On This Day

January 10, 2014

1840 - The penny post, whereby mail was delivered at a standard charge rather than paid for by the recipient, began in Britain.

1861 - Florida seceded from the United States.

1863 - Prime Minister Gladstone opened the first section of the London Underground Railway system, from Paddington to Farringdon Street.

1870 - John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

1901 - Oil was discovered at the Spindletop oil field near Beaumont, TX.

1911 - Major Jimmie Erickson took the first photograph from an airplane while flying over San Diego, CA.

1920 - The League of Nations ratified the Treaty of Versailles, officially ending World War I with Germany.

1920 - The League of Nations held its first meeting in Geneva.

1927 - Fritz Lang's film "Metropolis" was first shown, in Berlin.

1928 - The Soviet Union ordered the exile of Leon Trotsky.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sailed from Miami, FL, to Trinidad thus becoming the first American President to visit a foreign country during wartime.

1943 - The quiz show, "The Better Half," was heard for the first time on Mutual Radio.

1946 - The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly took place with 51 nations represented.

1949 - Vinyl records were introduced by RCA (45 rpm) and Columbia (33.3 rpm).

1950 - Ben Hogan appeared for the first time in a golf tournament since an auto accident a year earlier. He tied ‘Slammin’ Sammy Snead in the Los Angeles Open, however, Hogan lost in a playoff.

1951 - Donald Howard Rogers piloted the first passenger jet on a trip from Chicago to New York City.

1957 - Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Britain, following the resignation Anthony Eden.

1963 - The Chicago Cubs became the first baseball club to hire an athletic director. He was Robert Whitlow. (MLB)

1971 - "Masterpiece Theatre" premiered on PBS with host Alistair Cooke. The introduction drama series was "The First Churchills."

1978 - The Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz capsule for a redezvous with the Salyut VI space laboratory.

1981 - In El Salvador, Marxist insurgents launched a "final offensive".

1984 - The United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.

1986 - The uncut version of Jerome Kern’s musical, "Showboat", opened at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.

1990 - Chinese Premier Li Peng ended martial law in Beijing after seven months. He said that crushing pro-democracy protests had saved China from "the abyss of misery."

1990 - Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. completed a $14 billion merger. The new company, Time Warner, was the world's largest entertainment company.

1994 - In Manassas, VA, Lorena Bobbitt went on trial. She had been charged with maliciously wounding her husband John. She was acquitted by reason of temporary insanity.

1997 - Shelby Lynne Barrackman was strangled to death by her grand-father when she licked the icing off of cupcakes. He was convicted of the crime on September 15, 1998.

2000 - It was announced that Time-Warner had agreed to buy America On-line (AOL). It was the largest-ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the deal on December 14, 2000.

2001 - American Airlines agreed to acquire most of Trans World Airlines (TWA) assets for about $500 million. The deal brought an end to the financially troubled TWA.

2002 - In France, the "Official Journal" reported that all women could get the morning-after contraception pill for free in pharmacies.

2003 - North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the global nuclear arms control treaty and that it had no plans to develop nuclear weapons.

January 11, 2014

1569 - England's first state lottery was held.

1770 - The first shipment of rhubarb was sent to the United States from London.

1805 - The Michigan Territory was created.

1815 - U.S. General Andrew Jackson achieved victory at the Battle of New Orleans. The War of 1812 had officially ended on December 24, 1814, with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent. The news of the signing had not reached British troops in time to prevent their attack on New Orleans.

1861 - Alabama seceded from the United States.

1867 - Benito Juarez returned to the Mexican presidency, following the withdrawal of French troops and the execution of Emperor Maximilian.

1878 - In New York, milk was delivered in glass bottles for the first time by Alexander Campbell.

1902 - "Popular Mechanics" magazine was published for the first time.

1913 - The first sedan-type car was unveiled at the National Automobile Show in New York City. The car was manufactured by the Hudson Motor Company.

1922 - At Toronto General Hospital, Leonard Thompson became the first person to be successfully treated with insulin.

1935 - Amelia Earhart Putnam became the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1938 - In Limerick, ME, Frances Moulton assumed her duties as the first woman bank president.

1942 - Japan declared war against the Netherlands. The same day, Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies.

1943 - The United States and Britain signed treaties relinquishing extraterritorial rights in China.

1947 - "Murder and Mrs. Malone" debuted on ABC radio.

1958 - "Seahunt" debuted on CBS-TV. The show was aired on the network for four years.

1964 - U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report that said that smoking cigarettes was a definite health hazard.

1973 - The Open University awarded its first degrees.

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

1977 - France released Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

1978 - Two Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule linked up with the Salyut 6 orbiting space station, where the Soyuz 26 capsule was already docked.

1980 - Nigel Short, age 14, from Bolton in Britain, became the youngest International Master in the history of chess.

1986 - Author James Clavell signed a 5$ million deal with Morrow/Avon Publishing for the book "Whirlwind". The book is a 2,000 page novel.

1988 - U.S. Vice President George Bush met with representatives of independent counsel Lawrence E. Walsh to answer questions about the Iran-Contra affair.

1991 - An auction of silver and paintings that had been acquired by the late Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, brought in a total of $20.29 million at Christie's in New York.

1996 - Ryutaro Hashimoto become Japan's prime minister. He replaced Tomiichi Murayama who had resigned on January 5, 1996.

2000 - The merger between AOL and Time Warner was approved by the U.S. government with restrictions.

2000 - The U.S. Postal Service unveiled the second Vietnam Veterans Memorial commemorative stamp in a ceremony at The Wall.

2001 - The Texas Board of Criminal Justice released a review of the escape of the "Texas 7." It stated that prison staff missed critical opportunities to prevent the escape by ignoring a fire alarm, not reporting unsupervised inmates and not demanding proper identification from inmates.

2002 - Thomas Junta, 44, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for beating another man to death at their son's hockey practice. The incident occurred on July 5, 2000.

January 12, 2014

49 BC - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River signaling a war between Rome and Gaul.

1519 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.

1773 - The first public museum in America was established in Charleston, SC.

1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded in London.

1875 - Kwang-su was made emperor of China.

1882 - Thomas Edison's central station on Holborn Viaduct in London began operation.

1895 - The first performance of King Arthur took place at the Lyceum Theatre.

1896 - At Davidson College, several students took x-ray photographs. They created the first X-ray photographs to be made in America.

1908 - A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

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

1915 - The U.S. Congress established the Rocky Mountain National Park.

1926 - "Sam ‘n’ Henry" debuted on WGN Radio in Chicago, IL.

1932 - Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.

1938 - Austria recognized the Franco government in Spain.

1940 - Soviet bombers raided cities in Finland.

1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board.

1943 - The Office of Price Administration announced that standard frankfurters/hot dogs/wieners would be replaced by 'Victory Sausages.'

1945 - During World War II, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.

1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race.

1949 - "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" was debuted on CBS-TV. The show stayed on the network for seven years.

1949 - "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", the Chicago-based children’s show, made its national debut on NBC-TV.

1955 - Rod Serling’s career began with the TV production of "Patterns."

1960 - Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals became the first pro basketball player in the NBA to score more than 15,000 points in his career.

1964 - Leftist rebels in Zanzibar began their successful revolt against the government and a republic was proclaimed.

1966 - U.S. President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended.

1966 - "Batman" debuted on ABC-TV.

1967 - "Dragnet" returned to NBC-TV after being off the network schedule for eight years.

1970 - The breakaway state of Biafra capitulated and the Nigerian civil war came to an end.

1970 - Nigeria's civil war ended.

1971 - "All In the Family" debuted on CBS-TV.

1973 - Yassar Arafat was re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

1986 - Space shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.

1991 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing President Bush to use military power to force Iraq out of Kuwait.

1995 - Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew announced that as of January 16 British troops would no longer carry out daylight street patrols in Belfast.

1998 - Tyson Foods Inc. pled guilty to giving $12,000 to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Tyson was fined $6 million.

1998 - 19 European nations agreed to prohibit human cloning.

1998 - Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

1999 - Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.

2000 - Charlotte Hornets guard Bobby Phills was killed in a crash during a drag race.

2005 - NASA launched "Deep Impact". The spacecraft was planned to impact on Comet Tempel 1 after a six-month, 268 million-mile journey.

January 13, 2014

1128 - Pope Honorius II granted a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar. He declared it to be an army of God.

1794 - U.S. President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.

1854 - Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, patented the accordion.

1893 - Britain's Independent Labor Party, a precursor to the current Labor Party, met for the first time.

1898 - Emile Zola's "J'accuse" was published in Paris.

1900 - In Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph decreed that German would be the language of the imperial army to combat Czech nationalism.

1906 - Hugh Gernsback, of the Electro Importing Company, advertised radio receivers for sale for the price of just $7.50 in "Scientific American" magazine.

1928 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television.

1942 - Henry Ford patented the plastic automobile, which allowed for a 30% decrease in car weight.

1957 - Wham-O began producing "Pluto Platters." This marked the true beginning of production of the flying disc.

1962 - Ernie Kovacs died in a car crash in west Los Angeles, CA.

