This Day in History

[Gravdigr]

And had a radio hit with it.

[Gravdigr]

I still bet she liked it.

[Gravdigr]

January 17

1773 – Captain James Cook commands the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.

1811 – Mexican War of Independence: In the Battle of Calderón Bridge, a heavily outnumbered Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats nearly 100,000 Mexican revolutionaries.

1893 – Lorrin A. Thurston, along with the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety, led the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani.

1899 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1904 – Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre.

1912 – Robert Falcon Scott's ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition reached the South Pole, only to find Roald Amundsen's team, who had beaten them by 33 days.

1917 – The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.

1944 – World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino 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 SS-Totenkopfverbände begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.

1945 – World War II: The Vistula–Oder Offensive forces German troops out of Warsaw.

1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg [posthumously, one of only eight Honarary Citizens of The United States] is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.

1950 – The Great Brink's Robbery: Eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company's offices in Boston. Only $58,000 of the $2.7 million was recovered.

1961 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military–industrial complex" as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending.

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

1981 – President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law eight years and five months after declaring it.

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

1994 – The Northridge earthquake shakes the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.

1995 – The Great Hanshin earthquake shakes the southern Hyōgo Prefecture with a maximum Shindo of VII, leaving 5,502–6,434 people dead, and 251,301–310,000 displaced.

1997 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: A Delta II carrying a GPS2R satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.

1998 – Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website.

2002 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.

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

Births

1706 – Benjamin Franklin; 1820 – Anne Brontë; 1880 – Mack Sennett; 1882 – Noah Beery, Sr. (The Mark Of Zorro); 1886 – Glenn L. Martin (of Martin Marietta, & Lockheed Martin); 1899 – Al Capone; 1908 – Cus D'Amato(manager); 1911 – John S. McCain Jr.; 1922 – Betty White; 1926 – Moira Shearer; 1927 – Eartha Kitt♪ ♫('Catwoman' on Batman TOS); 1928 – Vidal Sassoon; 1931 – James Earl Jones; 1932 – Sheree North; 1933 – Dalida♪ ♫; 1933 – Shari Lewis (put her hand up Lambchop); 1939 – Maury Povich; 1942 – Muhammad Ali; 1949 – Anita Borg; 1949 – Andy Kaufman; 1949 – Mick Taylor(John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, The Rolling Stones); 1954 – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.; 1955 – Steve Earle♪ ♫; 1956 – Paul Young♪ ♫; 1957 – Steve Harvey; 1959 – Susanna Hoffs♪ ♫(The Bangles); 1960 – John Crawford♪ ♫(Berlin); 1961 – Brian Helgeland (wrote screenplays for L.A. Confidential, Mystic River, 42); 1962 – Jim Carrey (moron); 1964 – Michelle Obama (46th FLOTUS); 1966 – Joshua Malina (West Wing, Sports Night); 1967 – Richard Hawley♪ ♫; 1969 – Naveen Andrews (Lost); 1971 – Lil Jon (Waht? Okaay. Get Crunk!); 1971 – Kid Rock(Twisted Brown Trucker Band); 1980 – Maksim Chmerkovskiy (DWTS); 1980 – Zooey Deschanel♪ ♫; 1984 – Calvin Harris♪ ♫

Deaths

1468 – Skanderbeg; 1874 – Chang and Eng Bunker (Thai conjoined twins); 1893 – Rutherford B. Hayes (19th POTUS); 1927 – Juliette Gordon Low (founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA); 1933 – Louis Comfort Tiffany; 1952 – Walter Briggs, Sr. (co-owner/sole owner Detroit Tigers, co-founded Detroit Zoo); 1997 – Clyde Tombaugh (discovered planet Pluto); 2003 – Richard Crenna (The Sand Pebbles, 3 Rambo movies, The Real McCoys, Our Miss Brooks); 2004 – Noble Willingham (City Slickers, The Last Boy Scout, Walker Texas Ranger); 2005 – Virginia Mayo; 2007 – Art Buchwald; 2008 – Bobby Fischer; 2010 – Erich Segal (author Love Story); 2011 – Don Kirshner (Don Kirshner's Rock Concert); Don Harron (KORN radio announcer 'Charlie Farquharson' on Hee Haw)

[Gravdigr]

January 18

1486 – King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.

