http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 12, 1879: British-Zulu War begins
The British-Zulu War begins as British troops under Lieutenant General Frederic Augustus invade Zululand from the southern African republic of Natal.
In 1843, Britain succeeded the Boers as the rulers of Natal, which controlled Zululand, the neighboring kingdom of the Zulu people. Boers, also known as Afrikaners, were the descendants of the original Dutch settlers who came to South Africa in the 17th century. Zulus, a migrant people from the north, also came to southern Africa during the 17th century, settling around the Tugela River region.
In 1838, the Boers, migrating north to elude the new British dominions in the south, first came into armed conflict with the Zulus, who were under the rule of King Dingane at the time. The European migrants succeeded in overthrowing Dingane in 1840, replacing him with his son Mpande, who became a vassal of the new Boer republic of Natal. In 1843, the British took over Natal and Zululand.
In 1872, King Mpande died and was succeeded by his son Cetshwayo, who was determined to resist European domination in his territory. In December 1878, Cetshwayo rejected the British demand that he disband his troops, and in January British forces invaded Zululand to suppress Cetshwayo. The British suffered grave defeats at Isandlwana, where 1,300 British soldiers were killed or wounded, and at Hlobane Mountain, but on March 29 the tide turned in favor of the British at the Battle of Khambula.
At Ulundi in July, Cetshwayo's forces were utterly routed, and the Zulus were forced to surrender to the British. In 1887, faced with continuing Zulu rebellions, the British formally annexed Zululand, and in 1897 it became a part of Natal, which joined the Union of South Africa in 1910.
Jan 12, 2010: Massive earthquake strikes Haiti
On this day in 2010, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastates the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The quake, which was the strongest to strike the region in more than 200 years, left over 200,000 people dead and some 895,000 Haitians homeless.
The earthquake hit southern Haiti at 4:53 p.m. local time. The nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince, a densely populated city located about 15 miles from the quake’s epicenter, suffered widespread devastation. Countless dwellings were reduced to rubble, while hospitals, churches and schools collapsed and roads were blocked with debris. Numerous government structures were heavily damaged or destroyed, including the presidential palace, parliament building and main prison. (At the time of the quake, Haiti lacked a national building code, and many structures were shoddily constructed.) In the aftermath of the quake, amidst fears that victims’ decomposing corpses could spread disease, trucks picked up thousands of bodies and dumped them into mass graves.
Even before the earthquake, Haiti, which occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic occupies the other two-thirds), was the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 80 percent of its 9 million residents existing in poverty. Political corruption and violence, disease, malnutrition and limited access to education were a way of life for many in Haiti, which gained its independence from France in an 1804 slave revolt.
A large-scale, international relief operation was launched soon after the quake hit, with the United States taking charge and sending thousands of military troops to Haiti to deliver supplies, assist with search-and-rescue efforts and help maintain order. Relief efforts initially were hampered by earthquake damage to roads, communication systems and the Port-au-Prince airport and main port.
Governments and individuals around the world made donations and pledges of aid to Haiti totaling billions of dollars. However, on the first-year anniversary of the disaster, reconstruction efforts were still in their infancy. Thousands of people left homeless by the quake were living in tents, and only a small portion of the heavy debris resulting from the disaster had been cleared.
Jan 12, 1932: First elected female US senator
Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democrat from Arkansas, becomes the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Caraway, born near Bakerville, Tennessee, had been appointed to the Senate two months earlier to fill the vacancy left by her late husband, Thaddeus Horatio Caraway. With the support of Huey Long, a powerful senator from Louisiana, Caraway was elected to the seat. In 1938, she was reelected. After failing to win renomination in 1944, she was appointed to the Federal Employees Compensation Commission by President Franklin Roosevelt.
Although she was the first freely elected female senator, Caraway was preceded in the Senate by Rebecca Latimer Felton, who was appointed in 1922 to fill a vacancy but never ran for election. Jeannette Rankin, elected to the House of Representatives as a pacifist from Montana in 1917, was the first woman to ever sit in Congress.
Jan 12, 1984: Pyramid mystery unearthed
On this day, an international panel overseeing the restoration of the Great Pyramids in Egypt overcomes years of frustration when it abandons modern construction techniques in favor of the method employed by the ancient Egyptians.
Located at Giza outside Cairo, some of the oldest manmade structures on earth were showing severe signs of decay by the early 1980s. Successful repair work began on the 4,600-year-old Sphinx in 1981, but restoration of the pyramids proved destructive when water in modern cement caused adjacent limestone stones to split. On January 12, 1984, restorers stopped using mortar and adopted the system of interlocking blocks practiced by the original pyramid builders. From thereon, the project proceeded smoothly.
