http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 13, 1128: Pope recognizes Knights Templar
On this day in 1128, Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God.
Led by the Frenchman Hughes de Payens, the Knights Templar organization was founded in 1118. Its self-imposed mission was to protect Christian pilgrims on their way to the Holy Land during the Crusades, the series of military expeditions aimed at defeating Muslims in Palestine. The Templars took their name from the location of their headquarters, at Jerusalem's Temple Mount. For a while, the Templars had only nine members, mostly due to their rigid rules. In addition to having noble birth, the knights were required to take strict vows of poverty, obedience and chastity. In 1127, new promotional efforts convinced many more noblemen to join the order, gradually increasing its size and influence.
While the individual knights were not allowed to own property, there was no such restriction on the organization as a whole, and over the years many rich Christians gave gifts of land and other valuables to support the Knights Templar. By the time the Crusades ended unsuccessfully in the early 14th century, the order had grown extremely wealthy, provoking the jealousy of both religious and secular powers. In 1307, King Philip IV of France and Pope Clement V combined to take down the Knights Templar, arresting the grand master, Jacques de Molay, on charges of heresy, sacrilege and Satanism. Under torture, Molay and other leading Templars confessed and were eventually burned at the stake. Clement dissolved the Templars in 1312, assigning their property and monetary assets to a rival order, the Knights Hospitalers. In fact, though, Philip and his English counterpart, King Edward II, claimed most of the wealth after banning the organization from their respective countries.
The modern-day Catholic Church has admitted that the persecution of the Knights Templar was unjustified and claimed that Pope Clement was pressured by secular rulers to dissolve the order. Over the centuries, myths and legends about the Templars have grown, including the belief that they may have discovered holy relics at Temple Mount, including the Holy Grail, the Ark of the Covenant or parts of the cross from Christ's crucifixion. The imagined secrets of the Templars have inspired various books and movies, including the blockbuster novel and film The Da Vinci Code.
Jan 13, 1898: Zola's "J'accuse" letter is printed
On this day in 1898, French writer Emile Zola's inflammatory newspaper editorial, entitled "J'accuse," is printed. The letter exposed a military cover-up regarding Captain Alfred Dreyfus. Dreyfus, a French army captain, had been accused of espionage in 1894 and sentenced in a secret military court-martial to imprisonment in a South American penal colony. Two years later, evidence of Dreyfus' innocence surfaced, but the army suppressed the information. Zola's letter excoriated the military for concealing its mistaken conviction.
Zola was a well-known writer who had published his first story collection more than three decades earlier. A high school dropout, he had worked in the sales department of a major French publisher, who encouraged his writing and published his first book. He became one of the most famous writers in France with the publication of his 1877 hit, The Drunkard, part of his 20-novel cycle exploring the lives of two families.
Zola's letter provoked national outrage on both sides of the issue, among political parties, religious organizations, and others. Supporters of the military sued Zola for libel. He was convicted and sentenced to one year's imprisonment, but he fled France to avoid the sentence. In 1899, Dreyfus was pardoned, but for political reasons was not exonerated until 1906. Zola returned to France shortly after Dreyfus' pardon, and died in 1902.
Jan 13, 1942: Allies promise prosecution of war criminals
On this day, representatives of nine German-occupied countries meet in London to declare that all those found guilty of war crimes would be punished after the war ended. Among the signatories to the declaration were Polish Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski and French Gen. Charles de Gaulle. The core of the declaration was the promise of "the punishment, through the channels of organized justice, of those guilty of, or responsible for, these crimes, whether they have ordered them, perpetrated them, or participated in them."
Knowledge of German atrocities occurring in Poland and Russia were reaching both the Allied governments and the exiles from the countries in which the butchering of innocents was taking place. News of Jews, political dissidents, and clergy being systematically murdered, tortured, or transported to labor camps as the Nazi ideology advanced along with Hitler's armed forces increased the resolve and solidarity among the Allies to defeat the Axis.
Also on this day: President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes the U.S. War Production Board, with business executive Donald M. Nelson as its chairman.
This was not the first time Roosevelt called on Nelson. In 1940, the president asked Nelson, then executive vice president of Sears, Roebuck and Co., to head up the National Defense Advisory Commission. As Roosevelt established agency after agency to coordinate the transition of industry from peacetime to wartime production, Nelson skipped among jobs, becoming director of purchases for the Office of Production Management and, in August 1941, director of the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board. The War Production Board, created to establish order out of the chaos of meeting extraordinary wartime demands and needs, replaced the Supply Priorities and Allocations Board.
