January History

January History

January is…
Baking Month
Bath Safety Month
Blood Donor Month
Braille Literacy Month
Codependency Awareness Month
Fat-Free Living Month
National Hobby Month
Hot Tea Month
Mentoring Month
Oatmeal Month
Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month
Slow Cooking Month
Soup Month
Stalking Awareness Month
Thank You Month
Weight Loss Awareness Month
January is named after Janus, the Roman God of two faces, one that looks back to the past and the other that looks forward to the future.
January 1 in Pop Culture History
New Year’s Day, Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and 4th of July are the least common birth dates in the US.

January 1st is both the furthest away and closest day to December 31st.

4713 BC – Julian Calendar day #1, according to Joseph Justus Scaliger’s cycle of 7980 years.

46 BC – The Julian calendar began, and was used widely until 1582.

1622 – January 1st became the start of the “New Year” (it was March 25 for a long time prior)

1788 – The Times of London newspaper began publication.

1801 – Great Britain, Scotland and Ireland unite, founding the “United Kingdom”

1818 – Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus, was published (anonymously) in London. (500 copies were made)

1862 – US income tax began, with 3% of incomes over $600 and 5% of incomes over $10,000.

1863 – The ‘Emancipation Proclamation’ issued by Abraham Lincoln

1886 – 1st Tournament of Roses took place in Pasadena, California

1896 – German scientist Wilhelm Röntgen announced his discovery of X-rays.

1908 – 1st New Year’s ball drop at Times Square, NYC

1910 – The Hydrox “biscuit bonbon,” a chocolate sandwich cookie with creme filling, was introduced. Oreos came out in 1912.

1915 – Aspirin was made available for the first time in tablet form. The pills were manufactured by Bayer Pharmaceuticals and had been available in powder form before that.

1928 – The 21-story Milam Building was the first air-conditioned, high-rise office building in the United States (San Antonio, TX)

1925 – 1st Sugar Bowl and 1st Orange Bowl

1936 – The Herald Tribune of New York began microfilming the latest issues, becoming the first US newspaper to make a current record of its publication.

1946 – ENIAC, the first US computer, was completed. It was built at the Moore School of Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,

1948 – The first motion picture ‘newsreel’ in color, was taken at the Tournament of Roses and the Rose Bowl Game, Pasadena, California.

1954 – NBC broadcasted Pasadena’s Rose Bowl parade, for the first time in color.

1960 – US population: 179,245,000

1962 – The Rose Bowl game on NBC was the first coast-to-coast color television broadcast of a college football game in the US.

1964 – Tops of the Pops first aired on BBC

1966 – “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health” warning started appearing on cigarettes.

1971 – Cigarette television ads cease.

1985 – VH1 debuted on US cable

1985 – The AT&T monopoly was broken up into seven companies: Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell and US West.

1995- The History Channel was launched

1995 – The last syndicated “Far Side” by cartoonist Gary Larson appeared. (started in 1985)

1997 – US television networks adopted a rating system for programming similar to the one used for motion pictures.

1997 – The Emergency Alert System replaced the Emergency Broadcast System

1999- The Biography channel and DIY channels were introduced

2008 – CourtTV was rebranded as TruTV

2011 – Discovery Health Channel became The Oprah Winfrey Network.

2014 -The manufacture and importing of the common 40-watt and 60-watt general service incandescent lamps was ended under the deadline set by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007.

January 2 in Pop Culture History
1788 – Georgia became the 4th state to ratify the US Constitution.

1818 – The British Institution of Civil Engineers was founded.

1839 – Louis Daguerre took the first known picture of the moon.

1834 – Pennsylvania opened its state liquor stores.

1870 – Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge to cross the East River, in New York City.

1938 – Book publisher Simon and Schuster founded.

1947 – Mahatma Gandhi’s march for peace in East Bengali.

1959 – U.S.S.R. launches Mechta, Luna 1, for first lunar fly-by and solar orbit.

1960 – John Reynolds set the age of the solar system at 4,950,000,000 years (so in 2024, it became 4,950,000,064 years old)

1970 – The official US population is 203,302,031 people.

1974 – The Richard Nixon administration imposed the 55 MPH speed limit.

2008 – Oil reached $100 per barrel for the first time.

