Category: Today

Today, January 16

27 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate.

550 – Bribing the city garrison, the Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer, and sack, Rome

1605 – The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.

1786 – Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.

1847 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is enacted by Congress.

1919 – Nebraska becomes the 36th state, and the last one necessary, to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution

1942 – TWA Flight 3, a DC-3, crashes after takeoff from Las Vegas, killing all 22 passengers and crew aboard

1991 – At 23:38 hrs UTC, 2 U.S. MH-53 Pave Low helicopters, leading 8 U.S. AH-64 Apache helicopters, strike Iraqi radar sites near the Iraqi/Saudi Arabian border.
5 minutes later, 2 U.S. EF-111 Ravens, leading 22 U.S. F-15E Eagles, strike Iraqi airfields in western Iraq
17 minutes later, 3 U.S. EF-111 Ravens, leading 10 U.S. F-117 Nighthawks, strike downtown metropolitan Baghdad, beginning the air campaign of Operation Desert Storm.

2001 – President Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.

2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia lifts off the 28th time for mission STS-107

2020 – The first impeachment of President Trump moves into its trial phase in the United States Senate.

January 15

1777 – During the Revolutionary War, New Connecticut (present-day Vermont) declares its independence from Great Britain

1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris recommends to Congress the establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.

1815 – During the War of 1812, the frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates while attempting to break out of their blockade of New York Harbor

1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of the game of Basketball.

1910 – Construction of the Buffalo Bill Dam on the Shoshone river near Cody, Wyoming is completed which  at the time, was the highest dam in the world at 325 ft.

1919 – A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, Massachusetts, killing 21 people and injuring 150.

1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.

1973 – Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

1976 – Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison, which by federal law means 30 years and then a mandatory parole, for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford

1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires

2009 – US Airways Flight 1549,  an Airbus A320, on a flight from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport to Charlotte, North Carolina, ditches safely in the Hudson River after the plane collides with birds less than two minutes after take off, with all 155 passengers and crew aboard surviving.

For most of the rest of the 21st Century, today is January 1 on the Julian Calendar, so for those still using it…HAPPY NEW YEAR.

January 14

1539 – Spain annexes Cuba.

1639 – The “Fundamental Orders”, the first written constitution that created a government in the colonies, is adopted in Connecticut

1784 – The U.S. Senate ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain, officially ending the Revolutionary War.

1911 – Roald Amundsen’s South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.

1943 – While President Roosevelt and PM Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy, the Japanese concede defeat on Guadalcanal, and begin Operation Ke, the evacuation of their forces from the island

1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.

1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form the American Motors Corporation.

1969 – An accidental explosion of a Zuni rocket detonating under a plane’s wing aboard the carrier USS Enterprise off Hawaii causes a fire, killing 28 crewmen and injuring  314 more.

1973 – Elvis Presley’s concert Aloha from Hawaii is broadcast live via satellite, and sets the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.

2010 – Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

January 13

1815 – During the War of 1812, British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.

1840 – The steamship Lexington burns and sinks 4 miles off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives of the 143 passengers and crew aboard.

1888 – The National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C.

1893 – U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the USS Boston to prevent Queen Liliuokalani from abrogating the 1887 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom which King Kalākaua had been forced to sign.

1910 – The  De Forest Radio Telephone Company makes the first public radio broadcast, a live performance of the operas Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.

1968 – Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom State Prison.

1977 – JAL Cargo Flight 3054, a Douglas DC-8 jet, crashes onto the runway during takeoff from Anchorage International Airport, killing all 5 crew aboard.

1982 – Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet, crashes shortly after takeoff into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 74 of the 79 passengers and crew aboard as well as 4 motorists.

2001 – An earthquake of 7.6 on the Richter scale hits near San Miguel, El Salvador , killing more than 900 people.

2018 – A false emergency alert warning of an impending missile strike in Hawaii caused widespread panic in the state.

2021 – Outgoing U.S. President Trump is impeached for a second time on a charge of incitement of insurrection following the storming of the Capitol one week prior.

Today, January 12

1616 – Portuguese captain Francisco Caldeira Castelo Branco founds the city of Belém, Brazil on the Amazon River delta.

1792 – President Washington appoints Thomas Pinckney as the first U.S. minister to Britain.

1915 – The United States House of Representatives rejects a bill to require states to give women the right to vote.

1932 – Hattie Caraway becomes the first woman elected to the United States Senate.