The ancient Egyptians built nearly 100 pyramids over a millennium to serve as burial chambers for their royalty. They believed that the pyramids eased the monarchs' passage into the afterlife, and the sites served as centers of religious activity. During the Old Kingdom, a period of Egyptian history that lasted from the late 26th century B.C. to the mid-22nd century B.C., the Egyptians built their largest and most ambitious pyramids.
The three enormous pyramids situated at Giza outside of Cairo were built by King Khufu, his son, and his grandson in the Fourth Dynasty. The largest, known as the Great Pyramid, was built by Khufu and is the only one of the "Seven Wonders of the World" from antiquity that still survives. The Great Pyramid was built of approximately 2.3 million blocks of stone and stood nearly 50 stories high upon completion. Its base forms a nearly perfect and level square, with sides aligned to the four cardinal points of the compass.
The Great Pyramid is composed primarily of yellowish limestone blocks and was originally covered in an outer casing of smooth light-colored limestone. This finer limestone eroded and was carried away in later centuries, but the material can still be found in the inner passages. The interior burial chamber was built of huge blocks of granite. It is believed that construction of the pyramid took 20 years and involved over 20,000 workers, bakers, carpenters, and water carriers. The exact method in which this architectural masterpiece was built is not definitively known, but the leading theory is that the Egyptians employed an encircling embankment of sand, brick, and earth that was increased in height as the pyramid rose.
In addition to Khufu's mummy, interior rooms of the pyramid held objects for the deceased to use in the afterlife. Many of these items were valuable, and tomb robbers had long ago robbed the pyramids of their treasures before modern archeologists began studying the structures in the 17th century.
King Khafre, the grandson of Khufu, built the Great Sphinx, which was carved from a single block of limestone left over in a quarry used to build the pyramids. The Sphinx has the body of a recumbent lion and a human face meant to represent Khafre. There are no known inner chambers in the structure.
Jan 12, 1969: Broadway Joe delivers (New York Jets Win Super Bowl III)
On January 12, 1969, in the most celebrated performance of his prolific career, quarterback Joe Namath leads the New York Jets to a stunning 16-7 victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III, held in Miami, Florida.
Born in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, in 1943, Namath starred on his high school football team and at one point was offered $50,000 to play baseball for the Chicago Cubs. He chose to play football for Coach Paul (Bear) Bryant at the University of Alabama, where he was an All-American. Drafted by both the St. Louis Cardinals of the National Football League (NFL) and the Jets of the upstart American Football League (AFL), Namath chose the Jets, who paid him a signing bonus of close to $400,000. Three games into his first season, he earned the starting quarterback job; he was later voted the AFL Rookie of the Year.
With a notoriously lavish Upper East Side penthouse apartment and an active social schedule, the handsome Namath became known as Broadway Joe. He also distinguished himself on the field, becoming the first pro quarterback to pass for 4,000 yards in a single season in 1967. Namath’s brash confidence was never more on display than in a public appearance in the days leading up to Super Bowl III, when he assured a heckler that the Jets (19-point underdogs) would beat the Colts (reputedly the best team in NFL history), even going so far as to say "I guarantee it." Namath’s trash-talking drew criticism from many in the NFL, who doubted his ability and insisted the AFL could not really compete with the older, more established NFL.
Namath proved to be as good as his word, however, as the Jets drove 80 yards in the first quarter and grabbed a 7-0 lead in the second with a four-yard touchdown run by fullback Matt Snell. The defense intercepted Colts quarterback Earl Morrall three times to prevent Baltimore from scoring. Two Jets field goals by Jim Turner in the third quarter and another at the start of the fourth put New York up 16-0. Though Baltimore was able to score a single touchdown in the fourth, it would not be enough. Namath completed 17 of 28 passes, for a total of 206 yards, while wide receiver George Sauer caught eight of those for 133 yards, and Snell ran for a Super Bowl record 121 yards. Apart from ensuring the legacy of Broadway Joe, a future Hall of Famer, the victory gave legitimacy to the AFL and assured the competitive viability of the AFL-NFL rivalry.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
475 - Basiliscus becomes Byzantine Emperor, with a
coronation ceremony in the Hebdomon palace in Constantinople.
1493 - Last day for all Jews to leave Sicily
1528 - Gustav I of Sweden crowned king of Sweden.