January 3 in Pop Culture History
1521 – The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther

1777 – Washington defeated the British at the Battle of Princeton, NJ

1847 – Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco

1871 – Oleomargarine was patented (#110626) by Henry Bradley in Binghamton, NY

1919 – Professor Ernest Rutherford succeeded in splitting the atom. He split nitrogen atoms into oxygen atoms.

1920 – The New York Yankees purchased Babe Ruth from the Red Sox for $125,000

1924 – British Egyptologist Howard Carter found the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen (King Tut)

1938 – March of Dimes was established

1951 – Dragnet premiered on NBC

1959 – Alaska was admitted as the 49th US state

1970 – Jon Pertwee first appeared as the Third Doctor in the Doctor Who episode Spearhead from Space. It also marks the first time that the series was broadcast in color. (colour in the UK)

1973 – George Steinbrenner III bought the Yankees from CBS for $12 million

1977 – Apple Computers incorporated

1977 – Holly Hallstrom joined Janice Pennington and Dian Parkinson as a showcase model on The Price is Right

1979 – The USA cable network was founded

1983 – Plinko was added as a Pricing Game for the series The Price Is Right

1987 – Unsolved Mysteries premiered (as a special) on NBC

1987 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the 1st female artist, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin

1991 – The first television sets to feature closed-caption displays were introduced in the U.S.

1993 – ABC and CBS simultaneously broadcast their own movies based on the Amy Fisher story, with ABC’s starring Drew Barrymore and CBS’s starring Alyssa Milano. NBC had already beaten the other networks, airing their own version about six days prior.

1997 – Bryant Gumbel anchored his last episode of the Today Show.

January 4 in Pop Culture History
1790 – President Washington delivered the 1st State of the Union address

1865 – The New York Stock Exchange opened its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.

1896 – Utah became the 45th State.

1902 – The Carnegie Institute of Washington was founded.

1903 – Thomas Edison filmed the electrocution of a murdering elephant, Topsy, to show the dangers of Alternating Current electricity.

1936 – Billboard magazine published its 1st music hit parade

1940 – Edwin H. Armstrong demonstrated the first “network” relay of an FM radio broadcast through several stations from Yonkers, NY, to Alpine, NJ, to Meriden, CT, and Paxton, MA, to Mount Washington.

1958 – Sea Hunt premiered, in syndication

1958 – Russian Sputnik I, the first man-made object to orbit the earth, fell back into the atmosphere and disintegrated, after 92 days in space.

1965 – US President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his “Great Society” during his State of the Union address.

1971 – Congressional Black Caucus was founded

1975 – Elizabeth Ann Seton became the first US-born saint.

1980 – The United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics

1986 – Phil Lynott, frontman for Brit rockers Thin Lizzy, died from heart failure from pneumonia complications.

1988 – Nick Jr. programming started on Nickelodeon

1995 – Newt Gingrich became Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as governor of Minnesota.

2007 – Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the US House of Representatives.

January 5 in Pop Culture History
1889 – The word hamburger first appeared in print in the Walla Walla Union, a Walla Walla, Washington, newspaper.

1905 – The National Association of Audubon Society was incorporated.

1914 – The Ford Motor Company announced an eight-hour workday and would pay a “living wage” of at least $5 for a day’s labor.

1933 – San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge construction began

1945 – Pepe LePew debuted in Warner Brothers’ “Odor-able Kitty”

1949 – President Harry S Truman labeled his administration the “Fair Deal”

1957 – Dodgers’ Jackie Robinson retired rather than be traded to New York Giants

1971 – Former boxing heavyweight champion “Sonny” Liston’s (36) corpse was found (he probably died Dec 30, 1970)

1998 – Vandals decapitated Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid

1970 – All My Children premiered on ABC

1991 – Blossom debuted on NBC

1995 – Daytime soap opera All My Children celebrated its 25th anniversary

January 6 in Pop Culture History
1540 – King Henry VIII of England married Anne of Cleves.

1838 – Samuel Morse made the 1st public demonstration of the telegraph in New Jersey.

1839 – The Night of the Big Wind swept across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin.

1854 – Sherlock Holmes’ Birthday

1912 – New Mexico became the 47th state.

1941 – FDR gave his “4 Freedoms” speech (speech, worship, from want and fear)

1957 – Elvis Presley made his 7th (and final) appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show

1973 – ABC’s Schoolhouse Rock debuted with Multiplication Rock

1974 – In response to the 1973 oil crisis, daylight saving time began nearly four months early in the United States.