1942 –President Roosevelt creates the National War Labor Board

1962 – U.S. Army piloted helicopters transport a battalion of South Vietnam Army troops on an assault against a Vietcong stronghold during Operation Chopper, the first major U.S. combat mission in the war

1966 – President Johnson states that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there is ended.

1967 – Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.

1991 – The U.S. Congress authorizes the use of American military force to drive Iraq out of Kuwait.

2005 – NASA launches the Deep Impact probe to study comet 9P/Tempel 1 by shooting a 220 lb copper impactor that, at a impact velocity of 33,400 fps hit the comet with a kinetic energy of over 5 tons of TNT.

 

January 11

630 –Muhammad and his followers conquer the city of Mecca held by the  Quraysh clans.

1759 – The first American life insurance company, the Corporation for Relief of Poor and Distressed Presbyterian Ministers and of the Poor and Distressed Widows and Children of the Presbyterian Ministers (now part of Unum Group), is incorporated in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1805 – The Michigan Territory is created.

1861 – Alabama secedes from the United States.

1879 – After the rejection of an ultimatum sent a month earlier to Zulu king Cetshwayo, British High Commissioner Sir Bartle Frere orders Lord Chelmsford and his army to invade Zululand in Natal, South Africa.

1908 – The Grand Canyon National Monument is created.

1923 – Troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area to force Germany to make its World War I reparation payments.

1927 – Louis B. Mayer, head of film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), announces the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, at a banquet in Los Angeles, California.

1935 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1949 – The first “networked” television broadcasts take place as KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania goes on the air connecting the east coast and midwest programming.

1961 – The Throgs Neck Bridge over the East River, linking the New York City boroughs of The Bronx and Queens, opens.

1964 – Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Luther Terry, M.D., publishes a report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health.

1995 – Intercontinental de Aviación Flight 256, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9, crashes during its approach to Cartagena Airport, killing all but 1 passenger, a 9 year old girl who only sustained minor injuries, of the 51 passengers and crew on board

1996 – Shuttle Endeavour is launched on mission STS-72 to retrieve the Japanese Space Flyer Unit orbital experiment satellite, launched in March of the previous year.

2003 – Due to the scandal of Chicago Police Detective Commander Jon Burge torturing criminal suspects, Illinois Governor George Ryan commutes the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’s death row.

2020 –Municipal health officials in Wuhan, China announce the first recorded death from COVID-19.

Today, January 10

49 BC – In violation of Roman law, Julius Caesar, with his 13th Legion,  crosses the Rubicon river, at the time the nation’s northern border, starting civil war.

1776 – In Philadelphia, Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet Common Sense, which advocates independence from Great Britain for the Colonies.

1791 – During the early days of the Northwest Indian War, Dunlap’s Station on the banks of the Great Miami river, about 17 miles from Cincinnati, is taken under siege by combined scouts of several indian tribes before relief troops from Fort Washington, in Cincinnati, arrive the next morning.

1812 – The steamboat New Orleans completes the first voyage on the Ohio River, and the lower Mississippi River, arriving in New Orleans 82 days after departing from Pittsburgh.

1861 – Florida becomes the third state to secede from the Union.

1920 – The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.

1946 – The U.S. Army Signal Corps successfully conducts Project Diana, bouncing radio waves off the Moon and receiving the reflected signals.

1985 –Sandinista Daniel Ortega becomes president of Nicaragua while American policy continues to support the Contras in their revolt against the communist Nicaraguan government.

2019 – 13 year old Jayme Closs is found alive in Gordon, Wisconsin, having been kidnapped 88 days earlier from her parent’s home after they were murdered.

January 9

1431 – The trial of Joan of Arc begins in Rouen

1788 – Connecticut becomes the fifth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1793 – Jean Pierre Blanchard is the first person to fly in a balloon in the United States.

1822 – The Portuguese prince Pedro I of Brazil decides to stay in Brazil against the orders of the Portuguese King João VI, beginning what will eventually result in Brazilian independence.

1857 – A 7.9 magnitude earthquake on the southern end of the San Andreas fault hits Central and Southern California, causing the most property damage at Fort Tejon and killing a woman in nearby Gorman in a building collapse.

1861 – While Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union, cadets from the South Carolina Military Academy – now The Citadel – fire upon the SS Star of the West in Charleston harbor as it arrives to resupply the garrison at Fort Sumter. Some scholars see this as the actual first shots fired in the War Between the States.

