|
January in
History
1 January
1788
The Times, London's oldest running newspaper, published its first
edition.
1 January
1891
Immigration facilities opened on Ellis Island, New York, to cope with the
flood of immigrants.
1 January
1894
Manchester Ship Canal opened, supplying the inland cotton manufacturing
city of Manchester with oceangoing ships.
2 January
1777
General George Washington defeated the British led by British General Lord
Charles Cornwallis, at Princeton NJ.
4 January
1999
The Euro, the new money of 11 European nations went into effect..
6 January
1838
The first public demonstration of the electric telegraph was given by its
inventor, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, in Morristown NJ.
7 January
1610
Italian astronomer Galileo discovered Jupiter's four satellites, naming
them Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto.
8 January
1908
The IRT subway line opened, linking the New York boroughs of Brooklyn and
Manhattan.
10 January
1840
The penny post, whereby mail was delivered at a standard charge rather
than paid for by the recipient, began in Britain, providing a boon to
commerce
13 January
1794
President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes
to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to
the union. (The number of stripes was later reduced to 13 again, which was
just as well, or the flag would have begun to look like shirting.)
14 January
1784
The United States of America became a sovereign nation with the
ratification of the Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War. The treaty, which had been
signed the previous September by US and English officials, allowed six
months for ratification by the states.
15 January
1759
The world's first public museum opened. After the British government
purchased three large private collections of manuscripts, antique objects, plants,
fossils, minerals, and coins, Parliament passed the British Museum Act for
London in 1753. As a result, the British Museum opened on 15 January 1759
in Montague House, in the Bloomsbury neighborhood of London, and the
current vast building was erected. It originally allowed only thirty
visitors per day, and is now the largest museum in Britain, with over four
million visitors annually. Its treasures include the Rosetta Stone and the
Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon.
15 January
1797
London haberdasher James Hetherington created a new fashion and was fined
£50 for his audacity in wearing his new creation: the top hat.
15 January
1920
Prohibition went into effect in the United States. Selling liquor and beer
became illegal.
16 January
1547
Ivan the Terrible was crowned first Tsar of Russia.
16 January
1773
Captain James Cook became the first recorded person to cross the Antarctic
Circle.
16 January
1912
Robert Scott reached the South Pole only a month after Roald Amundsen. He
and his party, however, perished.
18 January
1778
Explorer Captain James Cook visited the Hawaiian Islands, calling them the
"Sandwich Islands" in honor of Lord Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty
(Yes, the person who gave his name to 'the sandwich') On his first visit,
the natives thought he was a god. In contrast, when he returned a year
later, he was killed on the beach after arguments with the native leaders.
The state flag of Hawaii is identical to the flag of the British East
India Company that was instrumental in promoting Cook's voyages.
20 January
1841
Hong Kong was ceded by China and occupied by the British.
20 January
1908
The Sullivan Ordinance barred women from smoking in public facilities in
the United States.
21 January
1790
Joseph Guillotine proposed a new and more humane method of execution: a
machine designed to cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as
possible.
21 January
1793
Louis XVI, King of France, was guillotined in Place de la Révolution. The
location is now called the Place de la Concorde.
21 January
1846
The first issue of the Daily News, edited by Charles Dickens, was
published.
22 January
1771
The Falkland Islands were ceded to Britain by Spain.
23
January 1571
The Royal Exchange in London, founded by financier Thomas Gresham, was
opened by Queen Elizabeth I. It featured a golden grasshopper weathervane,
from the Gresham coat of arms. This was copied by metalsmith Shem Drowne
in Boston, and his creation still adorns the top of Faneuil Hall.
24
January 1848
James W Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern
California, a
discovery that led to the gold rush of '49.
25 January
1915
Alexander Graham Bell in New York and Thomas Watson in San Francisco made
a record telephone transmission.
This ‘telephone’ has
too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of
communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
Western Union internal memo, 1876
26 January
1924
Petrograd (formerly St Petersburg) was renamed Leningrad.
28 January
1807
London became the world's first city to be illuminated by gaslight, when
the lamps on Pall Mall were lit.
28 January
1915
The US Coast Guard was founded to fight contraband trade and aid
distressed vessels at sea. It absorbed the US Life saving service and the
US Revenue Cutter Service.
29 January
1848
Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by Scotland.
30 January
1815
The Library of Congress, destroyed by Crown Forces in 1814, was restored
by the purchase of Thomas Jefferson's personal library for $23,940. The
new collection of 6,487 volumes included more than twice as many books as
the former library, in a much wider range of fields.
30 January
1835
The first assassination attempt was made on a US President (Andrew
Jackson.) The would-be killer, Richard Lawrence, pulled a gun, which
misfired, after which President Jackson struck him with his cane. Lawrence
then pulled a second gun, which also misfired. Sometimes a misfire can be
good!
30 January
1933
Adolf Hitler was made Chancellor.
30 January
1948
Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated.
30 January
1949
In India, 100,000 people prayed at the site of Gandhi's assassination on
the first anniversary of his death.
31 January
1858
The Great Eastern, the innovative five-funneled steamship designed by
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, was launched at Millwall on the Thames.
|