1994 – Olympic Ice skater Nancy Kerrigan was attacked when Tonya Harding’s husband and bodyguard hired Shane Stant to break her legs. Kerrigan finished in second place, Harding in 8th for the event.

1996 – Blizzard of 1996

January 7 in Pop Culture History
1608 – Fire destroyed the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia

1714 – Queen Anne granted the world’s first patent (#395) for a “Machine for Transcribing Letters” in England to Henry Mill. This first planned typewriter was never actually produced.

1800 – US President Millard Fillmore, born January 7, 1800, in Cayuga County, New York, died on March 8, 1874, in Buffalo, New York.

1830 – The 1st US Railroad Station opened in Baltimore, MD

1927 – Commercial telephone service, via radio, began between New York and London.

1929 – Drawn by Hal Foster, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan comic strip 1st appeared

1929 – Buck Rogers, illustrated by Dick Calkins, appeared in newspaper comics.

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in Hinkley, Ill.

1934 – Alex Raymond’s ‘Flash Gordon’ comic strip debuted in newspapers across the United States.

1948 – Thomas Mantell reported seeing a UFO over Kentucky

1962 – The Avengers premiered in ITV, in the UK

1966 – Gene Kiniski defeated long-time wrestling champ Lou Thesz to become the NWA champion.

1980 – President Jimmy Carter authorized legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation.

1990 – The Leaning Tower of Piza was closed, citing safety concerns, and after some repairs, reopened on June 16, 2001

2004 – The Apprentice premiered on NBC

January 8 in Pop Culture History
1780 (Earthquake) Tabriz, Iran

1790 – George Washington gave the first ‘State of the Union’ message, urging the opening of the US Patent Office.

1815 – Andrew Jackson won the “Battle of New Orleans”

1835 – The United States’ official debt was $0.00.

1889 – Dr. Herman Hollerith received the 1st US patent for a tabulating machine; technically, this was the first computer patent!

1918 – Mississippi was the 1st state to ratify 18th Amendment (prohibition)

1963 – Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa was exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

1964 – US President Lyndon Johnson declared ‘War on Poverty.’

1987 – Dow Jones closed above 2,000 for 1st time (2,002.25)

1996 – A barge accidentally rammed Jacques Cousteau’s Calypso and sank in Singapore Harbour. It was raised and is now a museum in France.

2002 – President George W. Bush signed the bi-partisan No Child Left Behind Act into law.

January 9 in Pop Culture History
1693 (Earthquake) Sicily, Italy

1788 – Connecticut became the 5th state in the US.

1793 – Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the United States, from Philadelphia, PA to Woodbury, NJ.

1857 (Earthquake) Fort Tejon, California

1913 – US President Richard Nixon, born January 9, 1913 in Yorba Linda, California, died on April 22, 1994 in New York, New York.

1947 – Elizabeth “Betty” Short, AKA the Black Dahlia, was last seen alive.

1951 – Life After Tomorrow, 1st film to receive an “X” rating, premiered in London… ‘X’ ratings at that time were not the same as today – through 1951-1970 – it meant the film was for viewers over 16.

1956 – Abigail Van Buren’s “Dear Abby” column 1st appeared in newspaper syndication.

1960 – Severus Snape’s Birthday

1984 – Wendy’s “Where’s The Beef” commercials with Clara Peller began

1996- 3rd Rock From The Sun debuted on NBC

1997 – Antiques Roadshow debuted on PBS

2000 – Malcolm in the Middle premiered on FX

2007 – Apple’s iPhone was unveiled.

2011 – Bob’s Burgers premiered on FOX

January 10 in Pop Culture History
1776 – “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine was published.

1863 – London’s Metropolitan, the world’s first underground passenger railway, opened.

1870 – John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil. It is now part of ExxonMobil.

1899 – The US patent (#617592) was issued for an “Electric Device,” invented by David Misell, which was manufactured as the first tubular “Flash Light” by Conrad Hubert at his American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company.

1901 – The first major discovery of oil in Texas was made at Spindletop, near Beaumont.

1920 – The League of Nations was established.

1927 – Fritz Lang’s Metropolis premiered in Germany.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly met for the 1st time in London.

1949 – The 7-inch ’45’ PRM record was introduced, by RCA. The blue-colored vinyl played a promo in English on one side and Spanish on the other.

