January
Black History Month
Chinese New Year
Chinese Lantern: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lantern/
Chinese New Year Dragon Parade: https://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/chinese-new-year-dragon-parade-lesson-plan/
"Research Chinese New Year and create dragon puppets to use in a parade."
Dancing Lion or Dragon Toy: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lion/
"Traditionally, on Chinese New Year, two people wear a huge lion or dragon costume and dance. This toy is a tiny paper version of this traditional puppet."
Just SNOW Already! by Howard McWilliam read by Julianna Margulies: storylineonline.net/books/just-snow-already/
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Best Free Martin Luther King Jr. Lessons and Activities: www.techlearning.com/news/best-free-martin-luther-king-jr-lessons-and-activities
Books for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: https://www.readingrockets.org/booklists/books-martin-luther-king-jr-day
Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Leader: ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/americon-lp-martin-luther-king-jr/lesson-plan/
National (Ice) Skating Month
Henry Holton Takes the Ice by Sandra Bradley - read by Ray Romano - with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/henry-holton-takes-the-ice/
National Poverty Awareness Month
Maddi's Fridge by Lois Brandt, read by Jennifer Garner, with activity guide: storylineonline.net/books/maddis-fridge/
January 1
-1735: Paul Revere, American patriot, was born.
-1863: Emancipation Proclamation (ending slavery) issued by President Lincoln, freeing all slaves in the United States.
-1879: E. M. Forster was born in London.
-1892: Ellis Island immigration station was opened.
-1919: J. D. Salinger was born in New York City.
-1933: Playwright Joe Orton was born in Leicester, England.
-1935: Cartoonist B. Kliban was born in Connecticut.
January 2
-1647: Virginia patriot Nathaniel Bacon was born.
-1727: British Gen. James Wolfe, hero of the battle of Quebec, was born.
-1788: Georgia ratified the Constitution, the fourth of the original 13 colonies to do so, and was admitted to the union.
-1839: First photo of the Moon taken by French photographer Louis Daguerre.
-1870: Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge.
-1886: Antarctic explorer and author Apsley Cherry-Garrard, born in Bedford, England.
-1904: Fan dancer Sally Rand was born.
-1920: Author Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia.
-1921: Crosby Bonsall was born.
-1930: Singer Julius La Rosa was born.
-1936: Singer/songwriter Roger Miller was born.
-1939: Former televangelist Jim Bakker was born.
-1942: Japanese forces occupied Manila, forcing U.S. and Philippine forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur to withdraw to the Bataan peninsula.
-1959: The Soviet Union launched Lunik-1, the first unmanned spacecraft to travel to the moon.
-1967: Actor Tia Carrere was born
-1968: Cuba Gooding Jr. was born.
-1969: Model Christy Turlingtonwas born.
-1974: President Nixon signed a bill requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph or lose federal highway funds.
-1975: Kenneth Brugger discovered where monarch butterflies from North America spend the winter.
-1990: Elite Soviet interior ministry troops seized buildings in the Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania. Britain's most wanted terrorist suspect, Patrick Sheehy, was found dead in the Republic of Ireland.
-2001: President Bush nominated a Democrat to his Cabinet, picking Norman Mineta, President Clinton's commerce secretary, to head the Department of Transportation.
January 3
-1521: Martin Luther excommunicated by Roman Catholic Church.
-1870: Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge.
-1892: J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was born in South Africa.
January 4
National Spaghetti Day
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola read by Mary Steenburgen with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/strega-nona/
-1643: Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician and meteorologist, was born.
-1785: Jacob Grimm, who with his borther, authored Grimm's Fairy Tales, was born.
-1790: President Washington delivers first "state of the Union" address
-1809: Lois Braille, who originated the Braille system for the blind, was born.
January 5
-1864: George Washington Carver was born.
-1896: German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the X-ray.
-1905: Anniversary of the incorporation of the National Association of Audubon Societies.
-1909: Stephen Cole Kleene was born in Hartford, Connecticut.
-1926: Poet W. D. Snodgrass was born in Wilkinsberg, Pennsylvania.
-1932: Umberto Eco was born in the Piedmont region of Italy.
January 6
Sherlock Holmes' Birthday
The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake by Robin Newman read by Wanda Sykes with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/missing-carrot-cake/
Private I. Guana by Nina Laden, read by Esai Morales, with activity guide: storylineonline.net/books/private-i-guana/
-1412: Joan of Arc was born.
-1535: City of Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro.
-1759: George Washington married widow Martha Dandridge Custis.
-1822: Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the ruins of ancient Troy, was born.
-1838: In Morristown, N.J., Samuel F.B. Morse and his partner, Alfred Vail, publicly demonstrated their new invention, the telegraph, for the first time.
-1878: Poet Carl Sandburg was born.
-1880: Silent movie cowboy star Tom Mix was born.
-1882: Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn was born.
-1883: Gibran Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese American poet, writer, and visual artist was born in Ottoman Syria (present-day Lebanon).
-1912: New Mexico joined the United States as the 47th state.
-1913: Loretta Young, actress, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah.
-1914: Actor Danny Thomas was born.
-1919: Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, died at the age of 60.
-1921: Pollster Louis Harris was born.
-1924: Musician Earl Scruggs was born.
-1925: Auto executive John DeLorean was born.
-1931: Author E.L. Doctorow was born.
-1942: A Pan American Airways plane arrived in New York to complete the first around-the-world flight by a commercial airliner.
-1944: Actress Bonnie Franklin was born.
-1950: Britain formally recognized the communist government of China.
-1955: Actor Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean")was born.
-1968: Filmmaker John Singleton was born.
-1984: The first test-tube quadruplets, all boys, were born in Melbourne, Australia.
-1984: The 100th Congress convened with Democrats controlling the Senate, and thus both houses, for the first time under the Reagan administration.
-1993: Dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev died at age 54 of cardiac complications; his doctor later confirmed it was AIDS.
-1993: Jazz trumpeteer Dizzy Gillespie died of cancer at age 75.
-1993: It was announced that Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito would marry a 29-year-old Foreign Ministry official, a commoner, in June.
-1994: U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right knee by a man who then fled. The attack, which forced Kerrigan to withdraw from the U.S. Figure Skating Championship, was traced to four men with links to her leading rival, Tonya Harding.
-1998: Some 300 people were reported to have been massacred in the past several days in Algeria's bloody civil war.
January 7
-1598: Boris Godunov seizes Russian throne on death of Feodore I
-1610: Galileo, using his primitive telescope, discovered the four major moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
-1745: Frenchman Jacques Montgolfier, who, with his brother, invented the hot air balloon, was born.
-1782: The Bank of North America, the first commercial bank, in the U.S., opened.
-1789: The first nationwide U.S. presidential election was held. The electors chosen by the voters unanimously picked George Washington as president and John Adams as vice president.
-1800: Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States, was born.
-1844: Bernadette Soubirous, who became St. Bernadette and whose visions led to the foundation of the shrine at Lourdes, France, was born.
-1873: Film executive Adolph Zukor was born.
-1912: Charles Samuel Addams, cartoonist, was born in Westfield, New Jersey, USA.
-1922: Actor Vincent Gardenia was born.
-1927: Commercial trans-Atlantic telephone service between New York and London was inaugurated.
-1928: Author William Blatty (“The Exorcist”) was born.
-1931: As the Great Depression was getting under way, a report to President Hoover estimated that four-million to five-million Americans were out of work.
-1938: Singer Paul Revere was born.
-1948: Kenny Loggins was born.
-1947: Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner was born.
-1952: Actress Erin Grey was born.
-1957: "Today" co-host Katie Couric was born.
-1964: Actor Nicholas Cage was born.
-1979: The Cambodian government of Pol Pot was overthrown.
-1989: Japan’s Emperor Hirohito died.
-1990: Jeffrey Lundgren, a self-proclaimed prophet and leader of a breakaway religious sect wanted for the slayings of five Ohio followers, was arrested in California at a motel near the Mexican border.
-1991: Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney announced he was canceling the Navy's A-12 Stealth attack plane project.
-1991: Loyalist troops attacked Haiti's presidential palace, rescuing President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and capturing the coup plotters.
-1993: The EPA released a long-awaited report that classified environmental tobacco smoke as a carcinogen.
-1996: An immense storm system dumped up to three feet of snow onto the Mid-Atlantic and New England states.
-1997: Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., was re-elected Speaker of the House and then reprimanded for violating House rules and misled the House Ethics Committee in its probe of possible political use of tax-exempt donations.
-1998: A federal jury in Denver was unable to agree on a penalty for Terry Nichols, convicted in December 1997 in connection with the April 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. That meant he would not face the death penalty.
-1999: President Clinton's impeachment trial opened in the Senate. He would be acquitted.
January 8
National Bubble Bath Day
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, read by Betty White, with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/harry-the-dirty-dog/
-1486: Financier Nicholas Biddle was born.
-1790: The first State of the Union Message was delivered by George Washington.
-1792: Educator and hymn writer Lowell Mason ("Nearer My God To Thee") was born.
-1815: The forces of American Gen. Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing engagement of the War of 1812.
-1821: James Longstreet, Confederate general in the Civil War, was born.
-1838: First telegraph message sent using dots and dashes from NJ
-1862: Publisher Frank Doubleday was born.
-1867: Congress approved legislation that, for the first time, allowed blacks to vote in the District of Columbia.
-1909: Reading teacher Evelyn Wood was born.
-1912: Actor Jose Ferrer was born.
-1925: Comic actor Larry Storch was born.
-1926: Comedian Soupy Sales was born.
-1933: Newsman Charles Osgood was born.
-1935: Elvis Aaron Presley, singer and actor, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.
-1937: Singer Shirley Bassey was born.
-1938: Game-show host Bob Eubanks was born.
-1941: Actress Yvette Mimieux was born.
-1942: Physicist and author Stephen Hawking was born.
-1947: Singer David Bowie was born.
-1970: Actress Ami Dolenz, daughter of former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, was born.
-1973: The trial of the "Watergate Seven" began in Washington, D.C. The defendants were charged with breaking into Democratic Party national headquarters.
-1976: Chinese Premier Chou En-lai died in Beijing.
-1987: Kay Orr was inaugurated in Lincoln, Neb., as the nation's first woman Republican governor.
-1987: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2000 for the first time.
-1991: One person was killed and 248 injured when a London commuter train crashed into the buffers at a station.
-1991: Pan American World Airways filed for bankruptcy.