1916 – The Gallipoli campaign ends with the last Allied forces evacuated from the Dardanelles

1918 – In Bear Valley Arizona, elements of the U.S. Army’s 10th Cavalry Regiment and a small number of Yaqui indians engage in the last official battle of the American Indian Wars

1945 – The United States Army 6th Army begins the invasion of Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines

1962 – NASA announces plans to build the C-5 rocket launch vehicle, then known as the “Advanced Saturn”, to carry human beings to the Moon.

1991 – In Geneva Switzerland, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz meet in a final attempt to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1992 – Working at the Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico,  astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail make the first confirmed observations of extrasolar planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12 in the constellation Virgo

1997 – Comair Flight 3272, an Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia, crashes in Raisinville Township, Monroe County, Michigan, while on approach for landing at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, killing all 29 passengers and crew aboard.

2015 – The moslem terrorist perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris earlier are both killed by during a gunfight with French police in Dammartin-en-Goële

Today, January 8

1297 – Forces under François Grimaldi, the ruling family of Monaco still to date, capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco.

1790 – As required by the U.S. Constitution, George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address to Congress in New York City, at the time, the provisional capital.

1815 – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British in the Battle of New Orleans

1828 – The Democratic Party of the United States is organized.

1835 – President Andrew Jackson announces a celebratory dinner after having reduced the United States national debt to Zero for the first and only time.

1863 – Confederate forces from Arkansas under Brigadier General John S. Marmaduke engage Union forces under Brigadier General Egbert Brown in house to house fighting in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Union supply depot at Springfield, Missouri.

1877 – Lakota and Cheyenne warriors led by Crazy Horse and Two Moon engage in their last battle against the U. S. Army in an unsuccessful attack on troops under Colonel Nelson A. Miles at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory.

1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued a US patent for the ‘Art of Applying Statistics’;  a punch card calculator.

1956 – 5 U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani tribe in Ecuador shortly after making first contact.

1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a “War on Poverty” in the United States. (As we can see, it’s been a utter failure, actually causing more problems than Johnson proclaimed to want to solve)

1973 – The trial of 7 men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office complex begins

1982 – After being sued by the U. S. government, AT&T agrees to a consent decree, divesting itself of 22 subsidiary operating companies taking effect at the end of the next year.

2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act. ( Another failure that was so bad, the law was repealed in 2015)

2003 – Air Midwest Flight 5481, a Beechcraft 1900D, crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 passengers and crew on board.

2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired.

2011 – Federal Judge John Roll, along with 5 others are killed and 18 more, including Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, are wounded by a literal madman in a mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona

January 7

49 BC – The Senate of Rome says that Caesar will be declared a public enemy unless he disbands his army which is encamped on the north side of the Rubicon river in northeastern Italy.

1608 – Fire destroys the colony of Jamestown, Virginia

1610 – In a message to  Johannes Kepler:
ALTISSIMUM PLANETAM TERGEMINUM OBSERVAVI
“I have observed the most distant planet to have a triple form”
Galileo Galilei notes his telescopic observation of the first 2 of the 4 largest moons of Saturn: Ganymede and Callisto, distinguishing the last 2, Io and Europa (Attempt No Landing There) the following day.

1782 – The first American commercial bank, the Bank of North America, opens

1785 – Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries fly from Dover, England, to Calais, France, in a gas balloon

1894 – Thomas Edison makes a kinetoscopic film of someone sneezing, on the same day, his employee, William Kennedy Dickson, receives a patent for motion picture film.

1927 – The first transatlantic telephone service is established from New York City to London.

1948 – Kentucky Air National Guard pilot Thomas Mantell, flying a P-51, Mustang, crashes and dies near Franklin, Kentucky, while in pursuit of a reported UFO.

1954 – The first public demonstration of an automatic machine language translation system is held in New York at the head office of IBM.

1968 – Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor moon lander probe series, lifts off from launch complex 36A, Cape Canaveral.

1973 – Black racist sniper Mark Essex is shot and killed by New Orleans police on the roof of the Howard Johnson’s Hotel after killing 9 people and wounding 13 more in different places over the period beginning on December 31st.

1980 – President Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation, which was repaid, with interest, in 1983.

1994 – United Express Flight 6291, a British Aerospace Jetstream 41, crashes in Gahanna, Ohio, killing 5 of the 8 passengers and crew on board

1999 – The Senate trial in the impeachment of President Clinton begins

2015 – Two moslem terrorists assault the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, killing 12 people and wounding 11.