1955 – Inherit the Wind opened on Broadway at the National Theater

1983 – Fraggle Rock premiered on HBO

1990 – the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Communications formed Time Warner.

1999 – The Sopranos debuted on HBO

2010 – FOX announced that Simon Cowell would depart from American Idol in May to launch a US version of X Factor in Fall 2011, also on FOX

January 11 in Pop Culture History
Today is National Clean Off Your Desk Day

Today is also Stomp in a Puddle and Splash Your Friends Day (weather permitting)

1693 (Earthquake) Sicily, Italy

1908 – The Grand Canyon National Monument was created.

1922 – Leonard Thompson (1908-35) was the first person to receive an insulin injection as a treatment for diabetes.

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

1949 – It snowed in Los Angeles for the first time (that we know of)

1964 – US Surgeon General Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., published the first governmental report saying smoking may be hazardous to health.

1973 – Major League Baseball owners voted to approve the American League adopting the designated hitter position.

1995 – The WB Television Network was launched.

January 12 in Pop Culture History
1888 – Schoolhouse Blizzard, USA

1906 – Dow Jones closes over 100 for the 1st time.

1926 – Original Sam ‘n’ Henry premiered on WGN (Chicago) radio and was later renamed Amos ‘n’ Andy in 1928.

1959 – Motown Records was formed in Detroit.

1965 – ‘Hullabaloo’ premiered on NBC.

1966 – ABC’s ‘Batman’ television series premiered.

1967 – Dr. James Bedford was the first person to be cryonically preserved with the intent of future resuscitation. He is still frozen at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.

1971 – All In The Family aired for the first time on CBS

1988 – Dynasty debuted on ABC

1997 – King Of The Hill made its premiere

1998 – The game SuperBall! was played for the last time on The Price Is Right

2001 – National Geographic Channel debuted American cable

2001 – Lizzie McGuire premiered on The Disney Channel

2006 – A stampede during the Stoning of the Devil ritual on the last day of the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, killed at least 362 Muslim pilgrims.

2010 (Earthquake) Port-au-Prince, Haiti

January 13 in Pop Culture History
1854 – US patent (#11062) for an accordion was issued to Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, Pa.

1863 – Thomas Crapper invented the portable toilet.

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

1930 – Disney’s ‘Mickey Mouse’ newspaper strip first appeared.

1906 – The 1st radio set advertised (Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American)

1959 – Motown Records was formed in Detroit.

1962 – Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 73 points against Chicago

1966 – Tabitha was born on ABC’s Bewitched. The episode titled, “And Then There Were Three.”

1967 – US patent (#3359678) was issued to the Wham-O Mfg. Company for their improvement of the Frisbee.

1969 – Dick York collapses on the set of Bewitched and was rushed to the hospital. He resigned from the show due to his persistent back injury (started in 1959) and was replaced by Dick Sargent.

1978 – The United States Food and Drug Administration began requiring all blood donations to be labeled “paid” or “volunteer” donors.

1986 – Johnny Cash performed his famous Folsom County Jail show.

2005 – US Surgeon General, Richard H. Carmona issued a national health advisory to warn the public about the risks of breathing indoor radon.

January 14 in Pop Culture History
1690 – The Clarinet was invented in Nurnberg, Germany

1794 – Elizabeth Hog Bennett became the first woman in the US to give birth to a child by a Cesarean section successfully. Her husband, Dr. Jesse Bennett, operated.

1878 – US Supreme Court rules that race separation on trains is unconstitutional

1914 – Henry Ford opened his assembly-line Model-T factory

1952 – NBC’s ‘Today Show’ debuted.

1954 – NY Yankee Joe DiMaggio married actress Marilyn Monroe.

1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, forming the American Motors Corporation.

1967 – The Summer of Love began at San Francisco’s ‘The Human Be-In.’

1972 – NBC’s ‘Sanford and Son’ debuted, with host Dave Garroway.

1973 – The Miami Dolphins complete the first undefeated season by winning Superbowl VII.

1973 – Elvis Presley’s Aloha From Hawaii Special, was seen by over 1 billion viewers. Since it was on the same day as Superbowl VII, it was shown later (April 3, 1973) in the US

1978 – Fantasy Island premiered on CBS

1981 – FCC ends limitation on TV commercials.

1990 – ‘The Simpsons’ premiered on Fox.