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

1670 – Henry Morgan captures Panama.

1778 – James Cook is the first known European to visit the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".

1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.

1884 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.

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

1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.

1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, [Charles City County, VA is not a misprint] killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.

1967 – Albert DeSalvo, "The Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

1974 – A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.

1974 - Former members from Free, (Paul Rodgers & Simon Kirke), Mott The Hoople (Mick Ralphs), and King Crimson, (Boz Burrell), formed Bad Company. The band went on to score a US No.1 album with their debut release.

1977 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium, Legionella, as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.

1981 – Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).

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

1989 - At just 38 years old, Stevie Wonder became the youngest living person to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1990 – Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession (crack cocaine) in an FBI sting.

1993 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 states.

2000 - Spencer Goodman was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas. Goodman was convicted of kidnapping and murdering the wife of ZZ Top manager Bill Ham in 1991. Ham was present for the execution.

2003 – A bushfire kills four people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.

2007 – The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people and Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Hurricane Kyrill causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe. [Peak wind gust of 155 mph.]

2016 - The Eagles guitarist Glenn Frey died at the age of 67 in New York City from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia.

Births

1782 – Daniel Webster; 1854 – Thomas A. Watson (assistant to Alexander Graham Bell); 1882 – A. A. Milne (author Winnie-The-Pooh); 1888 – Thomas Sopwith (Sopwith Camel); 1892 – Oliver Hardy (Laurel & Hardy); 1904 – Cary Grant; 1911 – Danny Kaye; 1933 – John Boorman; 1933 – Ray Dolby (founded Dolby Laboratories); 1938 – Curt Flood; 1941 – Bobby Goldsboro♪ ♫; 1941 – David Ruffin♪ ♫(The Temptations); 1943 – Paul Freeman ('Belloq' in Raiders of the Lost Ark); 1944 – Paul Keating; 1950 – Gilles Villeneuve; 1954 – Tom Bailey♪ ♫(The Thompson Twins); 1954 – Ted DiBiase; 1955 – Kevin Costner; 1961 – Mark Messier; 1969 – Dave Bautista; 1969 – Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order, Rent); 1971 – Jonathan Davis♪ ♫(Korn); 1971 – Christian Fittipaldi(Emerson Fittipaldi's nephew); 1973 – Luther Dickinson(North Mississippi All Stars); 1980 – Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, Despicable Me, Forgetting Sarah Marshall)

Deaths

1862 – John Tyler (10th POTUS); 1936 – Rudyard Kipling; 1952 – Curly Howard (The Three Stooges); 1954 – Sydney Greenstreet (The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca); 1966 – Kathleen Norris; 2005 – Lamont Bentley (Moesha, The Parkers); 2010 – Kate McGarrigle♪ ♫; 2011 – Sargent Shriver; 2015 – Dallas Taylor(Crosby, Stills, & Nash); 2016 – Glenn Frey(The Eagles)

[Gravdigr]

January 19

Today Texas celebrates Confederate Heroes Day, while much of the southern U.S. (including Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi) celebrates today as Robert E. Lee Day.


Events

1419 – Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England, completing his reconquest of Normandy.

1661 – Thomas Venner is hanged, drawn and quartered in London.

1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.

1853 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

1861 – American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.

1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs: The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.

1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

1915 – World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1917 – Seventy-three people are killed and 400 injured in an explosion in a munitions plant in London.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

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

1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

1953 – Almost 72% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

1971 - Tracks from The Beatles' The White Album (including 'Helter Skelter'), were played in the courtroom at the Sharon Tate murder trial to find out if any songs could have influenced Charles Manson and his followers to commit murder. Actress Sharon Tate who was married to film director Roman Polanski, was eight and a half months pregnant when she was murdered in her home, along with four others, by followers of Charles Manson.

1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

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 IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter unauthorized copying of the software they had written.

1988 - Bon Jovi and Mötley Crüe manager Doc McGhee pleaded guilty to importing more than 40,000lb of marijuana into the US from Colombia via a shrimp boat. McGhee received a five-year suspended prison sentence, a fine of $15,000, and was ordered to set up an anti-drugs foundation.

1999 – British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

2012 – The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI.

2017 – Plasco Building in Tehran, Iran burns and collapses.

