This Week in History: Jan. 15-21, 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. 15-21, 2024

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.

1947 – The butchered, mutilated corpse of Elizabeth Short (“The Black Dahlia”) is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California. The murder of the 22-year-old aspiring actress remains unsolved, although subsequent investigations implicated George Hodel, Jr. a physician, as her killer.

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 93 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.

1950 – Seven men rob the Brinks office in Boston of $1.2 million cash and $1.5 million in securities. Six years after the robbery one of the conspirators who languished in jail on unrelated charges confessed to the crime and implicated 10 others. Eight of the surviving men were convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Only a small amount of the money and securities were ever recovered.

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 34 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

1778 – Captain James Cook stumbles onto the Sandwich Islands (later renamed Hawaiian Islands).

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 semipro 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.

1996 – Lisa Marie Presley files for divorce from Michael Jackson after 20 months of marriage.

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.


January 19

1825 – Ezra Daggett and his nephew Thomas Kensett patent food storage in tin cans to “preserve animal substances in tin.”

1840 – American naval officer Charles Wilkes leads an expedition that discovers Antarctica.

1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1922 – The U.S. Geological Survey says the U.S. oil supply will be depleted in 20 years.

1961 – The first episode of the “Dick Van Dyke Show” is filmed. It aired until 1966. Dick Van Dyke is now 98 years old. The only other surviving cast member is Larry Mathews, now 68, who played the son. Watch the iconic 1962 show intro. Dick Van Dyke Show intro

1977 – President Ford pardons American-born World War II propaganda broadcaster Iva Toguri D’Aquino (a.k.a. Tokyo Rose). She was arrested, tried, and convicted of treason in 1949. She served 6 years of a 10-year sentence. D’Aquino died in 2006 at age 90.

2006 – The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto. The probe sent back data from its “flyby” in 2015 and 2016. The mission has been extended to 2021 explore the Kuiper Belt.

2013 – Lance Armstrong admits to doping in all seven of his Tour de France victories. He was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong is now 52 years old.

2017 – Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is extradited to the U.S. to face trial on criminal charges related to his role in the drug cartel. In 2019, he was found guilty and is serving a life sentence at the maximum security facility in Colorado.


January 20

1778 – The first American military court martial trial begins in Brunswick, New Jersey. General Charles Lee, George Washington’s second in command, was charged and found guilty of disobeying orders, misbehavior before the enemy, and disrespect to the Commander-In-Chief. He was suspended from the Army for one year.

1801 – John Marshall is appointed U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice. Chief Justice Marshall served until his death in 1835 at age 79. Marshall is the longest serving Chief Justice in U.S. history, serving during the administration of six presidents.

1937 – This is the first time the presidential inauguration is held on January 20th. It was previously held on March 4th.

1980 – President Carter announced the U.S. boycott of the Moscow Winter Olympics to protest the Soviet Union’s 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

1994 – Shannon Faulkner becomes the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina, breaking the 152-year-old male-only tradition. Faulkner formally joined the cadet corps in August 1995 under court order, but she dropped out soon after. Faulkner, now 48, is an English teacher in South Carolina.

2009 – Barack Hussein Obama is inaugurated as the first bi-racial president.

2017 – More than 500,000 people march in protest at President Trump’s inauguration in the “Women’s March.”


January 21

1677 – The first medical publication in America is a pamphlet on smallpox. Thomas Thacher’s pamphlet, “A Brief Rule to Guide the Common People of New England how to order themselves and theirs in the Small Pocks, or Measles” was published in Boston.

1789 – The first American novel, W. H. Brown’s “Power of Sympathy” is published. It was subtitled “The Triumph of Nature.”

1908 – The Sullivan Ordinance is passed in New York City. It made smoking in public places by women illegal. The measure was vetoed by Mayor George McClellan, Jr. two weeks later.

1950 – A New York jury finds former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury. He was convicted of lying about passing state secrets to Whittaker Chambers, a Time magazine editor. He was not charged with espionage because the statute of limitations had run out. Hiss served less than four years of his five year sentence. Hiss died in 1996 at age 92.

1954 – The submarine USS Nautilus is launched in Groton, Connecticut, as the first atomic-powered submarine. First Lady Mamie Eisenhower broke the traditional bottle of champagne across the bow to christen the sub. It began its first nuclear-powered test voyage one year later. The Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980. It is now part of a museum in Connecticut. Watch a brief history of the Nautilus.

1977 – President Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

2003 – The Census Bureau announces that estimates show that the Hispanic population has passed the black population for the first time.

Image from: npr.org

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