-1993: Thousands gathered at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn., to purchase the first issue of a stamp honoring the King of Rock 'n' Roll on what would have been his 58th birthday.
-1994: Tonya Harding won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, qualifying her for the Winter Olympics. The U.S. Figure Skating Association also named Nancy Kerrigan to the team, despite her injury in an attack two days earlier.
-1997: A report by University of Texas scientists concluded that exposure to a combination of chemicals was somehow linked to Gulf War Syndrome, responsible for the various ailments reported by veterans of the 1991 conflict.
-2001: Former Gov. Edwin Edwards of Louisiana was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of extorting money from applicants seeking riverboat casino licenses.
January 9
-1317: Philip V, the Tall, crowned King of France
-1859: Women's suffrage and peace movement leader Carrie Chapman Catt was born.
-1861: Mississippi seceded from the Union.
-1878: Pioneer psychologist John Watson was born.
-1904: Choreographer George Balanchine was born.
-1908: French novelist Simone de Beauvoir was born.
-1913: Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States, was born.
-1914: Striptease artist Gypsy Rose Leewas born.
-1915: Actor Fernando Lamas was born.
-1925: Actor Lee Van Cleef was born.
1928: Author Judith Krantz was born.
-1935: Actor Bob Denver and sportscaster Dick Enberg were born.
-1941: Singer Joan Baez and actress Susannah York were born.
-1945: In World War II, American troops invaded the Philippine island of Luzon and went on to liberate Manila.
-1951: Country singer Crystal Gayle was born.
-1965: Basketball player Tyrone Curtis Muggsy Bogues and actress Joely Richardson were born.
-1967: Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band was born.
-1969: The British-French supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at Bristol, England.
-1986: The Internal Revenue Service, for the first time, announced it would withhold income tax refunds coming to 750,000 government loan defaulters, most of them former students.
-1993: Seven people were found shot to death at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Palatine, Ill., northwest of Chicago.The crime remains unsolved.
-1995: House Speaker Newt Gingrich asked for the resignation of House historian Christina Jeffrey after it was revealed she'd once criticized a school program on the Holocaust for not including the "Nazi point of view" or that of the Ku Klux Klan.
-1996: A federal appeals panel ruled that a sexual harassment suit filed against President Clinton by an ex-state worker of Arkansas could proceed.
-1996: Rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya over-ran the town of Kizlyar and took 2,000 hostages at a hospital and in nearby homes.
-1999: French NATO forces killed a suspected war criminal in Bosnia while trying to arrest him. Dragan Gagovic had been charged in the rape and torture of Muslim women during a Serb offensive in eastern Bosnia in 1992-93.
-2001: Linda Chavez, President-elect Bush’s nominee for secretary of labor, withdrew from consideration after it was revealed that she’d sheltered an illegal alien from Guatemala.
January 10
-1776: American Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a pamphlet calling for independence from England.
-1863: First underground subway opens in London
-1878: A constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote was introduced into the U.S. Senate. It wasn’t until 42 years later that the amendment was signed into law.
-1883: Silent screen actor Francis X. Bushman was born.
-1887: Poet Robinson Jeffers was born.
-1901: Oil was discovered at the Spindletop claim near Beaumont, Texas, launching the Southwest oil boom.
-1904: Ray Bolger, actor and dancer, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
-1908: Actor Paul Henreid was born.
-1920: The League of Nations came into being as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect. The United States did not join the League.
-1927: Singer Johnnie Ray was born.
1936: Robert W. Wilson, physicist and radio astronomer, was born in Houston, Texas.
-1939: Actor Sal Mineo was born.
-1940: Singer Frank Sinatra Jr. was born.
-1942: Singer Jim Croce was born.
-1945: Singer Rod Stewart was born.
-1946: The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly was held in London.
-1949: George Foreman. boxer, was born in Marshall, Texas.
-1953: Singer Pat Benatar was born.
-1984: The United States established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican for the first time in 116 years.
-1994: NATO approved a plan for a limited expansion of the membership to Eastern European nations.
-1995: The Senate unanimously approved President Clinton's nomination of Robert Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury.
-1996: Rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya holding 2,000 rebels released all but 130 and were allowed to flee. However, before they reached the border, Russian troops attacked the convoy, causing the rebels to hole up in a nearby town and beginning a five-day standoff.
-1996: Israel freed 812 Palestinians from jails.
-2000: America Online announced it had agreed to buy Time Warner for $165 billion, in what would be the biggest merger in history.
January 11
-1755: Alexander Hamilton, 1st secretary of the treasury, was born.
-1757: American statesman Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, was born.
-1785: The Continental Congress convened in New York City.
-1807: Ezra Cornell, founder of Western Union Telegraph company and Cornell University, was born.
-1815: Sir John MacDonald, first prime minister of Canada, was born.
-1842: Psychologist and philosopher William James was born.
-1861: Alabama seceded from the Union.
-1885: Feminist lawyer Alice Paul was born.
-1903: South African novelist Alan Paton ("Cry the Beloved Country") was born.
-1930: Actor Rod Taylor was born.
-1934: Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was born.
-1935: American aviator Amelia Earhart Putnam became the first woman to fly across the Pacific from Hawaii to California.
-1946: Singer Naomi Judd was born.
-1963: First discotheque, Whiskey-a-Go-Go, opens in LA
-1964: U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report saying smoking cigarettes is a definite "health hazard."
-1971: Singer Mary J. Blige was born.
-1990: Martial law, imposed during the June 1989 Tienanmen Square pro-democracy movement, was lifted in Beijing.
-1990: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Lithuania in effort to cool secessionist fervor.
-1991: Congress authorized the use of military force to oust Iraq from Kuwait.
-1993: Doctors in Pittsburgh performed the second ever baboon-to-human liver transplant; the 62-year-old recipient did not survive long.
-1994: President Clinton kicked off a visit to Eastern Europe with a stop in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
-1995: The U.S. State Department accused Russia of breaking an international agreement by making major troop movements into the rebel republic of Chechnya without providing notification.
-1995: Hockey team owners and players reached an agreement, salvaging the 1994-95 NHL season.
-1996: The Japanese Diet elected Ryutaro Hashimoto, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, as the new premier.
-2000: The British government declared Chile’s Gen. Augusto Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial in Spain. The ruling cleared the way for the former dictator to avoid charges of crimes against humanity.
-2001: The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of American Online and Time Warner Inc., creating the world’s largest media conglomerate.
-2001: A yearlong investigation by the U.S. Army concluded that American soldiers shot and killed unarmed South Korean civilians in July 1950 during the Korean War.
January 12
-1773: First public museum established in US in Charleston, SC.
-1856: John Singer Sargent, American portraitist and muralist, was born.
-1876: Jack London was born.
January 13
National Rubber Duck Day
Quackenstein Hatches a Family by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, read by Kristen Bell, with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/quackenstein/
Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen, read by Robert Guillaume, with activity guide: storylineonline.net/books/guji-guji/
-1559: Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey
-1961: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress, was born.
January 14
-1639: The first constitution in the American colonies, the "Fundamental Orders," was adopted in Hartford, Conn., by representatives of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford.
-1741: Benedict Arnold, soldier, patriot, and traitor, was born in Norwich, CT.
-1784: Revolutionary War ends. Congress ratifies Treaty of Paris.
-1794: Dr. Jesse Bennett of Edom, Va., performed the first successful Caesarean section.
-1874: Thornton Waldo Burgess, author of "Peter Rabbit," was born.
-1875: Albert Schweitzer, medical missionary, theologian, musician, and philosopher, was born in Kaysersberg, Germany.
-1892: Silent comedy film director Hal Roach was born.
-1896: Novelist John dos Passos was born.
-1914: Henry Ford introduced the assembly line method of manufacturing cars, allowing completion of one Model-T Ford every 90 minutes.
-1919: Andy Rooney, TV writer, correspondent and producer, was born.
-1924: Actor Guy Williams ("Lost In Space") was born.
-1938: Singer Jack Jones was born.
-1941: Actress Faye Dunaway was born.
-1943: Astronaut Shannon Lucid was born.
-1943: President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opened a 10-day World War II strategy conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
-1945: Evangelist-turned-actor-and-singer Marjoe Gortner was born.
-1948: Actor Carl Weathers was born.
-1949: Filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan was born.
-1952: NBC’s “Today,” the program that started the morning news show format as we know it, premiered.
-1969: Actor Jason Bateman was born.
-1969: A series of explosions aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off Hawaii killed 10 men.
-1985: The British pound sank to a record low, $1.11, and the Bank of England raised interest rates to halt the decline.
-1991: Two PLO leaders and a third man were killed in Tunis. Al Fatah, the PLO's main-line faction, blamed a dissident group for the assassinations.
-1993: David Letterman accepted a multimillion-dollar deal to move his late night talk show to CBS in August after his NBC contract expires.
-1994: The man believed to have carried out the attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan surrendered in Phoenix, Az.
-2000: Thousands of Cubans marched in Havana to demand that 6-year-old refugee Elian Gonzalez be returned to his father in Cuba. The boy’s mother had drowned as they tried to enter the United States; the child was turned over to a great-uncle in Miami.
January 15
-1535: Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church
-1759: The British Museum opened.
-1844: Outlaw Cole Younger was born.
-1870: A cartoon by Thomas Nast appeared in Harper's weekly with a donkey symbolizing the Democratic Party for the first time. The symbol stuck.
-1906: Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis was born.
-1908: Nuclear physicist Edward Teller was born.
-1909: Drummer Gene Krupa was born.
-1913: Actor Lloyd Bridges was born.
-1915: Folk music scholar Alan Lomax was born.
-1918: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was born.
-1922: The Irish Free State was formed.
-1929: Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader and one of the world's best-known advocates of Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent social change, was born in Atlanta, GA. On the third Monday in January, the United States celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.
The King Center: http://www.thekingcenter.org/landing_page.html
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/
-1937: Actress Margaret O'Brien was born.
-1943: The Pentagon, the world's largest building of its kind, was completed on the Virginia side of the Potomac River just outside Washington, D.C.
-1947: Actress Andrea Martin was born.
-1951: Singer/actress Charo (Maria Martinez) was born.
-1957: Actors Mario Van Peebles was born.
-1967: The first Super Bowl was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Green Bay Packers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, to win the first NFL-AFL World Championship Game.
-1968: Chad Lowe was born.
-1973: President Nixon called a halt to American military offensives in Vietnam.
-1986: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed a sweeping new arms control plan to eliminate all nuclear weapons by the year 2000 and rid "mankind of the fear of nuclear catastrophe."