As chairman, Nelson oversaw the largest war production in history, often clashing with civilian factories over the most efficient means of converting to wartime use and butting heads with the armed forces over priorities. Despite early success, Nelson made a major judgement error in June 1944, on the eve of the Normandy invasion, when he allowed certain plants that had reached the end of their government/military production contracts to reconvert to civilian use. The military knew the war was far from over and feared a sudden shortage of vital supplies. A political battle ensued, and Nelson was eased out of his office and reassigned by the president to be his personal representative to Chiang Kai-shek in China.
Jan 13, 1941: James Joyce dies
James Joyce, widely regarded as Ireland's greatest author, dies in Zurich, Switzerland, at the age of 58. One of the most brilliant and daring writers of the 20th century, Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses is ranked among the greatest works in the English language.
Born in Dublin in 1882, Joyce grew up in poor surroundings and was educated at Jesuit-run schools and the University College in Dublin. He wrote poetry and short prose passages that he called "epiphanies," a term he used to describe the sudden revelation of the true nature of a person or thing. In 1902, he went to Paris but returned to Dublin in the next year when his mother fell ill. There he began writing the experimental Stephen Hero, a largely autobiographical work. For the Irish Homestead, he also wrote several Irish-themed short stories, which were characterized by tragic epiphanies and spare but precise writing.
In 1904, Joyce left Ireland with companion Nora Barnacle and lived in Poland, Austria-Hungary, Trieste, and Rome, where he fathered two children with Nora and worked. He spent his spare time writing and composing several other short stories that would join his earlier works to form Dubliners, first published in 1914. The most acclaimed of the 15 stories is "The Dead," which tells the story of a Dublin schoolteacher and his wife, and of their lost dreams. During this time, he also drastically reworked Stephen Hero and renamed it A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
With the Italian entrance into World War I, he moved to Zurich with his family. Faced with severe financial difficulties, he found patrons in Edith Rockefeller McCormick and Harriet Shaw Weaver, editor of Egoist magazine. In 1916, Weaver published A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which received significant critical acclaim. Soon after, the American Little Review began to publish episodes from Ulysses, a novel that Joyce began in 1915. The sexually explicit work was banned in the United States in 1920 after only a few installments. Two years later, Sylvia Beach, a bookstore owner in Paris, published it in its entirety.
Ulysses brought Joyce international fame, and the work's groundbreaking literary forms, including stream-of-consciousness writing, were an immediate influence on novelists the world over. The action of the novel takes place in Dublin on a single day but parallels the epic 10-year journey described in Homer's Odyssey. Although colored with numerous allusions, the strength of Ulysses rests not in its intellectual complexity but in its depth of characterization, breadth of humor, and overall celebration of life.
Joyce spent more than 17 years on his last work, published in 1939 as Finnegans Wake. His most difficult work, Joyce carried his literary experimentation to its furthest point in this novel, which uses words from different languages to embody a cyclical theory of human existence. Because many find it difficult and inaccessible, Finnegans Wake is not as highly regarded as his earlier works.
Joyce lived in Paris from 1920 to 1940, but he moved back to Zurich after France fell to the Germans. In addition to his three major works, he also published several collections of verse and a play called Exiles.
Jan 13, 1807: Union General Napoleon Bonaparte Buford is born
On this day in 1897, Union General Napoleon Bonaparte Buford is born in Woodford, Kentucky. Buford held many commands in the West and was a hero at the Battle of Belmont, Missouri, early in the war.
Buford attended West Point and graduated in 1827. After a stint with the frontier military, he was given leave to study law at Harvard. He taught at West Point before leaving the service to become a businessman. He was an engineer and banker in Illinois during the 1840s and 1850s.
When the Civil War began, the 54-year-old Buford raised his own regiment, the 27th Illinois. He was commissioned as a colonel, and his unit was sent to Cairo, Illinois, and placed in General Ulysses S. Grant's army. On November 7, 1861, Grant attacked a Confederate camp at Belmont, Missouri, and quickly drove the Rebels away. However, Grant's men became preoccupied with plundering the area, and a Confederate counterattack nearly turned to disaster for the Yankees. Buford's regiment was almost cut off from the main Union force. He rallied his men and they fought their way out of the Confederate trap. Buford was commended for his bravery.