Births

1736 – James Watt (Watt steam engine); 1807 – Robert E. Lee; 1809 – Edgar Allan Poe; 1813 – Henry Bessemer (Bessemer steel process); 1839 – Paul Cézanne; 1887 – Alexander Woollcott; 1914 – Lester Flatt(Flatt & Scruggs); 1923 – Jean Stapleton ('Edith' on All In The Family); 1924 – Nicholas Colasanto ('Coach' on Cheers); 1926 – Fritz Weaver (that guy who was in that thing); 1930 – Tippi Hedren (The Birds, Marnie, I Heart Huckabees); 1931 – Robert MacNeil (The MacNeil/Lehrer Report); 1932 – Richard Lester (director Superman movies); 1935 – Johnny O'Keefe♪ ♫; 1936 – Willie "Big Eyes" Smith♪ ♫; 1936 – Fred J. Lincoln; 1939 – Phil Everly♪ ♫(The Everly Bros); 1940 – Mike Reid (EastEnders); 1942 – Michael Crawford♪ ♫; 1943 – Janis Joplin♪ ♫(Big Brother & The Holding Company); 1944 – Shelley Fabares; 1944 – Dan Reeves; 1946 – Dolly Parton♪ ♫; 1947 – Paula Deen; 1947 – Rod Evans♪ ♫(Deep Purple, Captain Beyond); 1949 – Robert Palmer♪ ♫(Power Station); 1951 – Martha Davis♪ ♫(The Motels); 1952 – Dewey Bunnell(America); 1953 – Desi Arnaz, Jr.♪ ♫; 1954 – Katey Sagal (Married...With Children, Futurama, Sons Of Anarchy); 1955 – Paul Rodriguez; 1957 – Roger Ashton-Griffiths ('Mace Terrell' on Game of Thrones); 1958 – Thomas Kinkade; 1959 – Jeff Pilson(Dokken, Dio, Foreigner); 1961 – William Ragsdale ('Herman' on Herman's Head); 1966 – Stefan Edberg; 1968 – Whitfield Crane♪ ♫(Ugly Kid Joe); 1969 – Junior Seau; 1971 – Shawn Wayans; 1974 – Frank Caliendo

Deaths

1661 – Thomas Venner; 1853 – Karl Faber; 1968 – Ray Harroun(won 1st Indy 500); 1975 – Thomas Hart Benton; 1996 – Don Simpson (co-produced Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun, The Rock); 1998 – Carl Perkins♪ ♫(wrote "Blue Suede Shoes"); 2000 – Hedy Lamarr; 2006 – Anthony Franciosa; 2006 – Wilson Pickett♪ ♫; 2007 – Denny Doherty♪ ♫(The Mamas & The Papas); 2008 – Suzanne Pleshette(The Bob Newhart Show); 2008 – John Stewart♪ ♫("Gold", wrote "Daydream Believer"); 2013 – Stan 'The Man' Musial; 2014 – Ben Starr

[Gravdigr]

January 20

Today is International Fetish Day, so, get your freak on!

Today is Inauguration Day in the United States. We swore in a brand new President today! And there was much rejoicing...by some. Others, not so much.


Events

1265 – The first English parliament to include not only Lords but also representatives of the major towns holds its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament".

1356 – Edward Balliol surrenders his claim to the Scottish throne to Edward III in exchange for an English pension.

1649 – Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes".

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

1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.

1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.

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

1936 – Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.

1937 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President, the first occasion a Presidential Inauguration to take place on 20 January following the ratification of the 20th Amendment.

1942 – World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the "Final Solution to the Jewish question".

1945 – World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months.

1949 – Point Four Program a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by United States President Harry S Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as President.

1981 – Twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, Iran releases 52 American hostages.

1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

2009 – A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.

2009 – Barack Obama (remember him?) is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becoming the first African-American United States President.

2017 – Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America, becoming the first United States President to have never held political office.