-1991: Aleksandr Bessmertnykh was confirmed as the new Soviet foreign minister.
-1993: The U.S. Coast Guard announced it would beef up patrols off the coast of Haiti in hopes of halting an expected exodus of refugees headed for the United States.
-1993: A Colorado judge blocked enforcement of a voter-approved state constitutional amendment banning laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination.
-1993: Four-time Oscar-winning songwriter Sammy Cahn, who penned such hits as "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Three Coins in the Fountain," died of heart failure at age 79.
-1997: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reached an agreement on the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank city of Hebron.
-1999: Serb forces killed 45 ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo.
-2000: The notorious Serbian paramilitary leader known as Arkan (Zeljko Raznotovic) was shot to death in a hotel lobby in Belgrade.
January 16
Religious Freedom Day
-1547: Ivan IV (the Terrible), age 17, crowns himself first Czar of Moscow
-1838: German philosopher Franz Brentano was born.
-1853: Andre Michelin, the French industrialist who first mass-produced rubber automobile tires, was born.
-1874: Canadian poet Robert Service was born.
-1883: Congress passed a bill creating the civil service.
-1901: Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was born.
-1909: Singer Ethel Merman was born.
-1911: Baseball pitcher Jay "Dizzy" Dean was born.
-1920: The United States went legally "dry" as prohibition of alcoholic beverages took effect under the 18th amendment to the Constitution. The amendment was repealed in 1933.
-1925: Leon Trotsky was dismissed as chairman of the Russian Revolution Military Council.
-1928: Singer Eartha Kitt was born.
-1934: Opera singer Marilyn Horne was born.
-1935: Race car driver A.J. Foyt was born.
-1944: Gen. Eisenhower arrived in London to assume command of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe (SHAEF).
-1945: Battle of the Bulge, the final German offensive of World War II, ended in allied victory.
-1946: Country singer Ronnie Milsap was born.
-1948: Director John Carpenter was born.
-1950: Choreographer, actress and director Debbie Allen was born.
-1986: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Libya would train, arm and protect Arab guerrillas for Palestinian "suicide and terrorist missions," his first explicit endorsement of terrorism.
-1987: China's No. 2 leader, Hu Yaobang, 71, was forced to resign as Communist Party chief for failing to curb student demonstrations for more democracy.
-1994: At a joint news conference in Geneva with President Clinton, Syrian President Hafez Assad indicated a willingness to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel.
January 17
-1706: American statesman, scientist, inventor and author, Ben Franklin,was born.
-1773: Capt. James Cook becomes first person to cross Antarctic Circle.
-1806: The first baby was born in the White House, the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.
-1838: German philosopher Franz Brentano was born.
-1853: Andre Michelin, the French industrialist who first mass-produced rubber automobile tires, was born.
-1863: British statesman David Lloyd George and Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski were born.
-1871: Andrew Hallikie received a patent for a cable car system that went into service in San Francisco.
-1874: Canadian poet Robert Service was born.
-1876: The saxophone made what many consider to be its first public appearance in the US when it was played by Etta Morgan at New York City's Olympic Theatre.
-1893 The Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown.
-1880: Mack Sennett, director of slapstick films, was born.
-1883: Congress passed a bill creating the civil service.
-1893: Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was deposed in a bloodless revolution and a provisional government established, with annexation by the United States as its aim.
-1899: Gangster Al Capone and English novelist Nevil Shute were born.
-1901: Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was born.
-1909: Singer Ethel Merman was born.
-1911: Baseball pitcher Jay "Dizzy" Dean was born.
-1917: The United States bought 50 of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies from Denmark for $25 million.
-1924: Actor Bette White was born.
-1925: Leon Trotsky was dismissed as chairman of the Russian Revolution Military Council.
-1928: Singer Eartha Kitt was born.
-1929: Popeye the Sailor Man appeared in a comic strip.
-1931: James Earl Jones was born.
-1933: Sheree North was born.
-1934: Opera singer Marilyn Horne and puppeteer Shari Lewis were born.
-1935: Race car driver A.J. Foyt was born.
-1939: Talk show host Maury Povich was born.
-1942: Champion heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali was born.
-1944: Gen. Eisenhower arrived in London to assume command of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe (SHAEF).
-1946: Country singer Ronnie Milsap was born.
-1948: Director John Carpenter was born.
-1949: Comedian Andy Kaufman was born.
-1950: Choreographer, actress and director Debbie Allen was born.
-1950: Nine bandits staged a $1.5 million robbery of a Brink's armored car in Boston.
-1962: Comic actor Jim Carrey was born.
-1966: In one of the worst accidents involving nuclear weapons, a US B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs collided with its refueling plane over Palomares, Spain, killing 8 people. Two of the bombs exploded against the ground, releasing radioactive plutonium. To protect human lives, 1,400 tons of topsoil were removed and sent to South Carolina. One of the bombs fell in the Mediterranean Sea.
-1977: Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah, the first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
-1986: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Libya would train, arm and protect Arab guerrillas for Palestinian "suicide and terrorist missions," his first explicit endorsement of terrorism.
-1987: President Reagan signed a secret order permitting the covert sale of arms to Iran.
-1990: A study concluded it is not oat bran itself, but the substitution of oat bran or other foods for high-fat foods, which cuts blood cholesterol.
-1991: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114.60, the second highest one-day point-gain ever.
-1991: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that Florida dentist David Acer had infected three patients with the AIDS virus.
-1993: U.S. missiles attacked an Iraqi nuclear weapons facility outside Baghdad in an effort to destroy Saddam Hussein's ability to build weapons of mass destruction.
-1995: A powerful earthquake rocked Kobe, Japan, and the surrounding area, killing more than 5,000 people.
-1996: David Watkins, who wrote the memo the White House sent to Congress two weeks earlier, testified before Congress that he felt pressure from the first lady but was never actually told to fire travel office staffers.
-1996: Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman got life in prison and 16 others were also sentenced to jail for plotting to bomb the United Nations.
-2000: Almost 50,000 people marched in Columbia, S.C., to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag over the state Capitol.
-2001: Parts of California were plunged into darkness after utility companies failed to deliver enough electrical power. The rolling blackouts affected as many as 2 million people.
January 18
-1779: English physician Peter Roget, who compiled "Roget's Thesaurus," was born.
-1782: American orator, lawyer and statesman, Daniel Webster, was born.
-1788: English settlers arrive in Australia's Botany Bay to set up penal colony.
-1871: William of Prussia was declared the first German emperor.
-1882: English author A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne, who wrote "Winnie the Pooh," was born.
-1892: Comedian Oliver Hardy was born.
-1904: Actor Cary Grant was born.
-1913: Actor Danny Kaye was born.
-1933: Filmmaker John Boorman was born.
-1941: Temptations singer David Ruffin was born.
-1943: Moscow announced the 16-month Nazi siege of Leningrad was lifted.
-1955: Actor Kevin Costner was born.
-1966: Indira Gandhi, daughter of the late Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, became prime minister of India.
-1968: The United States and Soviet Union agreed on a draft of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
-1882: Pooh Day, in honor of the A.A. Milne' birthday, English poet and author of Winnie-the-Pooh.
-1990: Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was arrested in an FBI sting at a downtown hotel and charged with buying and smoking crack cocaine.
-1993: Seven people were killed and nearly 70 more injured when two commuter trains collided on a bridge in Gary, Ind.
-1994: Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh issued his final report on the scandal. He blasted former President Bush for his Christmas Eve 1992 pardons of six Iran-Contra defendants.
-1994: Adm. Bobby Ray Inman withdrew his nomination as defense secretary, asserting the news media and the Republicans were out to destroy his reputation.
-1995: Officials in Paris announced the discovery of a magnificent display of Paleolithic cave art in southern France.
-1996: Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of "The King" Elvis Presley, filed for divorce from the self-proclaimed "Prince of Pop" Michael Jackson after 20 months of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.
-1997: Franz Vranitzky announced he was resigning as chancellor of Austria.
-1997: Norwegian Borge Ousland completed a 1,675-mile trek across Antarctica, the first time anyone transversed the
continent alone.
-2001: Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson admitted he had fathered a daughter born out of wedlock in 1999 to an employee of his Rainbow/PUSH coalition.
January 19
-1793: French King Louis XVI sentenced to death.
-1807: Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army in the Civil War, was born.
-1809: Edgar Allen Poe, American poet and short story writer, was born.
January 20
-1265: First English Parliament called into session by Earl of Leicester
-1946: David Lynch, film director, was born.
January 21
Squirrel Appreciation Day
A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton read by Sarah Silverman with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/tale-of-two-beasts/
Let's Hear It For Squirrels!:
http://www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick/Newsletters/Outdoors/Dec-Jan2016/Swinging-Snack.aspx
-1738: Soldier and Vermont folk hero Ethan Allen was born.
-1789: First American novel, W. H. Brown's "Power of Sympathy," published.
-1792: French King Louis XVI was executed in Paris.
-1813: Explorer and historian John Fremont was born.
-1824: Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was born.
-1855: Firearms designer John Browning was born.
-1861: Mississippi Sen. Jefferson Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate, 12 days before Mississippi seceded from the Union.
-1884: Roger Nash Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, was born.
-1905: Fashion designer Christian Dior was born.
-1922: Actors Paul Scofield was born.
-1924: Telly Savalas was born.
-1925: Comedian Benny Hill was born.
-1938: Famed DJ Robert “Wolfman Jack” Smith was born.
-1940: Golfer Jack Nicklaus was born.
-1941: Placido Domingo was born.
-1942: Singer Mac Davis was born.
-1950: Billy Ocean was born.
-1954: The world's first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn.
-1947: Actors Jill Eikenberry was born.
-1955: Robby Benson was born.
-1957: Geena Davis was born.
-1976: The supersonic Concorde airplane was put into service by Britain and France.
-1977: President Carter pardoned American Vietnam War-era draft evaders and ordered a case-by-case study of deserters.
-1990: Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry said he would seek help but did not publicly concede he had used illegal drugs. He left the next day for a treatment program in Florida.
-1991: Iraq announced that it would use hostages as human shields against allied warplanes.
-1993: It was announced that Hillary Clinton would work out of a White House office near the Oval Office, an unprecedented move in first lady history.
-1997: The full House voted 395-28 to reprimand Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., for violating House rules and misleading congressional investigators looking into his possible misuse of tax-exempt donations for political purposes.
-1997: In the face of continuing reports of legally dubious fund-raising practices, the Democratic National Committee announced it would no longer take donations from foreign nationals or from U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.