1552 - Dutch west coast hit by heavy storm, 100s killed
1583 - Holland begins use of Gregorian calendar (yesterday
was 1/1/1583)
1598 - Pope Clement VIII seizes duchy of Ferrara on death of
Alfonso
1616 - Brazilian city Belem (the entrance gate to the
Amazon) founded by Captain Major Francisco Branco
1701 - Frisia & Groningen (Netherlands) begin use of
Gregorian calendar
1723 - Handel's opera "Ottone" premieres at the
King's Theatre London
1755 - Tsarina Elisabeth establishes 1st Russian University
1773 - 1st US public museum established (Charlestown SC)
1777 - Mission Santa Clara de Asis founded in Calif
1806 - French evacuate Vienna
1807 - Gunpowder-ship explodes in Leiden Neth, 150 die
1808 - The organizational meeting that led to the creation
of the Wernerian Natural History Society, a former Scottish learned society, is
held in Edinburgh.
1809 - British take Cayenne (French Guiana) from French
(until 1814)
1812 - 1st cargo arrives in New Orleans by steam, from
Natchez
1816 - France decrees Bonaparte family excluded from the
country forever
1820 - Royal Astronomical Society founded in England
Composer George Friedrich HandelComposer George Friedrich
Handel 1836 - Battle of Wetumka, Fla
1836 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin reach Sydney Australia
1839 - Anthracite coal 1st used to smelt iron, Mauch Chunk,
Penn
1842 - Franciscan nuns begin missionary work on Netherland
Antilles
1861 - FL state troops demand surrender of Ft Pickens
1863 - President Davis delivers his "State of
Confederacy" address
1865 - -13] Union fleet bombs Fort Fisher NC
1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society is formed in London.
1867 - Leo Tolstoy's "Smert Ioonna Groznogo,"
premieres in St Petersburg
1872 - Yohannes IV is crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in Axum,
the first imperial coronation in that city in over 200 years.
1875 - Kwang-su becomes emperor of China.
1879 - British Zulu War begins: Lt-General Chelmsford
invades Zululand
1895 - The National Trust is founded in Britain.
1896 - 1st X-ray photo in US (Dr Henry Smith, Davidson NC)
1898 - Ito Hirobumi begins his third term as Prime Minister
of Japan.
Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1900 -
Freeland Colony founded in US
1903 - Harry Houdini performs at Rembrandt theater,
Amsterdam
1903 - Rhodes Opera House burns in Boyertown Pa, killing 170
1904 - Southwest-Africa uprising under Samuel Maherero
against German garison
1906 - 1st time Dow Jones closes above 100 (100.26)
1906 - Football rules committee legalizes forward pass
1906 - Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman's cabinet (which
included amongst its members H.H. Asquith, David Lloyd George, and Winston
Churchill) embarks on sweeping social reforms after a Liberal landslide in the
British general election.
1907 - Britain grants responsible government to former
colony of Transvaal
1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel
Tower for the first time.
1911 - The University of the Philippines College of Law is
formally established; three future Philippine presidents are among the first
enrollees.
1912 - -47°F (-44°C), Washta, Iowa (state record)
1915 - House of Reps rejects proposal to give women right to
vote
1916 - Britain proclaims Gilbert & Ellice Is colony in
Pacific
1918 - Montreal Canadien Joe Malone scores 5 goals beating
Ottawa 9-4
1918 - Finland's "Mosaic Confessors" law went into
effect, making Finnish Jews full citizens.
Magician & Escape Artist Harry HoudiniMagician &
Escape Artist Harry Houdini 1920 - Annual drafting of baseball players from
minor leagues to be done in inverse order of the final standings, agreed to
1921 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis becomes 1st commissioner of
baseball
1924 - History of Science Society organized at Boston
1925 - John Howard Lawson's "Processional,"
premieres in NYC
1928 - Philip Barry & Elmer Rice's "Cock
Robin," premieres in NYC
1929 - Seatrain (RR cars on ships) service begins, New
Orleans-Havana
1930 - NHL's Boston Bruins win then-record 14th consecutive
game
1932 - France's Laval government falls
1932 - Hattie W Caraway elected 1st woman senator (D-Ark)
1932 - Philip Barry's "Animal Kingdom," premieres
in NYC
1933 - US Congress recognize independence Philippines
1933 - Uprising of Guardia Civil in Spain, 25 dies
1937 - Plow for laying submarine cable patented
1940 - World War II: Soviets bombs cities in Finland.
