January 3
Today the U.S. celebrates
National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day.
Events
1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates
Martin Luther in the papal bull
Decet Romanum Pontificem.
1749 –
Benning Wentworth issues the first of the
New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of
Vermont.
1777 – American General
George Washington defeats British General
Lord Cornwallis at the
Battle of Princeton.
1823 –
Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
1870 – Construction of the
Brooklyn Bridge begins.
1888 – The
James Lick telescope at the
Lick Observatory, measuring 91 cm in diameter, is used for the first time. It was the largest
refracting telescope in the world at the time.
1911 – A
gun battle in the East End of London left two dead and sparked a political row over the involvement of then-Home Secretary
Winston Churchill.
1913 – An
Atlantic coast storm sets the lowest confirmed barometric pressure reading (28.21 inHg) for a non-tropical system in the continental United States.
1938 – The
March of Dimes is established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1946 – Popular Canadian American jockey
George Woolf dies in a freak accident during a race; the annual
George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award is created to honor him. [Woolf is famous for having ridden Seabiscuit to victory in a match race over Triple Crown winner War Admiral. When asked what was the best race horse he'd ever ridden, Woolf didn't hesitate when he answered "Seabiscuit."
]
1947 – Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
1953 –
Frances P. Bolton and her son,
Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
1956 – A
fire damages the top part of the
Eiffel Tower.
1957 – The
Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first
electric watch, the Hamilton Electric 500.
1959 –
Alaska is admitted as the 49th U.S. state.
1961 – The
SL-1 nuclear reactor is destroyed by a steam explosion in the only reactor incident in the United States to cause immediate fatalities.
1962 – Pope
John XXIII excommunicates
Fidel Castro.
1967 - Having received a US army draft notice, The
Beach Boys'
Carl Wilson refused to be sworn in, saying he was a conscientious objector.
1977 –
Apple Computer is incorporated.
1987 -
Aretha Franklin became the first woman inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1990 –
Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces.
1999 – The
Mars Polar Lander is launched.
2002 – Israeli forces seize the Palestinian freighter
Karine A in the Red Sea, finding 50 tons of weapons.
Births
106 BC – Cicero; 1892 – J.R.R. Tolkien
; 1894 – ZaSu Pitts; 1907 – Ray Milland; 1909 – Victor Borge
; 1911 – John Sturges (director
The Magnificent Seven, The Great Escape, Gunfight at the O.K. Corral); 1923 – Hank Stram; 1926 – George Martin "The Fifth Beatle"; 1929 – Sergio Leone (invented the 'spaghetti western', director of the
Dollars Trilogy); 1929 – Gordon Moore (co-founder of Intel Corporation); 1930 – Robert Loggia ("Get on the wire, tell them how to bring those sons of bitches down."); 1932 – Dabney Coleman; 1937 – Glen A. Larson (created B. J. and the Bear, The Fall Guy, Magnum, P.I., Knight Rider, Quincy M.E., Alias Smith & Jones, et al); 1939 – Bobby Hull; 1945 – Stephen Stills♪ ♫(Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young, Buffalo Springfield); 1946 – John Paul Jones
(Led Zeppelin); 1950 – Victoria Principal
; 1956 – Mel Gibson; 1969 – Michael Schumacher
; 1975 – Danica McKellar; 1981 – Eli Manning; 1988 – J. R. Hildebrand
Deaths
1795 – Josiah Wedgwood (fine china); 1903 – Alois Hitler (if only he'd used a condom
); 1945 – Edgar Cayce (<--Interesting read.); 1946 – William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw); 1967 – Jack Ruby (shot Lee Harvey Oswald); 1979 – Conrad Hilton; 1988 – Joie Chitwood
(stunt car driver); 2009 – Pat Hingle (the judge in
Hang 'Em High); 2014 – Phil Everly♪ ♫(The Everly Bros)