-1998: Allegations of President Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky first became public when newspapers reported the story.
-1998: Pope John Paul II arrived in Havana for his first-ever visit to Cuba.
-1999: The brother of former Mexican Pres. Carlos Salinas de Gortari was convicted of masterminding the 1994 shooting death of a ruling party official.
-2000: A military junta seized power in Ecuador. The next day, following expressions of international concern, the junta leaders turned the government over to the country’s vice president.
January 22
-1440: Russian Czar Ivan III, known as Ivan the Great, was born.
-1561: Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher and statesman, was born.
-1771: Spain ceded the Falkland Islands to Britain.
-1775: French physicist Andre Ampere was born.
-1788: British poet Lord George Byron was born.
-1875: D.W. Griffith, director of silent films, was born.
-1901: Queen Victoria of Britain died at age 82 after a reign of 64 years.
-1909: U.N. Secretary-General U Thant was born. Actress Ann Sothern was born.
-1932: Piper Laurie was born.
-1934: Actor Bill Bixby was born.
-1935: Soul singer Sam Cooke was born.
-1937: Author Joseph Wambaugh was born.
-1940: Actor John Hurt was born.
-1943: American and Australian troops took New Guinea in the first land victory over the Japanese in World War II.
-1944: American troops invaded Italy, landing at Anzio beach in a move to outflank German defensive positions.
-1950: Journey lead singer Steve Perry was born.
-1959: Actor Linda Blair was born.
-1967: Olivia D'Abo was born.
-1973: In the Roe vs. Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws restricting abortions during the first six months of pregnancy.
-1975: Balthazar Getty was born.
-1985: A cold wave damaged 90 percent of the Florida citrus crop.
-1987: Glen Tremml, 27, pedaled the ultralight aircraft Eagle over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for a human-powered flight record of 37.2 miles.
-1991: Iraq launched the third and bloodiest Scud missile attack against Israel. 98 people were injured. Three others died of heart attacks.
-1995: Two Palestinians killed 18 Israeli soldiers, a civilian and themselves in a bombing outside a military camp in central Israel.
-1996: Costas Simitis was chosen to be the new prime minister of Greece. His predecessor, Andreas Papandreou, had stepped down due to ill health.
-1998: Accused UNAbomber Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all counts against him in California and New Jersey. He was sentenced to life in prison on May 4.
-1999: Pope John Paul II arrived in Mexico City on a visit to Mexico and the United States.
-2002: K-Mart, the nation's third largest discount retailer but in a decline and with disappointing holiday sales, filed for bankruptcy.
January 23
National Handwriting Day, to encourage more legible handwriting.
National Pie Day
Enemy Pie by Derek Munson read by Camryn Manheim with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/enemy-pie/
-1783: French author Stendhal, a pseudonym for Marie Henri Beyle, was born.
-1793: John Hancock, American patriot and the first signer of the declaration of Independence.
-1832: French Impressionist painter Edouard Manet was born.
-1845: Congress decided that all national elections would take place on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
-1849: Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive an MD degree.
-1898: Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein was born.
-1903: Actor Randolph Scott was born.
-1907: Dan Duryea was born.
-1919: Comedian Ernie Kovacs was born.
-1933: Actress/singer Chita Rivera was born.
-1943: Actors Gil Gerard was born.
-1944: Rutger Hauer was born.
-1948: Gen. Eisenhower said he could not accept a presidential nomination from either party; four years later, he ran as a Republican and was elected 34th president of the United States.
-1950: Richard Dean Anderson was born.
-1957: Princess Caroline of Monaco was born.
-1958: Jimmy Hoffa assumed the presidency of the Teamsters Union.
-1963: Actress Gail O'Grady was born.
-1968: The USS Pueblo was seized in the Sea of Japan by North Korea, which claimed the ship was on a spy mission. The crew was held for 11 months before being released on Dec. 22, 1968.
-1971: The temperature at Prospect Creek, Alaska, dropped to 80 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the United States.
-1973: President Nixon announced that U.S. troops would cease fighting in Vietnam at midnight Jan. 27.
-1974: Tiffini-Amber Thiessen was born.
-1980: President Carter reinstated the Selective Service System.
-1988: Sandinista missiles downed a cargo plane that was dropping U.S.-financed supplies to Contra rebels in southeastern Nicaragua. Four crewmen were killed.
-1991: Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said heavy bombing had destroyed Iraq's two operating nuclear reactors and damaged chemical facilities.
-1991: Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady asked Congress for another $80 billion toward the bailout of the nation's troubled savings and loan industry.
-1993: Convicted "diet doc" killer Jean Harris was freed, discharged from a New York state hospital after heart surgery and with a grant of clemency from the governor.
-1997: Madeline Albright was sworn into office to become the first woman secretary of state.
January 24
National Peanut Butter Day
-A.D. 76: Roman Emperor Hadrian was born.
-1670: English dramatist William Congreve was born.
-1712: Frederick the Great of Prussia was born.
-1800: British social reformer Sir Edwin Chadwick was born.
-1848: Gold discovered at Sutter's Mill, starts California Gold rush.
-1862: Author Edith Wharton, American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner in 1921 and 1935, was born.
-1908: The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, a general in the British Army.
-1915: Abstract painter Robert Motherwell was born.
-1916: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled an income tax was unconstitutional. Former sportscaster Jack Brickhouse was born.
-1917: Actor Ernest Borgnine was born.
-1918: Evangelist Oral Roberts was born.
-1925: Ballet dancer Maria Tallchief Paschen was born.
-1935: Beer was sold in cans for the first time, in Richmond, Va.
-1941: Singers Neil Diamond and Aaron Neville were born.
-1949: Comedian John Belushi was born.
-1950: Actor Michael Ontkean was born.
-1951: Comedian Yakov Smirnoff was born.
-1960: Actress Nastassja Kinksi was born.
-1965: Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died at age 91.
-1968: Mary Lou Retton, gymnast, spokeswoman, and actress was born in Fairmont, W. Va.
-1969: In 1990, Soviet forces shelled merchant ships blockading the harbor in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
-1991: Saudi jet fighters shot down the first enemy planes of the Persian Gulf War, while U.S. forces sank an Iraqi mine-sweeper and forced Iraqi troops off an island near Kuwait.
-1993: Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black to serve on the nation's highest court, died of cardiac arrest at age 84.
-1993: Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the father of gospel music for adding rhythm to church hymns, died at age 93.
-1994: A federal judge upheld a subpoena from the Senate Ethics Committee for the diaries of Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., who was facing allegations of sexual harassment and other possible misconduct. -1994: President Clinton nominated Deputy Defense Sec. William Perry to be defense secretary.
-1995: New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman delivered the Republican response to President Clinton's State of the Union address, becoming the first governor and the first woman to give such a reply.
-1995: Opening statements began in the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson in Los Angeles.
-1999: The International Olympic Committee voted to expel six IOC members in the wake of charges that committee members had accepted money and other compensation from officials whose cities were bidding to host the Olympic games.
-1999: Jordan’s King Hussein, who was seriously ill, named his son Abdullah as crown prince. Abdullah replaced his father’s younger brother as successor to the throne.
-2000: Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore were the winners in the Iowa presidential caucuses.
January 25
-1882: Virginia Woolf, writer was born Adeline Virginia Stephen.
-1933: Corazon Aquino, Philippine politician and president (1986-92), was born in Tarlac province.
-1974: Dr. Christian Barnard transplants first human heart.
January 26
-1880: General Douglas MacArthur, soldier and military commander, was born in Little Rock,
AR.
-1950: India became a republic, ceasing to be a British dominion.
-1961: Wayne Gretzky, professional hockey player was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. President -1961: John F. Kennedy held the first live televised news conference.
January 27
-1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, was born.
-1832: Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson), English mathematician and author of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, was born.
-1880: Thomas Edison patents electric incandescent lamp.
-1948: Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer and choreographer, was born.
-1973: Vietnam War Cease-Fire was signed in Paris, ending U.S. comabat role in Vietnam.
January 28
Australia Day: Anniversary of the first fleet from Britain landing in Sydney cove
-1936: Alan Alda, actor, director and screenwriter, was born lphonso D’Abruzzo.
-1986: Space shuttle Challenger 10 explodes 73 seconds after lift-off, killing all on board.
January 29
National Puzzle Day
-1613: Galileo notices Neptune.
-1843: William McKinley, twenty-fifth U.S. president, was born.
-1845: Poe publishes "The Raven"
-1886: First successful gasoline-driven car patented by Karl Benz in Germany
-1891: Following the death of her brother, King Kalakaua, Lydia Liliuokalani was proclaimed queen of the Hawaiian Islands.
-1940: Burpee displays the first tetraploid flower.
-1954: Oprah Winfrey was born.
-1979: In a historic meeting between China and the US, Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping met with US President Jimmy Carter and signed scientific and cultural exchange accords.
January 30
-1649: English King Charles I was beheaded in London by order of the English Parliament.
-1815: The Library of Congress was restored.
-1835: President Andrew Jackson was the target of an assassination attempt.
-1882: Franklin D. Roosevelt, thirty-second president of the United States, was born.
-1933: German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor.
-1948: Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi was assassinated.
January 31
-1856: Gen. Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies.
-1919: Jackie Robinson, baseball player, was born.
-1923: Carol Channing, actress, was born.
-1958: The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, led to the discovery of belts of electrically charged particles high above the planet. These particles affect radio and electrical activity on Earth.
Chinese New Year
Chinese Lantern: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lantern/
Chinese New Year Dragon Parade: https://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/chinese-new-year-dragon-parade-lesson-plan/
"Research Chinese New Year and create dragon puppets to use in a parade."
Dancing Lion or Dragon Toy: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/lion/
"Traditionally, on Chinese New Year, two people wear a huge lion or dragon costume and dance. This toy is a tiny paper version of this traditional puppet."
Just SNOW Already! by Howard McWilliam read by Julianna Margulies: storylineonline.net/books/just-snow-already/
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
Best Free Martin Luther King Jr. Lessons and Activities: www.techlearning.com/news/best-free-martin-luther-king-jr-lessons-and-activities
Books for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: https://www.readingrockets.org/booklists/books-martin-luther-king-jr-day
Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Leader: ny.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/americon-lp-martin-luther-king-jr/lesson-plan/
National (Ice) Skating Month
Henry Holton Takes the Ice by Sandra Bradley - read by Ray Romano - with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/henry-holton-takes-the-ice/
National Poverty Awareness Month
Maddi's Fridge by Lois Brandt, read by Jennifer Garner, with activity guide: storylineonline.net/books/maddis-fridge/
January 1
-1735: Paul Revere, American patriot, was born.
