This Week in History: Jan. 1-7, 2024

This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann

“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” George Orwell

Jan. 1-7, 2024

January 1 – Happy New Year!

1788 – Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves.

1808 – Congress prohibits the importation of slaves.

1861 – President Lincoln declares slavery in the Confederate states unlawful via the Emancipation Proclamation.

1886 – The first Tournament of Roses Parade is held in Pasadena, California. The parade was the promotional brainchild of Pasadena’s distinguished Valley Hunt Club.

1902 – The first Rose Bowl football game in played in Pasadena, California. The University of Michigan defeated Stanford University 49-0.

1942 – The Rose Bowl football game is played in North Carolina instead of California after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor three weeks earlier. Oregon beat Duke 20-16. It was the only time the Rose Bowl was not played in Pasadena.

1958 – Johnny Cash plays his first of many free concerts behind bars at San Quentin Prison. Twenty-year-old inmate Merle Haggard was in the audience. Watch a short documentary of Johnny Cash’s San Quentin concert.

1966 – All U.S. cigarette packs must carry the warning “Caution Cigarette smoking may be hazardous to your health.” Cigarette advertisements are banned on TV on this date in 1971.

1976 – The Liberty Bell moves to its new home behind Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for the U.S. bicentennial.

1985 – The Internet’s Domain Name System is created when a Scandinavian research collaboration creates the domain name Nordu.net, which was never registered. The first registered domain name was Symbolics.com, a computer systems company. The company went defunct in 1996.

2002 – The Open Skies Treaty, a mutual surveillance treaty, officially goes into effect. It was initially signed in 1992 by 34 countries, including the U.S., to promote openness and transparency of military forces and activities.


January 2

1811 – U.S. Senator Timothy Pickering is the first senator to be censured. He revealed confidential documents communicated from President Taft to the Senate.

1932 – The Young Brothers (Paul, Harry, and Jennings) kill six police officers in a shootout near Springfield, Missouri. It was the worst single killing of U.S. law enforcement officers in the 20th Century. Harry and Jennings were tracked down in Texas after a national manhunt and died in what is believed to be a murder-suicide. Watch a modern news report about the massacre.

1942 – The U.S. Navy opens a blimp base at Lakehurst, New Jersey. Although the crash of the Hindenburg over Lakehurst in 1937 ended commercial blimp travel the military continued to successfully use blimps until 1962.

1974 – President Richard Nixon imposes a National Maximum Speed Law of 55 MPH as part of the Emergency Highway Conservation Act. This was in response to the 1973 oil crisis. Congress repealed the national speed limit in 1995 and returns control to individual states.

1988 – Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and President Ronald Reagan sign a Canada-U.S. free trade agreement.

2017 – An attempt by Republicans to move the Office of Congressional Ethics under direct control of the House Ethics Committee was reversed less than 24 hours after the initial vote. The OCE was created in 2008 to review misconduct allegations against House members. The lengthy list of investigations can be found on the OCE’s website. House Ethics


January 3

1823 – Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land from the government of Mexico and settles with his family in what is now Texas. He is considered the “Father of Texas.”

1920 – The New York Yankees purchase baseball player Herman “Babe” Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for $125,000. It was the largest sum paid for a single player to date. He led the Yankees to seven pennants and four World Series wins. Ruth retired from baseball with the Boston Braves in 1935. He died in 1948 at age 53.

1938 – March of Dimes is founded by President FDR to fight polio. Entertainer Eddie Cantor coined the phrase March of Dimes and encouraged a national fundraising campaign the week preceding the president’s birthday on January 30th. More than $85,000 in dimes were mailed in letters to the White House.

1944 – World War II top flying ace Major Greg “Pappy” Boyington is shot down over the Pacific and captured by the Japanese. The Black Sheep Squadron leader was released after 20 months in captivity. Boyington was awarded the Medal of Honor by President F. D. Roosevelt while still a prisoner of war. He was presented with the Medal by President Truman the following October. Pappy died in 1988 at age 75.

1952 – Dragnet with Jack Webb premieres on NBC-TV. It started as a radio series in 1949, spawned three generations of TV series, and was made into movies in 1954, 1966 and 1987. Webb died in 1982 at age 62. Watch one of Webb’s classics speeches.

1977 – Apple Computer is incorporated. The company was founded on April 1, 1976 by college dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.

1994 – The controversial 35-foot-tall statue of Chief Wahoo, the Cleveland Indians trademark which sat on top of their stadium since 1962, is taken down to be moved to the new stadium at Jacob’s Field. The Indians redesigned their uniforms and stopped using the logo for the 2019 season and changed the team name to the “Guardians” in 2021.

2005 – After hosting the show for over 30 years, Casey Kasem gives up hosting “American Top 40” to Ryan Seacrest. Kasem died in 2014 at age 82.

2009 – The Bitcoin network is created when the first block of the digital currency is “mined” by a person, or group of people, using the name Satoshi Nakamoto. In November 2022, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried declared bankruptcy after starting the year with a $32 billion crypto-currency valuation.


January 4

1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol, the Walker, to the U.S. government.

1936 – Billboard magazine publishes its first music Hit Parade. The first # 1 song in Billboard history was Joe Venuti, father of the jazz violin, performing “Stop, Look and Listen.” Listen to the recording.

1954 – Elvis Presley records a 10-minute demo tape in Nashville, Tennessee.