1966 - Elizabeth Montgomery’s character, Samantha, on "Bewitched," had a baby. The baby's name was Tabitha.

1966 - Robert C. Weaver became the first black Cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by U.S. President Johnson.

1982 - An Air Florida 737 crashed into the capital's 14th Street Bridge after takeoff and fell into the Potomac River. 78 people were killed.

1984 - Wayne Gretzky extended his NHL consecutive scoring streak to 45 games.

1986 - The NCAA adopted the controversial "Proposal 48," which set standards for Division 1 freshman eligibility.

1986 - "The Wall Street Journal" printed a real picture on its front page. The journal had not done this in nearly 10 years. The story was about artist, O. Winston Link and featured one of his works.

1989 - Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison for possession of an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths he claimed were about to rob him. He was freed the following September.

1990 - L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, the nation's first elected black governor, took the oath of office in Richmond.

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

1997 - Debbie Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - NBC agreed to pay almost $13 million for each episode of the TV show E.R. It was the highest amount ever paid for a TV show.

1998 - ABC and ESPN negotiated to keep "Monday Night Football" for $1.15 billion a season.

1998 - One of the 110 missing episodes of the British TV show "Doctor Who" was found in New Zealand.

1999 - Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) announced his retirement from the NBA.

2002 - The exhibit "In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." opened at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. More than 100 artists supplied the collection of 120 works of art.

2002 - Japan and Singapore signed a free trade pact that would remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between the two countries.

2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush fainted after choking on a pretzel.

2009 - Ethiopian military forces began pulling out of Somalia, where they had tried to maintain order for nearly two years.

January 14, 2014

1639 - Connecticut's first constitution, the "Fundamental Orders," was adopted.

1784 - The United States ratified a peace treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.

1858 - French emperor Napoleon III escaped an attempt on his life.

1873 - John Hyatt's 1869 invention ‘Celluloid’ was registered as a trademark.

1878 - Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the telephone for Britain's Queen Victoria.

1882 - The Myopia Hunt Club, in Winchester, MA, became the first country club in the United States.

1907 - An earthquake killed over 1,000 people in Kingston, Jamaica.

1939 - "Honolulu Bound" was heard on CBS radio for the first time.

1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office. He flew from Miami, FL, to French Morocco where he met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to discuss World War II.

1951 - The first National Football League Pro Bowl All-Star Game was played in Los Angeles, CA.

1952 - NBC's "Today" show premiered.

1953 - Josip Broz Tito was elected president of Yugoslavia by the country's Parliament.

1954 - Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married. The marriage only lasted nine months.

1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash-Kelvinator. The new company was called the American Motors Corporation.

1963 - George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama.

1969 - An explosion aboard the U.S. aircraft carrier Enterprise off Hawaii killed 25 crew members.

1972 - NBC-TV debuted "Sanford & Son."

1973 - The Miami Dolphins defeated the Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII and became the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.

1985 - Martina Navratilova won her 100th tournament. She joined Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert Lloyd as the only professional tennis players to win 100 tournaments.

1985 - Former Miss America, Phyllis George, joined Bill Kurtis as host of "The CBS Morning News".

1986 - "Rambo: First Blood, Part II" arrived at video stores. It broke the record set by "Ghostbusters", for first day orders. 435,000 copies of the video were sold.

1993 - Television talk show host David Letterman announced he was moving from NBC to CBS.

1993 - The British government pledged to introduce legislation to criminalize invasions of privacy by the press.

1994 - U.S. President Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed Kremlin accords to stop aiming missiles at any nation and to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine.

1996 - Jorge Sampaio was elected president of Portugal.

1996 - Juan Garcia Abrego was arrested by Mexican agents. The alleged drug lord was handed over to the FBI the next day.

1998 - Whitewater prosecutors questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House for 10 minutes about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees.

1998 - In Dallas, researchers report an enzyme that slows the aging process and cell death.

1999 - The impeachment trial of U.S. President Clinton began in Washington, DC.

1999 - The U.S. proposed the lifting of the U.N. ceilings on the sale of oil in Iraq. The restriction being that the money be used to buy medicine and food for the Iraqi people.

2000 - A U.N. tribunal sentenced five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 massacre of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.

2000 - The Dow Jones industrial average hit a new high when it closed at 11,722.98. Earlier in the session, the Dow had risen to 11,750.98. Both records stood until October 3, 2006.

2002 - NBC's "Today" celebrated its 50th anniversary on television.

2002 - Actor Brad Renfro, 19, was arrested after being stopped on a traffic violation. He was charged with public intoxication and driving without a license.

2004 - In St. Louis, a Lewis and Clark Exhibition opened at the Missouri History Museum. The exhibit featured 500 rare and priceless objects used by the Corps of Discovery.

2005 - A probe, from the Cassini-Huygens mission, sent back pictures during and after landing on Saturn's moon Titan. The mission was launched on October 15, 1997.

January 15, 2014

1559 - England's Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1624 - Many riots occurred in Mexico when it was announced that all churches were to be closed.

1777 - The people of New Connecticut (now the state of Vermont) declared their independence.

1844 - The University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.

1863 - "The Boston Morning Journal" became the first paper in the U.S. to be published on wood pulp paper.

1870 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" appeared in "Harper's Weekly." The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time.

1892 - "Triangle" magazine in Springfield, MA, published the rules for a brand new game. The original rules involved attaching a peach baskets to a suspended board. It is now known as basketball.

1899 - Edwin Markham's poem, "The Man With a Hoe," was published for the first time.

1906 - Willie Hoppe won the billiard championship of the world in Paris, France.

1908 - Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority became America's first Greek-letter organization established by African-American college women.

1913 - The first telephone line between Berlin and New York was inaugurated.

1936 - The first, all glass, windowless building was completed in Toledo, OH. The building was the new home of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company Laboratory.

1943 - The Pentagon was dedicated as the world's largest office building just outside Washington, DC, in Arlington, VA. The structure covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors.

1945 - CBS Radio debuted "House Party". The show was on the air for 22 years.

1953 - Harry S Truman became the first U.S. President to use radio and television to give his farewell as he left office.

1955 - The first solar-heated, radiation-cooled house was built by Raymond Bliss in Tucson, AZ.

1967 - The first National Football League Super Bowl was played. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League. The final score was 35-10.

1973 - U.S. President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam. He cited progress in peace negotiations as the reason.

1974 - "Happy Days" premiered on ABC-TV.

1986 - President Reagan signed legislation making Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday to be celebrated on the third Monday of January.

1987 - Paramount Home Video reported that it would place a commercial at the front of one of its video releases for the first time. It was a 30-second Diet Pepsi ad at the beginning of "Top Gun."

2003 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Congress had permission to repeatedly extend copyright protection.

January 16, 2014

1547 - Ivan the Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia.

1572 - The Duke of Norfolk was tried for treason for complicity in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England. He was executed on June 2.

1759 - The British Museum opened.

1809 - The British defeated the French at the Battle of Corunna, in the Peninsular War.

1866 - Mr. Everett Barney patented the metal screw, clamp skate.

1883 - The United States Civil Service Commission was established as the Pendleton Act went into effect.

1896 - The first five-player college basketball game was played at Iowa City, IA.

1900 - The U.S. Senate consented to the Anglo-German treaty of 1899, by which the U.K. renounced rights to the Samoan islands.

1919 - The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the sale or transportation of alcoholic beverages, was ratified. It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.

1920 - Prohibition went into effect in the U.S.

1920 - The motion picture "The Kid" opened.

1925 - Leon Trotsky was dismissed as Chairman of the Revolutionary Council of the USSR.

1939 - The "I Love a Mystery" debuted on NBC’s West-Coast outlets.

1944 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower took command of the Allied invasion force in London.

1961 - Mickey Mantle signed a contract that made him the highest paid baseball player in the American League at $75,000 for the 1961 season.

1964 - "Hello Dolly!" opened at the St. James Theatre in New York City.

1970 - Colonel Muammar el-Quaddafi became virtual president of Libya.

1970 - Buckminster Fuller, the designer of the geodesic dome, was awarded the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects.

1979 - The Shah of Iran and his family fled Iran for Egypt.

1982 - Britain and the Vatican resumed full diplomatic relations after a break of over 400 years.

1985 - "Playboy" magazine announced its 30-year tradition of stapling centerfold models in the bellybutton and elsewhere would come to an immediate end.

1988 - Jimmy "The Greek" Snyder was fired as a CBS sports commentator one day after telling a TV station in Washington, DC, that, during the era of slavery, blacks had been bred to produce stronger offspring.

1998 - Researchers announce that an altered gene helped to defend against HIV.

1991 - The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm. The operation was designed to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

1992 - Officials of the government of El Salvador and rebel leaders signed a pact in Mexico City ending 12 years of civil war. At least 75,000 people were killed during the fighting.

1998 - The first woman to enroll at Virginia Military Institute withdrew from the school.

1998 - NASA officially announced that John Glenn would fly aboard the space shuttle Discovery in October.

