1870 – Cartoonist Thomas Nast originates the donkey as a symbol to identify the Democratic party in a political cartoon appearing in Harper’s Weekly. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-appearance-of-the-democratic-donkey
0588 BC – Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah’s reign. The siege lasts until July 18, 586 BC.
0069 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but only survives for three months before committing suicide.
0946 – Caliph al-Mustaqfi blinded and ousted
1346 – Emperor Louis IV of Bavaria gives his wife Margaretha, Holland and Zealand
1559 – England’s Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) was crowned in Westminster Abbey.
1582 – Russia cedes Livonia & Estonia to Poland, loses access to the Baltic
1600 – French King Henri IV grants military captain Pierre Chauvin de Tonnetuit a ten-year commission for the fur trade in New France – he goes on to found doomed colony of Tadoussac
1624 – Many riots occurred in Mexico when it was announced that all churches were to be closed.
1762 – Fraunces Tavern opens in New York City NY
1777 – The people of New Connecticut (now the state of Vermont) declared their independence.
1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
1844 – The University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.
1851 – General Arista replaces Mexican President Herrera
1865 – American Civil War – Fort Fisher North Carolina Falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy
1870 – A cartoon by Thomas Nast titled “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” appeared in “Harper’s Weekly.” The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time.
1892 – Dr. James Naismith publishes, for the first time, the thirteen rules of basketball the game he invented the previous winter, in Springfield, Massachusetts.
1902 – Abdulaziz Ibn Saud leads 40 men over the walls of Riyadh and takes the city, marking the beginning of the Third Saudi State
1913 – The first telephone line between Berlin and New York was inaugurated.
1915 – Japan claims economic control of China
1919 – 2 million gallons of molasses spill in a tidal wave that drowns 21 in Boston MA
1927 – Tennessee Supreme Court overturns (on a technicality) John T. Scopes’ guilty verdict for teaching evolution in the “Scopes monkey trial”, but the law itself remains in force
1935 – 300 Dutch ice cream salesmen protest against Italian competition
1936 – The first, all glass, windowless building was completed in Toledo, OH. The building was the new home of the Owens-Illinois Glass Company Laboratory.
1942 – FDR asks commissioner to continue baseball during WWII
1943 – The Pentagon was dedicated as the world’s largest office building just outside Washington, DC, in Arlington, VA. The structure covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors.
1944 – Vught Concentration Camp puts 74 women in 1 cell, 10 die
1945 – Red Army frees Crakow-Plaszow concentration camp
1947 – The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short (“”The Black Dahlia””) is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California.
1951 – Ilse Koch, The “”Bitch of Buchenwald””, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment in a court in West Germany
1953 – Harry S Truman became the first U.S. President to use radio and television to give his farewell as he left office.
1955 – The first solar-heated, radiation-cooled house was built by Raymond Bliss in Tucson, AZ.
1964 – Teamsters negotiate first national labor contract
1967 – The first National Football League Super Bowl was played. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League. The final score was 35-10.
1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed Chairman of Libyan Revolutionary Command Council – de facto head of state
1973 – U.S. President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam. He cited progress in peace negotiations as the reason.
1975 – Portugal signs accord for Angola’s independence
1986 – President Reagan signed legislation making Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a national holiday to be celebrated on the third Monday of January.
1987 – Paramount Home Video reported that it would place a commercial at the front of one of its video releases for the first time. It was a 30-second Diet Pepsi ad at the beginning of “Top Gun.”
1988 – Arab uprising in Israel begins
1990 – A computer problem disrupts AT&T’s long distance telephone service around the U.S. for nearly nine hours.
1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.
1992 – The federation of Yugoslavia, intact since 1918, crumbles as the European Community recognizes the republics of Croatia and Slovenia.”
1997 – Diana, Princess of Wales, calls for an international ban on landmines, angering ministers in the UK
1999 – The Racak incident: 45 Albanians in the Kosovo village of Racak were killed by Yugoslav security forces
2003 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Congress had permission to repeatedly extend copyright protection.
2006 – NASA’s Stardust space probe mission was completed when it’s sample return capsule returned to Earth with comet dust from comet Wild 2.
2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq
2009 – Chesley Sullenberger lands US Airways Flight 1549 on the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in NYC. All passengers and crew members survive in what becomes known as the “Miracle on the Hudson”
2013 – 83 people are killed and 150 are injured in a rocket attack on Aleppo University, Syria
2016 – American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan unveils newest exhibit replica skeleton of a Titanosaur dinosaur (found 2010 Argentina), largest known dinosaur at 70 tons, 37m
2018 – Operation in El Junquito, Venezuela, to capture terrorist group including Oscar Pérez, accused of mounting a coup, ends in 4 deaths
2019 – Bomb blast and gunfight at DusitD2 hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, leaves at least 21 dead with militants group claiming responsibility al-Shabab
2021 – Dutch government led by PM Mark Rutte resigns after falsely accusing thousands of families of welfare fraud
2022 – Oil spill at La Pampilla refinery off Peruvian coast after waves from the Tongan eruption cause almost 12,000 barrels to leak into the sea
REFERENCE: history.net, onthisday.com, thepeopleshistory.com, timeanddate.com, scopesys.com, on-this-day.com