-1863: Emancipation Proclamation (ending slavery) issued by President Lincoln, freeing all slaves in the United States.
-1879: E. M. Forster was born in London.
-1892: Ellis Island immigration station was opened.
-1919: J. D. Salinger was born in New York City.
-1933: Playwright Joe Orton was born in Leicester, England.
-1935: Cartoonist B. Kliban was born in Connecticut.
January 2
-1647: Virginia patriot Nathaniel Bacon was born.
-1727: British Gen. James Wolfe, hero of the battle of Quebec, was born.
-1788: Georgia ratified the Constitution, the fourth of the original 13 colonies to do so, and was admitted to the union.
-1839: First photo of the Moon taken by French photographer Louis Daguerre.
-1870: Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge.
-1886: Antarctic explorer and author Apsley Cherry-Garrard, born in Bedford, England.
-1904: Fan dancer Sally Rand was born.
-1920: Author Isaac Asimov was born in Petrovichi, Russia.
-1921: Crosby Bonsall was born.
-1930: Singer Julius La Rosa was born.
-1936: Singer/songwriter Roger Miller was born.
-1939: Former televangelist Jim Bakker was born.
-1942: Japanese forces occupied Manila, forcing U.S. and Philippine forces under Gen. Douglas MacArthur to withdraw to the Bataan peninsula.
-1959: The Soviet Union launched Lunik-1, the first unmanned spacecraft to travel to the moon.
-1967: Actor Tia Carrere was born
-1968: Cuba Gooding Jr. was born.
-1969: Model Christy Turlingtonwas born.
-1974: President Nixon signed a bill requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph or lose federal highway funds.
-1975: Kenneth Brugger discovered where monarch butterflies from North America spend the winter.
-1990: Elite Soviet interior ministry troops seized buildings in the Baltic republics of Latvia and Lithuania. Britain's most wanted terrorist suspect, Patrick Sheehy, was found dead in the Republic of Ireland.
-2001: President Bush nominated a Democrat to his Cabinet, picking Norman Mineta, President Clinton's commerce secretary, to head the Department of Transportation.
January 3
-1521: Martin Luther excommunicated by Roman Catholic Church.
-1870: Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge.
-1892: J(ohn) R(onald) R(euel) Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, was born in South Africa.
January 4
National Spaghetti Day
Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola read by Mary Steenburgen with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/strega-nona/
-1643: Sir Isaac Newton, English physicist, mathematician and meteorologist, was born.
-1785: Jacob Grimm, who with his borther, authored Grimm's Fairy Tales, was born.
-1790: President Washington delivers first "state of the Union" address
-1809: Lois Braille, who originated the Braille system for the blind, was born.
January 5
-1864: George Washington Carver was born.
-1896: German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered the X-ray.
-1905: Anniversary of the incorporation of the National Association of Audubon Societies.
-1909: Stephen Cole Kleene was born in Hartford, Connecticut.
-1926: Poet W. D. Snodgrass was born in Wilkinsberg, Pennsylvania.
-1932: Umberto Eco was born in the Piedmont region of Italy.
January 6
Sherlock Holmes' Birthday
The Case of the Missing Carrot Cake by Robin Newman read by Wanda Sykes with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/missing-carrot-cake/
Private I. Guana by Nina Laden, read by Esai Morales, with activity guide: storylineonline.net/books/private-i-guana/
-1412: Joan of Arc was born.
-1535: City of Lima, Peru founded by Francisco Pizarro.
-1759: George Washington married widow Martha Dandridge Custis.
-1822: Archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who discovered the ruins of ancient Troy, was born.
-1838: In Morristown, N.J., Samuel F.B. Morse and his partner, Alfred Vail, publicly demonstrated their new invention, the telegraph, for the first time.
-1878: Poet Carl Sandburg was born.
-1880: Silent movie cowboy star Tom Mix was born.
-1882: Former Speaker of the House of Representatives Sam Rayburn was born.
-1883: Gibran Khalil Gibran, a Lebanese American poet, writer, and visual artist was born in Ottoman Syria (present-day Lebanon).
-1912: New Mexico joined the United States as the 47th state.
-1913: Loretta Young, actress, was born in Salt Lake City, Utah.
-1914: Actor Danny Thomas was born.
-1919: Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States, died at the age of 60.
-1921: Pollster Louis Harris was born.
-1924: Musician Earl Scruggs was born.
-1925: Auto executive John DeLorean was born.
-1931: Author E.L. Doctorow was born.
-1942: A Pan American Airways plane arrived in New York to complete the first around-the-world flight by a commercial airliner.
-1944: Actress Bonnie Franklin was born.
-1950: Britain formally recognized the communist government of China.
-1955: Actor Rowan Atkinson ("Mr. Bean")was born.
-1968: Filmmaker John Singleton was born.
-1984: The first test-tube quadruplets, all boys, were born in Melbourne, Australia.
-1984: The 100th Congress convened with Democrats controlling the Senate, and thus both houses, for the first time under the Reagan administration.
-1993: Dancer and choreographer Rudolf Nureyev died at age 54 of cardiac complications; his doctor later confirmed it was AIDS.
-1993: Jazz trumpeteer Dizzy Gillespie died of cancer at age 75.
-1993: It was announced that Japan's Crown Prince Naruhito would marry a 29-year-old Foreign Ministry official, a commoner, in June.
-1994: U.S. figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right knee by a man who then fled. The attack, which forced Kerrigan to withdraw from the U.S. Figure Skating Championship, was traced to four men with links to her leading rival, Tonya Harding.
-1998: Some 300 people were reported to have been massacred in the past several days in Algeria's bloody civil war.
January 7
-1598: Boris Godunov seizes Russian throne on death of Feodore I
-1610: Galileo, using his primitive telescope, discovered the four major moons of Jupiter: Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
-1745: Frenchman Jacques Montgolfier, who, with his brother, invented the hot air balloon, was born.
-1782: The Bank of North America, the first commercial bank, in the U.S., opened.
-1789: The first nationwide U.S. presidential election was held. The electors chosen by the voters unanimously picked George Washington as president and John Adams as vice president.
-1800: Millard Fillmore, 13th president of the United States, was born.
-1844: Bernadette Soubirous, who became St. Bernadette and whose visions led to the foundation of the shrine at Lourdes, France, was born.
-1873: Film executive Adolph Zukor was born.
-1912: Charles Samuel Addams, cartoonist, was born in Westfield, New Jersey, USA.
-1922: Actor Vincent Gardenia was born.
-1927: Commercial trans-Atlantic telephone service between New York and London was inaugurated.
-1928: Author William Blatty (“The Exorcist”) was born.
-1931: As the Great Depression was getting under way, a report to President Hoover estimated that four-million to five-million Americans were out of work.
-1938: Singer Paul Revere was born.
-1948: Kenny Loggins was born.
-1947: Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner was born.
-1952: Actress Erin Grey was born.
-1957: "Today" co-host Katie Couric was born.
-1964: Actor Nicholas Cage was born.
-1979: The Cambodian government of Pol Pot was overthrown.
-1989: Japan’s Emperor Hirohito died.
-1990: Jeffrey Lundgren, a self-proclaimed prophet and leader of a breakaway religious sect wanted for the slayings of five Ohio followers, was arrested in California at a motel near the Mexican border.
-1991: Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney announced he was canceling the Navy's A-12 Stealth attack plane project.
-1991: Loyalist troops attacked Haiti's presidential palace, rescuing President Ertha Pascal-Trouillot and capturing the coup plotters.
-1993: The EPA released a long-awaited report that classified environmental tobacco smoke as a carcinogen.
-1996: An immense storm system dumped up to three feet of snow onto the Mid-Atlantic and New England states.
-1997: Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., was re-elected Speaker of the House and then reprimanded for violating House rules and misled the House Ethics Committee in its probe of possible political use of tax-exempt donations.
-1998: A federal jury in Denver was unable to agree on a penalty for Terry Nichols, convicted in December 1997 in connection with the April 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City. That meant he would not face the death penalty.
-1999: President Clinton's impeachment trial opened in the Senate. He would be acquitted.
January 8
National Bubble Bath Day
Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion, read by Betty White, with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/harry-the-dirty-dog/
-1486: Financier Nicholas Biddle was born.
-1790: The first State of the Union Message was delivered by George Washington.
-1792: Educator and hymn writer Lowell Mason ("Nearer My God To Thee") was born.
-1815: The forces of American Gen. Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, the closing engagement of the War of 1812.
-1821: James Longstreet, Confederate general in the Civil War, was born.
-1838: First telegraph message sent using dots and dashes from NJ
-1862: Publisher Frank Doubleday was born.
-1867: Congress approved legislation that, for the first time, allowed blacks to vote in the District of Columbia.
-1909: Reading teacher Evelyn Wood was born.
-1912: Actor Jose Ferrer was born.
-1925: Comic actor Larry Storch was born.
-1926: Comedian Soupy Sales was born.
-1933: Newsman Charles Osgood was born.
-1935: Elvis Aaron Presley, singer and actor, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi.
-1937: Singer Shirley Bassey was born.
-1938: Game-show host Bob Eubanks was born.
-1941: Actress Yvette Mimieux was born.
-1942: Physicist and author Stephen Hawking was born.
-1947: Singer David Bowie was born.
-1970: Actress Ami Dolenz, daughter of former Monkee Mickey Dolenz, was born.
-1973: The trial of the "Watergate Seven" began in Washington, D.C. The defendants were charged with breaking into Democratic Party national headquarters.
-1976: Chinese Premier Chou En-lai died in Beijing.
-1987: Kay Orr was inaugurated in Lincoln, Neb., as the nation's first woman Republican governor.
-1987: The Dow Jones industrial average closed above 2000 for the first time.
-1991: One person was killed and 248 injured when a London commuter train crashed into the buffers at a station.
-1991: Pan American World Airways filed for bankruptcy.
-1993: Thousands gathered at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn., to purchase the first issue of a stamp honoring the King of Rock 'n' Roll on what would have been his 58th birthday.
-1994: Tonya Harding won the U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, qualifying her for the Winter Olympics. The U.S. Figure Skating Association also named Nancy Kerrigan to the team, despite her injury in an attack two days earlier.
-1997: A report by University of Texas scientists concluded that exposure to a combination of chemicals was somehow linked to Gulf War Syndrome, responsible for the various ailments reported by veterans of the 1991 conflict.