1998 - It was announced that Texas would receive $15.3 billion in a tobacco industry settlement. The payouts were planned to take place over 25 years.

1998 - Three federal judges secretly granted Kenneth Starr authority to probe whether U.S. President Clinton or Vernon Jordan urged Monica Lewinsky to lie about her relationship with Clinton.

2000 - Ricardo Lagos was elected Chile's first socialist president since Salvador Allende.

2002 - U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced that John Walker Lindh would be brought to the United States to face trial. He was charged in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, VA, with conspiracy to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorist organizations, and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban of Afghanistan.

2002 - The U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted sanctions against Osama bin Laden, his terror network and the remnants of the Taliban. The sanctions required that all nations impose arms embargoes and freeze their finances.

January 17, 2014

1377 - The Papal See was transferred from Avignon in France back to Rome.

1562 - French Protestants were recognized under the Edict of St. Germain.

1773 - Captain Cook's Resolution became the first ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.

1795 - The Dudingston Curling Society was organized in Edinburgh, Scotland.

1806 - James Madison Randolph, grandson of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White House.

1852 - The independence of the Transvaal Boers was recognized by Britain.

1871 - Andrew S. Hallidie received a patent for a cable car system.

1882 - Thomas Edison's exhibit opened the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London.

1893 - Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate.

1900 - The U.S. took Wake Island where there was in important cable link between Hawaii and Manila.

1900 - Yaqui Indians in Texas proclaimed their independence from Mexico.

1900 - Mormon Brigham Roberts was denied a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for his practicing of polygamy.

1905 - Punchboards were patented by a manufacturing firm in Chicago, IL.

1912 - English explorer Robert Falcon Scott reached the South Pole. Norwegian Roald Amundsen had beaten him there by one month. Scott and his party died during the return trip.

1913 - All partner interests in 36 Golden Rule Stores were consolidated and incorporated in Utah into one company. The new corporation was the J.C. Penney Company.

1916 - The Professional Golfers Association was formed in New York City.

1928 - The fully automatic, film-developing machine was patented by A.M. Josepho.

1934 - Ferdinand Porsche submitted a design for a people's car, a "Volkswagen," to the new German Reich government.

1938 - "Stepmother" debuted on CBS radio.

1945 - Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II.

1945 - Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody. Wallenberg was credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews.

1946 - The United Nations Security Council held its first meeting.

1949 - "The Goldbergs" debuted on CBS-TV. The program had been on radio since 1931. The TV version lasted for four years.

1959 - Senegal and the French Sudan joined to form the Federal State of Mali.

1961 - In his farewell address, U.S. President Eisenhower warned against the rise of "the military-industrial complex."

1966 - A B-52 carrying four H-bombs collided with a refuelling tanker. The bombs were released and eight crewmembers were killed.

1977 - Double murderer Gary Gilmore became the first to be executed in the U.S. in a decade. The firing squad took place at Utah State Prison.

1985 - Leonard Nimoy got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1991 - Coalition airstrikes began against Iraq after negotiations failed to get Iraq to retreat from the country of Kuwait.

1992 - An IRA bomb, placed next to a remote country road in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, killed seven building workers and injured seven others.

1994 - The Northridge earthquake rocked Los Angeles, CA, registering a 6.7 on the Richter Scale. At least 61 people were killed and about $20 billion in damage was caused.

1995 - More than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.

1997 - A court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history.

1997 - Israel gave over 80% of Hebron to Palestinian rule, but held the remainder where several hundred Jewish settlers lived among 20,000 Palestinians.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton gave his deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit against him. He was the first U.S. President to testify as a defendant in a criminal or civil lawsuit.

2000 - British pharmaceutical companies Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC agreed to a merger that created the world's largest drugmaker.

2001 - Congo's President Laurent Kabila was shot and killed during a coup attempt. Congolese officials temporarily placed Kabila's son in charge of the government.

2001 - The director of Palestinian TV, Hisham Miki, was killed at a restaurant when three masked gunmen walked up to his table and shot him more than 10 times.

2002 - It was announced that Microsoft had signed a joint venture agreement to produce software with two partners in China. The two partners were Beijin Centergate Technologies (Holding) Co. and the Stone Group.

January 18, 2014

1803 - Thomas Jefferson, in secret communication with Congress, sopught authorization for the first official exploration by the U.S. government.

1778 - English navigator Captain James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which he called the "Sandwich Islands."

1788 - The first English settlers arrived in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson.

1871 - Wilhelm, King of Prussia from 1861, was proclaimed the first German Emperor.

1886 - The Hockey Association was formed in England. This date is the birthday of modern field hockey.

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

1911 - For the first time an aircraft landed on a ship. Pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor.

1919 - The World War I Peace Congress opened in Versailles, France.

1929 - Walter Winchell made his debut on radio.

1937 - CBS radio debuted "Aunt Jenny’s Real Life Stories".

1939 - Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded "Jeepers Creepers."

1943 - During World War II, the Soviets announced that they had broken the Nazi siege of Leningrad, which had began in September of 1941.

1943 - U.S. commercial bakers stopped selling sliced bread. Only whole loaves were sold during the ban until the end of World War II.

1948 - "The Original Amateur Hour" debuted. The show was on the air for 22 years.

1950 - The federal tax on oleomargarine was repealed.

1951 - Joan Blondell made her TV debut on "Pot of Gold" episode of "Airflyte Theatre" on CBS-TV.

1957 - The first, non-stop, around-the-world, jet flight came to an end at Riverside, CA. The plane was refueled in mid-flight by huge aerial tankers.

1958 - Willie O'Ree made his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins. He was the first black player to enter the league.

1964 - The plans for the World Trade Center in New York were disclosed.

1967 - Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the "Boston Strangler," was convicted in Cambridge, MA, of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. He was sentenced to life in prison. Desalvo was killed in 1973 by a fellow inmate.

1972 - Former Rhodesian prime minister Garfield Todd and his daughter were placed under house arrest for campaigning against Rhodesian independence.

1975 - "The Jeffersons" debuted on CBS-TV.

1978 - The European Court of Human Rights cleared the British government of torture but found it guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in Northern Ireland.

1985 - Mary Decker broke a world, indoor record when she ran the women’s, 2,000-meter race in 5:34.2. She also ran the outdoor mile in 4:16.7.

1987 - For the first time in history the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) was seen by over 100 million viewers. The audience was measured during the week of January 12-18.

1990 - A jury in Los Angeles, CA, acquitted former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, of 52 child molestation charges.

1990 - In an FBI sting, Washington, DC, Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession. He was later convicted of a misdemeanor.

1991 - Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years in business due to financial problems.

1993 - The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 U.S. states for the first time.

1995 - A network of caves were discovered near the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France. The caves contained paintings and engravings that were 17,000 to 20,000 years old.

1997 - Hutu militiamen killed three Spanish aid workers and three soldiers and seriously wound an American in a night attack in NW Rwanda.

2002 - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced the approval of a saliva-based ovulation test.

2012 - Wikipedia began a 24-hour "blackout" in protest against proposed anti-piracy legislation (S. 968 and H.R. 3261) known as the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. Many websites, including Reddit, Google, Facebook, Amazon and others, contended would make it challenging if not impossible for them to operate.

January 19, 2014

1419 - Rouen surrendered to Henry V, completing his conquest of Normandy.

1764 - John Wilkes was expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

1793 - King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine.

1825 - Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City patented a canning process to preserve salmon, oysters and lobsters.

1861 - Georgia seceded from the Union.

1883 - Thomas Edison's first village electric lighting system using overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ.

1907 - The first film reviews appeared in "Variety" magazine.

1915 - George Claude, of Paris, France, patented the neon discharge tube for use in advertising signs.

1915 - More than 20 people were killed when German zeppelins bombed England for the first time. The bombs were dropped on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.

1937 - Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record. He flew from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

1942 - The Japanese invaded Burma (later Myanmar).

1944 - The U.S. federal government relinquished control of the nation's railroads after the settlement of a wage dispute.

1949 - The salary of the President of the United States was increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional $50,000 expense allowance for each year in office.

1952 - The National Football League (NFL) bought the franchise of the New York Yankees from Ted Collins. The franchise was then awarded to a group in Dallas on January 24.

1953 - Sixty-eight percent of all TV sets in the U.S. were tuned to CBS-TV, as Lucy Ricardo, of "I Love Lucy," gave birth to a baby boy.

1955 - U.S. President Eisenhower allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time.

1957 - Philadelphia comedian, Ernie Kovacs, did a half-hour TV show without saying a single word of dialogue.

1966 - Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.

1969 - In protest against the Russian invasion of 1968, Czech student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square.

1971 - At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome murders, the words "helter skelter" were written on a mirror.

1971 - "No, No Nanette" opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City.

1977 - U.S. President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino (the "Tokyo Rose").

1979 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama.

1981 - The U.S. and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months and for arrangements to unfreeze Iranian assets and to resolve all claims against Iran.

1983 - China announced that it was bannning 1983 purchases of cotton, soybeans and chemical fibers from the United States.