January 15 in Pop Culture History
It’s National Hat Day because in 1797, the 1st top hat was worn, by John Etherington in London.
There are 350 days left until next year.

1759 – The British Museum opened to the public in Bloomsbury, London, the world’s oldest public national museum.

1861 – Elisha Otis patented the Steam elevator.

1863 – Woodpulp paper was first used in the US for a printed newspaper by the Boston Morning Herald of Boston.

1870 – The Donkey was 1st used as a symbol of the Democratic Party, in Harper’s Weekly, drawn by Thomas Nast.

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

1895 – Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” premiered in St. Petersburg.

1919 – The Boston Molasses Disaster – a huge vat of molasses broke open at the Purity Distilling Company and flooded a Boston neighborhood. 21 were killed.

1936 – The first building completely covered in glass, two stories built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, was completed in Toledo, Ohio.

1951 – The US Supreme Court ruled that “clear and present danger” of incitement to riot is not protected speech and can cause arrest.

1955 – The Benny Hill Show debuted on the BBC

1967 – The inaugural Super Bowl was simulcast on CBS and NBC. The National Football League (NFL) champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League (AFL) champion Kansas City Chiefs by the score of 35-10.

1967 – The Rolling Stones appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show, and did not sing “Let’s Spend Some Time Together” as planned.

1969 – The first docking of two manned spacecraft occurred between the Soviet Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5.

1974 – ‘Happy Days’ debuted on ABC.

1975 – Space Mountain opened at Disney World (Florida)

1977 – The Coneheads debuted on NBC’s ‘Saturday Night Live’. Also, Bill Murray joined the cast of SNL, replacing Chevy Chase

1978 – Superbowl XII aired on CBS, the first night-time Superbowl

1981 – ‘Hill Street Blues’ premiered on NBC.

1983 – Thom Syles kept a lifesaver intact in his mouth for over 7 hours.

1988 – Jimmy, ‘The Greek’ Snyder, made a racist remark about black athletes – He said that the black athlete was “bred to be the better athlete because this goes all the way to the Civil War when … the slave owner would breed his big woman so that he would have a big black kid.”

2001 – Bob The Builder premiered on Nick Jr

2001- Wikipedia debuted online.

2009 – US Airways flight 1549 landed safely in the Hudson River, NY, thanks to Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger.

January 16 in Pop Culture History
1362 – St. Marcellus Flood or Grote Mandrenke (Great Drowning of Men), Netherlands

1547 – Ivan the Terrible crowned himself 1st Tsar of Moscow.

1581 – The English Parliament outlawed Roman Catholicism.

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

1776 – The US Continental Congress approved the enlistment of free men for the rebellion.

1894 – Theodore Witte of Chilliwack, British Columbia, was issued a US patent (#512930) for a “Puttying-Tool” (the first caulking gun)

1920 – The 18th Amendment, Prohibition began, and alcoholic beverages were made illegal in the United States. (Effective one year later)

1920 – The League of Nations held its first council meeting in Paris, France.

1936 – The first photo finish camera was installed at a US racetrack, in Hialeah, Florida.

1939 – The ‘Superman’ newspaper comic strip debuted.

1941 – The War Department formed the 1st Army Air Corps squadron, The Tuskegee Airmen, for black cadets.

1964 – Hello, Dolly!, starring Carol Channing, opened on Broadway.

1976 – The ‘Donny and Marie’ musical variety show premiered on ABC.

1984 – Paul and Linda McCartney were arrested in Barbados for possession of marijuana.

1991 – All major television networks were pre-empted with Gulf War coverage right after evening news broadcasts.

1995 – Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, which starred Kevin Sorbo and Michael Hurst, premiered

January 17 in Pop Culture History
1773 – Captain James Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to sail below the Antarctic Circle.

1929 – Popeye made his 1st appearance, in the comic strip ‘Thimble Theater.’

1929 – From the Mount Wilson Observatory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Edwin Hubble showed that the universe was expanding.

1946 – The United Nations Security Council held its 1st meeting

1949 – The Goldbergs debuted on CBS

1950 – During the Great Brink’s Robbery, eleven thieves stole more than $2 million from an armored car company’s offices in Boston. They were all caught later.

1954 – Jacques Cousteau’s 1st network telecast airs on CBS’s ‘Omnibus’

1984 – The US Supreme Court ruled that private use of home VCRs to tape TV programs for later viewing does not violate federal copyright laws, in a 5-4 decision.