-2001: Former Gov. Edwin Edwards of Louisiana was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being convicted of extorting money from applicants seeking riverboat casino licenses.
January 9
-1317: Philip V, the Tall, crowned King of France
-1859: Women's suffrage and peace movement leader Carrie Chapman Catt was born.
-1861: Mississippi seceded from the Union.
-1878: Pioneer psychologist John Watson was born.
-1904: Choreographer George Balanchine was born.
-1908: French novelist Simone de Beauvoir was born.
-1913: Richard Nixon, 37th president of the United States, was born.
-1914: Striptease artist Gypsy Rose Leewas born.
-1915: Actor Fernando Lamas was born.
-1925: Actor Lee Van Cleef was born.
1928: Author Judith Krantz was born.
-1935: Actor Bob Denver and sportscaster Dick Enberg were born.
-1941: Singer Joan Baez and actress Susannah York were born.
-1945: In World War II, American troops invaded the Philippine island of Luzon and went on to liberate Manila.
-1951: Country singer Crystal Gayle was born.
-1965: Basketball player Tyrone Curtis Muggsy Bogues and actress Joely Richardson were born.
-1967: Dave Matthews of the Dave Matthews Band was born.
-1969: The British-French supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at Bristol, England.
-1986: The Internal Revenue Service, for the first time, announced it would withhold income tax refunds coming to 750,000 government loan defaulters, most of them former students.
-1993: Seven people were found shot to death at a fast-food chicken restaurant in Palatine, Ill., northwest of Chicago.The crime remains unsolved.
-1995: House Speaker Newt Gingrich asked for the resignation of House historian Christina Jeffrey after it was revealed she'd once criticized a school program on the Holocaust for not including the "Nazi point of view" or that of the Ku Klux Klan.
-1996: A federal appeals panel ruled that a sexual harassment suit filed against President Clinton by an ex-state worker of Arkansas could proceed.
-1996: Rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya over-ran the town of Kizlyar and took 2,000 hostages at a hospital and in nearby homes.
-1999: French NATO forces killed a suspected war criminal in Bosnia while trying to arrest him. Dragan Gagovic had been charged in the rape and torture of Muslim women during a Serb offensive in eastern Bosnia in 1992-93.
-2001: Linda Chavez, President-elect Bush’s nominee for secretary of labor, withdrew from consideration after it was revealed that she’d sheltered an illegal alien from Guatemala.
January 10
-1776: American Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a pamphlet calling for independence from England.
-1863: First underground subway opens in London
-1878: A constitutional amendment that would give women the right to vote was introduced into the U.S. Senate. It wasn’t until 42 years later that the amendment was signed into law.
-1883: Silent screen actor Francis X. Bushman was born.
-1887: Poet Robinson Jeffers was born.
-1901: Oil was discovered at the Spindletop claim near Beaumont, Texas, launching the Southwest oil boom.
-1904: Ray Bolger, actor and dancer, was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
-1908: Actor Paul Henreid was born.
-1920: The League of Nations came into being as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect. The United States did not join the League.
-1927: Singer Johnnie Ray was born.
1936: Robert W. Wilson, physicist and radio astronomer, was born in Houston, Texas.
-1939: Actor Sal Mineo was born.
-1940: Singer Frank Sinatra Jr. was born.
-1942: Singer Jim Croce was born.
-1945: Singer Rod Stewart was born.
-1946: The first meeting of the United Nations General Assembly was held in London.
-1949: George Foreman. boxer, was born in Marshall, Texas.
-1953: Singer Pat Benatar was born.
-1984: The United States established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican for the first time in 116 years.
-1994: NATO approved a plan for a limited expansion of the membership to Eastern European nations.
-1995: The Senate unanimously approved President Clinton's nomination of Robert Rubin as Secretary of the Treasury.
-1996: Rebels in the Russian republic of Chechnya holding 2,000 rebels released all but 130 and were allowed to flee. However, before they reached the border, Russian troops attacked the convoy, causing the rebels to hole up in a nearby town and beginning a five-day standoff.
-1996: Israel freed 812 Palestinians from jails.
-2000: America Online announced it had agreed to buy Time Warner for $165 billion, in what would be the biggest merger in history.
January 11
-1755: Alexander Hamilton, 1st secretary of the treasury, was born.
-1757: American statesman Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury, was born.
-1785: The Continental Congress convened in New York City.
-1807: Ezra Cornell, founder of Western Union Telegraph company and Cornell University, was born.
-1815: Sir John MacDonald, first prime minister of Canada, was born.
-1842: Psychologist and philosopher William James was born.
-1861: Alabama seceded from the Union.
-1885: Feminist lawyer Alice Paul was born.
-1903: South African novelist Alan Paton ("Cry the Beloved Country") was born.
-1930: Actor Rod Taylor was born.
-1934: Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien was born.
-1935: American aviator Amelia Earhart Putnam became the first woman to fly across the Pacific from Hawaii to California.
-1946: Singer Naomi Judd was born.
-1963: First discotheque, Whiskey-a-Go-Go, opens in LA
-1964: U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry released a report saying smoking cigarettes is a definite "health hazard."
-1971: Singer Mary J. Blige was born.
-1990: Martial law, imposed during the June 1989 Tienanmen Square pro-democracy movement, was lifted in Beijing.
-1990: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Lithuania in effort to cool secessionist fervor.
-1991: Congress authorized the use of military force to oust Iraq from Kuwait.
-1993: Doctors in Pittsburgh performed the second ever baboon-to-human liver transplant; the 62-year-old recipient did not survive long.
-1994: President Clinton kicked off a visit to Eastern Europe with a stop in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic.
-1995: The U.S. State Department accused Russia of breaking an international agreement by making major troop movements into the rebel republic of Chechnya without providing notification.
-1995: Hockey team owners and players reached an agreement, salvaging the 1994-95 NHL season.
-1996: The Japanese Diet elected Ryutaro Hashimoto, head of the Liberal Democratic Party, as the new premier.
-2000: The British government declared Chile’s Gen. Augusto Pinochet medically unfit to stand trial in Spain. The ruling cleared the way for the former dictator to avoid charges of crimes against humanity.
-2001: The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of American Online and Time Warner Inc., creating the world’s largest media conglomerate.
-2001: A yearlong investigation by the U.S. Army concluded that American soldiers shot and killed unarmed South Korean civilians in July 1950 during the Korean War.
January 12
-1773: First public museum established in US in Charleston, SC.
-1856: John Singer Sargent, American portraitist and muralist, was born.
-1876: Jack London was born.
January 13
National Rubber Duck Day
Quackenstein Hatches a Family by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, read by Kristen Bell, with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/quackenstein/
Guji Guji by Chih-Yuan Chen, read by Robert Guillaume, with activity guide: storylineonline.net/books/guji-guji/
-1559: Elizabeth I crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey
-1961: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress, was born.
January 14
-1639: The first constitution in the American colonies, the "Fundamental Orders," was adopted in Hartford, Conn., by representatives of Wethersfield, Windsor, and Hartford.
-1741: Benedict Arnold, soldier, patriot, and traitor, was born in Norwich, CT.
-1784: Revolutionary War ends. Congress ratifies Treaty of Paris.
-1794: Dr. Jesse Bennett of Edom, Va., performed the first successful Caesarean section.
-1874: Thornton Waldo Burgess, author of "Peter Rabbit," was born.
-1875: Albert Schweitzer, medical missionary, theologian, musician, and philosopher, was born in Kaysersberg, Germany.
-1892: Silent comedy film director Hal Roach was born.
-1896: Novelist John dos Passos was born.
-1914: Henry Ford introduced the assembly line method of manufacturing cars, allowing completion of one Model-T Ford every 90 minutes.
-1919: Andy Rooney, TV writer, correspondent and producer, was born.
-1924: Actor Guy Williams ("Lost In Space") was born.
-1938: Singer Jack Jones was born.
-1941: Actress Faye Dunaway was born.
-1943: Astronaut Shannon Lucid was born.
-1943: President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill opened a 10-day World War II strategy conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
-1945: Evangelist-turned-actor-and-singer Marjoe Gortner was born.
-1948: Actor Carl Weathers was born.
-1949: Filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan was born.
-1952: NBC’s “Today,” the program that started the morning news show format as we know it, premiered.
-1969: Actor Jason Bateman was born.
-1969: A series of explosions aboard the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off Hawaii killed 10 men.
-1985: The British pound sank to a record low, $1.11, and the Bank of England raised interest rates to halt the decline.
-1991: Two PLO leaders and a third man were killed in Tunis. Al Fatah, the PLO's main-line faction, blamed a dissident group for the assassinations.
-1993: David Letterman accepted a multimillion-dollar deal to move his late night talk show to CBS in August after his NBC contract expires.
-1994: The man believed to have carried out the attack on skater Nancy Kerrigan surrendered in Phoenix, Az.
-2000: Thousands of Cubans marched in Havana to demand that 6-year-old refugee Elian Gonzalez be returned to his father in Cuba. The boy’s mother had drowned as they tried to enter the United States; the child was turned over to a great-uncle in Miami.
January 15
-1535: Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church
-1759: The British Museum opened.
-1844: Outlaw Cole Younger was born.
-1870: A cartoon by Thomas Nast appeared in Harper's weekly with a donkey symbolizing the Democratic Party for the first time. The symbol stuck.
-1906: Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis was born.
-1908: Nuclear physicist Edward Teller was born.
-1909: Drummer Gene Krupa was born.
-1913: Actor Lloyd Bridges was born.
-1915: Folk music scholar Alan Lomax was born.
-1918: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was born.
-1922: The Irish Free State was formed.
-1929: Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader and one of the world's best-known advocates of Mahatma Gandhi's nonviolent social change, was born in Atlanta, GA. On the third Monday in January, the United States celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday.
The King Center: http://www.thekingcenter.org/landing_page.html
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/
-1937: Actress Margaret O'Brien was born.
-1943: The Pentagon, the world's largest building of its kind, was completed on the Virginia side of the Potomac River just outside Washington, D.C.
-1947: Actress Andrea Martin was born.
-1951: Singer/actress Charo (Maria Martinez) was born.
-1957: Actors Mario Van Peebles was born.
-1967: The first Super Bowl was played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Green Bay Packers defeating the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, to win the first NFL-AFL World Championship Game.
-1968: Chad Lowe was born.
-1973: President Nixon called a halt to American military offensives in Vietnam.
