attack. |
January 7th
1558 ~ France took Calais, the last continental possession of England.
1610 ~ Galileo Galilei observed the four largest moons of Jupiter for the first time. 1785 ~ Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a gas balloon, becoming the first 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. 1924 ~ George Gershwin completed Rhapsody in Blue. 1927 ~ First international telephone call - New York City to London. 1943 ~ Death of Nikola Tesla, Serbian-born inventor, electrical engineer. 1999 ~ The impeachment trial of U.S. President Bill Clinton began. |
January 8th
1324 ~ Death of Marco Polo Italian explorer.
1642 ~ Death of Galileo Galilei, Tuscan astronomer, father of the scientific method. 1735 ~ Birthday of John Carroll, first Roman Catholic Archbishop in the U.S. 1746 ~ Bonnie Prince Charlie occupied Stirling. 1889 ~ Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electric tabulating machine. 1925 ~ Birthday of Gerald Durrell, British naturalist and writer. 1926 ~ Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud became the King of Saudi Arabia. 1942 ~ Birthday of Stephen Hawking, English theoretical physicist. 1958 ~ 14 year old Bobby Fischer won the U.S. Chess Championship. 1999 ~ Cosmologists announced that the expansion rate of the universe is increasing. |
January 9th
1431 ~ Trial of Joan of Arc began in Rouen.
1768 ~ Philip Astley staged the first modern circus in London. 1793 ~ Jean-Pierre Blanchard became the first to fly in a balloon in the United States. 1859 ~ Birthday of Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, women's rights leader, founder of the League of Women Voters. 1882 ~ Oscar Wilde gave his first lecture on "The English Renaissance of Art" in New York. 1890 ~ Birthday of Karel Čapek, Czech writer. 1903 ~ Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the poet Alfred Tennyson, became the second Governor-General of Australia 1951 ~ United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City. 1960 ~ Construction of the Aswan Dam begins in Egypt. 2005 ~ Elections held to elect successor to Yasser Arafat. |
January 10th
49 BC ~ Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon.
1776 ~ Thomas Paine published Common Sense. 1778 ~ Death of Carolus Linnaeus, Swedish botanist. 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. He went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages. 1945 ~ Birthday of Rod Stewart, English singer. 1949 ~ Birthday of Linda Lovelace, pornographic film actress. 1951 ~ Death of Sinclair Lewis, American writer. 1994 ~ Lorena Bobbitt went on trial for severing the penis of her husband John. |
January 11th
1571 ~ Austrian nobility is granted freedom of religion.
1693 ~ Eruption of Mt. Etna. 1787 ~ William Herschel discovered Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus. 1843 ~ Death of Francis Scott Key, Composer. 1935 ~ Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California. 1938 ~ Birthday of Arthur Scargill, trade union leader. 1964 ~ U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry reported smoking may be hazardous to health. First such statement from US government. 1972 ~ East Pakistan became Bangladesh. 1980 ~ Nigel Short, 14, became the youngest chess player to be awarded the degree of International Master. 1992 ~ Paul Simon became the first major artist to tour South Africa after the end of the cultural boycott. |
January 12th
1665 ~ Death of Pierre de Fermat, mathematician & lawyer.
1709 ~ Little Ice Age: Two-month freezing period begins in France - The coast of the Atlantic and Seine River froze, crops failed and at least 24.000 Parisians die. 1838 ~ In order to avoid anti-Mormon persecution, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his followers left Ohio for Missouri. 1856 ~ Birthday of John Singer Sargent, artist. 1893 ~ Birthday of Hermann Göring, Nazi official. 1908 ~ A long-distance radio message was sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time. 1976 ~ Death of Agatha Christie, Writer. 1991 ~ Persian Gulf War: An act of the U.S. Congress authorized the use of military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. 1992 ~ In the movie ”2001: A Space Odyssey”, the computer HAL 9000 was supposed to have been initially activated on this date. 2003 ~ Death of Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, dictator of Argentina. |
January 13th
888 ~ Death of Charles the Fat, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Swabia, East Francia, Saxony, Bavaria and Italy.