1994 (Earthquake) A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hit Northridge, California.

1998 – Matt Drudge broke the story of the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky affair on his website, The Drudge Report.

2011 – Piers Morgan Tonight, replacing Larry King Live, debuted on CNN

2012 – Food Network personality Paula Deen revealed that she has Diabetes type 2

January 18 in Pop Culture History
Today is Thesaurus Day

1644 – “In this year one James Everell, a sober, discreet man, and two others, saw a great light in the night at Muddy River. When it stood still, it flamed up, and was about three yards square; when it ran, it was contracted into the figure of a swine: it ran as swift as an arrow towards Charlton, and so up and down about two or three hours. They were come down in their lighter about a mile, and, when it was over, they found themselves carried quite back against the tide to the place they came from. Divers[e] other credible persons saw the same light, after, about the same place.”
– John Winthrop (1588-1649) John was the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. *some reports say it was 1638

1778 – James Cook ‘discovered’ Hawaii, naming it ‘The Sandwich Islands.’

1896 – The X-ray machine was shown to the public. Not really. The Cabaret du Neant charged people to see an ‘illusion’ of the effect.

1911 – The first landing of an aircraft on a ship occurred as pilot Lt. Eugene B. Ely landed on the USS Pennsylvania.

1944 – Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge, and Jack Teagarden performed at the Metropolitan Opera House, in NYC.

1971 – Ivan Koloff beat Bruno Sammartino in New York, to become the WWWF champion.

1975 – Leslie Knope’s Birthday

1980 – Gold reached $1,000 an ounce for the first time.

1990 – Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arrested in a drug enforcement sting. He claimed that the “bitch set me up” when he was caught with crack cocaine.

1993 – Martin Luther King Day is official in all 50 United States.

2004 – The L Word premiered on Showtime

January 19 in Pop Culture History
1825 – The US patent (#X004009) for food storage in cans to “preserve animal substances in tin” was issued to Ezra Daggett and his nephew Thomas Kensett of New York City.

1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden, Yemen. There have not been many companies that could claim “capturing” an area.

1883 – Thomas Edison, using overhead wires, began serving electricity to Roselle, New Jersey residents.

1915 – A US patent (#1125476) was issued to George Claude of Paris titled a “System of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes,” an early neon sign.

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

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

1953 – Lucy had a baby, and over 70% of every TV in the country watched ‘I Love Lucy’

1977 – President Ford pardoned WWII siren Tokyo Rose (Iva Toguri D’Aquino)

1977 – Snow fell in Miami and The Bahamas. It was the only time in recorded history that it happened, and scientists believed it was a sure sign of a coming ice age (global cooling).

1978 – Volkswagen Beetles stopped being produced in Germany.

1981 – Buffy Summers’ Birthday

1988 – CBS’s ’48 Hours’ debuted.

1989 – President Ronald Reagan pardoned George Steinbrenner for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon.

1993 – FOX expanded their prime-time line-up to seven days a week

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

January 20 in Pop Culture History
January 20, 1992, was a Good Day for rapper Ice Cube.

1265 – The 1st English Parliament was called into session by the Earl of Leicester.

1835 (Volcano Eruption) Cosigüina

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

1929 – The first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors In Old Arizona was released.

1930 – The first radio broadcast of ‘The Lone Ranger’ took place in Detroit (WXYZ)

1965 – The Beatles appeared on ABC’s Shindig.

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

1989 – Ronald Reagan became the 1st President elected in a ‘0’ year (1980) since 1840, to leave office as President while still alive.

1998- Dawson’s Creek premiered on The WB

2000 – SoapNet debuted

2006 – High School Musical was broadcast on The Disney channel

January 21 in Pop Culture History
1472 – The great daylight comet of 1472 was visible in daylight for eight days.

1790 – Dr. Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed the guillotine to the newly formed National Assembly of Paris as a “humane” method of execution.

1799 – Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccination was introduced.

1807 – The London Institution for the Advancement of Literature and The Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (The London Institution) received a royal charter signed by King George III, to “promote the diffusion of Science, Literature, and the Arts, by means of Lectures and Experiments, and by easy access to an extensive collection of books, both ancient and modern, in all languages.”

1861 – Jefferson Davis resigned from the United States Senate.

1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally took place, with 23 cars.

1915 – Kiwanis International was founded, in Detroit.

1954 – The first atomic submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Connecticut. It was officially commissioned later that year.

1970 – The Boeing 747, made its 1st commercial flight, between New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport and Heathrow Airport in London, England. .

1972 – The first convention of Star Trek fans was held in New York City’s Statler-Hilton Hotel

1977 – President Jimmy Carter pardoned most Vietnam War draft evaders.

1979 – Neptune became the outermost planet as Pluto moved on its highly elliptical, tilted orbit closer to the sun than Neptune. This eventually led to Pluto being downgraded from planetary status.

1990 – MTV Unplugged premiered on MTV (The featured artist was Squeeze)

1998 – News of the Monica Lewinsky/Bill Clinton affair was published; President Clinton said he “did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.”

January 22 in Pop Culture History
1890 – The United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, now the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).

1947 – KTLA begins operation in Hollywood.

1968 – Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In debuted on NBC

1973 – Roe vs. Wade: US Supreme Court legalized abortions.

1984 – Apple’s “1984” advertisement ran (for the only time) at Superbowl XVII

1987 – Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shot and killed himself at a live, televised press conference.

1997 – Lottie Williams was the first human to be struck by a remnant of a space vehicle (Delta II rocket?) after re-entering the earth’s atmosphere.

2003 – Chappelle’s Show debuted on Comedy Central

January 23 in Pop Culture History
1556 (Earthquake) Shaanxi, China. Over 800,000 people may were killed.

1571 – The Royal Exchange opened in London.

1793 – Humane Society of Philadelphia (America’s 1st aid organization) was founded.

1870 – US cavalrymen killed 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in what is known as the Marias Massacre, in Montana.

1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, was ratified.

1977 – Roots premiered on ABC

1978 – Chicago Guitarist Terry Kaith’s last words were, “Don’t worry, it’s not loaded,” while playing Russian roulette.

1983 – The “A-Team” premiered on NBC

1984 – Hulk Hogan defeated the Iron Sheik for the WWF (now WWE) championship

1985 – Thundercats debuted, in syndication

1986 – The 1st induction of the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame included Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.

2003 – Mythbusters premiered on The Discovery Channel

January 24 in Pop Culture History
41 – Roman Emperor Caligula was assassinated.

1848 – Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill, Coloma, California by James W. Marshall.

1899 – The US patent (#618128) for a rubber ‘safety heel’ was issued to Humphrey O’Sullivan

1922 – The ‘Eskimo Pie,’ an ice cream center covered in chocolate, was patented (#1404539) by Christian K. Nelson of Onawa, Iowa.

1935 – The 1st beer in a can – ‘Krueger Cream Ale’ is sold by the Kruger Brewing Company.

1950 – A microwave oven patent (#2495429) was issued to Percy LeBaron Spencer under the title ‘Method of Treating Foodstuffs’.

1963 – Buddy Rogers and Lou Thesz wrestle in Toronto; Rogers became the WWWF wrestling champ, and Thesz became the NWA champion.

1984 – Apple Computer unveiled the Macintosh personal computer.

1995- Live coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial began. Day-time network soap operas were pre-empted for almost nine months.

2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially began operation.

January 25 in Pop Culture History
1533 – Henry VIII of England married his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn was played at the marriage of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia.

1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell formed the Oriental Telephone Company.

1937 – The Guiding Light debuted on NBC radio from Chicago.

1939 – Joe Louis KO’d John Henry Lewis in one round for the World Heavyweight boxing title.

1945 – Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first US city to begin fluoridating the drinking water.

1955 – Columbia University scientists developed an accurate atomic clock within one second in 300 years.

1961 – President Kennedy held the first live presidential press conference.

2004 – Opportunity rover (MER-B) landed on the surface of Mars.

January 26 in Pop Culture History
1564 – The Council of Trent issued its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

1837 – Michigan joined the United States.

1838 – Tennessee became the 1st state to prohibit alcohol.

1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn was played at the marriage of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia.

1906 – Fred Marriot set the world’s steam car land speed record at 127.7 mph (205.5 km/h), racing at Daytona Beach, Florida, U.S.A. in his canoe-shaped Stanley Steamer Rocket. The record stood until 2009.