Births

1798 – Anson Jones; 1894 – Harold Gray (created Little Orphan Annie); 1896 – George Burns; 1906 – Aristotle Onassis; 1920 – Federico Fellini; 1920 – DeForest Kelley (Star Trek TOS); 1923 – Slim Whitman♪ ♫; 1926 – Patricia Neal; 1929 – Arte Johnson; 1929 – Fireball Roberts; 1930 – Buzz Aldrin; 1934 – Tom Baker (4th Doctor Who); 1946 – David Lynch; 1952 – Paul Stanley(KISS); 1956 – Bill Maher (American asshat); 1958 – Lorenzo Lamas; 1959 – R. A. Salvatore; 1959 – Tami Hoag; 1960 – Scott Thunes; 1963 – James Denton (Desperate Housewives); 1964 – Jack Lewis; 1965 – John Michael Montgomery♪ ♫; 1966 – Rainn Wilson; 1967 – Stacey Dash; 1970 – Skeet Ulrich; 1971 – Questlove♪ ♫

Deaths

1965 – Alan Freed; 1984 – Johnny Weissmuller (Tarzan movies); 1990 – Barbara Stanwyck (The Big Valley); 1993 – Audrey Hepburn; 2003 – Al Hirschfeld; 2012 – Etta James♪ ♫

[Gravdigr]

January 21

Today is Nat'l Hugging Day in the U.S., so hug somebody, dammit!


Events

1535 – Following the Affair of the Placards, French Protestants are burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.

1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston.

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

1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.

1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.

1915 – Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit.

1950 – American lawyer and government official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.

1961 – Four hundred thirty-five workers are buried alive when a mine in Coalbrook, Free State, South Africa collapses.

1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh: One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.

1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

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

1999 – War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.

2004 – NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.

Births

1738 – Ethan Allen; 1813 – John C. Frémont; 1824 – Stonewall Jackson; 1905 – Christian Dior; 1905 – Karl Wallenda (of The Flying Wallendas); 1922 – Telly Savalas; 1924 – Benny Hill; 1938 – Wolfman Jack; 1940 – Jack Nicklaus; 1941 – Plácido Domingo♪ ♫; 1941 – Richie Havens♪ ♫; 1942 – Mac Davis♪ ♫; 1942 – Edwin Starr♪ ♫(sang "War"); 1947 – Jill Eikenberry; 1950 – Billy Ocean♪ ♫(sang "Caribbean Queen"); 1951 – Eric Holder; 1953 – Paul Allen (co-founded Microsoft); 1956 – Robby Benson; 1956 – Geena Davis; 1960 – Toxey Haas (Mossy Oak camo); 1965 – Jam Master Jay♪ ♫; 1970 – Ken Leung (lost); 1985 – Salvatore Giunta (genuine American bad-ass)

Deaths

1793 – Louis XVI of France; 1901 – Elisha Gray (co-founded Western Electric); 1924 – Vladimir Lenin; 1959 – Cecil B. DeMille ("I must've killed more men than Cecil B. DeMille."; 1967 – Ann Sheridan; 1983 – Lamar Williams(The Allman Bros); 1998 – Jack Lord (Hawaii Five-O); 1999 – Susan Strasberg; 2002 – Peggy Lee♪ ♫

[DanaC]

I've been catching up :P

1776 – Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense.

Love that man's writing. His work is eminently quotable.


My favourite two passages from Common Sense:

O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is overrun with oppression. Freedom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her.—Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart. O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.

As a mission statement for the early United States it's pretty awesome.

And this one, on the origin of the British crown:

A French bastard, landing with an armed banditti, and establishing himself king of England against the consent of the natives, is in plain terms a very paltry rascally original. It certainly hath no divinity in it.

[Gravdigr]

[Gravdigr]

January

Today is the day after yesterday.

Today is also the day before tomorrow.


Events

613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.

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

1889 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business.

1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King upon the death of his mother, Queen Victoria, on this date.

1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.

1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1941 – World War II: British, Australian and Indian forces capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.

1944 – World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio and Nettuno, Italy.

1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.

1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.

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

1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar Module into space.

1970 – The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service.

1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.

1983 - The new 24-hour music video network MTV [Remember when MTV used to show music videos?] started broadcasting to the West Coast of America after being picked up by Group W Cable in Los Angeles.

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

1994 - American actor and singer Telly Savalas died of prostate cancer aged 72. ["Telly Savalas can make bad slang sound like good slang, and good slang sound like lyric poetry." --Clive James]

1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.

