January
Today is the day after
yesterday.
Today is also the day before
tomorrow.
Events
613 – Eight-month-old
Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father
Heraclius at Constantinople.
1506 – The first contingent of 150
Swiss Guards arrives at the
Vatican.
1889 –
Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.
Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the recorded sound business.
1901 –
Edward VII is proclaimed King upon the death of his mother,
Queen Victoria, on this date.
1905 –
Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the
1905 revolution.
1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when
a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.
1924 –
Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first
Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
1941 – World War II:
British, Australian and Indian forces capture Tobruk from Italian forces during
Operation Compass.
1944 – World War II: The Allies commence
Operation Shingle, an
assault on Anzio and Nettuno, Italy.
1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the
Central Intelligence Agency.
1947 –
KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.
1957 – Israel withdraws from the
Sinai Peninsula.
1957 – The New York City
"Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.
1968 –
Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar Module into space.
1970 – The
Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service.
1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in
Roe v. Wade and
Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.
1983 - The new 24-hour music video network
MTV [Remember when MTV used to show music videos?
] started broadcasting to the West Coast of America after being picked up by Group W Cable in Los Angeles.
1984 – The
Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a
Super Bowl XVIII television commercial.
1994 - American actor and singer
Telly Savalas died of prostate cancer aged 72. ["Telly Savalas can make bad slang sound like good slang, and good slang sound like lyric poetry." --Clive James]
1999 – Australian missionary
Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
Births
1440 – Ivan III (Ivan The Great) of Russia; 1552 – Walter Raleigh; 1561 – Francis Bacon; 1645 – William Kidd; 1654 – Richard Blackmore (no, not
Ritchie); 1788 – Lord Byron; 1875 – D. W. Griffith; 1877 – Tom Jones (No
that one, and not
that one, either, this one was a baseball player); 1892 – Marcel Dassault (founded Dassault Aviation); 1897 – Rosa Ponselle♪ ♫; 1904 – George Balanchine (co-founded the New York City Ballet); 1907 – Douglas 'Wrong Way' Corrigan; 1909 – Ann Sothern; 1931 – Sam Cooke♪ ♫; 1932 – Piper Laurie;
1934 – Bill Bixby; 1934 – Graham Kerr; 1937 – Joseph Wambaugh; 1940 – John Hurt; 1946 – Malcolm McLaren♪ ♫(manager); 1949 – J.P. Pennington♪ ♫; 1949 – Steve Perry♪ ♫(Journey); 1953 – Jim Jarmusch; 1960 – Michael Hutchence♪ ♫(INXS); 1962 – Jimmy Herring♪ ♫(Widespread Panic, Allman Bros, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Dead); 1965 – Steven Adler
(Guns 'N' Roses); 1965 – DJ Jazzy Jeff♪ ♫; 1965 – Diane Lane; 1968 – Guy Fieri; 1969 – Olivia d'Abo♪ ♫; 1973 – Larry Birkhead; 1975 – Balthazar Getty; 1981 – Ben Moody♪ ♫(Evanescence)
Deaths
1901 – Queen Victoria
; 1925 – Fanny Bullock Workman; 1950 – Alan Hale,
Sr.; 1971 – Harry Frank Guggenheim (co-founded Newsday); 1973 – Lyndon B. Johnson (36th POTUS); 1994 – Telly Savalas; 2004 – Ann Miller♪ ♫; 2008 – Heath Ledger; 2010 – Jean Simmons; 2012 – Joe Paterno; 2015 – Wendell H. Ford