-1986: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev proposed a sweeping new arms control plan to eliminate all nuclear weapons by the year 2000 and rid "mankind of the fear of nuclear catastrophe."
-1991: Aleksandr Bessmertnykh was confirmed as the new Soviet foreign minister.
-1993: The U.S. Coast Guard announced it would beef up patrols off the coast of Haiti in hopes of halting an expected exodus of refugees headed for the United States.
-1993: A Colorado judge blocked enforcement of a voter-approved state constitutional amendment banning laws protecting homosexuals from discrimination.
-1993: Four-time Oscar-winning songwriter Sammy Cahn, who penned such hits as "Fly Me to the Moon" and "Three Coins in the Fountain," died of heart failure at age 79.
-1997: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat reached an agreement on the Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank city of Hebron.
-1999: Serb forces killed 45 ethnic Albanian civilians in Kosovo.
-2000: The notorious Serbian paramilitary leader known as Arkan (Zeljko Raznotovic) was shot to death in a hotel lobby in Belgrade.
January 16
Religious Freedom Day
-1547: Ivan IV (the Terrible), age 17, crowns himself first Czar of Moscow
-1838: German philosopher Franz Brentano was born.
-1853: Andre Michelin, the French industrialist who first mass-produced rubber automobile tires, was born.
-1874: Canadian poet Robert Service was born.
-1883: Congress passed a bill creating the civil service.
-1901: Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was born.
-1909: Singer Ethel Merman was born.
-1911: Baseball pitcher Jay "Dizzy" Dean was born.
-1920: The United States went legally "dry" as prohibition of alcoholic beverages took effect under the 18th amendment to the Constitution. The amendment was repealed in 1933.
-1925: Leon Trotsky was dismissed as chairman of the Russian Revolution Military Council.
-1928: Singer Eartha Kitt was born.
-1934: Opera singer Marilyn Horne was born.
-1935: Race car driver A.J. Foyt was born.
-1944: Gen. Eisenhower arrived in London to assume command of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe (SHAEF).
-1945: Battle of the Bulge, the final German offensive of World War II, ended in allied victory.
-1946: Country singer Ronnie Milsap was born.
-1948: Director John Carpenter was born.
-1950: Choreographer, actress and director Debbie Allen was born.
-1986: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Libya would train, arm and protect Arab guerrillas for Palestinian "suicide and terrorist missions," his first explicit endorsement of terrorism.
-1987: China's No. 2 leader, Hu Yaobang, 71, was forced to resign as Communist Party chief for failing to curb student demonstrations for more democracy.
-1994: At a joint news conference in Geneva with President Clinton, Syrian President Hafez Assad indicated a willingness to negotiate a peace treaty with Israel.
January 17
-1706: American statesman, scientist, inventor and author, Ben Franklin,was born.
-1773: Capt. James Cook becomes first person to cross Antarctic Circle.
-1806: The first baby was born in the White House, the grandson of President Thomas Jefferson.
-1838: German philosopher Franz Brentano was born.
-1853: Andre Michelin, the French industrialist who first mass-produced rubber automobile tires, was born.
-1863: British statesman David Lloyd George and Russian actor and director Konstantin Stanislavski were born.
-1871: Andrew Hallikie received a patent for a cable car system that went into service in San Francisco.
-1874: Canadian poet Robert Service was born.
-1876: The saxophone made what many consider to be its first public appearance in the US when it was played by Etta Morgan at New York City's Olympic Theatre.
-1893 The Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown.
-1880: Mack Sennett, director of slapstick films, was born.
-1883: Congress passed a bill creating the civil service.
-1893: Queen Liliuokalani of Hawaii was deposed in a bloodless revolution and a provisional government established, with annexation by the United States as its aim.
-1899: Gangster Al Capone and English novelist Nevil Shute were born.
-1901: Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista was born.
-1909: Singer Ethel Merman was born.
-1911: Baseball pitcher Jay "Dizzy" Dean was born.
-1917: The United States bought 50 of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies from Denmark for $25 million.
-1924: Actor Bette White was born.
-1925: Leon Trotsky was dismissed as chairman of the Russian Revolution Military Council.
-1928: Singer Eartha Kitt was born.
-1929: Popeye the Sailor Man appeared in a comic strip.
-1931: James Earl Jones was born.
-1933: Sheree North was born.
-1934: Opera singer Marilyn Horne and puppeteer Shari Lewis were born.
-1935: Race car driver A.J. Foyt was born.
-1939: Talk show host Maury Povich was born.
-1942: Champion heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali was born.
-1944: Gen. Eisenhower arrived in London to assume command of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe (SHAEF).
-1946: Country singer Ronnie Milsap was born.
-1948: Director John Carpenter was born.
-1949: Comedian Andy Kaufman was born.
-1950: Choreographer, actress and director Debbie Allen was born.
-1950: Nine bandits staged a $1.5 million robbery of a Brink's armored car in Boston.
-1962: Comic actor Jim Carrey was born.
-1966: In one of the worst accidents involving nuclear weapons, a US B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs collided with its refueling plane over Palomares, Spain, killing 8 people. Two of the bombs exploded against the ground, releasing radioactive plutonium. To protect human lives, 1,400 tons of topsoil were removed and sent to South Carolina. One of the bombs fell in the Mediterranean Sea.
-1977: Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah, the first execution since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
-1986: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said Libya would train, arm and protect Arab guerrillas for Palestinian "suicide and terrorist missions," his first explicit endorsement of terrorism.
-1987: President Reagan signed a secret order permitting the covert sale of arms to Iran.
-1990: A study concluded it is not oat bran itself, but the substitution of oat bran or other foods for high-fat foods, which cuts blood cholesterol.
-1991: The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 114.60, the second highest one-day point-gain ever.
-1991: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that Florida dentist David Acer had infected three patients with the AIDS virus.
-1993: U.S. missiles attacked an Iraqi nuclear weapons facility outside Baghdad in an effort to destroy Saddam Hussein's ability to build weapons of mass destruction.
-1995: A powerful earthquake rocked Kobe, Japan, and the surrounding area, killing more than 5,000 people.
-1996: David Watkins, who wrote the memo the White House sent to Congress two weeks earlier, testified before Congress that he felt pressure from the first lady but was never actually told to fire travel office staffers.
-1996: Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman got life in prison and 16 others were also sentenced to jail for plotting to bomb the United Nations.
-2000: Almost 50,000 people marched in Columbia, S.C., to protest the flying of the Confederate battle flag over the state Capitol.
-2001: Parts of California were plunged into darkness after utility companies failed to deliver enough electrical power. The rolling blackouts affected as many as 2 million people.
January 18
-1779: English physician Peter Roget, who compiled "Roget's Thesaurus," was born.
-1782: American orator, lawyer and statesman, Daniel Webster, was born.
-1788: English settlers arrive in Australia's Botany Bay to set up penal colony.
-1871: William of Prussia was declared the first German emperor.
-1882: English author A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne, who wrote "Winnie the Pooh," was born.
-1892: Comedian Oliver Hardy was born.
-1904: Actor Cary Grant was born.
-1913: Actor Danny Kaye was born.
-1933: Filmmaker John Boorman was born.
-1941: Temptations singer David Ruffin was born.
-1943: Moscow announced the 16-month Nazi siege of Leningrad was lifted.
-1955: Actor Kevin Costner was born.
-1966: Indira Gandhi, daughter of the late Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, became prime minister of India.
-1968: The United States and Soviet Union agreed on a draft of a nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
-1882: Pooh Day, in honor of the A.A. Milne' birthday, English poet and author of Winnie-the-Pooh.
-1990: Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was arrested in an FBI sting at a downtown hotel and charged with buying and smoking crack cocaine.
-1993: Seven people were killed and nearly 70 more injured when two commuter trains collided on a bridge in Gary, Ind.
-1994: Iran-Contra independent counsel Lawrence Walsh issued his final report on the scandal. He blasted former President Bush for his Christmas Eve 1992 pardons of six Iran-Contra defendants.
-1994: Adm. Bobby Ray Inman withdrew his nomination as defense secretary, asserting the news media and the Republicans were out to destroy his reputation.
-1995: Officials in Paris announced the discovery of a magnificent display of Paleolithic cave art in southern France.
-1996: Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of "The King" Elvis Presley, filed for divorce from the self-proclaimed "Prince of Pop" Michael Jackson after 20 months of marriage, citing irreconcilable differences.
-1997: Franz Vranitzky announced he was resigning as chancellor of Austria.
-1997: Norwegian Borge Ousland completed a 1,675-mile trek across Antarctica, the first time anyone transversed the
continent alone.
-2001: Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson admitted he had fathered a daughter born out of wedlock in 1999 to an employee of his Rainbow/PUSH coalition.
January 19
-1793: French King Louis XVI sentenced to death.
-1807: Robert E. Lee, commander of the Confederate Army in the Civil War, was born.
-1809: Edgar Allen Poe, American poet and short story writer, was born.
January 20
-1265: First English Parliament called into session by Earl of Leicester
-1946: David Lynch, film director, was born.
January 21
Squirrel Appreciation Day
A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton read by Sarah Silverman with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/tale-of-two-beasts/
Let's Hear It For Squirrels!:
http://www.nwf.org/Kids/Ranger-Rick/Newsletters/Outdoors/Dec-Jan2016/Swinging-Snack.aspx
-1738: Soldier and Vermont folk hero Ethan Allen was born.
-1789: First American novel, W. H. Brown's "Power of Sympathy," published.
-1792: French King Louis XVI was executed in Paris.
-1813: Explorer and historian John Fremont was born.
-1824: Confederate Gen. Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson was born.
-1855: Firearms designer John Browning was born.
-1861: Mississippi Sen. Jefferson Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate, 12 days before Mississippi seceded from the Union.
-1884: Roger Nash Baldwin, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union, was born.
-1905: Fashion designer Christian Dior was born.
-1922: Actors Paul Scofield was born.
-1924: Telly Savalas was born.
-1925: Comedian Benny Hill was born.
-1938: Famed DJ Robert “Wolfman Jack” Smith was born.
-1940: Golfer Jack Nicklaus was born.
-1941: Placido Domingo was born.
-1942: Singer Mac Davis was born.
-1950: Billy Ocean was born.
-1954: The world's first atomic-powered submarine, the Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn.
-1947: Actors Jill Eikenberry was born.
-1955: Robby Benson was born.
-1957: Geena Davis was born.
-1976: The supersonic Concorde airplane was put into service by Britain and France.
-1977: President Carter pardoned American Vietnam War-era draft evaders and ordered a case-by-case study of deserters.