1599 ~ Death of Edmund Spenser, Poet (The Faerie Queene) 1625 ~ John Milton, 16, admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge. 1832 ~ Birthday of Horatio Alger, Jr., Unitarian minister & Author. 1854 ~ The accordion is patented by Anthony Faas. 1929 ~ Death of Wyatt Earp, Western legend. 1941 ~ Death of James Joyce, Writer. 1977 ~ Birthday of Orlando Bloom, Actor. 1991 ~ Soviet military troops attacked Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius. 1992 ~ Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II. |
January 14th
1690 ~ The clarinet was invented in Nuremberg, Germany.
1741 ~ Birthday of Benedict Arnold, General in United States' War of Independence, turncoat. 1784 ~ The U.S. Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris, formally ending the American War of Independence. 1857 ~ Birthday of Albert Schweitzer, Alsatian physician, Christian missionary, philosopher, and musician, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1952. 1898 ~ Death of Lewis Carroll, Writer & Mathematician. 1900 ~ Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premiered in Rome. 1957 ~ Death of Humphrey Bogart, Actor 1978 ~ Death of Kurt Gödel, Mathematician. 1994 ~ U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed the Kremlin accords which ended the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provided for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine. 2000 ~ A United Nations tribunal sentenced five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village. |
January 15th
41 ~ Death of 41 - Caligula, Roman Emperor.
1870 ~ A political cartoon for the first time symbolized the United States Democratic Party with 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. 1929 ~ Birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights leader. 1951 ~ Ilse Koch, The "Bitch of Buchenwald", wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, was sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany. 1953 ~ At Joseph Stalin’s behest, East German authorities began a purge of senior Jewish officials. 1970 ~ After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrendered. 1983 ~ Birthday of Meyer Lansky, mobster. 1991 ~ The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expired, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm. |
January 15th
1362 ~ A huge storm tide in the North Sea destroyed the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt.
1492 ~ The first grammar of a modern language, in Spanish, was presented to Queen Isabella. 1581 ~ English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism. 1605 ~ The first edition of “Don Quixote” by Miguel de Cervantes was published in Madrid. 1777 ~ Vermont declared its independence from New York. 1794 ~ Death of Edward Gibbon, Historian 1809 ~ Peninsular War: The British defeated the French at the Battle of La Coruña. 1957 ~ Death of Arturo Toscanini, Conductor. 1979 ~ The Shah of Iran fled Iran with his family and relocated to Egypt. 2003 ~ Space Shuttle Columbia took off for mission STS-107 which was its final one. |
January 17th
1773 ~ Captain James Cook became the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle.
1751 ~ Death of Tomaso Albinoni, Italian composer. 1852 ~ U.K. recognized the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal. 1886 ~ Death of Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian composer. 1899 ~ Birthday of Nevil Shute, Author. 1929 ~ Popeye the Sailor Man first appeared. 1942 ~ Birthday of Muhammad Ali, the world's greatest heavyweight boxer. 1964 ~ Death of T.H. White, author. 1985 ~ British Telecom announced the retirement of Britain's famous red telephone boxes. 1998 ~ Paula Jones accused President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment. |
January 18th
1535 ~ Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro.
1779 ~ Birthday of Peter Roget, Lexicographer. 1882 ~ Birthday of A. A. Milne, Author. 1892 ~ Birthday of Oliver Hardy, Comedian & Actor. 1896 ~ The X-ray machine was exhibited for the first time. 1936 ~ Death of Rudyard Kipling, British writer. 1944 ~ Birthday of Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia. 1964 ~ Plans were revealed for the World Trade Center in New York City. 1978 ~ The European Court of Human Rights found the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture. 1998 ~ Matt Drudge published the Bill Clinton - Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report. |
January 19th
1736 ~ Birthday of James Watt, builder of steam engines.
1809 ~ Birthday of Edgar Allan Poe, Poet & short story author. 1813 ~ Birthday of Sir Henry Bessemer, inventor. 1829 ~ Goethe's Faust premiered. 1839 ~ Birthday of Paul Cézanne, Painter. 1853 ~ Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il Trovatore premiered. 1920 ~ The United States Senate voted against joining the League of Nations. 1966 ~ Indira Gandhi was elected Prime Minister of India. 1983 ~ The Apple Lisa, their first commercial personal computer from Apple Computer, Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, was announced. 2004 ~ Death of David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach. |
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