1942 - British troops reconquer Sollum
1942 - Dutch troops on Tarakan surrender
1942 - National War Labor Board created
1943 - Frankfurters replaced by Victory Sausages (mix of
meat & soy meal)
1944 - Churchill & de Gaulle begin a 2-day wartime
conference in Marrakesh
1944 - Failed resistance raid on distribution office of
Borgerstraat Amsterd
1945 - German forces in Belgium retreat in Battle of Bulge
1945 - US Task Force 38 destroys 41 Jap ships in Battle of
South China Sea
1945 - World War II: The Soviets begin a large offensive
against the Nazis in Eastern Europe.
1946 - "Polonaise" closes at Alvin Theater NYC
after 113 performances
1946 - Edouardo de Filippo's "Questi Fantasmi!,"
premieres in Rome
1946 - NFL champs Cleveland Rams given permission to move to
LA
1948 - 1st Supermarket in UK opens
Pacifist and Spiritual Leader Mahatma GandhiPacifist and
Spiritual Leader Mahatma Gandhi 1948 - Mahatma Gandhi begins his final fast
1948 - US Supreme Court decision (Sipuel v Oklahoma State
Board of Regents)
1949 - "Arthur Godfrey & His Friends"
premieres on CBS TV
1949 - Dutch court affirms death sentence against SS chief
Hanns Rauter
1950 - Swedish tanker rams British submarine Truculent in
Thames, 64 die
1950 - USSR re-introduces death penalty for treason,
espionage & sabotage
1951 - Ezzard Charles TKOs Lee Oma in 10 for heavyweight
boxing title
1952 - NFL Pro Bowl: National Conference beats American
Conference 30-13
1952 - University of Tennessee admits it's 1st black student
1953 - 9 "Jewish" physicians arrested for
"terrorist activities" in Moscow
1954 - Austria's worst avalanche-kills 200; 9hrs later 2nd
one-kills 115
1954 - Queen Elizabeth II opens NZ parliament
1957 - Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) founded
1958 - Mickey Wright wins LPGA Sea Island Golf Open
1958 - NCAA adds 2 point conversion to football scoring
Queen of the United Kingdom Elizabeth IIQueen of the United
Kingdom Elizabeth II 1958 - NFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 26-7
1958 - Syracuse National Dolph Schayes sets NBA record at
11,770 points
1959 - KOED TV channel 11 in Tulsa, OK (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1960 - Sobers & Worrell complete 399 stand for 4th wkt v
England
1960 - Syracuse National Dolph Schayes is 1st NBA'er to
score 15,000 points
1961 - "Show Girl" opens at Eugene O'Neill Theater
NYC for 100 performances
1961 - UN genocide pact goes into effect
1963 - "Go Away Little Girl" by Steve Lawrence
peaks at #1
1963 - Spin bowler Bobby Simpson takes 5-57 for Australia v
England
1964 - NFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 31-17
1964 - Revolution overthrows Sultan of Zanzibar, 1 month
after independence
1965 - "Hullabaloo" premieres on NBC-TV
1965 - At 10:58 am PST burn up a nuclear rocket in Nevada
1966 - "Batman" with Adam West & Burt Ward
premieres on ABC TV
1966 - 12 day NYC transit strike ends
36th US President Lyndon B. Johnson36th US President Lyndon
B. Johnson 1966 - LBJ says US should stay in S Vietnam until communist
aggression ends
1966 - Red Auerbach wins his 1,000th game as coach of NBA
Boston Celtics
1967 - Louisville, Ky, draft board refuses exemption for
boxer Muhammad Ali
1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be
cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation.
1968 - Beatles Film Production Ltd changes name to Apple
Film Production Ltd
1968 - Nighttime version of "Hollywood Squares"
premieres on NBC TV
1969 - "Golden Rainbow" closes at Shubert Theater
NYC after 355 performances
1969 - Superbowl III: NY Jets beat Balt Colts, 16-7 in Miami
Superbowl MVP: Joe Namath, NY Jets, QB
1970 - Biafran War ends, Biafra surrenders to Nigeria
1970 - Boeing 747 makes its maiden voyage
1970 - Biafra capitulates, ending the Nigerian civil war.
