This Week in History
by Dianne Hermann
“In the summer of 1776 our Founding Fathers sought to
secure our independence and our liberties that remain the
foundation of our nation today.” Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA)
Jan 12-18, 2026
January 12
1906 – Dow Jones closes above 100 for the first time (100.26). After the stock market crash and the Great Depression, it wasn’t until 1933 that the Dow Jones closed above 100 again.
1921 – Kenesaw Mountain Landis becomes the first commissioner of baseball. The former federal judge served until his death in 1944 at age 78. He was the longest serving commissioner in baseball history.
1948 – The Supreme Court rules in favor of Ada Sipuel in the case of Sipuel vs. Oklahoma State Board of Regents. Two years earlier Ada Sipuel applied for admission to the all-white law school at the University of Oklahoma and was denied because of her race. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued before the Supreme Court while future Justice John Paul Stevens watched from the gallery.
1967 – The Louisville, Kentucky, draft board refuses an exemption for the boxer Muhammad Ali. Ali (born Cassius Clay) was convicted of draft evasion, sentenced to 5 years in prison, fined $10,000, and banned from boxing for three years. He stayed out of prison during his appeal and the Supreme Court overturned his conviction in 1971. Ali died in 2016 at age 74.
1967 – Dr. James Bedford, who died of heart failure and kidney cancer at age 73, becomes the first person to be placed in cryonic suspension with the intent of future resuscitation. Bedford’s body was successfully transferred to a new cryogenic storage dewar (capsule) in 1991. There are currently about 500 people in cryonic suspension (300 people are in the U.S.) in seven facilities worldwide.
2005 – NASA’s spacecraft Deep Impact launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a Delta 2 rocket on a mission to land on a comet. In July, the impactor separated from the fly-by spacecraft and hit the comet. The fly-by spacecraft was reprogrammed and crossed paths with other comets. Communication was lost in 2013. Watch an onboard video of the impact (no sound).
2020 – Novak Djokovic and his tennis partner won the doubles tournament at the Association of Tennis Professionals first men’s tennis cup of the year in Sydney, Australia. In 2022, Djokovic was embroiled in a COVID vaccine controversy with the Australian government. Djokovic had been the number one ranked tennis player in the world for a record 428 straight weeks.
January 13
1794 – Congress changes the U.S. flag to 15 stars and 15 stripes. The flag was in use until 1818, when the number of stripes were reduced to 13 (for the 13 colonies) and the stars were increased to 20. The current flag with 50 stars was adopted in 1960 with the admission of Hawaii.
1906 – Telimco advertises the first radio set for $7.50 in Scientific American. It claimed to receive signals up to one mile away.
1948 – The first country music TV show, Midwestern Hayride, premieres in Cincinnati, Ohio. The first country music radio show was the National Barn Dance (1924-1960). Watch excerpts from one of the shows.
1972 – Former housewife Bernice Gera wins the lawsuit she initiated on March 15, 1971, to become a minor league baseball umpire. Gera became the first professional female umpire of a minor league baseball game in June 1972, but later resigned because male umpires refuse to work with her. All of the current full-time baseball umpires are men, except for Jen Pawol, who became the first major league umpire in 2025. Gera died in 1992 at age 61.
1988 – The Supreme Court issues a landmark decision (5-3) in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier that public school officials have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays, and other expressive activities.
2018 – Transgender Chelsea Manning, the former soldier convicted of passing 750,000 documents to Wikileaks, announced his/her bid for the Senate seat from Maryland. Ben Cardin won the election by a landslide. Originally sentenced in 2013 to 35 years in prison, President Obama commuted the remainder of Manning’s sentence in 2017. Manning is now 38 years old.
January 14
1784 – The Revolutionary War ends when Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris. The treaty established the United States as a sovereign nation.
1938 – The National Society for the Legalization of Euthanasia is founded in New York by Rev. Charles Francis Potter. Euthanasia was referred to as “mercy killing.” Potter was also an advisor to Clarence Darrow on the Bible during his defense of Thomas Scopes, who was charged with teaching evolution. Ironically, even though Potter supported euthanasia, he opposed capital punishment.
1963 – George C. Wallace was sworn in as the Democrat governor of Alabama for the first of four nonconsecutive terms. In his inaugural address he stated, “Segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!” He was shot and left paralyzed in 1972. Wallace died in 1998 at age 79.
1979 – President Jimmy Carter proposes that Martin Luther King’s birthday be a holiday. President Ronald Reagan signed legislation in 1983 designating the third Monday in January as an annual federal holiday. The first official celebration took place on January 20, 1986.
1995 – Mexico pledges the profits from its state-owned Pemex’s $7 billion-per-year oil revenues in an effort to secure U.S. congressional approval of loan guarantees. President Clinton approved a $20 billion U.S. aid package for Mexico. Emails released in 2017 from presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s private server showed that her State Department helped break up Pemex’s monopoly in 2009.
2019 – The U.S. National Safety Council says that for the first time an American’s chance of dying from an accidental opioid overdose is higher than dying in a car accident.
January 15
1870 – A donkey is first used as a symbol of Democratic Party in Harper’s Weekly. The donkey was first associated with Democrat Andrew Jackson’s 1828 presidential campaign. Critics insulted Jackson by calling him a jack—. Thomas Nast is credited with the creating cartoons depicting Democrats as a donkey and Republicans as an elephant.