-1990: Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry said he would seek help but did not publicly concede he had used illegal drugs. He left the next day for a treatment program in Florida.
-1991: Iraq announced that it would use hostages as human shields against allied warplanes.
-1993: It was announced that Hillary Clinton would work out of a White House office near the Oval Office, an unprecedented move in first lady history.
-1997: The full House voted 395-28 to reprimand Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., for violating House rules and misleading congressional investigators looking into his possible misuse of tax-exempt donations for political purposes.
-1997: In the face of continuing reports of legally dubious fund-raising practices, the Democratic National Committee announced it would no longer take donations from foreign nationals or from U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.
-1998: Allegations of President Clinton's affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky first became public when newspapers reported the story.
-1998: Pope John Paul II arrived in Havana for his first-ever visit to Cuba.
-1999: The brother of former Mexican Pres. Carlos Salinas de Gortari was convicted of masterminding the 1994 shooting death of a ruling party official.
-2000: A military junta seized power in Ecuador. The next day, following expressions of international concern, the junta leaders turned the government over to the country’s vice president.
January 22
-1440: Russian Czar Ivan III, known as Ivan the Great, was born.
-1561: Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher and statesman, was born.
-1771: Spain ceded the Falkland Islands to Britain.
-1775: French physicist Andre Ampere was born.
-1788: British poet Lord George Byron was born.
-1875: D.W. Griffith, director of silent films, was born.
-1901: Queen Victoria of Britain died at age 82 after a reign of 64 years.
-1909: U.N. Secretary-General U Thant was born. Actress Ann Sothern was born.
-1932: Piper Laurie was born.
-1934: Actor Bill Bixby was born.
-1935: Soul singer Sam Cooke was born.
-1937: Author Joseph Wambaugh was born.
-1940: Actor John Hurt was born.
-1943: American and Australian troops took New Guinea in the first land victory over the Japanese in World War II.
-1944: American troops invaded Italy, landing at Anzio beach in a move to outflank German defensive positions.
-1950: Journey lead singer Steve Perry was born.
-1959: Actor Linda Blair was born.
-1967: Olivia D'Abo was born.
-1973: In the Roe vs. Wade decision, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws restricting abortions during the first six months of pregnancy.
-1975: Balthazar Getty was born.
-1985: A cold wave damaged 90 percent of the Florida citrus crop.
-1987: Glen Tremml, 27, pedaled the ultralight aircraft Eagle over Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for a human-powered flight record of 37.2 miles.
-1991: Iraq launched the third and bloodiest Scud missile attack against Israel. 98 people were injured. Three others died of heart attacks.
-1995: Two Palestinians killed 18 Israeli soldiers, a civilian and themselves in a bombing outside a military camp in central Israel.
-1996: Costas Simitis was chosen to be the new prime minister of Greece. His predecessor, Andreas Papandreou, had stepped down due to ill health.
-1998: Accused UNAbomber Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty to all counts against him in California and New Jersey. He was sentenced to life in prison on May 4.
-1999: Pope John Paul II arrived in Mexico City on a visit to Mexico and the United States.
-2002: K-Mart, the nation's third largest discount retailer but in a decline and with disappointing holiday sales, filed for bankruptcy.
January 23
National Handwriting Day, to encourage more legible handwriting.
National Pie Day
Enemy Pie by Derek Munson read by Camryn Manheim with activity guide: www.storylineonline.net/books/enemy-pie/
-1783: French author Stendhal, a pseudonym for Marie Henri Beyle, was born.
-1793: John Hancock, American patriot and the first signer of the declaration of Independence.
-1832: French Impressionist painter Edouard Manet was born.
-1845: Congress decided that all national elections would take place on the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November.
-1849: Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to receive an MD degree.
-1898: Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein was born.
-1903: Actor Randolph Scott was born.
-1907: Dan Duryea was born.
-1919: Comedian Ernie Kovacs was born.
-1933: Actress/singer Chita Rivera was born.
-1943: Actors Gil Gerard was born.
-1944: Rutger Hauer was born.
-1948: Gen. Eisenhower said he could not accept a presidential nomination from either party; four years later, he ran as a Republican and was elected 34th president of the United States.
-1950: Richard Dean Anderson was born.
-1957: Princess Caroline of Monaco was born.
-1958: Jimmy Hoffa assumed the presidency of the Teamsters Union.
-1963: Actress Gail O'Grady was born.
-1968: The USS Pueblo was seized in the Sea of Japan by North Korea, which claimed the ship was on a spy mission. The crew was held for 11 months before being released on Dec. 22, 1968.
-1971: The temperature at Prospect Creek, Alaska, dropped to 80 degrees below zero, the lowest temperature ever recorded in the United States.
-1973: President Nixon announced that U.S. troops would cease fighting in Vietnam at midnight Jan. 27.
-1974: Tiffini-Amber Thiessen was born.
-1980: President Carter reinstated the Selective Service System.
-1988: Sandinista missiles downed a cargo plane that was dropping U.S.-financed supplies to Contra rebels in southeastern Nicaragua. Four crewmen were killed.
-1991: Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said heavy bombing had destroyed Iraq's two operating nuclear reactors and damaged chemical facilities.
-1991: Treasury Secretary Nicholas Brady asked Congress for another $80 billion toward the bailout of the nation's troubled savings and loan industry.
-1993: Convicted "diet doc" killer Jean Harris was freed, discharged from a New York state hospital after heart surgery and with a grant of clemency from the governor.
-1997: Madeline Albright was sworn into office to become the first woman secretary of state.
January 24
National Peanut Butter Day
-A.D. 76: Roman Emperor Hadrian was born.
-1670: English dramatist William Congreve was born.
-1712: Frederick the Great of Prussia was born.
-1800: British social reformer Sir Edwin Chadwick was born.
-1848: Gold discovered at Sutter's Mill, starts California Gold rush.
-1862: Author Edith Wharton, American novelist and Pulitzer Prize winner in 1921 and 1935, was born.
-1908: The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Sir Robert Baden-Powell, a general in the British Army.
-1915: Abstract painter Robert Motherwell was born.
-1916: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled an income tax was unconstitutional. Former sportscaster Jack Brickhouse was born.
-1917: Actor Ernest Borgnine was born.
-1918: Evangelist Oral Roberts was born.
-1925: Ballet dancer Maria Tallchief Paschen was born.
-1935: Beer was sold in cans for the first time, in Richmond, Va.
-1941: Singers Neil Diamond and Aaron Neville were born.
-1949: Comedian John Belushi was born.
-1950: Actor Michael Ontkean was born.
-1951: Comedian Yakov Smirnoff was born.
-1960: Actress Nastassja Kinksi was born.
-1965: Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died at age 91.
-1968: Mary Lou Retton, gymnast, spokeswoman, and actress was born in Fairmont, W. Va.
-1969: In 1990, Soviet forces shelled merchant ships blockading the harbor in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
-1991: Saudi jet fighters shot down the first enemy planes of the Persian Gulf War, while U.S. forces sank an Iraqi mine-sweeper and forced Iraqi troops off an island near Kuwait.
-1993: Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, the first black to serve on the nation's highest court, died of cardiac arrest at age 84.
-1993: Thomas A. Dorsey, known as the father of gospel music for adding rhythm to church hymns, died at age 93.
-1994: A federal judge upheld a subpoena from the Senate Ethics Committee for the diaries of Sen. Bob Packwood, R-Ore., who was facing allegations of sexual harassment and other possible misconduct. -1994: President Clinton nominated Deputy Defense Sec. William Perry to be defense secretary.
-1995: New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman delivered the Republican response to President Clinton's State of the Union address, becoming the first governor and the first woman to give such a reply.
-1995: Opening statements began in the double-murder trial of O.J. Simpson in Los Angeles.
-1999: The International Olympic Committee voted to expel six IOC members in the wake of charges that committee members had accepted money and other compensation from officials whose cities were bidding to host the Olympic games.
-1999: Jordan’s King Hussein, who was seriously ill, named his son Abdullah as crown prince. Abdullah replaced his father’s younger brother as successor to the throne.
-2000: Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore were the winners in the Iowa presidential caucuses.
January 25
-1882: Virginia Woolf, writer was born Adeline Virginia Stephen.
-1933: Corazon Aquino, Philippine politician and president (1986-92), was born in Tarlac province.
-1974: Dr. Christian Barnard transplants first human heart.
January 26
-1880: General Douglas MacArthur, soldier and military commander, was born in Little Rock,
AR.
-1950: India became a republic, ceasing to be a British dominion.
-1961: Wayne Gretzky, professional hockey player was born in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. President -1961: John F. Kennedy held the first live televised news conference.
January 27
-1756: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer, was born.
-1832: Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson), English mathematician and author of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, was born.
-1880: Thomas Edison patents electric incandescent lamp.
-1948: Mikhail Baryshnikov, dancer and choreographer, was born.
-1973: Vietnam War Cease-Fire was signed in Paris, ending U.S. comabat role in Vietnam.
January 28
Australia Day: Anniversary of the first fleet from Britain landing in Sydney cove
-1936: Alan Alda, actor, director and screenwriter, was born lphonso D’Abruzzo.
-1986: Space shuttle Challenger 10 explodes 73 seconds after lift-off, killing all on board.
January 29
National Puzzle Day
-1613: Galileo notices Neptune.
-1843: William McKinley, twenty-fifth U.S. president, was born.
-1845: Poe publishes "The Raven"
-1886: First successful gasoline-driven car patented by Karl Benz in Germany
-1891: Following the death of her brother, King Kalakaua, Lydia Liliuokalani was proclaimed queen of the Hawaiian Islands.
-1940: Burpee displays the first tetraploid flower.
-1954: Oprah Winfrey was born.
-1979: In a historic meeting between China and the US, Chinese Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping met with US President Jimmy Carter and signed scientific and cultural exchange accords.
January 30
-1649: English King Charles I was beheaded in London by order of the English Parliament.
-1815: The Library of Congress was restored.
-1835: President Andrew Jackson was the target of an assassination attempt.
-1882: Franklin D. Roosevelt, thirty-second president of the United States, was born.
-1933: German President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler chancellor.
-1948: Mohandas 'Mahatma' Gandhi was assassinated.
January 31
-1856: Gen. Robert E. Lee named Commander-in-Chief of Confederate Armies.
-1919: Jackie Robinson, baseball player, was born.
-1923: Carol Channing, actress, was born.
-1958: The first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, led to the discovery of belts of electrically charged particles high above the planet. These particles affect radio and electrical activity on Earth.