After Belmont, Buford participated in the capture of Island No. 10, a Confederate stronghold in the Mississippi River. He was left in command of the island after its capture. Buford and his regiment fought at Corinth, Mississippi, in October 1862, but the colonel fell seriously ill from sunstroke and left field command.
Buford eventually returned to the West and was promoted to brigadier general in charge of the district of Eastern Arkansas. He remained there for the rest of the war, although his main military action came in chasing off Confederate raiders in the area. Buford generated controversy in his dealings with black troops. He had drawn earlier criticism for not helping refugee slaves, and now he proclaimed his preference for commanding white troops. He silenced some of the criticism by implementing programs for freed slaves in Arkansas that generally succeeded in taking care of their immediate needs. Poor health forced Buford's resignation in March 1865, just before the end of the war. He was brevetted to major general following his retirement. He worked in a variety of businesses after the war and died in Chicago in 1883.
Napoleon Bonaparte Buford was the older half-brother of John Buford, a Union General who commanded the Yankee force that first engaged the Confederates at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in 1863.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.
1099 - Crusaders set fire to Mara Syria
1547 - Earl Henry Howard of Surrey sentenced to death
1559 - Elizabeth I crowned queen of England in Westminster
Abbey
1605 - The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson,
George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in
prison.
1605 - The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson,
George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in
prison.
1607 - The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of
national bankruptcy in Spain.
1610 - Galileo Galilei discovers Callisto, 4th satellite of
Jupiter
1621 - Jan Pieterszoon Coen's fleet sets sail to Moluccas
(from Jacarta)
1630 - Patent to Plymouth Colony issued
1673 - Jean Racine's "Mithridate," premieres in
Paris
1695 - Jonathan Swift ordained an Anglican priest in Ireland
1733 - James Oglethorpe & 130 English colonists arrive
at Charleston, SC
1770 - De Beaumarchais' "Les Deux Amis," premieres
in Paris
1785 - John Walter publishes 1st issue of London Times
1794 - Congress changes US flag to 15 stars & 15 stripes
1822 - The design of the Greek flag is adopted by the First
National Assembly at Epidaurus.
1830 - Great fire in New Orleans thought to be set by rebel
slaves
1840 - The steamship Lexington burns and sinks four miles
off the coast of Long Island with the loss of 139 lives.
Satirist Jonathan SwiftSatirist Jonathan Swift 1842 - Dr.
William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan
War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 16,500 when he
reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad.
1849 - Vancouver Island granted to Hudson's Bay Co
1854 - Anthony Foss patents accordion
1863 - Chenille manufacturing machine patented by William
Canter, NYC
1863 - Thomas Crapper pioneers one-piece pedestal flushing
toilet
1865 - -Jan 15th] BBT & CPT Ft Fisher, NC
1869 - Colored National Labor Union, 1st Black labor
convention meets in Wash DC
1873 - P B S Pinchback relinquishes office at Louisiana
governor
1874 - Battle between jobless & police in NYC, 100s
injuried
1874 - US troops land in Honolulu to protect the king
1882 - Richard Wagner completes his opera
"Parsifal"
1883 - Fire in circus Ferroni in Berditschoft Poland kills
430
1883 - Henrik Ibsen's "En Folkefiende," premieres
in Oslo
1888 - National Geographic Society founded (Washington, DC)
1893 - British Independent Labor Party forms (Keir Hardie as
its leader)
Composer Richard WagnerComposer Richard Wagner 1893 - U.S.
Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from
abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.
1894 - Revolution in Sicily crushed by government troops
1895 - Oscar Wilde's "Ideal Husband," premieres in
London
1898 - Emile Zola publishes his open letter (J'accuse) in
defense of Dreyfus
1902 - Textile workers strike in Enschede Neth till June 1
1906 - 1st radio set advertised (Telimco for $7.50 in
Scientific American) claimed to receive signals up to one mile
1908 - French pilot Henry Farman is 1st European to fly
roundtrip
1908 - Stanley Cup: Montreal Wanderers sweep Ottawa
Victorias in 2 games
1908 - Rhoads Opera House fire in Boyertown, PA killing 171
people.