Births

1440 – Ivan III (Ivan The Great) of Russia; 1552 – Walter Raleigh; 1561 – Francis Bacon; 1645 – William Kidd; 1654 – Richard Blackmore (no, not Ritchie); 1788 – Lord Byron; 1875 – D. W. Griffith; 1877 – Tom Jones (No that one, and not that one, either, this one was a baseball player); 1892 – Marcel Dassault (founded Dassault Aviation); 1897 – Rosa Ponselle♪ ♫; 1904 – George Balanchine (co-founded the New York City Ballet); 1907 – Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan; 1909 – Ann Sothern; 1931 – Sam Cooke♪ ♫; 1932 – Piper Laurie; 1934 – Bill Bixby; 1934 – Graham Kerr; 1937 – Joseph Wambaugh; 1940 – John Hurt; 1946 – Malcolm McLaren♪ ♫(manager); 1949 – J.P. Pennington♪ ♫; 1949 – Steve Perry♪ ♫(Journey); 1953 – Jim Jarmusch; 1960 – Michael Hutchence♪ ♫(INXS); 1962 – Jimmy Herring♪ ♫(Widespread Panic, Allman Bros, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Dead); 1965 – Steven Adler(Guns 'N' Roses); 1965 – DJ Jazzy Jeff♪ ♫; 1965 – Diane Lane; 1968 – Guy Fieri; 1969 – Olivia d'Abo♪ ♫; 1973 – Larry Birkhead; 1975 – Balthazar Getty; 1981 – Ben Moody♪ ♫(Evanescence)

Deaths

1901 – Queen Victoria; 1925 – Fanny Bullock Workman; 1950 – Alan Hale, Sr.; 1971 – Harry Frank Guggenheim (co-founded Newsday); 1973 – Lyndon B. Johnson (36th POTUS); 1994 – Telly Savalas; 2004 – Ann Miller♪ ♫; 2008 – Heath Ledger; 2010 – Jean Simmons; 2012 – Joe Paterno; 2015 – Wendell H. Ford

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

January

Today is the day after yesterday.

Today is also the day before tomorrow.

Really? Fer sure? thank you, I didn't know that.

[Gravdigr]

January 26

Today our friends and Dwellers down under celebrate Australia Day.


Events

1531 – The Lisbon earthquake kills about thirty thousand people.

1564 – The Council of Trent establishes an official distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

1699 – For the first time, the Ottoman Empire permanently cedes territory to the Christian powers.

1700 – The Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.

1808 – Governor of New South Wales William Bligh (pictured) was deposed by the New South Wales Corps in the only successful armed takeover of government in Australia's recorded history. Known as the Rum Rebellion.

1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.

1856 – First Battle of Seattle. Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.

1861 – American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.

1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.

1863 – American Civil War: Governor of Massachusetts John Albion Andrew receives permission from the Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.

1870 – Reconstruction Era: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1905 – The world's largest diamond ever, the Cullinan weighing 3,106.75 carats (0.621350 kg), is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.

1915 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

1920 – Former Ford Motor Company executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company which he later sold to his former employer. Leyland also founded (or co-founded) Cadillac Motor Cars.

1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

1945 – World War II: Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action (at the age of 19) at the Colmar Pocket, for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor. Audie Murphy's Medal of Honor Citation.

1949 – The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).

1965 - During a Rolling Stones tour of Australia and New Zealand, guitarist Keith Richards had his shirt torn off after 50 fans invaded the stage during the gig at The Town Hall in Brisbane. And on Australia Day, too.

1980 - Prince made his TV debut on the US show American Bandstand. When interviewed after his performance the singer froze up and struggled to reply to the questions he was being asked.

1986 - Allen Collins, guitarist from Lynyrd Skynyrd, crashed his car, paralyzing him from the waist down and killing his girlfriend Debra Jean Watts. Collins had survived the plane crash in 1977 that killed two other band members. As part of his plea bargain for the 1986 accident, Collins addressed fans at every Skynyrd concert with an explanation of why he could not perform, citing the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as drugs and alcohol.

1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Liar.

2003 - Billy Joel was airlifted to a hospital after his car smashed into a tree in The Hamptons. The singer lost control of his Mercedes S500 and skidded for 100 yards before crashing.

2005 – Glendale train crash: Two trains derail killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles. The derailment is caused by an SUV parked on the tracks. The SUV owner was charged with, and convicted of, 11 counts of murder "with special circumstances". Ultimately, he was sentenced to 11 consecutive life sentences, without the possibility of parole.

