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Today in History ~ January 9
Events1349 - 700 Jews of Basel, Switzerland, burned alive in their houses
1493 - 1st sight of manatees (by Christopher Columbus)
1570 - Tsar Ivan the Terrible kills 1000-2000 residents of Novgorod
1768 - English cavalry sergeant Philip Astley staged the first modern circus [H]
1788 - Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1793 - Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J.
1839 - Daguerrotype photo process announced at French Academy of Science
1848 - People's uprising in Palermo, Sicily
1855 - Clipper Guiding Star disappears in Atlantic, 480 dies
1861 - 1st hostile act leading to the Civil War; the "Star of the West," a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements to federal troops at Fort Sumter, S.C., retreated after being fired on by a Confederate battery in the harbor. [H]
1861 - Mississippi becomes 2nd state to secede
1894 - "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze" released in movie theaters
1894 - Georges Feydeau's "Un Fil a la Patte," ("Cat Among the Pigeons") premieres in Paris
1905 - Russian Bloody Sunday -- demonstrators fired on by Tsarist troops
1927 - Fire in Laurier Palace cinema in Montreal, 78 children died
1928 - Eugene O'Neill's "Marco Millions," premieres in NYC
1930 - Earth rumbling awakens Chicagoans -- no earthquake, seismologists say
1930 - Stockyards in Chicago spring leak -- foul stench covers the city three hours
1937 - Italian regime bans marriages between Italians & Abyssinians
1941 - 6,000 Jews exterminated in Bucharest, Romania
1942 - US Joint Chiefs of Staff created
1945 - US soldiers led by Gen Douglas MacArthur invade Philippines (Luzon, the main Philippine island)
1952 - In his 1952 State of the Union address, Truman warns of Cold War dangers [H]
1957 - Anthony Eden resigned as British prime minister.
1959 - "Rawhide" with Clint Eastwood premieres on CBS TV
1960 - Building of Aswan dam in Egypt begins
1964 - Anti-U.S. rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and three U.S. soldiers.
1968 - The Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.
1969 - British-French supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at Bristol, England.
1972 - The luxury liner Queen Elizabeth was gutted by fire while docked in Hong Kong. [H]
1972 - Billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.
1980 - Saudi Arabia beheaded 63 people for their involvement in the November 1979 raid on the Grand Mosque in Mecca.
1982 - 5.9 earthquake in New England & Canada; 1st since 1855
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.
1987 - Chinese/Vietnamese border fights, 1500 killed
1991 - Baseball officially bans Pete Rose from being elected to Hall of Fame
1991 - Two New York City teenagers were sentenced for the 1989 rape and beating of a jogger in Central Park.
1992 - President Bush declared his trade visit to Japan a success, saying Japanese officials had agreed to increase imports of American cars, auto parts, computers and other goods. (However, U.S. auto executives traveling with Bush sounded less enthusiastic.)
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 overran the town of Kizlyar and took 2,000 hostages at a hospital and in nearby homes.
1997 - A Comair commuter plane crashed 18 miles short of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing all 29 people on board.
1998 - Decapitated head of Danish Little Mermaid is returned
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.
Birthdays Today
1859 - Carrie Lane Chapman Catt, founder (League of Women Voters)
1878 - Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sard (1849-61)/Italy (1861-78), dies at 57
1890 - Karel Capek, Czech, writer (R U R); coined the word "robot"
1898 - Gracie Fields (Stansfield) (comedienne: Walter, Walter, I Took My Harp to A Party, The Biggest Aspidistra in the World; singer: Sally, Now is the Hour, Around the World)
1898 - Vilma Banky (Lonchit) (actress)
1901 - Chic (Murat Bernard Young (cartoonist: Blondie, introduced the Dagwood Sandwich to America)
1902 - Rudolph Bing, opera manager (NY Metropolitan Opera)
1904 - George Balanchine (Georgi Balanchivadze) (choreographer: Apollo, Orpheus, Firebird, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker; founded School of American Ballet and New York City Ballet)
1908 - Simone de Beauvoir, France, author (Mandarins, 2nd Sex)
1913 - Richard M. Nixon (36th U.S. Vice President [1953-1961], 37th President [1969-1974], the first US President to resign)
1914 - Gypsy Rose Lee (Rose Hovick) (actress, dancer, stripper: You Can't Have Everything; subject of Broadway show & film: Gypsy; sister of actress, June Havoc)
1915 - Anita Louise (Fremault) (actress)
1915 - Fernando Lamas (actor, singer: The Merry Widow)
1915 - Les Paul, guitarist inventor (Les Paul)
1928 - Judith Krantz, NYC, author (Scruples, Princess Daisy, Dazzle)
1930 - Johannes ("John") Charles, Siberian contra-basso/snake handler/faith healer/grandson of Rasputin
1934 - Bart Starr (football quarterback: Super Bowl I, II, and coach for Green Bay Packers; Pro Football Hall of Famer)
1935 - Bob Denver, New Rochelle NY, actor (Dobie Gillis, Gilligan's Island)
1935 - Dick Enberg (sportscaster: NBC Sports, former Angels play-by-play voice)
1936 - Ralph Terry (baseball)
1941 - Joan Baez, Staten Island, folk singer/human rights advocate
1942 - Susannah York (actress)
1943 - Rod Curl (golfer)
1945 - Doug Volmar (hockey)
1947 - Terry Brown (football: Minnesota Vikings safety, Super Bowls VIII, VIX)
1948 - Bill Cowsills (singer, musician: group: Cowsills, The Rain, the Park and the Other Things, Hair, Indian Lake)
1949 - Garry Maddox (baseball)
1950 - Robert Newhouse (football: running back: Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowls X, XII, XIII)
1951 - Crystal Gayle (Brenda Webb) (Loretta Lynn's sister; singer: Don't it Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Half the Way)
Famous deaths
1878 - Victor Emmanuel II, king of Sard (1849-61)/Italy (1861-78), dies at 57
1893 - Mohara, Arab ivory/slave trader, dies in battle & is eaten
1923 - Katherine Mansfield, NZ/British writer (Dove's Nest), dies at 34
1930 - Maria Innocente, claimed to have been visited by Virgin Mary, died at 33
1993 - Felix Grucci, fireworks expert, dies of Alzheimer's disease at 87
1995 - Peter Cook, English comic/actor (Bedazzled, Beyond the Fringe, The Wrong Box), dies at 57
If you have other Birthdays or events to add for this day please E-mail me
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