1910 - JM Synge's "Deirdre of the Sorrows,"
premieres in Dublin
1911 - Gerhart Hauptmann's "Die Ratten," premieres
in Berlin
1911 - Roald Amundsens anchors at Walvis Bay
1911 - South Africa's 1st win over Australia, at Adelaide
1912 - -40°F (-40°C), Oakland, Maryland (state record)
1913 - Delta Sigma Theta, the world's largest Black Women's
Sorority is founded at Howard University, Washington DC
Author and Nobel Laureate Gerhart HauptmannAuthor and Nobel
Laureate Gerhart Hauptmann 1914 - IWW-leader/songwriter Joe Hill arrested
"Girl from Utah" East-Prussia
1915 - Earthquake in Avezzano Italy kills 29,800
1915 - W Churchill presents plan for assault on Dardanelles
1919 - Dutch Soccer team OSV forms
1920 - NY Times editorial (falsely) reports rockets can
never fly
1922 - Buck Weaver, a Black Sox, applies unsuccessfully for
reinstatement
1922 - Conference of Cannes concerning German retribution
payments ended
1922 - WHA-AM in Madison WI begins radio transmissions
1924 - Nationalist Wafd-party wins Egyptian parliament
elections
1927 - US & Mexico battle over oil interests
1929 - Humanist Society established, Hollywood Calif
1930 - "Mickey Mouse" comic strip 1st appears
1934 - The Candidate of Science degree is established in the
USSR.
1935 - Plebiscite in Saar, indicates a desire (90.3%) to
join Nazi Germany
1938 - The Church of England accepts the theory of
evolution.
1939 - Belgian premier signs Burgos-treaty for trade
relations with Franco
1939 - The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square
kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.
1942 - Allied Conference for war trials
1942 - German U-boats begin harassing shipping on US east
coast
Ford Motor Company Founder Henry FordFord Motor Company
Founder Henry Ford 1942 - Henry Ford patents a method of constructing plastic
auto bodies
1942 - Interallied war trial conference publishes St James
Declaration
1942 - World War II: First use of aircraft ejection seat by
a German test pilot in a Heinkel He 280 jet fighter.
1943 - British premier Winston Churchill arrives in Casablanca
1943 - Hitler declares "Total War"
1943 - Russian offensive at Don under general Golikov
1943 - US infantry captures Galloping Horse-ridge
Guadalcanal
1945 - Prokofchev's 5th Symphony premieres in Moscow
1948 - 1st country music TV show, Midwestern Hayride,
premieres on WLW Cin
1949 - "Along 5th Avenue" opens at Broadhurst
Theater NYC for 180 perfs
1951 - German general F Christian freed early from Dutch
prison
1953 - Gas explosion in Belgium coal mine kills 14
1953 - KOLD TV channel 13 in Tucson, AZ (CBS) begins
broadcasting
1953 - Marshal Josip Tito chosen president of Yugoslavia
1954 - Milt rule in Egypt; 318 Mohammedan Brotherhood
arrested
Dictator of Nazi Germany Adolf HitlerDictator of Nazi
Germany Adolf Hitler 1954 - WEAR TV channel 3 in Pensacola-Mobile, FL (ABC)
begins broadcasting
1957 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Allen Tate
1957 - Mickey Wright wins Sea Island Golf Open
1957 - NFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 19-10
1957 - Wham-O Company produces the 1st Frisbee
1958 - 9,000 scientists of 43 nations petition UN for
nuclear test ban
1958 - US newspaper "Daily Worker" ceases
publication
1958 - Moroccan Liberation Army ambushes Spanish patrol in
the Battle of Edchera.
1959 - De Gaulle grants amnesty to 130 to Algerian death row
convicts
1959 - King Boudouin promises Belgian Congo independence
1962 - "Do Re Mi" closes at St James Theater NYC
after 400 performances
1962 - Wilt Chamberlain of Warriors scores then NBA-record
73 pts vs Chicago
1963 - AFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 21-14
1963 - NFL Pro Bowl: East beats West 30-20
1964 - Karol Wojtyla becomes archbishop of Krakow
1964 - Hindu-Muslim rioting breaks out in the Indian city of
Calcutta - now Kolkata - resulting in the deaths of more than 100 people.