1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is officially incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. John Stith Pemberton tested several formulas before inventing Coca-Cola as a non-alcoholic fountain drink. It was first sold at Jacobs’ Pharmacy in Atlanta for 5 cents. His original formula was a medicine made in an attempt to break his addiction to morphine, which he used after an injury he sustained during the Civil War.
1943 – The world’s largest office building, the Pentagon, is completed near the Potomac River in Northern Virginia.
1967 – The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in the first Super Bowl, which was held in Los Angeles, California. The Super Bowl MVP was Green Bay Quarterback Bart Starr. The Packers also won the second Super Bowl.
1976 – Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison for attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford in September 1975. Moore was released from prison in 2007. In 2019, Moore was arrested on a parole violation after failing to tell her parole officer she took a trip out of the country and released after 6 months. Moore is now 95 years old.
2001 – Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia, goes online. Wiki means “fast, quick” in Hawaiian.
2009 – U.S. Airways Flight 1549, piloted by Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York City. All passengers and crew survived. Watch an amazing computer simulation with actual footage and audio.
2016 – The American Museum of Natural History in Manhattan unveils the exhibit of a replica skeleton of a Titanosaur dinosaur (found in 2010 in Argentina). It is the largest known dinosaur at 70 tons and 37 meters.
January 16
1847 – John C. Frémont is appointed the Governor of the new California Territory. Frémont was the first presidential candidate of the new Republican Party in 1856.
1919 – Prohibition is ratified by three-quarters of the states when Nebraska becomes the 36th state to vote in favor of the prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition went in effect January of 1920 and was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933.
1970 – Curt Flood files a $1 million civil lawsuit challenging baseball’s reserve clause, which started in 1879 to allow teams to “reserve” players. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of major league baseball in its 1972 decision. Players won free agency in 1975 with the Seitz decision, in which arbitrator Peter Seitz declared that baseball players could become free agents after playing for a team for one year without a contract.
1970 – Buckminster Fuller, author of over 30 books, receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects. He was awarded the patent for the geodesic dome, although it was created by Dr. Walther Bauersfeld 30 years earlier. Fuller died in 1983 at age 87. Watch a biography including interviews with Fuller.
1991 – Operation Desert Storm begins when the U.S. and 27 allies attack Iraq for occupying Kuwait. The air war begins at 6:38 PM EST due to an 8-hour time difference, when an Apache helicopter attacks.
2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 on what would be its final space flight. Columbia disintegrated on re-entry 16 days later. During launch, a piece of foam insulation broke off and struck the left wing. On re-entry, the damage allowed atmospheric gases to enter and destroy the internal wing structure. This caused the space shuttle to become unstable and break apart.
2020 – Articles of impeachment are submitted to the Senate against President Trump four days before the end of his term. President Trump was acquitted on February 5th.
January 17
1916 – Professional Golfer Association (PGA) forms in New York City. Englishman Jim Barnes won the first PGA Championship at Siwanoy Country Club Bronxville, New York.
1948 – The trial of 11 U.S. Communist Party members begins in New York City under the Smith Act, a statute that imposes penalties on those who advocate the violent overthrow of the government. All were convicted and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Their convictions were upheld by the Supreme Court in 1951.
1982 – Cities across the U.S. record the lowest temperatures in over 100 years on the day known as “Cold Sunday.” Even cities in Alabama and Mississippi saw temperatures below zero.
1989 – “The Simpsons” premieres on Fox-TV. It is the longest running scripted TV show in U.S. history at 35 seasons. Previously, the longest running scripted TV show was “Gunsmoke,” at 20 years. Watch the making of “The Simpsons.”
1992 – Operation Desert Storm begins when the U.S.-led coalition forces begin bombing Iraq during the Gulf War.
2017 – President Barack Obama, 3 days before leaving office, commutes Chelsea Manning’s prison sentence from 35 years to 7 years (time served). Manning, a transgender woman, was court martialed and convicted under the Espionage Act after disclosing 750,000 classified documents to Wikileaks. Chelsea Manning, born Bradley Edward Manning, was released from prison in May 2017 and ran unsuccessfully for the Maryland Senate in 2018.
January 18
1911 – The first shipboard landing of a plane is successfully completed when Eugene Burton Ely lands his Curtiss pusher airplane from Tanforan Park onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania. Ely died in a crash at a flying exhibition in October 1911 on his 25th birthday.
1948 – “Ted Mack and The Original Amateur Hour” talent show debuts and airs until 1970. It was the continuation of the “Major Bowes Original Amateur Hour” radio show after the death of Bowes.
1962 – The U.S. begins spraying the foliage and defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam to reveal Viet Cong guerrillas. The U.S. military sprayed about 20 million gallons of chemicals, including Agent Orange, was used in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia until 1972. It is now banned.
1983 – The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals 70 years after they were taken from him for being paid $25 in semi-pro baseball. Thorpe died in 1953 at age 64.
1986 – AIDS charity record “That’s What Friends Are For” hits #1. The song was written by Bert Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager and performed by Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick, Elton John, and Stevie Wonder. Watch a studio performance.
2013 – Former Democrat New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin is indicted on 21 corruption charges following business contracts and bribes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Nagin was convicted on 20 of the 21 charges. In 2014, Nagin was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was released and place on house arrest in April 2020 due to COVID. Nagin was ordered to pay $84,264 in restitution and ordered to forfeit over $500,000 as recompense for illegal contracts and bribes. In spite of having $12,600 in monthly income, he and his wife declared bankruptcy, saying they had less than $10 in assets and were relying on food stamps.
Image from: Britannica.com