1970 – Walter Cronkite stops hosting his weekly documentary but continues reporting for the CBS Evening News. He retired from CBS in March 1981 because of their policy of mandatory retirement by age 65. Cronkite died in 2009 at age 92.

1995 – Newt Gingrich (R) becomes Speaker of the House. He resigned as Speaker in January 1999 after House Republicans had the worst performance in 64 years following the November 1998 mid-term elections.

2004 – NASA’s Mars Rover Spirit lands successfully on Mars. It was launched in June 2003. Communication with Spirit was lost in March 2010.

2007 – The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history. Pelosi’s net worth has increased from $170 million to $290 million in the last 5 years.


January 5

1781 – A British naval expedition led by former American General and traitor Benedict Arnold burns Richmond, Virginia. Arnold joined the British Army after his unsuccessful plot to turn over West Point to the British. Arnold died in London in 1801 at age 60.

1836 – Davy Crockett arrives in Texas. Crocket served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1927 to 1935. After being defeated for reelection in 1934, he said, “I told the people of my district that I would serve them as faithfully as I had done; but if not, they might go to hell, and I would go to Texas.” He was killed on March 6th at age 49 defending the Alamo.

1914 – James Cox of Ford Motor Company announces wages will jump from $2.40/9-hour day to $5.00/8-hour day.

1959 – The “Bozo the Clown” live children’s show premieres on TV. The show survived in several forms, including “Bozo’s Big Top,” until 2001. One of the actors who portrayed Bozo was Willard Scott, who went on to be the first Ronald McDonald. Watch one of the early live TV shows.

1971 – The Harlem Globetrotters lose 99-100 to the New Jersey Reds, ending their 2,495-game winning streak. The Globetrotters have only lost 345 games, mostly to the Washington Generals.

1976 – The “MacNeil-Lehrer Report” premieres on PBS. Robert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer originally teamed up to cover the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaigns, formed to investigate Watergate. MacNeil is now 92 years old. Lehrer died in 2020 at age 85.

1987 – The surrogate Baby M case begins in Hackensack, New Jersey. William and Elizabeth Stern entered into a surrogacy agreement with Mary Beth Whitehead. Whitehead changed her mind and took Baby M away from the Sterns. A New Jersey court awarded custody to the Sterns and gave visitation rights to Whitehead. Baby M (Melissa Elizabeth Stern) is now 37 years old.

2002 – Fifteen-year-old student pilot Charles Bishop crashes a small plane into a building in Tampa, Florida. Bishop was about to begin a flying lesson when he took off without permission and without a flight instructor. He left a suicide note praising Osama bin Laden for the 9-11 attacks. Bishop died on impact.


January 6

1759 – George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis. Martha was a widow who had 2 children. George died in 1799 at age 67 and Martha died in 1802 at age 70.

1893 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress and signed by President Benjamin Harrison. Construction took 83 years, from 1907 to 1990, at a cost of $65 million in private donations.

1941 – FDR makes his “4 Freedoms” speech (speech, worship, from want, and from fear). Listen to his speech with a slide show.

1975 – The original daytime version of “Wheel of Fortune” debuts on NBC-TV. It lasted until 1989, when it moved to CBS for two years before moving back to NBC. The original host was Chuck Woolery. Pat Sajak (age 77) has been the host since 1981. Vanna White (age 66) has been the hostess since 1982. It is the second longest running TV game show after “The Price Is Right.”

1994 – Tonya Harding’s ex-husband and her bodyguard hire Shane Stant to break the leg of ice skater Nancy Kerrigan the day before the U.S. Figure Skating Championships. Kerrigan withdrew from the competition with a bruised leg. Both skaters were named to the Olympic team, where Kerrigan won the Silver Medal and Harding finished eighth. Harding plead guilty to hindering the prosecution and received three years’ probation, 500 hours of community service, a $160,000 fine, and a lifetime ban from figure skating.

2016 – “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” sets a new opening weekend box office record with $248 million. The record is now held by “Avengers: Endgame,” which earned about $357 million on its opening weekend in 2019.


January 7

1896 – Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook. She was partially paralyzed after a stroke when she was 16. She enrolled in the Boston Cooking School in 1887 at age 30. Farmer died in 1915 at age 57.

1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team play their first game in Hinckley, Illinois. They started as the “Savoy Big Five” in 1926 with 24-year-old coach Abe Saperstein. “Sweet Georgia Brown” became their theme song in 1952. They played basketball against the Washington Generals. In 1982, the Harlem Globetrotters became the only sports team with a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame. Watch their top 10 dunks video.

1969 – The U.S. Congress doubles the president’s salary to $200,000. In 1999, President Clinton doubled his salary to $400,000 plus benefits. In 1789, George Washington was paid $25,000 a year. President Trump took a salary of $1 a year.

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

1999 – President Bill Clinton begins his impeachment trial in the Senate for perjury and obstruction of justice after saying he did not have sex with “that woman.” Although Clinton was convicted in the House, both charges failed in the Senate on February 12th. Watch Clinton ask for the definition of the word “is.”

2019 – Amazon overtakes Microsoft to become the world’s most valuable company, worth $797 billion.

2021 – Tesla founder Elon Musk, worth $186 billion, overtakes Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man. Musk now has a net worth of $254 billion.

2021 – Facebook oligarch Mark Zucherberg blocks President Trump from Facebook and Instagram until January 20th, after Biden’s inauguration.

Image from: abcnews.go.com

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