36th US President Lyndon B. Johnson36th US President Lyndon
B. Johnson 1966 - 1st black selected for pres cabinet (LBJ selects Robert C
Weaver-HUD)
1966 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1967 - Coup in Togo
1967 - Rolling Stones appear on Ed Sullivan Show
1968 - "Hallelujah, Baby!" closes at Martin Beck
Theater NYC after 293 perfs
1968 - "Illya Darling" closes at Mark Hellinger
Theater NYC after 320 perfs
1968 - Minn North Stars center Bill Masterton fatally injured
(dies on 15th)
1969 - Beatles release "Yellow Submarine" album
1971 - "Soon" closes at Ritz Theater NYC after 3
performances
1972 - Former umpire, now housewife Bernice Gera wins her
suit against baseball, initiated on March 15, 1971 to be allowed to umpire
1973 - "Tricks" closes at Alvin Theater NYC after
8 performances
1973 - Efskind skates world record 1000m (1:17.6)
1974 - Superbowl VIII: Miami Dolphins beat Minnesota
Vikings, 24-7 in Houston Superbowl MVP: Larry Csonka, Miami, RB
1974 - Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All
Greece.
1976 - Sarah Caldwell is 1st woman to conduct at NY's
Metropolitan Opera House as she led orchestra in a performance of "La
Traviata"
1979 - Charlie Daniels hosts Volunteer Jam
1979 - YMCA files libel suit against Village People's YMCA
song
1980 - "King of Schnorrers" closes at Playhouse
Theater NYC after 63 perfs
1980 - Head of narcotic brigade arrested for drug smuggling
in Belgium
1980 - Togo's constitution becomes effective
1981 - Barbara Sonntag, Colo, crochets record 147
stitches/min for 1/2 hour
1981 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to May Swenson
& Howard Nemerov
1981 - Islander's Mike Bossy's 15th career hat trick-4 goals
Baseball Player Hank AaronBaseball Player Hank Aaron 1982 -
Hank Aaron & Frank Robinson elected to Hall of Fame
1982 - Air Florida 737 took off in a snowstorm, crashes into
14th St Bridge in Washington, DC, & falls into Potomac River, killing 78
1983 - AMA urges ban on boxing sites Muhammad Ali's
deteriorating condition
1983 - Quebec Nordiques play 251st NHL game without being
shut out
1984 - TV anchor Christine Craft wins $325,000 in her case
against KMBC-TV
1985 - 23rd Tennis Fed Cup: Czech beats USA in Nagoya Japan
(2-1)
1985 - 99-yr-old Otto Bucher scores a hole-in-one at Spanish
golf course
1985 - Blackhawk Doug Wilson failed on 12th penalty shot
against Islanders
1985 - Cerberal Palsy telethon raises $17,100,000
1985 - Express train derails in Ethiopia, kills at least 428
1986 - NCCA institutes eligibility requirements based on
college exams
1986 - South Yemen Pres Ali Nasser Mohammed's bodyguard
shoots opponents
1987 - 7 top NY Mafia bosses sentenced to 100 years in
prison each
1987 - W German police arrest Mohammed Ali Hamadi, suspect
in 1985 hijacking
1988 - LA Dodger/SD Padre Steve Garvey retires
1988 - Supreme Court rules (5-3) public school officials
have broad powers to censor school newspapers, plays & other expressive
activities
1989 - "Friday the 13th" virus strikes hundreds of
IBM computers in Britain
1989 - "Ryan's Hope" ends 13½ year run on ABC-TV
1989 - Computers across Britain hit by "Friday the
13th" virus
1989 - Jerry Parks, Oklahoma defensive back, charged with
shooting a teammate
1989 - Ruins of Mashkan-shapir (occupied 2050-1720 BC) found
in Iraq
1989 - Subway gunman Bernhard Goetz begins 1-year jail
sentence
1990 - 1st elected US black governor inaugurated (Douglas
Wilder-Virginia)
1991 - 12th ACE Cable Awards: HBO wins 25 awards
1991 - 42 killed in exhibition soccer match in Johannesburg
South Africa
1991 - Phil Mickelson wins PGA Northern Telecom Golf Open
1991 - Pres Mario Soares of Portugal re-elected
1991 - Soccer stadium riot in Orkney South Africa, at least
40 die
1991 - UN Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar meets
with Saddam
1992 - Excavation of new ballpark at Gateway (Jacobs Field)
begins
1992 - US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer pleads guilty but
insane
1992 - Japan apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual
slavery during World War II.
1993 - STS-54 (Endeavour) launches into orbit
1994 - Italian government of Ciampi resigns
1994 - Tonya Harding's bodyguard, Shawn Eric Eckardt &
Derrick Brian Smith arrested & charged with conspiracy in attack of skater
Nancy Kerrigan
1995 - 26 HNL teams unanimously ratify agreement to end NHL
strike
1995 - America3 becomes 1st all-female crew to win an
America's Cup race
1998 - "Patti LaBelle On Broadway," opens at St
James Theater NYC
1998 - CBS pays $4 billion to televise AFC games for 8-years
Basketball Superstar Michael JordanBasketball Superstar
Michael Jordan 1999 - Basketball player Michael Jordan announces his retirement
only to return in 2001
2000 - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates steps aside as chief
executive and promotes company president Steve Ballmer to the position
2001 - Earthquake measuring magnitude 7.6 strikes El
Salvador, killing more than 840 people
2003 - Rock musician Pete Townshend of The Who was arrested
in London on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children. He was later
cleared.
2003 - 30th American Music Award: Sheryl Crow & Eminem
win
2007 - Two thirds of the Venus's southern hemisphere
suddenly brightened as something triggered aerosols to form at a furious rate.
2012 - Cruise ship, Costa Concordia, runs aground at Isola
de Giglio, Italy, with at least 15 deaths
2013 - Argo wins the Golden Globe awards for best drama and
best director
1128 - Pope Honorius II granted a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar. He declared it to be an army of God. 1794 - U.S. President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union. 1854 - Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, PA, patented the accordion. 1893 - Britain's Independent Labor Party, a precursor to the current Labor Party, met for the first time. 1898 - Emile Zola's "J'accuse" was published in Paris. 1900 - In Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph decreed that German would be the language of the imperial army to combat Czech nationalism. 1906 - Hugh Gernsback, of the Electro Importing Company, advertised radio receivers for sale for the price of just $7.50 in "Scientific American" magazine. 1928 - Ernst F. W. Alexanderson gave the first public demonstration of television. 1942 - Henry Ford patented the plastic automobile, which allowed for a 30% decrease in car weight. 1957 - Wham-O began producing "Pluto Platters." This marked the true beginning of production of the flying disc. 1962 - Ernie Kovacs died in a car crash in west Los Angeles, CA. 1966 - Elizabeth Montgomery’s character, Samantha, on "Bewitched," had a baby. The baby's name was Tabitha. 1966 - Robert C. Weaver became the first black Cabinet member when he was appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development by U.S. President Johnson. 1982 - An Air Florida 737 crashed into the capital's 14th Street Bridge after takeoff and fell into the Potomac River. 78 people were killed. 1984 - Wayne Gretzky extended his NHL consecutive scoring streak to 45 games. 1986 - The NCAA adopted the controversial "Proposal 48," which set standards for Division 1 freshman eligibility. 1986 - "The Wall Street Journal" printed a real picture on its front page. The journal had not done this in nearly 10 years. The story was about artist, O. Winston Link and featured one of his works. 1989 - Bernhard H. Goetz was sentenced to one year in prison for possession of an unlicensed gun that he used to shoot four youths he claimed were about to rob him. He was freed the following September. 1990 - L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia, the nation's first elected black governor, took the oath of office in Richmond. 1992 - Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War II. 1997 - Debbie Reynolds received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 1998 - NBC agreed to pay almost $13 million for each episode of the TV show E.R. It was the highest amount ever paid for a TV show. 1998 - ABC and ESPN negotiated to keep "Monday Night Football" for $1.15 billion a season. 1998 - One of the 110 missing episodes of the British TV show "Doctor Who" was found in New Zealand. 1999 - Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) announced his retirement from the NBA. 2002 - The exhibit "In the Spirit of Martin: The Living Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr." opened at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. More than 100 artists supplied the collection of 120 works of art. 2002 - Japan and Singapore signed a free trade pact that would remove tariffs on almost all goods traded between the two countries. 2002 - U.S. President George W. Bush fainted after choking on a pretzel. 2009 - Ethiopian military forces began pulling out of Somalia, where they had tried to maintain order for nearly two years.
1898 French writer Emile Zola published his "J'Accuse" letter, accusing the French of a cover-up in the Alfred Dreyfus treason case. 1941 Novelist James Joyce died in Zurich. 1990 Douglas Wilder of Virginia became the first elected African-American governor in the United States. 1999 Michael Jordan announced his second retirement from the NBA. He would "unretire" again in 2001. 2002 After 17,162 performances, The Fantasticks ended its almost 42-year off-Broadway run. 2004 Joseph Darby, a U.S. soldier at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, reported U.S. abuses of Iraqi prisoners to the Army's Criminal Investigations Division..
The following links are to web sites that were used to complete this blog entry:
http://www.historyorb.com/today/events.php
http://on-this-day.com/onthisday/thedays/alldays/jan13.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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