1912 – Jim Thorpe relinquished his 1912 Olympic medals for being a professional athlete. He was paid for two seasons of semi-professional baseball before competing in the Olympics, thus violating the amateur rules. His Olympic medals were reinstated posthumously by an act of Congress in 1983.

1915 – The Rocky Mountain National Park was established.

1966 – The Beaumont Children (ages 9, 7, and 4) disappeared from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia.

1979 – The Dukes of Hazzard debuted on CBS

1980 – NHL – The New York Islanders and Hartford Whalers played an NHL penalty-free game.

January 27 in Pop Culture History
1606 – The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators began for the Gunpowder Plot, ending with their execution on January 31.

1888 – The National Geographic Society was established.

1967 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

1970 – James M. Schlatter received a patent (#3492131) for ‘Peptide Sweetening Agents’ later marketed as NutraSweet.

1977 – ‘Roots’ mini-series began on ABC.

1984 – Michael Jackson’s hair caught fire during filming for a Pepsi commercial.

2010 – Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s latest product, a tablet PC called the iPad, at a press conference in San Francisco.

January 28 in Pop Culture History
1807 – London’s Pall Mall became the first street in any city to be illuminated by gaslight.

1813 – Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice was first published.

1915 – An act of the US Congress created the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.

1934 – The first ski tow rope in the US, built by Robert Royce, was used for the first time in Woodstock, Vermont

1953 – J. Fred Muggs (a chimp) joined NBC’s Today Show

1958 – The Lego Company patented the design of its Lego bricks.

1979 – CBS News Sunday Morning debuts with original host Charles Kuralt.

1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger 10 exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing astronauts Michael J. Smith, Dick Scobee, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, Judith Resnik and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

January 29 in Pop Culture History
1843 – US President William McKinley, born January 29, 1843 in Niles, Ohio, died on September 14, 1901 in Buffalo, New York.

1845 – Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Raven’ was published in the New York Evening Mirror.

1861 – Kansas became the 34th state in the US.

1886 – Karl Benz patented the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.

1924 – The first US patent (#1481813) for an ice cream cone rolling machine was issued to Carl R. Taylor of Cleveland, Ohio

1959 – Walt Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was released. The Beauty Princess Aurora only appeared on screen for about 18 minutes as an ‘adult,’ but she was actually a sixteen-year-old.

1967 – The Mantra-Rock Dance (the ‘Ultimate High’) took place in San Francisco and featured Janis Joplin, Grateful Dead, and Allen Ginsberg.

2015 – Malaysia officially declared the disappearance of missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 (disappeared on March 8, 2014) an accident, and its passengers and crew were presumed dead.

January 30 in Pop Culture History
1703 – The 47 Ronin, under the command of Oishi Kuranosuke, avenged the death of their master, Asano Naganori.

1790 – The first boat designed as a lifeboat was tested on the River Tyne.

1868 – Charles Darwin’s book, Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, was published.

1882 – US President Franklin Roosevelt, born January 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York, died on April 12, 1945, in Warm Springs, Georgia.

1948 – Nathuram Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi.

1958 – The first two-way, moving sidewalk (1,425 feet long) was put in service at Love Field Air Terminal in Dallas, TX.

1960 – Lily Potter’s Birthday

1968 – The North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong began the Tet Offensive

1969 – The Beatles rooftop performance and recording for Let It Be took place at Apple Records.

1972 – British Paratroopers open fire on and kill fourteen unarmed civil rights/anti-internment marchers in Derry, Northern Ireland. U2 commemorated it with 1983’s Sunday Bloody Sunday.

1973 – KISS played their 1st show at the Coventry Club in Queens, New York.

2007 – Microsoft released Windows Vista.

January 31 in Pop Culture History
1865 – Congress passed the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery in America.

1906 (Earthquake) Coastal Ecuador

1922 (Earthquake) Eureka/San Fransisco, Oregon/California

1958 – The United States launched its first successful orbiting satellite, Explorer-I.

1961 – The United States launched a 4-year-old male chimpanzee Ham on a Mercury-Redstone 2 rocket into test suborbital flight. Ham landed safely about 17 minutes later.

1988 – The Wonder Years premiered on ABC

1992 – ABC Sportscaster Howard Cosell retired.

1993 – The Super Bowl broadcast on NBC featured Michael Jackson, marking the first time there was ever a solo performer during the show.

1999 – Family Guy premiered on Fox

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