This day in History

[Babba_not_Gump]

January 2.
1776. Austria ends the use of interrogation by torture.

1788. Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names.

1833. Re-establishment of British rule on the Falklands.

1839. First photo of the Moon, taken by French photographer Louis Daguerre.

1890 Record 19.2 feet alligator shot in Louisiana by American businessman Edward Avery McIlhenn.

1906 Willis Carrier receives a US patent for the world's first air conditioner.

1908. Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa.

1917. Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank.

1929. US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls.

1936. 1st electron tube to enable night vision described, St Louis, Missouri.

1942. World War II: The 28 nations at war with the Axis powers pledge to make no separate peace deals.

1944. 1st use of helicopters during warfare (British Atlantic patrol).

1959. USSR launches the Luna 1 spacecraft (Mechta), the 1st to leave Earth's gravity, reach the vicinity of the Moon and to be placed in heliocentric orbit.

1965. New York Jets sign future Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath to a $427,000 contract over three years (pro football record at the time).

1966. 1st  Jewish child born in Spain since 1492 expulsion.

1974. 55 MPH speed limit imposed by Richard Nixon.

1975. US Department of Interior designates grizzly bear a threatened species.

1982. New York Islanders beat Philadelphia Flyers, 3-1 at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum to start 23 NHL game undefeated home streak (21-0-2), 14 straight wins.

1988. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Ronald Reagan sign Canada-US Free Trade Agreement.

1998. Autopsy of Chris Farley shows he overdosed of opiates and cocaine.

[Babba_not_Gump]

January 3.
1496 Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1833. Britain seizes control of Falkland Islands in South Atlantic.

1870. Construction begins on New York's Brooklyn Bridge; completed May 24, 1883

1888. 1st wax drinking straw patented, by Marvin C Stone in Washington, D.C.

1899. 1st known use of the word "automobile", appears in an editorial in The New York Times.

1919. The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, which was a short-lived agreement for the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, is signed by the King of Iraq and the President of the World Zionist Organization.

1925. Benito Mussolini dissolves the Italian parliament and proclaims himself dictator of Italy, taking the title "Il Duce" (the Leader).

1938. March of Dimes established to fight polio.

1941. Canada & US acquire air bases in Newfoundland (99 yr lease).

1943. Max and Doug Bentley assist on brother Reg's only NHL goal in Chicago Blackhawks' 3-3 tie with the Rangers in NYC; only time in NHL history trio of family members score and assist on a scoring play.

1959. Alaska admitted as 49th US state.

1964. Jack Paar shows a clip of the Beatles singing "She Loves You", and says he understands that science was working on a cure for the Beatlemania phenomenon.

1974. Gold hits record $121.25 an ounce in London.

1980. Gold hits record $634 an ounce.

1985 Israel government confirms resettlement of 10,000 Ethiopian Jews.

1991. Wayne Gretzky becomes fastest and youngest player in NHL history to score 700 goals (886 games at age 29 years, 342 days).

1996. 1st clamshell flip mobile phone, the Motorola StarTAC, goes on sale. Eventually 60 million are sold.

2009. The Bitcoin network is created as the first block of the digital currency is mined by a person or group of people using the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

[Babba_not_Gump]

It appears January 6th was a pretty boring day in world history so we'll stick with Canadiana and hockey today.

1643. Paul de Chomedy, Sieur de Maisonneuve, planted a cross on Mount Royal in what is now Montreal. It was his way of offering thanks that the settlement of Ville-Marie was saved from flooding.

1786. The first sitting of the New Brunswick legislature took place in Saint John.

1918. While diving to escape German fighters, observer Captain J. Hedley was sucked from his seat by negative Gs and out of the plane. When the plane levelled out, the aviator was sitting safely near the tail. The slipstream had pulled him back to the plane.

1953. Vancouver’s longest wet spell on record began. The city had rain for 29 straight days. (Victoria received rain 33 days in a row in 1986.)

1957. Ted Kennedy came out of retirement, and returned to the Maple Leafs after hanging up his skates following the 1954-55 season. He scored six goals and 22 points in the final 30 games of his NHL career.

1962. Johnny Bower became the fourth goaltender in Maple Leafs franchise history to win 100 games.

1963. Jacques Plante became the first goaltender to win 300 games with the Montreal Canadiens with a 6-0 shutout over the New York Rangers. 

1966. “The Drum,” the first newspaper of its kind in the Arctic, began publishing in English, Inuit and Kutchin.

1968. George Armstrong played in the 1,000th game of his NHL career.

1978. The Sun Life Assurance Company set off a storm of controversy in Quebec when it announced plans to move its head office from Montreal to Toronto.

1981.  John Tonelli scored five goals to tie a team record in the New York Islanders’ 6-3 defeat of the Maple Leafs. Mike Bossy assisted on all six Islanders’ goals.

1983. Guy Carbonneau, scored his first career hat trick as the Canadiens beat the Kings 11-3. 

1987. Rookie goalie Ron Hextall recorded his first career shutout, as the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Devils 4-0. 

1992. A Quebec judge ruled that a 25-year-old woman known only as Nancy B. had the right to die. She had a rare neurological disease for which there was no cure and was paralyzed from the neck down. After a 30-day appeal period, she was removed from life support Feb. 13.

1993.  Wayne Gretzky made his season debut for the Los Angeles Kings after missing the first 38 games due to a herniated disk in his back.

1997. The federal government apologized for suggesting Brian Mulroney was involved in criminal activity in what came to be known as the Airbus Affair.

2008. Two Canadian soldiers, Corporal Eric Labbe of Rimouski, Que., and Warrant Officer Hani Massouh, were killed when their armoured vehicle rolled over in wet, rugged terrain southwest of Kandahar city in Afghanistan.

2021. Joe Thornton played his 1,700th game in the NHL.

[Babba_not_Gump]

January 7.
1558. Calais, last English possession in France, retaken by France.

1584. Last day of the Julian calendar in Bohemia and The Holy Roman Empire.

1610. Galileo Galilei discovers the first three moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa and Ganymede.

1785. 1st balloon flight across English Channel by Jean Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries.

1890. American inventor William Purvis receives a patent for the fountain pen.

1904 Marconi Co. establishes "CQD" (Seeking You. Distress!) as 1st international radio distress signal - not adopted universally.

1910. Stanley Cup, Dey's Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators beat Galt (ON), 3-1 for a 2-0 sweep of challenge series.

1913. William M. Burton patents a process to "crack" petroleum.

1927. Commercial transatlantic telephone service inaugurated between New York & London.

1929. "Buck Rogers" sci-fi comic strip's 1st appearance in a newspaper.

1934. "Flash Gordon" comic strip created and drawn by Alex Raymond debuts.

1940. Winter War: The Finish 9th Division defeats the Soviet forces on the Raate-Suomussalmi road despite being significantly outnumbered.

1944. US Air Force announces production of 1st US jet fighter, the Bell P-59.

1948. Thomas Mantell, a pilot for the Kentucky Air National Guard, crashes while pursuing a supposed UFO. It turned out to be a Skyhook balloon, a top-secret project at the time.

1954. Georgetown-IBM experiment, first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held at IBM's head office in New York.

1958. Gibson Guitars receives US patent for their 'Flying V' electric guitar model; used by many including Jimi Hendrix.

1959. US recognizes Fidel Castro's Cuban government.

1966. Gene Kiniski beats Lou Thesz in St Louis, to become NWA wrestling champion.

1971. -40°F (-40°C) in Hawley Lake, Arizona (state record).

1975. Led Zeppelin fans riot before Boston concert causing $30,000 damage.

1990. Tower of Pisa closed to the public after leaning too far.

1994. US female Figure Skating championship won by Tonya Harding.

1998. Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky signs affidavit denying she had an affair with President Bill Clinton.

1999. President Bill Clinton's Impeachment trial begins in the US Senate after the House voted to impeach him for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

[Babba_not_Gump]

After being MIA for a few weeks, I'll look for highlights of days missed.

January 8.
1902. New York state assemblyman Francis G. ​Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize men turning around on a street and "looking at a woman in that way".

January 9.
1493. Christopher Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids, describing them as "not half as beautiful as they are painted".

January 10.
1897. Ukrainian bacteriologist Wademar Haffkine performs the first human trial for a vaccine for the plague on himself during the Bombay epidemic.

January 11.
1922. Insulin first used on humans to treat diabetes, Frederick Banting injects fellow Canadian Leonard Thompson, aged 14.

January 12.
1493. Last day for all Jews to leave Sicily.

January 13.
1849. British lease Vancouver Island to the Hudson's Bay Company for seven shillings a year, granting them exclusive trading rights.

January 14.
1873. "Celluloid" registered as a trademark by its inventor John Wesley Hyatt.

January 15.
1994. Hague motorist with .51% alcohol in blood, breaks Dutch record (.47%).

January 16.
1985. "Playboy" announces end of stapling centrefolds.

January 17.
1893. -17°F (-27°C), Millsboro, Delaware (state record).

January 18.
1644. Perplexed Pilgrims in Boston reported America's 1st UFO sighting.

January 19.
1810. Cold Friday: temperature at Portsmouth, New Hampshire drops from 54°F to minus 12°F in one day with many frozen to death.

January 20.
1910. Stanley Cup, Dey's Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators outclass Edmonton HC, 13-7 for a 2-0 sweep of challenge series.

January 21.
2010. LA Lakers forward Kobe Bryant becomes the youngest NBA player to reach 25,000 career points at 31 years, 151 days; beats Wilt Chamberlain by 35 days.

January 22.
1472. Great comet of 1471 (C/1471 Y1) becomes the closest comet in modern times, coming within 10 million kilometres of Earth.

January 23.
971 War elephant corps of the Southern Han defeated at Shao by crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops forcing the Southern Han state to submit to the Song Dynasty. First regular war elephant corps in the Chinese army.

January 24.
1890. World's oldest wooden sculpture the Shigir Idol - radiocarbon dated to 12,500 years old, is discovered in a peat bog near Kalata, Middle Urals.

January 25.
1924. 1st Winter Olympic Games open in Chamonix, France.

January 26.
1998. President Bill Clinton says "I want to say one thing to the American people; I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky".

January 27.
1649. English High Court of Justice finds King Charles I "guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused, did judge him tyrant, traitor, murderer, and public enemy to the good people of the nation, to be put to death by the severing of his head from his body".

January 28.
1925. -46°F (-43°C), Pittsburgh, New Hampshire (state record).

January 29.
1856. Victoria Cross established to acknowledge valour in the face of the enemy (United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries).

January 30.
1349. Black Death Massacre: Jews (except pregnant women and children) are burnt to death on suspicion of poisoning the community during the Bubonic Plague, in Freiburg im Breisgau, Strasbourg.

January 31. 1949 1st US daytime soap on TV "These Are My Children" (NBC in Chicago).

[Bsuds]

1985 Was a good year!

[Catsumi]

.
January 19.
1810. Cold Friday: temperature at Portsmouth, New Hampshire drops from 54°F to minus 12°F in one day with many frozen to death.

What a bunch of snowflakes!

[Babba_not_Gump]

January 8.
1902. New York state assemblyman Francis G. ​Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize men turning around on a street and "looking at a woman in that way".

I believe this bill has been reenacted in a number of American universities.

[Babba_not_Gump]

February 1.
1968. General Nguyễn Ngọc Loan summarily executes Viet Cong prisoner Nguyễn Văn Lém.
One of the most famous images in contemporary American journalism.
The photo won Eddie Adams the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography, though he was later said to have regretted its impact. The image became an anti-war icon.

execution-of-a-viet-cong-prisoner.jpg

[Babba_not_Gump]

February 2.
1349. By this date at least 200 people a day were being buried in London as a result of the Black Death.

1709. British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned on a desert island for 5 years, his story inspires "Robinson Crusoe.

1802. 1st leopard exhibited in US, Boston (admission 25 cents).

1848. 1st ship load of Chinese immigrants arrive in San Francisco.

1892. Bottle cap for beverages patented by US inventor William Painter - still used today.

1935. Leonarde Keeler first uses his polygraph machine on criminals later convicted of assault based on its findings in Portage, Wisconsin.

1942. US auto factories switch from commercial to war production.

1951. -35°F (-37°C), Greensburg, Indiana (state record until 1994).

1959. Buddy Holly's last performance at Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa.

1997. Scott Bowman becomes first coach in NHL history to win 1,000 games.

[Babba_not_Gump]

February 3.
1959. The day the music died.

Buddy Holly.


Ritchie Valens.


The Big Bopper


And summed up so tragically in this song.

[Babba_not_Gump]

February 4.
1194. A ransom of 150,000 of silver marks is paid for Richard I, King of England. Held cative by Leopold V, Duke of Austria.

1657.  Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector, grants Portuguese Jew Antonio Fernandez Caravajal and other Sephardic Jews denizen status.

1794. French National Convention proclaims abolition of slavery.

1859. One of the oldest known copies of the Bible, "The Codex Sinaiticus" (Sinai Bible), is seen in Egypt by Constantin von Tischendorf who takes the manuscript home with him.

1902. Stanley Cup, Winnipeg Auditorium, Winnipeg, Manitoba: Montreal HC beats Winnipeg Victorias, 2-1 for a 2-1 challenge series victory.

1903. Stanley Cup: Montreal HC beats Winnipeg Victorias, 4-1 for a 2-1 challenge series win.

1936. 1st radioactive substance produced synthetically (radium E).

1956. Soviet Union beats Canada, 2-0 at Cortina d'Ampezzo to clinch their first ever Olympic ice hockey gold medal; US takes silver, Canada bronze.

1970. "Patton" directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and starring George C. Scott premieres in New York (Academy Awards Best Picture 1971).

1973. Comic strip "Hagar The Horrible" by Dik Browne debuts.

1978. NHL New York Islanders rookie Mike Bossy scores 1st career hat trick in 6-1 win over Washington Capitols at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

1988. Panamanian General Manuel Noriega indicted by US federal grand jury for drug trafficking and racketeering.

1990. 10 Israeli tourists murdered near Cairo.

1997.  O.J. Simpson found liable in the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson in a civil court action.

2004. Mark Zuckerberg launches Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room.

2013. Paris, France annuls 213-year-old law banning women from wearing trousers.

[Babba_not_Gump]

February 5.
1428. King Alfonso V, orders Sicily's Jews to attend conversion sermons.

1597. A group of early Japanese Christians, known as the 26 Martyrs, are killed by the new government of Japan for being seen as a threat to Japanese society.

1817. 1st US gas co incorporated, Baltimore (coal gas for street lights).

1869. World's largest alluvial gold nugget, the Welcome Stranger, found by John Deason and Richard Oates (weighting 97.14kg) in Moliagul, Australia.

1887. Snow falls on San Francisco.

1921. Yankees purchase 20 acres in Bronx for Yankee Stadium.

1924. The Royal Greenwich Observatory begin broadcasting the hourly time signals known as the Greenwich Time Signal or the "BBC pips".

1948. "Nature of Things" science show premieres on NBC prime time.

1967. "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" variety show premieres on CBS TV.

1972. US airlines begin mandatory inspection of passengers & baggage.

1980. Egyptian parliament votes to end boycott of Israel.

1983. Former Nazi Gestapo official Klaus Barbie extradited to France from Bolivia to stand trial.

1988. 1st prime-time wrestling match in 30 yrs, André the Giant defeats Hulk Hogan.

1996. British supermarket chains stock genetically modified tomato puree - the first GM food to be sold in the country.

[Babba_not_Gump]

February 7.
1783. Great Siege of Gibraltar, launched by France and Spain against the British colony during the American War of Independence is lifted after 3 years and 7 months.

1845. The Portland Vase, thought to date to the 1st century BC is shattered into more than 80 pieces by a drunken visitor to the British Museum .

1856. Colonial Tasmanian Parliament passes the 1st piece of legislation (the Electoral Act of 1856) anywhere in the world providing for elections by way of a secret ballot.

1928. 1st solo flight from England to Australia takes off from Croydon, piloted by Australian aviator Bert Hinkler (arrives 15 ½ days later).

1940. Walt Disney's second feature length movie, "Pinocchio" premieres (NYC).

1947. The UK announces its intention to end the Mandate for Palestine.

1961. Jane Fonda made her acting debut in the NBC drama "A String of Beads".

1969. Al-Fatah-leader Yasser Arafat becomes president of PLO.

1974. Mel Brooks' western spoof film "Blazing Saddles", starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder premieres at the Pickwick Drive-In in Burbank, California; patrons watched from horseback rather than cars.

1992. The Maastricht Treaty is signed by 12 countries from the European Community (EC) to create the European Union (EU).

2013. Mississippi became the last U.S. state to officially abolish slavery; it had ratified the Thirteenth Amendment in 1995 but failed to submit the necessary paperwork.

2018. All citrus fruit can be traced to the southeast foothills of the Himalayas, according to DNA study published in "Nature".

[rustled]

February 7.

SNIP

1974. Mel Brooks' western spoof film "Blazing Saddles", starring Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder premieres at the Pickwick Drive-In in Burbank, California; patrons watched from horseback rather than cars.

Too funny! That was a great drive-in movie. Saw it from a truck, though.

2018. All citrus fruit can be traced to the southeast foothills of the Himalayas, according to DNA study published in "Nature".

Interesting!

Thanks for posting these, Babba.