Births

1832 – George Shiras, Jr.; 1880 – Douglas MacArthur; 1891 – Frank Costello "The Prime Minister of the Underworld" (mob boss); 1905 – Charles Lane; 1905 – Maria von Trapp (of the The Sound of Music von Trapps); 1913 – Jimmy Van Heusen; 1918 – Nicolae Ceaușescu; 1921 – Eddie Barclay (founded Barclay Records); 1921 – Akio Morita (co-founded Sony); 1925 – Joan Leslie (Sergeant York); 1925 – Paul Newman; 1935 – Bob Uecker ("I must be in the front row."); 1941 – Scott Glenn; 1944 – Merrilee Rush♪ ♫; 1944 – Jerry Sandusky (kiddie fiddler); 1946 – Gene Siskel; 1949 – David Strathairn; 1951 – Christopher North(Ambrosia); 1953 – Lucinda Williams♪ ♫; 1955 – Eddie Van Halen(Van Halen, duh); 1958 – Anita Baker♪ ♫; 1961 – Wayne Gretzky "The Great One"; 1961 – Tom Keifer♪ ♫(Cindrella); 1963 – Andrew Ridgeley♪ ♫(Wham!); 1970 – Kirk Franklin♪ ♫

Deaths

1893 – Abner Doubleday; 1932 – William Wrigley, Jr. (the gum guy); 1948 – John Lomax♪ ♫; 1962 – Charles "Lucky" Luciano; 1973 – Edward G. Robinson; 1979 – Nelson Rockefeller (41st VPOTUS); 1983 – Bear Bryant; 1992 – José Ferrer; 1997 – Jeane Dixon; 2004 – Fred Haas; 2011 – Charlie Louvin♪ ♫(Louvin Bros); 2016 – Abe Vigoda (no, he really was dead this time)

[Gravdigr]

January 27

Today, our friends and Dwellers in Canadia celebrate Family Literacy Day.

Also, the liberation of the remaining inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp is commemorated by many countries on this date as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.


Events

98 – Trajan succeeded his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.

1302 – Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.

1825 – The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on what became known as the "Trail of Tears".

1880 – Thomas Edison receives the patent on the incandescent lamp.

1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

1943 – World War II: The Eighth Air Force sorties ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany.

1944 – World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

1945 – World War II: The Red Army liberates the remaining inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger.

1967 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The astronauts' rescue was prevented by the plug door hatch, which could not be opened against the higher internal pressure of the cabin.

1967 – The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.

1970 - John Lennon wrote, recorded and mixed his new single 'Instant Karma!' all in one day. It ranks as one of the fastest-released songs in pop music history, recorded at London's Abbey Road Studios and arriving in stores only ten days later.

1980 – Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper.

1996 – Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day. [Really Germany? It took you over 50 fucking years?]

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

2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a.

2013 – Two hundred forty-two people die in a nightclub fire in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.

2015 - Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne were given a song writing credit on Sam Smith's hit 'Stay With Me', because of the similarities to his 1989 track 'I Won't Back Down'. 'Stay With Me' had been nominated for three Grammys, including song of the year - which honors the writers of the track. Petty's publisher had contacted Smiths publisher who made an out of court settlement.

Births

1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart; 1795 – Eli Whitney Blake (invented the Mortise lock); 1832 – Lewis Carroll (wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass); 1885 – Jerome Kern♪ ♫; 1900 – Hyman G. Rickover; 1901 – Art Rooney (founded the Pittsburgh Steelers); 1905 – Howard McNear (Mayberry's barber 'Floyd The Barber'); 1908 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr.; 1918 – Skitch Henderson; 1918 – Elmore James; 1919 – Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. (created Alvin and the Chipmunks); 1921 – Donna Reed; 1930 – Bobby "Blue" Bland♪ ♫; 1936 – Troy Donahue; 1937 – Buddy Emmons♪ ♫(pedal steel guitarist); 1940 – James Cromwell ("That'll do, Pig. That'll do."); 1940 – Reynaldo Rey; 1942 – John Witherspoon; 1944 – Nick Mason(Pink Floyd); 1946 – Nedra Talley♪ ♫(The Ronettes); 1948 – Mikhail Baryshnikov; 1951 – Brian Downey(Thin Lizzy); 1951 – Seth Justman(The J. Geils Band, wrote "Centerfold"); 1952 – G. E. Smith(Hall & Oates, Bob Dylan's touring band, musical director SNL); 1955 – John Roberts (Chief Justice SCOTUS); 1956 – Mimi Rogers; 1957 – Janick Gers(Iron Maiden); 1957 – Frank Miller (comic book artist, graphic novelist); 1959 – Cris Collinsworth; 1959 – Keith Olbermann; 1964 – Bridget Fonda; 1965 – Alan Cumming; 1966 – Tamlyn Tomita (Four Rooms); 1968 – Mike Patton♪ ♫(Faith No More); 1969 – Patton Oswalt