1971 - "All in the Family" premieres on CBS
featuring 1st toilet flush on TV
1971 - "Soon" opens at Ritz Theater NYC for 3
performances
1971 - Congressional Black Caucus organizes
1971 - Fed grand jury indicts Rev Philip Berrigan & 5
others, including a nun & 2 priests, on charges of plotting to kidnap Henry
Kissinger
Politician, statesman Henry KissingerPolitician, statesman
Henry Kissinger 1972 - Tigers sign a lease to build a $126M domed stadium (doesn't
happen)
1974 - "Joker" by Steve Miller Band peaks at #1
1974 - Libya & Tunisia announces they are merging as
"Islamic Arab Republic"
1975 - Chrysler Corp offers 1st car rebates
1975 - Superbowl IX: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Minnesota
Vikings, 16-6 in New Orleans Superbowl MVP: Franco Harris, Pittsburgh, RB
1976 - UN Security Council votes 11-1 to seat Palestine
Liberation Org
1977 - "Ipi Tombi" opens at Harkness Theater NYC
for 39 performances
1977 - Anti-French demonstrations takes place in Israel after
Paris released Abu Daoud, responsible 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli athletes
1979 - 6th American Music Award: Barry Manilow, Linda
Ronstadt win
1979 - LA's Hillside Strangler, Kenneth Bianchi, arrested in
Bellingham
1979 - Record blizzard struck midwest killing over 100
1980 - Mike Bratz (Phoenix) begins NBA free throw streak of
57 games
1981 - "Dynasty" with Joan Collins premieres on
ABC-TV
1981 - -35°F (-37°C), Chester, Massachusetts (state record)
1981 - Dynasty, a prime time soap opera inspired by Dallas,
premieres on ABC
Musician Barry ManilowMusician Barry Manilow 1983 - Brooks
Robinson & Juan Marichal elected to Hall of Fame
1983 - NCAA creates football Kickoff Classic to begin in
August
1986 - 24th space shuttle (61-C) mission-Columbia 7-launched
1986 - Chic Blackhawk Denis Savard scores at 4 seconds of
3rd period
1986 - Miami Dolphins win AFC football championship
1987 - Britain's Prince Edward resigns from his Royal
Marines training
1988 - Willie Stargell (Pitts Pirate), elected to Baseball Hall
of Fame
1989 - 6 claim to survive in rubble, 35 days after Armenian
quake (hoax)
1989 - Idi Amin expelled from Zaire
1990 - Civil Rights activist Rev Al Sharpton is stabbed in
Bensonhurst Bkln
1990 - Romania bans Communist party (1st Warsaw Pact member
to do so)
1991 - Largest crowd to watch Atlantic Coast Womens
Basketball game (11,520)
1991 - Melvin Stewart swims world record 200 m butterfly
(1:55.69)
1991 - US Congress gives George Bush authority to wage war
against Iraq
1992 - 13th ACE Cable Awards: HBO wins 27 awards
US President George H. W. BushUS President George H. W. Bush
1992 - Last building in Gateway area in Cleveland is demolished
1992 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Christopher
Bowman
1992 - Algeria's general elections canceled after strong
gains by Islamic Salvation Front in the 1st round
1992 - A new constitution, providing for freedom to form
political parties, is approved by a referendum in Mali.
1993 - Doctors announce Pitts Penguin Mario Limeux has
Hodgkin's disease
1994 - Malcolm X's daughter arrested for plotting Louis
Farrakham's murder
1994 - Steve Carlton (Phillies) elected to Baseball Hall of
Fame
1995 - Major earthquake kills 5,092 in Kobe Japan
1995 - Murder trial against OJ Simpson, begins in LA
1995 - Pope John Paul II begins visit to SE Asia
1996 - Russian troops arrived in Bosnia (joint operation
with US)
1997 - 17th United Negro College Fund raises
1997 - Annika Sorenstam wins LPGA Chrysler-Plymouth Tournament
of Champions
1997 - Chrysler-Plymouth LPGA Tournament of Champions
1997 - HAL became operational (2001: A Space Odyssey)
264th Pope John Paul II264th Pope John Paul II 1997 - Ice
skater Oksana Baiul injured slightly whiled driving intoxicated
1997 - Space Shuttle STS 81 (Atlantis 18), launches into
space
1997 - Tiger Woods wins Mercedes Championships
1997 - wins Chrysler-Plymouth Tournament Of Champions
1998 - Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human
cloning.
2004 - The world's largest ocean liner, RMS Queen Mary 2,
makes its maiden voyage.
2005 - Deep Impact (space mission) launches from Cape
Canaveral on a Delta 2 rocket.
2006 - A stampede during the Stoning the Devil ritual on the
last day at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, kills at least 362 Muslim pilgrims.