1993 - IBM announced a loss of $4.97 billion for 1992. It was the largest single-year loss in U.S. corporate history.

1995 - Russian forces overwhelmed the resistance forces in Chechnya.

1996 - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. The investigation was concerning the discovery of billing records related to the Whitewater real estate investment venture.

1997 - Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years. He joined 60,000 Palestinians in celebration over the handover of the last West Bank city in Israeli control.

2000 - In New York's Time Square, the first WWF restaurant opened.

2001 - Texas officials demoted a warden and suspended three other prison workers in the wake of the escape of the "Texas 7."

January 20, 2014

1265 - The first English parliament met in Westminster Hall.

1801 - John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.

1839 - Chile defeated a confederation of Peru and Bolivia in the Battle of Yungay.

1841 - The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.

1885 - The roller coaster was patented by L.A. Thompson.

1886 - The Mersey Railway Tunnel was officially opened by the Prince of Wales.

1887 - The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.

1891 - James Hogg took office as the first native-born governor of Texas.

1892 - The first official basketball game was played by students at the Springfield, MA, YMCA Training School.

1929 - The movie "In Old Arizona" was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.

1937 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated on January 20th. The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution officially set the date for the swearing in of the President and Vice President.

1942 - Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews.

1944 - The British RAF dropped 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.

1952 - In Juarez, Mexico, Patricia McCormick debuted as the first professional woman bullfighter from the United States.

1953 - "Studio One" became the first television show to be transmitted from the United States to Canada.

1954 - The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Forty radio stations were charter members of the network.

1961 - Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were divorced. They were married on June 29, 1956.

1972 - The number of unemployed in Britain exceeded 1 million.

1981 - Iran released 52 Americans that had been held hostage for 444 days. The hostages were flown to Algeria and then to a U.S. base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The release occurred minutes after the U.S. presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

1985 - The most-watched Super Bowl game in history was seen by an estimated 115.9 million people. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins, 38-16. Super Bowl XIX marked the first time that TV commercials sold for a million dollars a minute.

1986 - The U.S. observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

1986 - Britain and France announced their plans to build the Channel Tunnel.

1986 - New footage of the 1931 "Frankenstein" was found. The footage was originally deleted because it was considered to be too shocking.

1987 - Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon. He was there attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was not freed until November 1991.

1994 - Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. Faulkner joined the cadet corps in August 1995 under court order but soon dropped out.

1996 - Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian Authority and his supporters won two thirds of the 80 seats in the Legislative Council.

1997 - Bill Clinton was inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States.

1998 - American researchers announced that they had cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk.

1998 - In Chile, a judge agreed to hear a lawsuit that accused Chile's former dictator Augusto Pinochet with genocide.

1999 - The China News Service announced that the Chinese government was tightening restrictions on internet use. The rules were aimed at 'Internet Bars.'

2000 - Greece and Turkey signed five accords aimed to build confidence between the two nations.

January 21, 2014

1789 - W.H. Brown's "Power of Sympathy" was published. It was the first American novel to be published. The novel is also known as the "Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth".

1793 - During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI was executed on the guillotine. He had been condemned for treason.

1812 - The Y-bridge in Zanesville, OH, was approved for construction.

1846 - The first issue of the "Daily News," edited by Charles Dickens, was published.

1853 - Dr. Russell L. Hawes patented the envelope folding machine.

1861 - The future president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, resigned from the U.S. Senate. Four other Southerners also resigned.

1865 - An oil well was drilled by torpedoes for the first time.

1900 - Canadian troops set sail to fight in South Africa. The Boers had attacked Ladysmith on January 8, 1900.

1908 - The Sullivan Ordinance was passed in New York City making smoking by women illegal. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr.

1911 - The first Monte Carlo car rally was held. Seven days later it was won by Henri Rougier.

1915 - The first Kiwanis club was formed in Detroit, MI.

1924 - Soviet leader Vladimir Llyich Lenin died. Joseph Stalin began a purge of his rivals for the leadership of the Soviet Union.

1927 - The first opera broadcast over a national radio network was presented in Chicago, IL. The opera was "Faust".

1941 - The British communist newspaper, the "Daily Worker," was banned due to wartime restrictions.

1946 - "The Fat Man" debuted on ABC radio.

1954 - The Nautilus was launched in Groton, CT. It was the first atomic-powered submarine. U.S. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower broke the traditional bottle of champagne across the bow.

1954 - The gas turbine automobile was introduced in New York City.

1970 - The Boeing 747 made its first commercial flight from New York to London for Pan American.

1970 - ABC-TV presented "The Johnny Cash Show" in prime time.

1976 - The French Concorde SST aircraft began regular commercial service for Air France and British Airways.

1977 - U.S. President Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

1980 - Gold was valued at $850 an ounce.

1986 - Former major-league player, Randy Bass, became the highest-paid baseball player in Japanese history. Bass signed a three-year contract for $3.25 million. He played for the Hanshin Tigers.

1994 - A jury in Manassas, VA, acquitted Lorena Bobbitt by reason of temporary insanity of maliciously wounding (severing his penis) her husband John. She accused him of sexually assaulting her.

1997 - Newt Gingrich was fined as the U.S. House of Representatvies voted for first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.

1998 - A former White House intern said on tape that she had an affair with U.S. President Clinton.

1999 - The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a ship headed for Houston, TX, that had over 9,500 pounds of cocaine aboard. It was one of the largest drug busts in U.S. history.

2002 - In Goma, Congo, about fifty people were killed when lava flow ignited a gas station. The people killed were trying to steal fuel from elevated tanks. The eruption of Mount Nyiragongo began on January 17, 2002.

2002 - In London, a 17th century book by Capt. John Smith, founder of the English settlement at Jamestown, was sold at auction for $48,800. "The General History of Virginia, New England and the Summer Isles" was published in 1632.

January 22, 2014

1666 - Shah Jahan, a descendant of Genghis Khan and Timur, died at the age of 74. He was the Mongul emperor of India that built the Taj Mahal as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz-i-Mahal.

1771 - The Falkland Islands were ceded to Britain by Spain.

1824 - The Asante army crushed British troops in the Gold Coast.

1879 - James Shields began a term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. He had previously served Illinois and Minnesota. He was the first Senator to serve three states.

1879 - British troops were massacred by the Zulus at Isandhlwana.

1889 - The Columbia Phonograph Company was formed in Washington, DC.

1895 - The National Association of Manufacturers was organized in Cincinnati, OH.

1900 - Off of South Africa, the British released the German steamer Herzog, which had been seized on January 6.

1901 - Queen Victoria of England died after reigning for nearly 64 years. Edward VII, her son, succeeded her.

1905 - Insurgent workers were fired on in St Petersburg, Russia, resulting in "Bloody Sunday." 500 people were killed.

1917 - U.S. President Wilson pleaded for an end to war in Europe, calling for "peace without victory." America entered the war the following April.

1924 - Ramsay MacDonald became Britain's first Labour Prime Minister.

1936 - In Paris, Premier Pierre Laval resigned over diplomatic failure in the Ethiopian crisis.

1938 - "Our Town," by Thornton Wilder, was performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, NJ.

1941 - Britain captured Tobruk from German forces.

1944 - Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy, during World War II.

1947 - KTLA, Channel 5, in Hollywood, CA, began operation as the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River.

1950 - Alger Hiss, a former adviser to U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt, was convicted of perjury for denying contacts with a Soviet agent. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

1951 - Fidel Castro was ejected from a Winter League baseball game after hitting a batter. He later gave up baseball for politics.

1953 - The Arthur Miller drama "The Crucible" opened on Broadway.

1956 - Raymond Burr starred as Captain Lee Quince in the "Fort Laramie" debut on CBS radio.

1957 - Suspected "Mad Bomber" was arrested in Waterbury, CT. George P. Metesky was accused of planting more than 30 explosive devices in the New York City area.

1957 - The Israeli army withdrew from the Sinai. They had invaded Egypt on October 29, 1956.

1959 - British world racing champion Mike Hawthorn was killed while driving on the Guildford bypass.

1961 - Wilma Rudolph, set a world indoor record in the women’s 60-yard dash. She ran the race in 6.9 seconds.

1962 - Cuba's membership in the Organization of American States (OAS) was suspended.

1964 - Kenneth Kaunda was sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia.

1968 - "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In", debuted on NBC TV.

1970 - The first regularly scheduled commercial flight of the Boeing 747 began in New York City and ended in London about 6 1/2 hours later.

1972 - The United Kingdom, the Irish Republic, and Denmark joined the EEC.

1973 - Joe Frazier lost the first fight of his professional career to George Foreman. He been the undefeated heavyweight world champion since February 16, 1970 when he knocked out Jimmy Ellis.

1973 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws that had been restricting abortions during the first six months of pregnancy. The case (Roe vs. Wade) legalized abortion.

1983 - Bjorn Borg retired from tennis. He had set a record by winning 5 consecutive Wimbledon championships.

1984 - Apple introduced the Macintosh during the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII.

1987 - Phil Donahue became the first talk show host to tape a show from inside the Soviet Union. The shows were shown later in the year.

1992 - Rebel soldiers seized the national radio station in Kinshasa, Zaire's capital, and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.

1995 - Two Palestinian suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip detonated powerful explosives at a military transit point in central Israel, killing 19 Israelis.

1997 - The U.S. Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the first female secretary of state.

1998 - Theodore Kaczynski pled guilty to federal charges for his role as the Unabomber. He agreed to life in prison without parole.

2000 - Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers met privately with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as they appealed for help in removing the boy from his Florida relatives and reuniting him with his father in Cuba.

2001 - Former National Football League (NFL) player Rae Carruth was sentenced to a minimum 18 years and 11 months in prison for his role in the 1999 shooting death of his pregnant girlfriend, Cherica Adams. Adams died a month later from her wounds. The baby survived and lives with the victim's mother.

2001 - Acting on a tip, authorities captured four of the "Texas 7" in Woodland Park, CO, at a convenience store. A fifth convict killed himself inside a motor home.

2002 - In Calcutta, India, Heavily armed gunmen attacked the U.S. government cultural center. Five police officers were killed and twenty others, including one pedestrian and one private security guard, were wounded.

2002 - Lawyers suing Enron Corp. asked a court to prevent further shredding of documents due to the pending federal investigation.

2002 - Amazon.com announced that it had posted its first net profit in the fourth quarter (quarter ending December 31, 2001).

2002 - AOL Time Warner filed suit against Microsoft in federal court seeking damages for harm done to AOL's Netscape Internet Browser when Microsoft began giving away its competing browser.

2002 - Marc Chagall's work "Study for 'Over Vitebsk" was found at a postal installation in Topeka, KS. The 8x10 oil painting is valued at about $1 million. The work was stolen a year before form the Jewish Museum in New York City.

2002 - Kmart Corp. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy making it the largest retailer in history to seek legal protection from its creditors.

2003 - In New York, the "Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsmen" exhibit opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

2003 - It was reported that scientists in China had found fossilized remains of a dinosaur with four feathered wings.

January 23, 2014

1556 - An earthquake in Shanxi Province, China, was thought to have killed about 830,000 people.

1571 - The Royal Exchange in London, founded by financier Thomas Gresham, was opened by Queen Elizabeth I.

1789 - Georgetown College was established as the first Catholic college in the U.S. The school is in Washington, DC.

1845 - The U.S. Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

1849 - English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive medical degree. It was from the Medical Institution of Geneva, NY.

1907 - Charles Curtis, of Kansas, began serving in the United States Senate. He was the first American Indian to become a U.S. Senator. He resigned in March of 1929 to become U.S. President Herbert Hoover’s Vice President.

1920 - The Dutch government refused the demands from the Allies to hand over the ex-kaiser of Germany.

1924 - The first Labour government was formed, under Ramsay MacDonald.

1937 - In Moscow, seventeen people went on trial during Josef Stalin's "Great Purge."

1941 - The play, "Lady in the Dark" premiered.

1943 - Duke Ellington and the band played for a black-tie crowd at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time.

1943 - The British captured Tripoli from the Germans.

1950 - The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

1960 - The U.S. Navy bathyscaphe Trieste descended to a record depth of 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) in the Pacific Ocean.

1964 - Ratification of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was completed. This amendment eliminated the poll tax in federal elections.

1968 - North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the nation's territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.

1971 - In Prospect Creek Camp, AK, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the U.S. was reported as minus 80 degrees.

1973 - U.S. President Nixon announced that an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.

1974 - Mike Oldfield’s "Tubular Bells" opened the credits of the movie, "The Exorcist".

1975 - "Barney Miller" made his debut on ABC-TV.

1977 - The TV mini-series "Roots," began airing on ABC. The show was based on the Alex Haley novel.

1978 - Sweden banned aerosol sprays because of damage to environment. They were the first country to do so.

1983 - "The A-Team" debuted on TV.

1985 - O.J. Simpson became the first Heisman Trophy winner to be elected to pro football’s Hall of Fame in Canton, OH.

1985 - The proceedings of the House of Lords were televised for the first time.

1989 - Surrealist artist Salvador Dali died in Spain at age 84.

1997 - A judge in Fairfax, VA, sentenced Mir Aimal Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside the CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people.

1997 - A British woman received a record £186,000 damages for Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).

2001 - A van used by the remaining two fugitives of the "Texas 7" was recovered in Colorado Springs, CO. A few hours later police surrounded a hotel where the convicts were hiding. Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody the next morning without incident.

2002 - John Walker Lindh returned to the U.S. under FBI custody. Lindh was charge with conspiring to kill U.S. citizens, providing support to terrorists and engaging in prohibited transactions with the Taliban while a member of the al-Quaida terrorist organization in Afghanistan.

2003 - North Korea announced that it would consider sanctions an act of war for North Korea's reinstatement of its nuclear program.

January 24, 2014

1848 - James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of '49.

1899 - Humphrey O’Sullivan patented the rubber heel.

1908 - In England, the first Boy Scout troop was organized by Robert Baden-Powell.

1916 - Conscription was introduced in Britain.

1922 - Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie.

1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad. The name has since been changed back to St. Petersburg.

1930 - Primo Carnera made his American boxing debut by knocking out Big Boy Patterson in one minute, ten seconds of the opening round.

1935 - Krueger Brewing Company placed the first canned beer on sale in Richmond, VA.

1942 - "Abie’s Irish Rose" was first heard on NBC radio.

1943 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1952 - Vincent Massey was the first Canadian to be appointed governor-general of Canada.

1955 - The rules committee of major league baseball announced a plan to strictly enforce the rule that required a pitcher to release the ball within 20 seconds after taking his position on the mound.

1964 - CBS-TV acquired the rights to televise the National Football League’s 1964-1965 regular season. The move cost CBS $14.1 million a year. The NFL stayed on CBS for 30 years.

1965 - Winston Churchill died at the age of 90.

1972 - The U.S. Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.

1978 - A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated. The radioactive debris was scattered over parts of Canada's Northwest Territory.

1980 - The United States announced intentions to sell arms to China.

1985 - Penny Harrington became the first woman police chief of a major city. She assumed the duties as head of the Portland, Oregon, force of 940 officers and staff.

1986 - The Voyager 2 space probe flew past Uranus. The probe came within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet of the solar system.

1987 - In Lebanon, gunmen kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. They were all later released.

1989 - Ted Bundy, the confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida's electric chair for the 1978 kidnap-murder of 12-year-old Kimberly Leach.

1990 - Japan launched the first probe to be sent to the Moon since 1976. A small satellite was placed in lunar orbit.

1995 - The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigned due to allegations that he had spied for Moscow.

2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Missouri law that limited the contributions that individuals could donate to a candidate during a single election.

2001 - In Colorado Springs, CO, Patrick Murphy Jr. and Donald Newbury were taken into custody after a 5-minute phone interview was granted with a TV station. They were the remaining fugitives of the "Texas 7."

2002 - The U.S. Congress began a hearing on the collapse of Enron Corp.

2002 - John Walker Lindh appeared in court for the first time concerning the charges that he conspired to kill Americans abroad and aided terrorist groups. Lindh had been taken into custody by U.S. Marines in Afghanistan.

2003 - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security began operations under Tom Ridge.

January 25, 2014

1504 - The English Parliament passed statutes against retainers and liveries, to curb private warfare.

1533 - England's King Henry VIII secretly married his second wife Anne Boleyn. Boleyn later gave birth to Elizabeth I.

1579 - The Treaty of Utrecht was signed marking the beginning of the Dutch Republic.

1799 - Eliakim Spooner patented the seeding machine.

1858 - Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" was presented for the first time, as the daughter of Queen Victoria married the Crown Prince of Prussia.

1870 - G.D. Dows patented the ornamental soda fountain.

1881 - Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others signed an agreement to organize the Oriental Telephone Company.

1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded.

1915 - In New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service.

1924 - The 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps.

1927 - jack Benny married Sadye Marks on this day. Sadye changed her name to Mary Livingstone.

1937 - NBC radio presented the first broadcast of "The Guiding Light." The show remained on radio until 1956 and began on CBS-TV in 1952.

1945 - Richard Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in the production of "La Gioconda".

1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor.

1949 - The first Emmys were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club.

1950 - A federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury.

1959 - In the U.S., American Airlines had the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.

1961 - John F. Kennedy presented the first live presidential news conference from Washington, DC. The event was carried on radio and television.

1971 - Charles Manson and three female members of his "family" were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and seven counts of murder in the first degree. They were all sentenced to death for the 1969 killings. The sentences were later commuted to life sentences.

1971 - Maj. Gen. Idi Amin led a coup that deposed Milton Obote and became president of Uganda.

1981 - Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, was tried for treason and received a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.

1981 - The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States and were reunited with their families.

1987 - The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos, 39-20, in Super Bowl XXI on NBC. The game featured TV commercials cost $550,000 for 30 seconds.

1993 - A gunman shot and killed two CIA employees outside the agencies headquarters in Virginia. Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani national, was later convicted of the shootings.

1995 - The defense gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial.

1998 - The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos had lost 3 previous Super Bowl appearances with quarterback John Elway.

1999 - At least 1,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit western Columbia. The quake registered 6.0 on the Richter Scale.

1999 - In Louisville, KY, man received the first hand transplant in the United States.

2001 - A minor earthquake hit northeastern Ohio. The quake measured only 4.2 on the Richter Scale.

2010 - In Arlington, TX, the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame had its grand opening.

January 26, 2014

1500 - Vicente Yáñez Pinzón discovered Brazil.

1736 - Stanislaus I formally abdicated as King of Poland.

1784 - In a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the symbol to be the turkey.

1788 - The first European settlers in Australia, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed in what became known as Sydney. The group had first settled at Botany Bay eight days before. This day is celebrated as Australia Day.

1802 - The U.S. Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.

1827 - Peru seceded from Colombia in protest against Simón Bolívar's alleged tyranny.

1837 - Michigan became the 26th state to join the United States.

1841 - Britain formally occupied Hong Kong, which the Chinese had ceded to the British.

1861 - In the U.S., Louisiana seceded from the Union.

1870 - The state of Virgina rejoined the Union.

1875 - George F. Green patented the electric dental drill for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.

1905 - The Cullinan diamond, at 3,106.75 carats, was found by Captain Wells at the Premier Mine, near Pretoria, South Africa.

1911 - Inventor Glenn H. Curtiss flew the first successful seaplane.

1934 - The Apollo Theatre opened in New York City.

1939 - In the Spanish Civil War, Franco's forces, with Italian aid, took Barcelona.

1942 - The first American expeditionary force to go to Europe during World War II went ashore in Northern Ireland.

1947 - "The Greatest Story Ever Told" was first heard on ABC radio.

1950 - India officially proclaimed itself a republic as Rajendra Prasad took the oath of office as president.

1950 - The American Associated Insurance Companies, of St. Louis, MO, issued the first baby sitter’s insurance policy.

1959 - "Alcoa Presents" debuted on ABC-TV. The show would later be renamed "One Step Beyond".

1961 - U.S. President John F. Kennedy appointed Dr. Janet G. Travell as the first woman to be the "personal physician to the President".

1962 - The U.S. launched Ranger 3 to land scientific instruments on the moon. The probe missed its target by about 22,000 miles.

1965 - Hindi was made the official language of India.

1969 - California was declared a disaster area two days of flooding and mudslides.

1972 - In Hermsdorf, Czechoslovakia, a JAT Yugoslav Airlines flight crashed after the detonation of a bomb in the forward cargo hold killing 27 people. The bomb was believed to have been placed on the plane by a Croatian extremist group. Vesna Vulovic, a stewardess, survived after falling 33,000 feet in the tail section. She broke both legs and became paralyzed from the waist down.

1979 - The ‘Gizmo’ guitar synthesizer was first demonstrated.

1984 - CBS television debuted Mickey Spillane's "Mike Hammer."

1992 - Russian president Boris Yeltsin announced that his country would stop targeting U.S. cities with nuclear weapons.

1993 - Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.

1994 - In Sydney, Australia, a young man lunged at and fired two blank shots at Britain's Prince Charles.

1996 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury concerning the Whitewater probe.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton denied having an affair with a former White House intern, saying "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."

1999 - Saddam Hussein vowed revenge against the U.S. in response to air-strikes that reportedly killed civilians. The strikes were U.S. planes defending themselves against anti-aircraft fire.

1999 - Gary Busey was released from jail after being arrested the night before for investigation of misdemeanor spousal abuse. Tiana Busey had no visible injuries.

2001 - Near Ciudad Boliva, Venezuela, twenty four people were killed when a 50-year-old DC-3 crashed.

2009 - The first trial at the International Criminal Court was held. Former Union of Congolese Patriots leader Thomas Lubanga was accused of training child soldiers to kill, pillage, and rape.

2009 - The Icelandic government and banking system collapsed. Prime Minister Geir Haarde resigned.

2010 - It was announced that James Cameron's movie "Avatar" had become the highest-grossing film worldwide.

January 27, 2014

1606 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31.

1870 - Kappa Alpha Theta, the first women’s sorority, was founded at Indiana Asbury University (now DePauw University) in Greencastle, IN.

1880 - Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp.

1888 - The National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC.

1900 - In China, foreign diplomats in Peking, fearing a revolt, demanded that the imperial government discipline the Boxer rebels.

1926 - John Baird, a Scottish inventor, demonstrated a pictorial transmission machine called television.

1927 - United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network with contracts with 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

1931 - NBC radio debuted "Clara, Lu ’n’ Em" on its Blue network (later, ABC radio).

1943 - During World War II, the first all American air raid against Germany took place when about 50 bombers attacked Wilhlemshaven.

1944 - The Soviet Union announced that the two year German siege of Leningrad had come to an end.

1945 - Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

1948 - Wire Recording Corporation of America announced the first magnetic tape recorder. The ‘Wireway’ machine with a built-in oscillator sold for $149.50.

1951 - In the U.S., atomic testing in the Nevada desert began as an Air Force plane dropped a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.

1957 - The "CBS Radio Workshop" was heard for the first time.

1967 - At Cape Kennedy, FL, astronauts Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft.

1967 - More than 60 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty which banned the orbiting of nuclear weapons and placing weapons on celestial bodies or space stations.

1973 - The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

1977 - The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.

1981 - U.S. President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.

1984 - Carl Lewis beat his own two-year-old record by 9-1/4 inches when he set a new indoor world record with a long-jump mark of 28 feet, 10-1/4 inches.

1984 - Wayne Gretzky set a National Hockey League (NHL) record for consecutive game scoring. He ended the streak at 51 games.

1985 - The Coca-Cola Company, of Atlanta, GA, announced a plan to sell its soft drinks in the Soviet Union.

1992 - Former world boxing champion Mike Tyson went on trial for allegedly raping an 18-year-old contestant in the 1991 Miss Black America Contest.

1996 - Mahamane Ousmane, the first democratically elected president of Niger, was overthrown by a military coup. Colonel Ibrahim Bare Mainassara declared himself head of state.

1997 - It was revealed that French national museums were holding nearly 2,000 works of art stolen from Jews by the Nazis during World War II.

1998 - U.S. First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton appeared on NBC's "Today" show. She charged that the allegations against her husband were the work of a "vast right-wing conspiracy."

1999 - The U.S. Senate blocked dismissal of the impeachment case against President Clinton and voted for new testimony from Monica Lewinsky and two other witnesses.

2002 - A series of explosions occurred at a military dump in Lagos, Nigeria. More than 1,000 people were killed in the blast and in the attempt to escape.

2003 - Altria Group, Inc. became the name of the parent company of Kraft Foods, Philip Morris USA, Philip Morris International and Philip Morris Capital Corporation.

2010 - Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple iPad.

January 28, 2014

1521 - The Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church.

1547 - England's King Henry VIII died. He was succeeded by his 9 year-old son, Edward VI.

1788 - The first British penal settlement was founded at Botany Bay.

1807 - London's Pall Mall became the first street lit by gaslight.

1871 - France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.

1878 - The first telephone switchboard was installed in New Haven, CT.

1878 - "The Yale News" was published for the first time. It was the first, daily, collegiate newspaper in the U.S.

1902 - The Carnegie Institution was established in Washington, DC. It began with a gift of $10 million from Andrew Carnegie.

1909 - The United States ended direct control over Cuba.

1915 - The Coast Guard was created by an act of the U.S. Congress to fight contraband trade and aid distressed vessels at sea.

1916 - Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Wilson to the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.

1918 - The Bolsheviks occupied Helsinki, Finland.

1922 - The National Football League (NFL) franchise in Decatur, IL, transferred to Chicago. The team took the name Chicago Bears.

1935 - Iceland became the first country to introduce legalized abortion.

1938 - The first ski tow started operation in Vermont.

1945 - During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced that circus clown Emmett Kelly had been hired to entertain fans at baseball games.

1958 - Roy Campanella (Brooklyn Dodgers) was seriously injured in an auto accident in New York. He would never return to play again.

1958 - Construction began on first private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor.

1965 - General Motors reported the biggest profit of any U.S. company in history.

1973 - CBS-TV debuted "Barnaby Jones."

1980 - Six Americans who had fled the U.S. embassy in Tehran, Iran, on November 4, 1979, left Iran using false Canadian diplomatic passports. The Americans had been hidden at the Canadian embassy in Tehran.

1982 - Italian anti-terrorism forces rescued U.S. Brigadier General James L. Dozier. 42 days before he had been kidnapped by the Red Brigades.

1986 - The U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff. All seven of its crewmembers were killed.

1994 - In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.

1997 - Clive Davis received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1998 - In Manilla, Philippines, gunmen held at least 400 children and teachers for several hours at an elementary school.

1999 - Ford Motor Company announced the purchase of Sweden's Volvo AB for $6.45 billion.

January 29, 2014

1728 - John Gay's The Beggar's Opera was first performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields Theatre, London.

1802 - John Beckley became the first Librarian of Congress.

1820 - Britain's King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.

1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" was published for the first time in the "New York Evening Mirror."

1848 - Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by Scotland.

1850 - Henry clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

1856 - Britain's highest military decoration, the Victoria Cross, was founded by Queen Victoria.

1861 - In America, Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

1886 - The first successful petrol-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.

1916 - In World War I, Paris was bombed by German zeppelins for the first time.

1924 - R. Taylor patented the ice cream cone rolling machine.

1936 - The first members of major league baseball's Hall of Fame were named in Cooperstown, NY.

1940 - The W. Atlee Burpee Seed Company displayed the first tetraploid flowers at the New York City Flower Show.

1949 - "The Newport News" was commissioned as the first air-conditioned naval ship in Virginia.

1956 - "Indictment" debuted on CBS radio and stayed on the air for three years.

1958 - Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

1958 - Charles Starkweather was captured by police in Wyoming.

1963 - The first members to the NFL's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, OH.

1963 - Britain was refused entry into the EEC.

1966 - "Sweet Charity" opened at the Palace Theatre in New York City. It ran for 608 performances.

1979 - U.S. President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House. The visit followed the establishment of diplomatic relations.

1985 - The Dow Jones industrial average peaked at 1,292.62.

1987 - "Physician’s Weekly" announced that the smile on the face of Leonardo DeVinci's Mona Lisa was caused by a "...facial paralysis resulting from a swollen nerve behind the ear."

1990 - Joseph Hazelwood, the former skipper of the Exxon Valdez, went on trial in Anchorage, AK, on charges that stemmed from America's worst oil spill. Hazelwood was later acquitted of all the major charges and was convicted of a misdemeanor.

1995 - The San Francisco 49ers became the first team in National Football League (NFL) history to win five Super Bowl titles. The 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49-26.

1996 - French President Jacques Chirac announced the "definitive end" to nuclear testing.

1996 - La Fenice, the 204 year old opera house in Venice, was destroyed by fire. Arson was suspected.

1997 - America Online agreed to give refunds to frustrated customers under threat of lawsuits across the country. Customers were unable to log on after AOL offered a flat $19.95-a-month rate.

1998 - A bomb exploded at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, AL, killing an off-duty policeman and severely wounding a nurse. Eric Rudolph was charged with this bombing and three other attacks in Atlanta.

1999 - Paris prosecutors announced the end of the investigation into the accident that killed Britain's Princess Diana.

1999 - The U.S. Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two presidential advisers for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial.

2001 - In Indonesia, thousands of student protesters stormed the parliament property and demanded that President Abdurrahman Wahid quit due to his alleged involvement in two corruption scandals. Wahid announced that he would not resign.

January 30, 2014

1649 - England's King Charles I was beheaded.

1790 - The first purpose-built lifeboat was launched on the River Tyne.

1798 - The first brawl in the U.S. House of Representatives took place. Congressmen Matthew Lyon and Roger Griswold fought on the House floor.

1844 - Richard Theodore Greener became the first African American to graduate from Harvard University.

1847 - The town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco.

1862 - The U.S. Navy's first ironclad warship, the "Monitor", was launched.

1889 - Rudolph, crown prince of Austria, and his 17-year-old mistress, Baroness Marie Vetsera, were found shot in his hunting lodge at Mayerling, near Vienna.

1894 - C.B. King received a patent for the pneumatic hammer.

1900 - The British fighting the Boers in South Africa ask for a larger army.

1910 - Work began on the first board-track automobile speedway. The track was built in Playa del Ray, CA.

1911 - The first airplane rescue at sea was made by the destroyer "Terry." Pilot James McCurdy was forced to land in the ocean about 10 miles from Havana, Cuba.

1933 - "The Lone Ranger" was heard on radio for the first time. The program ran for 2,956 episodes and ended in 1955.

1933 - Adolf Hitler was named the German Chancellor.

1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.

1950 - NBC-TV debuted "Robert Montgomery Presents." The show lasted for seven seasons.

1958 - Yves Saint Laurent, at age 22, held his first major fashion show in Paris.

1958 - The first two-way moving sidewalk was put in service at Love Field in Dallas, TX. The length of the walkway through the airport was 1,435 feet.

1960 - The women’s singles U.S. figure skating championship was won by Carol Heiss.

1962 - Two members of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, MI.

1964 - January 30 - The U.S. launched Ranger 6. The unmanned spacecraft carried television cameras and was intentionally crash-landed on the moon. The cameras did not return any pictures to Earth.

1968 - The Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

1972 - In Northern Ireland, British soldiers shot and killed thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers. The day is known as "Bloody Sunday."

1979 - The civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to return. He had been living in exile in France.

1989 - The U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan was closed.

1994 - Peter Leko became the world's youngest-ever grand master in chess.

1995 - The U.N. Security Council authorized the deployment of a 6,000-member U.N. peace-keeping contingent to assume security responsibilities in Haiti from U.S. forces.

1995 - Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced that clinical trials had demonstrated the effectiveness of the first preventative treatment for sickle cell anaemia.

1996 - Gino Gallagher, the reputed leader of the Irish National Liberation Army, was shot and killed as he queued for his unemployment benefit.

1997 - A New Jersey judge ruled that the unborn child of a female prisoner must have legal representation. He denied the prisoner bail reduction to enable her to leave the jail and obtain an abortion.

2002 - Slobodan Milosevic accused the U.N. war crimes tribunal of an "evil and hostile attack" against him. Milosevic was defending his actions during the Balkan wars.

2002 - Japan's last coal mine was closed. The closures were due to high production costs and cheap imports.

January 31, 2014

1606 - Guy Fawkes was executed after being convicted for his role in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I.

1747 - The first clinic specializing in the treatment of venereal diseases was opened at London Dock Hospital.

1858 - The Great Eastern, the five-funnelled steamship designed by Brunel, was launched at Millwall.

1865 - In America, General Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of the Confederate armies.

1865 - The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. It was ratified by the necessary number of states on December 6, 1865. The amendment abolished slavery in the United States.

1876 - All Native American Indians were ordered to move into reservations.

1893 - The trademark "Coca-Cola" was first registered in the United States Patent Office.

1917 - Germany announced its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1929 - The USSR exiled Leon Trotsky. He found asylum in Mexico.

1930 - U.S. Navy Lt. Ralph S. Barnaby became the first glider pilot to have his craft released from a dirigible, a large blimp, at Lakehurst, NJ.

1934 - Jim Londos defeated Joe Savoldi in a one-fall match in Chicago, IL. The crowd of 20,000 was one of the largest crowds to see a wrestling match.

1936 - The radio show "The Green Hornet" debuted.

1940 - The first Social Security check was issued by the U.S. Government.

1944 - During World War II, U.S. forces invaded Kwajalein Atoll and other areas of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

1945 - Private Eddie Slovik became the only U.S. soldier since the U.S. Civil War to be executed for desertion.

1946 - A new constitution in Yugoslavia created six constituent republics (Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia) subordinated to a central authority, on the model of the USSR.

1949 - The first TV daytime soap opera was broadcast from NBC's station in Chicago, IL. It was "These Are My Children."

1950 - U.S. President Truman announced that he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.

1958 - Explorer I was put into orbit around the earth. It was the first U.S. earth satellite.

1960 - Julie Andrews, Henry Fonda, Rex Harrison and Jackie Gleason, appeared in a two-hour TV special entitled "The Fabulous ’50s".

1971 - Astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

1971 - Telephone service between East and West Berlin was re-established after 19 years.

1982 - Sandy Duncan gave her final performance as "Peter Pan" in Los Angeles, CA. She completed 956 performances without missing a show.

1983 - The wearing of seat belts in cars became compulsory in Britain.

1983 - JCPenney announced plans to spend in excess of $1 billion over the next five years to modernize stores and to accelerate a repositioning program.

1985 - The final Jeep rolled off the assembly line at the AMC plant in Toledo, OH.

1990 - McDonald's Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow, Russia.

1995 - U.S. President Clinton invoked presidential emergency authority to provide a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.

1996 - In Columbo, Sri Lanka, a truck was rammed into the gates of the Central Bank. The truck filled with explosives killed at least 86 and injured 1,400.

2000 - John Rocker (Atlanta Braves) was suspended from major league baseball for disparaging foreigners, homosexuals and minorities in an interview published by Sports Illustrated.

2000 - An Alaska Airlines jet crashed into the ocean off Southern California. All 88 people on board were killed.

2001 - A Scottish court in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, that occurred in 1988.

2005 - Keanu Reeves received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

February 1, 2014

1788 - Isaac Briggs and William Longstreet patented the steamboat.

1790 - The U.S. Supreme Court convened for the first time in New York City.

1793 - France declared war on Britain and Holland.

1793 - Ralph Hodgson patented oiled silk.

1861 - Texas voted to secede from the Union.

1862 - "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," by Julia Ward Howe was first published in the "Atlantic Monthly."

1867 - In the U.S., bricklayers start working 8-hour days.

1884 - The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was published.

1893 - Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio in West Orange, NJ.

1896 - Puccini's opera "La Boheme" premiered in Turin.

1898 - The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, CT, issued the first automobile insurance policy. Dr. Truman Martin of Buffalo, NY, paid $11.25 for the policy, which gave him $5,000 in liability coverage.

1900 - Eastman Kodak Co. introduced the $1 Brownie box camera.

1913 - Grand Central Terminal (also known as Grand Central Station) opened in New York City, NY. It was the largest train station in the world.

1919 - The first Miss America was crowned in New York City.

1920 - The first armored car was introduced.

1920 - Canada's Royal North West Mounted Police changed their name to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The organization was commissioned in 1873.

1921 - Carmen Fasanella registered as a taxicab owner and driver in Princeton, New Jersey. Fasanella retired November 2, 1989 after 68 years and 243 days of service.

1929 - Weightlifter Charles Rigoulet of France achieved the first 400 pound ‘clean and jerk’ as he lifted 402-1/2 pounds.

1930 - The Times published its first crossword puzzle.

1946 - Norwegian statesman Trygve Lie was chosen to be the first secretary-general of the United Nations.

1951 - The first telecast of an atomic explosion took place.

1951 - The first X-ray moving picture process was demonstrated.

1953 - CBS-TV debuted "Private Secretary."

1954 - CBS-TV showed "The Secret Storm" for the first time.

1957 - P.H. Young became the first black pilot on a scheduled passenger airline.

1958 - The United Arab Republic was formed by a union of Egypt and Syria. It was broken 1961.

1960 - Four black college students began a sit-in protest at a lunch counter in Greensboro, NC. They had been refused service.

1968 - During the Vietnam War, South Vietnamese National Police Chief Brig. Gen. Nguyen Ngoc Loan executed a Viet Cong officer with a pistol shot to the head. The scene was captured in a news photograph.

1976 - "Sonny and Cher" resumed on TV despite a real life divorce.

1979 - Patty Hearst was released from prison after serving 22 months of a seven-year sentence for bank robbery. Her sentence had been commuted by U.S. President Carter.

1979 - Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was welcomed in Tehran as he ended nearly 15 years of exile.

1987 - Terry Williams won the largest slot machine payoff, at the time, when won $4.9 million after getting four lucky 7s on a machine in Reno, NV.

1991 - A USAir jetliner crashed atop a commuter plane at Los Angeles International Airport. 35 people were killed.

1994 - Jeff Gillooly pled guilty in Portland, OR, for his role in the attack on figure skater Nancy Kerrigan. Gillooly, Tonya Harding's ex-husband, struck a plea bargain under which he confessed to racketeering charges in exchange for testimony implicating Harding.

1996 - Visa and Mastercard announced security measures that would make it safe to shop on the Internet.

1998 - Stuart Whitman received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

1999 - Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky gave a deposition that was videotaped for senators weighing impeachment charges against U.S. President Clinton.

2001 - Three Scottish judges found Abdel Basset al-Mergrahi guilty of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, which killed 270 people. The court said that Megrahi was a member of the Libyan intelligence service. Al-Amin Khalifa, who had been co-accused, was acquitted and freed.

2003 - NASA's space shuttle Columbia exploded while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board were killed.

February 2, 2014

1536 - The Argentine city of Buenos Aires was founded by Pedro de Mendoza of Spain.

1653 - New Amsterdam, now known as New York City, was incorporated.

1802 - The first leopard to be exhibited in the United States was shown by Othello Pollard in Boston, MA.

1848 - The Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845.

1848 - The first shipload of Chinese emigrants arrived in San Francisco, CA.

1863 - Samuel Langhorne Clemens used a pseudonym for the first time. He is better remembered by the pseudonym which is Mark Twain.

1870 - The "Cardiff Giant" was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum. The discovery in Cardiff, NY, was alleged to be the petrified remains of a human.

1876 - The National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (known as the National League) was formed in New York. The teams included were the Chicago White Stockings, Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Stockings, Hartford Dark Blues, Mutual of New York, St. Louis Brown Stockings, Cincinnati Red Stockings and the Louisville Grays.

1878 - Greece declared war on Turkey.

1880 - The S.S. Strathleven arrived in London with the first successful shipment of frozen mutton from Australia.

1887 - The beginning of Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, PA.

1892 - William Painter patented the bottle cap.

1893 - The Edison Studio in West Orange, NJ, made history when they filmed the first motion picture close-up. The studio was owned and operated by Thomas Edison.

1897 - The Pennsylvania state capitol in Harrisburg was destroyed by fire. The new statehouse was dedicated nine years later on the same site.

1913 - Grand Central Terminal officially opened at 12:01 a.m. Even though construction was not entirely complete more than 150,000 people visited the new terminal on its opening day.

1935 - Leonard Keeler conducted the first test of the polygraph machine, in Portage, WI.

1943 - During World War II, the remainder of Nazi forces from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered to the Soviets. Stalingrad has since been renamed Volgograd.

1945 - U.S. President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill left for a summit in Yalta with Soviet leader Josef Stalin.

1946 - The first Buck Rogers automatic pistol was made.

1946 - The Mutual Broadcasting System aired "Twenty Questions" for the first time on radio. The show moved to television 3 years later.

1949 - Golfer Ben Hogan was seriously injured in an auto accident in Van Horn, TX.

1950 - "What's My Line" debuted on CBS television.

1962 - The 8th and 9th planets aligned for the first time in 400 years.

1967 - The American Basketball Association was formed by representatives of the NBA.

1971 - Idi Amin assumed power in Uganda after a coup that ousted President Milton Obote.

1980 - The situation known as "Abscam" began when reports surfaced that the FBI had conducted a sting operation that targeted members of the U.S. Congress. A phony Arab businessmen were used in the operation.

1989 - The final Russian armored column left Kabul, Afghanistan, after nine years of military occupation.

1990 - South African President F.W. de Klerk lifted a ban on the African National Congress and promised to free Nelson Mandela.

1998 - U.S. President Clinton introduced the first balanced budget in 30 years.

1999 - 19 people were killed at Luanda international airport when a cargo plane crashed just after takeoff.

1999 - Hugo Chávez Frías took office. He had been elected president of Venezuela in December 1998.

2004 - It was reported that a white powder had been found in an office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) later confirmed that the powder was the poison ricin.

February 3, 2014

1488 - The Portuguese navigator Bartholomeu Diaz landed at Mossal Bay in the Cape, the first European known to have landed on the southern extremity of Africa.

1690 - The first paper money in America was issued by the Massachusetts colony. The currency was used to pay soldiers that were fighting in the war against Quebec.

1783 - Spain recognized the independence of the United States.

1809 - The territory of Illinois was created.

1815 - The world's first commercial cheese factory was established in Switzerland.

1862 - Thomas Edison printed the "Weekly Herald" and distributed it to train passengers traveling between Port Huron and Detroit, MI. It was the first time a newspaper had been printed on a train.

1869 - Edwin Booth opened his new theatre in New York City. The first production was "Romeo and Juliet".

1900 - In Frankfort, KY, gubernatorial candidate William Goebels died from an assasin's bullet wounds. On August 18, 1900, Ex-Sec. of State Caleb Powers was found guilt of conspiracy to murder Gov. Goebels.

1913 - The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized the power to impose and collect income tax.

1916 - In Ottawa, Canada's original parliament buildings burned down.

1917 - The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany, which had announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1918 - The Twin Peaks Tunnel began service. It is the longest streetcar tunnel in the world at 11,920 feet.

1927 - The Federal Radio Commission was created when U.S. President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill.

1941 - In Vichy, France, the Nazis used force to restore Pierre Laval to office.

1945 - Russia agreed to enter World War II against Japan.

1946 - The first issue of "Holiday" magazine appeared.

1947 - Percival Prattisbecame the first black news correspondent admitted to the House and Senate press gallery in Washington, DC. He worked for "Our World" in New York City.

1951 - Dick Button won the U.S. figure skating title for the sixth time.

1951 - The Tennessee Williams play, "The Rose Tattoo", opened on Broadway in New York.

1966 - The first rocket-assisted controlled landing on the Moon was made by the Soviet space vehicle Luna IX.

1969 - At the Palestinian National Congress in Cairo, Yasser Arafat was appointed leader of the PLO.

1972 - The first Winter Olympics in Asia were held at Sapporo, Japan.

1984 - Challenger 4 was launched as the tenth space shuttle mission.

1988 - The U.S. House of Representatives handed rejected U.S. President Reagan's request for at least $36.25 million in aid to the Nicaraguan Contras.

1989 - South African politician P.W. Botha unwillingly resigned both party leadership and the presidency after suffering a stroke.

1998 - Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker. She was the first woman executed in the U.S. since 1984.

1998 - In Italy, a U.S. Military plane hit a cable causing the death of 20 skiers on a lift.

2009 - Eric Holder was sworn in as attorney general. He was the first African-American to hold the post.

2010 - The Alberto Giacometti sculpture L'Homme qui marche sold for $103.7 million.

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