Deaths

98– Nerva; 1596 – Francis Drake; 1851 – John James Audubon; 1901 – Giuseppe Verdi♪ ♫; 1910 – Thomas Crapper; 1922 – Nellie Bly; 1967 – Roger B. Chaffee, Gus Grissom, & Ed White; 1972 – Mahalia Jackson♪ ♫; 1989 – Thomas Sopwith; 1994 – Claude Akins (Movin' On, BJ & The Bear); 2004 – Jack Paar; 2006 – Gene McFadden♪ ♫(McFadden & Whitehead); 2009 – John Updike (wrote Rabbit Run, Rabbit Redux, Rabbit Is Rich, Rabbit at Rest, & Rabbit Remembered); 2010 – J. D. Salinger (author The Catcher in the Rye); 2011 – Charlie Callas; 2014 – Pete Seeger

[xoxoxoBruce]

Family Literacy Day? Those Canucks have some strange ideas.

[Gravdigr]

January 28

Today is Data Privacy Day. If mind your own bidness, then you won't be minding mine.


Events

814 – Charlemagne dies of pleurisy in Aachen as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by his son Louis the Pious as king of the Frankish Empire.

1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine-year-old son, Edward VI, becomes King.

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

1754 – Sir Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to Horace Mann.

1813 – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is first published in the UK.

1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.

1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).

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

1922 – Knickerbocker Storm, Washington D.C.'s biggest snowfall, causes the city's greatest loss of life when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre collapses and kills 98 people.

1938 – The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195 at a speed of 432.7 kilometres per hour (268.9 mph).

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first American television appearance.

1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

1964 – An unarmed United States Air Force T-39 Sabreliner on a training mission is shot down over Erfurt, East Germany, by a Soviet MiG-19.

1977 – The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 which dumps 10 feet (3.0 m) of snow in one day in Upstate New York, with Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown, and surrounding areas are most affected.

1980 – USCGC Blackthorn collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa, Florida and capsizes, killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.

1981 – Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.

1982 – US Army general James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity by the Red Brigades.

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

1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

Births

1457 – Henry VII of England; 1864 – Charles Williams Nash (Nash Motors); 1864 – Herbert Akroyd Stuart (invented the hot-bulb engine and Hornsby-Akroyd oil engine); 1887 – Arthur Rubinstein; 1890 – Robert Stroud <--Interesting read.(the real Bird Man of Alcatraz); 1912 – Jackson Pollock; 1936 – Alan Alda; 1940 – Carlo$ $lim; 1948 – Charles Taylor; 1951 – Billy Bass Nelson(Parliament-Funkadelic); 1955 – Nicolas Sarkozy; 1959 – Frank Darabont; 1959 – Dave Sharp♪ ♫(The Alarm); 1968 – Sarah McLachlan♪ ♫; 1969 – Mo Rocca; 1976 – Rick Ross♪ ♫; 1977 – Joey Fatone♪ ♫(NSYNC); 1980 – Nick Carter♪ ♫(Backstreet Boys); 1981 – Elijah Wood ('Frodo'); 1998 – Ariel Winter (Modern Family)

Deaths

814 – Charlemagne; 1547 – Henry VIII; 1939 – W. B. Yeats; 1986 - Gregory Jarvis, Christa McAuliffe, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnik, Dick Scobee, & Michael J. Smith; 1988 – Klaus Fuchs; 1996 – Jerry Siegel (co-created Superman); 2005 – Jim Capaldi♪ ♫(Traffic); 2009 – Billy Powell(Lynyrd Skynyrd); 2016 – Paul Kantner♪ ♫(Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship)