Today in History

JANUARY 17th-

• 2001 President Bill Clinton posthumously raises

William Clark's rank from Lieutenant to Captain,
and gave the titles of Honorary Sergeant to Sacagawea,



President Clinton: Celebrating the Legacy of Lewis and Clark and Preserving America's Natural Treasures (archives.gov)

 

JANUARY 18th:
(TEST WATCH)

• 1962 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1967 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
• 1968 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR

 

JANUARY 21st:

1793 Louis XVI of France is executed



Proof of Louis XVI's secret dealings and counter-revolutionary intrigues was discovered, and he and his family were charged with treason.
Louis was soon found guilty by the National Assembly and condemned to death. Louis XVI was guillotined in the Place de la Révolution
Execution of Louis XVI - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 22nd:

• 1771 Spain cedes Falkland Islands to Britain

Falklands Crisis of 1770 - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 22nd:
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• 1879..... ISANDHLWANA

Zulu warriors attack British Army camp in Isandhlwana, South Africa



. . .

Battle of Isandlwana - Wikipedia
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AND Then moving onto .....
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1879 ..... Battle of Rorke's Drift:



British garrison of 150 holds off 3,000-4,000 Zulu warriors. Eleven Victoria Crosses and a number of other decorations were awarded to the defenders.

Battle of Rorke's Drift - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 22nd:
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1905 - Russian Revolution

. . . . . .

In St Petersburg, Russia, a large demonstration of workers led by Father Gapon, ...


... march to the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar; troops fire on protesters in what becomes known as 'Bloody Sunday'

Bloody Sunday (1905) - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 22nd:
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1973 George Foreman TKOs Joe Frazier

- - - - - - - - -
Boxing ChampionGeorge Foreman Heavyweight Boxing ChampionJoe Frazier
- in 2 rounds to win WBC & WBA heavyweight boxing titles in Kingston, Jamaica; Frazier knocked down 3 times in both 1st & 2nd rounds
. .

Joe Frazier vs. George Foreman - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 22nd:
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1988 Defending champion Mike Tyson beats former titleholder Larry Holmes

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Heavyweight Boxing ChampionMike Tyson - - WBC Heavyweight ChampionLarry Holmes

... by TKO in round 4 at Convention Centre, Atlantic City to retain his undisputed heavyweight boxing title

. . .

Mike Tyson vs. Larry Holmes - Wikipedia

 

On This Day - 24th January
76The birth, in Spain, of Hadrian (Publius Aelius Hadrianus), Roman Emperor whose defensive policies led to the building of Hadrian’s Wall on the border between Scotland and England.


1749The birth of Charles James Fox, the British Whig whom Sir George Macaulay Trevelyan described as ‘Our first great statesman of the modern school’. He was a great orator and as Foreign Minister, he persuaded Prime Minister Pitt to abolish slavery.


1872 The death of the Reverend William Webb Ellis, the alleged creator of rugby football whilst a pupil at Rugby School. The story has become firmly entrenched in rugby folklore.


1901The birth of Edward Turner, an English motorcycle designer. He sold his 4 cylinder engine to Aerial motorcycles when BSA rejected it. And thus it became the legendary 'Ariel Square Four'.


1915The First World War sea battle of Dogger Bank ended with a British victory when the superior speed and gunnery of the British fleet sank the German armoured cruiser Blucher. If it had not been for a British signalling mixup that enabled the German fleet to flee safely to port, German losses would have been considerably higher.


1928 The birth of Desmond Morris, British anthropologist. He first came to the public's attention in the 1950s as a presenter of the ITV television programme Zoo Time, but he achieved worldwide fame in 1967 with his book The Naked Ape.

 

1930The birth, in Norfolk, of Bernard Matthews, the poultry industry figure. He won a scholarship to the City of Norwich School but found it difficult to settle, regularly failed his exams, and left school with no qualifications. Nevertheless, when he died, aged 80, in November 2010 he had amassed a fortune estimated at over £300m and a motor yacht, a Cessna private jet, and a Rolls-Royce motor car.


1942World War II: The Allies bombarded Bangkok, leading Thailand to declare war against the United States and the United Kingdom.


1965 Death of Sir Winston Churchill, aged 90, world famous soldier, politician, historian and Prime Minister of Britain. He was First Lord of the Admiralty at the time of the battle of Dogger Bank (see above). He had correctly predicted that he would die on the same date as his father, Lord Randolph Churchill, who had died exactly 70 years previously.


1969Students protesting at the installation of steel security gates at the London School of Economics went on the rampage, with crowbars, pickaxes, and sledgehammers.


1972Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi was found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II. He was among the last three Japanese holdouts to surrender after the end of hostilities in 1945, almost 28 years after the island had been liberated by allied forces in 1944.


1976Margaret Thatcher, leader of the Conservative Party, was dubbed 'The Iron Lady' in the Soviet newspaper 'Red Star' after her speech on the threat of Communism.


1986The beginning of the end for London's Fleet Street, home to most of Britain's national newspapers, when the staff of the 'Sun' and 'News of the World' was told that they were moving to new premises at Wapping, in London's Docklands.


2001Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson resigned from the Cabinet over passports for cash scandal. It was the second time he had left the Cabinet in disgrace since Labour came to power in 1997.

 

JANUARY 25th:

• 1881 Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell

. .. form the Oriental Telephone Company.


January 25, 1881: The Oriental Telephone Company : Day in Tech History

 

JANUARY 25th:

1939 1st nuclear fission experiment
(splitting of a uranium atom) in the US, in basement of Pupin Hall, Columbia University by a team including Enrico Fermi
Father of the Atomic BombEnrico Fermi

It was clear to many scientists at Columbia that they should try to detect the energy released in the nuclear fission of uranium from neutron bombardment. On 25 January 1939, a Columbia University group conducted the first nuclear fission experiment in the United States, which was done in the basement of Pupin Hall.

Discovery of nuclear fission - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 25th:

• 1971 Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted - of Tate-LaBianca murders

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Manson Family - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 27th:

1591 Scottish schoolmaster Dr. John Fian burned for witchcraft



Dr. Fian was burned at Castle Hill in Edinburgh in late January, 1591 by order King James VI. Part of the Berwick witch trials.
It is not recorded what happened to all the accused persons but certainly Agnes Sampson and others were condemned and burnt as witches.
At the time Newes From Scotland was published they were still languishing in prison.

John Fian - Wikipedia

 

JANUARY 27th:
.
1820 Russian Antarctic expedition



During this expedition Bellingshausen and Lazarev became the first explorers to see the land of Antarctica circumnavigated the continent twice and never lost each other from view. Thus they disproved Captain Cook 's assertion that it was impossible to find land in the southern ice-fields

 

JANUARY 27th:
.
1924 Lenin
Marxist Revolutionary


Lenin died on 21 January 1924.
Two days later, architect Alexey Shchusev was tasked with building a structure suitable for viewing of the body by mourners.
A wooden tomb, in Red Square by the Moscow Kremlin Wall, was ready on January 27th, and later that day Lenin's coffin was placed in it.

 

JANUARY 27th:

1924 Clas Thunberg
--- of Finland claims 3 gold medals in one day when he wins the 1,500m, 5,000m and all-round speed skating events at the Chamonix Winter Olympics; won 5,000m the day before

Einar Landvik, Nordic skier from Norway, competes in the first-ever Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, 1924

 

JANUARY 27th:

• 1967 Apollo 1 Fire

A fire in the Apollo 1 Command Module kills astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger B. Chaffee during a launch rehearsal



NASA Apollo Mission Apollo-1

 

JANUARY 27th:
Australian Championships Men's Tennis:
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1958
Ashley Cooper wins 2nd straight Australian title; beats fellow Australian Malcolm Anderson 7-5, 6-3, 6-4
************
1961
Roy Emerson beats fellow Australian Rod Laver 1-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 for his first Grand Slam title
1969
Rod Laver takes 1st leg of his successful second Grand Slam; beats Andrés Gimeno of Spain 6-3, 6-4, 7-5
.
*************
1970
Arthur Ashe beats big serving local Dick Crealy 6-4, 9-7, 6-2
.
1991
Boris Becker of Germany wins his 1st Australian title; beats Ivan Lendl 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
........
2008
Novak Đoković beats Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 to become first Serbian player to win a Grand Slam title
2013
Novak Đoković wins Open era record 4th Australian crown; beats Andy Murray of Scotland 6-7, 7-6, 6-3, 6-2
2019
Novak Đoković of Serbia wins his record 7th Australian singles title; beats Spaniard Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-2, 6-3