2006 - Turkey releases Mehmet Ali Ağca from jail after he
served 25 years for shooting Pope John Paul II.
2006 - The French warship Clemenceau reaches Egypt and is
barred access to the Suez Canal. Greenpeace activists board the ship.
2006 - The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France,
and Germany declare that negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program have
reached a dead end and recommend that Iran be referred to the United Nations
Security Council.
2007 - Comet McNaught reaches perihelion becoming the
brightest comet in more than 40 years.
2010 - Earthquake occurs in Haiti killing 230,000 and
destroying the majority of the capital Port-au-Prince
2013 - A failed attempt to rescue a French hostage in Bulo
Marer, Somalia, results in 18 deaths
2013 - Beijing’s level of air pollution is declared to be at
levels that are hazardous to human health
49 BC - Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon River signaling a war between Rome and Gaul. 1519 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died. 1773 - The first public museum in America was established in Charleston, SC. 1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded in London. 1875 - Kwang-su was made emperor of China. 1882 - Thomas Edison's central station on Holborn Viaduct in London began operation. 1895 - The first performance of King Arthur took place at the Lyceum Theatre. 1896 - At Davidson College, several students took x-ray photographs. They created the first X-ray photographs to be made in America. 1908 - A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris. 1915 - The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote. 1915 - The U.S. Congress established the Rocky Mountain National Park. 1926 - "Sam ‘n’ Henry" debuted on WGN Radio in Chicago, IL. 1932 - Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate. 1938 - Austria recognized the Franco government in Spain. 1940 - Soviet bombers raided cities in Finland. 1942 - U.S. President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board. 1943 - The Office of Price Administration announced that standard frankfurters/hot dogs/wieners would be replaced by 'Victory Sausages.' 1945 - During World War II, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe. 1948 - The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race. 1949 - "Arthur Godfrey and His Friends" was debuted on CBS-TV. The show stayed on the network for seven years. 1949 - "Kukla, Fran and Ollie", the Chicago-based children’s show, made its national debut on NBC-TV. 1955 - Rod Serling’s career began with the TV production of "Patterns." 1960 - Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals became the first pro basketball player in the NBA to score more than 15,000 points in his career. 1964 - Leftist rebels in Zanzibar began their successful revolt against the government and a republic was proclaimed. 1966 - U.S. President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended. 1966 - "Batman" debuted on ABC-TV. 1967 - "Dragnet" returned to NBC-TV after being off the network schedule for eight years. 1970 - The breakaway state of Biafra capitulated and the Nigerian civil war came to an end. 1970 - Nigeria's civil war ended. 1971 - "All In the Family" debuted on CBS-TV. 1973 - Yassar Arafat was re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization. 1986 - Space shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz. 1991 - The U.S. Congress passed a resolution authorizing President Bush to use military power to force Iraq out of Kuwait. 1995 - Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew announced that as of January 16 British troops would no longer carry out daylight street patrols in Belfast. 1998 - Tyson Foods Inc. pled guilty to giving $12,000 to former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy. Tyson was fined $6 million. 1998 - 19 European nations agreed to prohibit human cloning. 1998 - Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr's office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. 1999 - Mark McGwire's 70th home run ball was sold at auction in New York for $3 million to an anonymous bidder. 2000 - The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer. 2000 - Charlotte Hornets guard Bobby Phills was killed in a crash during a drag race. 2005 - NASA launched "Deep Impact". The spacecraft was planned to impact on Comet Tempel 1 after a six-month, 268 million-mile journey. 2006 - The U.S. Mint began shipping new 5-cent coins to the 12 regional Federal Reserve Banks. The coin has an image of Thomas Jefferson taken from a 1800 Rembrandt Peale portrait in which the president is looking forward. Since 1909, when presidents were first depicted on circulating coins, all presidents had been shown in profile.
1773 The first public museum in the U.S. was established in Charleston, S.C. 1896 H. L. Smith took the first X-ray photograph. It was a hand with a bullet in it. 1915 The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote. 1932 Hattie W. Caraway, a democrat from Arkansas became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. 1964 One month after Zanzibar became independent, the ruling Zanzibar Nationalist Party was overthrown in a violent coup. 1991 A divided Congress gave President Bush the go-ahead on the Persian Gulf War. 1998 Nineteen European countries signed an agreement banning human cloning. 2010 Haiti is dealt a catastrophic blow when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the country's capital. It is the region's worst earthquake in 200 years. The number of fatalities were between 46,000 and 85,000 people.
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/jan12.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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