2020 – The 6.4Mw  earthquake kill 4 people and injures 9 more in southern Puerto Rico.

Today, January 6

1066 – Following the death of Edward the Confessor on the previous day, the Witan council meets to confirm Harold Godwinson as the new King of England; Harold is crowned the same day, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.

1492 – Ferdinand and Isabella enter Granada at the end of the Granada War and conclusion of the Reconquista of the Iberian peninsula.

1838 – Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse demonstrate a telegraph system using dots and dashes – a forerunner of the ‘Morse Code’ –  to indicate letters of the alphabet.

1847 – Samuel Colt obtains his first contract for the sale of revolver pistols to the U.S government.

1893 –The Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation receives a charter from Congress to construct the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral.

1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome, Italy.

1912 – New Mexico is admitted to the Union as the 47th state.

1930 – Clessie Cummins arrives at the National Automobile Show in New York City, driving a car powered by one of his diesel engines

1947 – Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to offer an around the world ticket.

1960 – National Airlines Flight 2511, a Douglas DC-6, is destroyed in mid-air by a bomb, while en route from New York City to Miami, killing all 34 passengers and crew aboard.

1994 – American figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and injured by an assailant hired by her rival Tonya Harding’s ex-husband during the U.S. Figure Skating Championships

2005 – A collision between 2 Norfolk Southern trains, near the Avondale Mills textile plant in Graniteville, South Carolina, releases about 60 tons of chlorine gas, killing 9 people and injuring over 250 more who were exposed to the poisonous gas.

2017 – 5 people are killed and 6 others injured in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport in Broward County, Florida.

2021 – A group numbering in the multiple thousands protesting the count of the Electoral College vote, demonstrates on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol with some entering into the building resulting in the evacuation of Congressional members.

Today, January 5

1781 – During the Revolutionary War, Richmond, Virginia is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.

1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an 8 hour workday and minimum daily wage of $5 in salary plus bonuses.

1919 – The Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers Party) the predecessor to the NAZIs – (National Socialist German Workers Party) is founded in Munich.

1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.

1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.

1957 – During a “Special Message to the Congress on the Situation in the Middle East”, President Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine where any Middle Eastern country could request American economic assistance or aid from U.S. military forces if it was being threatened by armed aggression

1991 – Due to the outbreak of the Somali Civil War, the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu is evacuated by helicopter airlift.

2005 – The dwarf planet Eris is discovered by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in California, later motivating the International Astronomical Union  to define the term ‘planet’ for the first time.

Today, January 4

1581 – Irish archbishop and historian James Ussher is born in Dublin

1896 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state

1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. The Edison Film Company makes a movie of it.

1987 – The Amtrak 94 Colonial, en route to Boston from Washington, D.C., collides with Conrail engines in Chase, Maryland, killing 2 crew members, 14 passengers and injuring over 600 more.

1989 – 2 Libyan MiG-23 “Floggers” are shot down by US Navy F-14 Tomcats over the Gulf of Sidra in the Mediterranean Sea

2002 – U.S. Army Sergeant Nathan Ross Chapman is the first service member killed in action in Afghanistan.

2004 – The NASA Mars rover Spirit, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC

2007 – The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House

2010 – The 163 story Burj Khalifa, the current tallest building in the world at 2,722 feet, officially opens in Dubai.

 

Today, January 3

1521 – Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

1749 – New Hampshire Colonial Governor Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.

1777 – The Colonial Army under General Washington defeats General Cornwallis’ rearguard under Colonel Charles Mawhood at the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey

1861 – Delaware votes not to secede from the United States

1870 – Construction work begins on the Brooklyn Bridge

1947 – Proceedings of Congress are televised for the first time.

1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.

1959 – Alaska enters the Union as the 49th state

1961 – The SL-1 nuclear reactor at the National Reactor Testing Station,   west of Idaho Falls, Idaho, is destroyed by a steam explosion, killing all 3 of the operating technicians on duty, the only reactor incident in the U.S. to cause immediate fatalities.

1990 – Under siege in his estancia in Panama City, Manuel Noriega, former leader of Panama, surrenders to American forces

1992 – CommutAir Flight 4281, a Beechcraft 1900,  crashes on approach to Adirondack Regional Airport, in Saranac Lake, New York, killing 1 passenger and the co-pilot of the 4 people aboard.

1993 – In Moscow, President Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty

1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched by NASA.

2009 – The first block of Bitcoin is established by the creator of the system, Satoshi Nakamoto.

2020 – Iranian General Qasem Soleimani is killed by an American airstrike near Baghdad International Airport

Today, January 2

1492 – The truce effecting the surrender of Granada, the last Moor stronghold in Spain, comes into force, completing the 700+ year long Reconquista.

1777 – American forces under the command of George Washington repulse a British counterattack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.

1788 – Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution

1791 – Lenape and Wyandot warriors stage an attack at the Big Bottom settlement along the Muskingum river in modern day southeast Ohio, killing several settlers, marking the beginning of the Northwest Indian War.

1920 – U.S. Attorney General Palmer orders a second series of raids that began in November with another 6000 suspected communists and anarchists being arrested.

1942 – Fritz Joubert Duquesne and his German spy ring, the largest in U.S. history, are convicted of espionage.
Manila is declared an ‘open city’ and surrenders to invading Japanese forces during World War II.

1949 – Luis Muñoz Marín is inaugurated as the first elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

1967 – Ronald Reagan is sworn in as Governor of California.

1974 – President Nixon signs the National U.S. 55mph Speed Limit bill into law.

1975 – President Ford signs The Federal Rules of Evidence bill into law.

2004 – The NASA probe Stardust successfully flies past Comet 81P/Wild 2, collecting samples of comet dust that are returned to Earth.

 

Today, January 1

45 BC – The Julian calendar takes effect as the civil calendar of the Roman Empire, establishing January 1 as the new date of the new year.

404 – Saint Telemachus tries to stop a gladiatorial fight in a Roman amphitheater, and is stoned to death by the crowd. This act so impresses the Christian Emperor Honorius, he issues a ban on gladiatorial fights

1502 – The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is first explored by the Portuguese.

1772 – The first traveler’s checks, which could be used in 90 European cities, are issued by the London Credit Exchange Company

1773 – The hymn Amazing Grace, then simply titled  1 Chronicles 17:16–17 is first used to accompany a sermon by John Newton in Olney,  England.

1776 – General George Washington hoists the first United States flag – the Grand Union – at Prospect Hill, Somerville, Massachusetts

1781 – During the Revolution, 1500 soldiers of the 6th Pennsylvania Regiment under General Anthony Wayne’s command rebel against the poor conditions at Continental Army’s winter camp in Morristown, New Jersey ending with a negotiated settlement on January 8th.

1801 – Ceres, a dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the object discovered in the belt, is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi at Palermo Astronomical Observatory in Sicily.

1808 – The United States ban on the importation of slaves takes effect

1847 – The first “Mercy” Hospital is founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, by a group of Sisters of Mercy from Ireland

1863 – President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation takes effect in Confederate territory.

1885 – 25 nations adopt Sandford Fleming’s proposal for Standard Time

1892 – The U.S. government begins processing immigrants into the United States through facilities built on Ellis Island in New York Harbor.

1898 – New York, New York annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York. The four initial boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and The Bronx, are joined on January 25 by Staten Island to create the modern city of five boroughs.

1899 – Under terms of the 1898 Treaty of Paris, Spanish rule ends in Cuba which comes under formal jurisdiction of the United States Military Government

1902 – The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl between Michigan and Stanford, is held in Pasadena, California.

1914 – The St. Petersburg/Tampa Airboat Line becomes the world’s first scheduled airline to use fixed wing aircraft.

1932 – The United States Post Office Department issues a set of 12 stamps commemorating the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth.

1934 – Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay becomes a United States federal prison.

1945 – In retaliation for the killing of 80 U.S. POWs by the German Army SS troops near Malmedy, Belgium, U.S. troops of the 11th Armored division kill 60 German POWs being held at Chenogne.

1959 – Fulgencio Batista is overthrown as de facto ruler of Cuba by forces of Fidel Castro.

1971 – Cigarette advertisements are banned on American television.

1983 – The ARPANET officially changes to using TCP/IP, the Internet Protocol, effectively creating the Internet.

1994 – The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) comes into effect.

1999 – The Euro currency is introduced in 11 member nations of the European Union

2011 – A bomb placed by the Army of Islam explodes as Coptic Christians leave a new year service at The Orthodox Church of Saint Mark and Pope Peter in Alexandria, Egypt, killing 23 people.