http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 19, 1809: Edgar Allan Poe is born
On this day in 1809, poet, author and literary critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston, Massachusetts.
By the time he was three years old, both of Poe's parents had died, leaving him in the care of his godfather, John Allan, a wealthy tobacco merchant. After attending school in England, Poe entered the University of Virginia (UVA) in 1826. After fighting with Allan over his heavy gambling debts, he was forced to leave UVA after only eight months. Poe then served two years in the U.S. Army and won an appointment to West Point. After another falling-out, Allan cut him off completely and he got himself dismissed from the academy for rules infractions.
Dark, handsome and brooding, Poe had published three works of poetry by that time, none of which had received much attention. In 1836, while working as an editor at the Southern Literary Messenger in Richmond, Virginia, Poe married his 13-year-old cousin, Virginia Clemm. He also completed his first full-length work of fiction, Arthur Gordon Pym, published in 1838. Poe lost his job at the Messenger due to his heavy drinking, and the couple moved to Philadelphia, where Poe worked as an editor at Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and Graham's Magazine. He became known for his direct and incisive criticism, as well as for dark horror stories like "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." Also around this time, Poe began writing mystery stories, including "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter"--works that would earn him a reputation as the father of the modern detective story.
In 1844, the Poes moved to New York City. He scored a spectacular success the following year with his poem "The Raven." While Poe was working to launch The Broadway Journal--which soon failed--his wife Virginia fell ill and died of tuberculosis in early 1847. His wife's death drove Poe even deeper into alcoholism and drug abuse. After becoming involved with several women, Poe returned to Richmond in 1849 and got engaged to an old flame. Before the wedding, however, Poe died suddenly. Though circumstances are somewhat unclear, it appeared he began drinking at a party in Baltimore and disappeared, only to be found incoherent in a gutter three days later. Taken to the hospital, he died on October 7, 1849, at age 40.
Jan 19, 1915: First air raid on Britain
During World War I, Britain suffers its first casualties from an air attack when two German zeppelins drop bombs on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn on the eastern coast of England.
The zeppelin, a motor-driven rigid airship, was developed by German inventor Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin in 1900. Although a French inventor had built a power-driven airship several decades before, the zeppelin's rigid dirigible, with its steel framework, was by far the largest airship ever constructed. However, in the case of the zeppelin, size was exchanged for safety, as the heavy steel-framed airships were vulnerable to explosion because they had to be lifted by highly flammable hydrogen gas instead of non-flammable helium gas.
In January 1915, Germany employed three zeppelins, the L.3, the L.4, and the L.6, in a two-day bombing mission against Britain. The L.6 turned back after encountering mechanical problems, but the other two zeppelins succeeded in dropping their bombs on English coastal towns.
Jan 19, 1983: Butcher of Lyons arrested in Bolivia
Klaus Barbie, the Nazi Gestapo chief of Lyons, France, during the German occupation, is arrested in Bolivia for his crimes against humanity four decades earlier.
As chief of Nazi Germany's secret police in occupied France, Barbie sent thousands of French Jews and French Resistance members to their deaths in concentration camps, while torturing, abusing, or executing many others. After the Allied liberation of France, he fled to Germany, where under an assumed identity he joined other ex-Nazi officials in the formation of an underground anti-communist organization. In 1947, the U.S. Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) broke up the organization and arrested its senior members, although Barbie remained at large until the CIC offered him money and protection in exchange for his cooperation in countering Soviet espionage efforts. Barbie worked as a U.S. agent in Germany for two years and in 1949 was smuggled to Bolivia, where he assumed the name of "Klaus Altmann" and continued his work as a U.S. agent.
In addition to his work for the Americans, he performed services for Bolivia's various military regimes, especially that of Hugo "El Petiso" Banzer, who came to power in 1971 and became one of the country's most oppressive leaders. Barbie provided a similar expertise for Banzer as he had for the Nazis, torturing and interrogating political opponents and dispatching many of them to internment camps, where many were executed or died from mistreatment. It was at this time that Nazi hunters Serge Klarsfeld and Beatte Kunzel discovered Barbie's whereabouts, but Banzer refused to extradite him to France. In the early 1980s, a liberal regime came to power in Bolivia and agreed to extradite Barbie in exchange for French aid to the destitute nation. In January 1983, Barbie was arrested, and he arrived in France on February 7.
Legal wrangling, especially between the groups representing his Jewish and French Resistance victims, delayed his trial for four years. Finally, on May 11, 1987, the "Butcher of Lyons," as he was known in France, went on trial for 177 crimes against humanity. In a courtroom twist unimaginable four decades earlier, Barbie was defended by three minority lawyers--an Asian, an African, and an Arab--who made the dramatic case that the French and the Jews were as guilty of crimes against humanity as Barbie or any other Nazi. Barbie's lawyers were more interested in putting France and Israel on trial than in actually proving their client's innocence, and on July 4, 1987, he was found guilty. For his crimes, Klaus Barbie was sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison, France's highest punishment. He died in prison of cancer on September 25, 1991, at the age of 77.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
379 - Theodosius installed as co-emperor of East Roman
Empire
973 - Pope Benedictus VI elected
1419 - French city of Rouen surrenders to Henry V in Hundred
Years War
1493 - France cedes Roussillon & Cerdagne to Spain by
treaty of Barcelona
1511 - Mirandola surrenders to the French.
1520 - Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was
mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.
1547 - Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, executed in the Tower
of London for treason
1607 - San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed;
it is currently the oldest church in the Philippines
1668 - King Louis XIV & Emperor Leopold I sign treaty
dividing Spain
1714 - Richard Steele publishes "Crisis,"
defending Hanoverian success
1746 - Bonnie Prince Charlies troops occupy Stirling [OS=
Jan 8]
1770 - Battle of Golden Hill (Lower Manhattan)
1785 - First manned balloon flight in Ireland
1793 - French King Louis XVI sentenced to death
1795 - Democratic revolution in Amsterdam ends oligarchy
1806 - Britain occupies Cape of Good Hope
1808 - Louis Napoleon signs 1st Dutch aviation law
1810 - Overnight temp at Portsmouth NH drops 50°F (10°C)
1812 - Peninsular War: After a ten day siege, Arthur
Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and
third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.
1st Duke of Wellington & British Prime Minister Arthur
Wellesley1st Duke of Wellington & British Prime Minister Arthur Wellesley
1825 - Ezra Daggett & nephew Thomas Kensett patent food storage in tin cans
1829 - Johann von Goethe's "Faust, Part 1,"
premieres
1833 - Charles Darwin reaches Straits Ponsonby, Fireland
1839 - Aden conquered by British East India Company
1840 - Antarctica discovered, Charles Wilkes expedition (US
claim)
1853 - Verdi's opera "Il Trovatore," premieres in
Rome
1861 - Georgia becomes 5th state to secede
1861 - MS troops take Ft Massachusetts an Ship Island
1862 - Battle of Mill Springs, KY (Fishing Creek, Logan's
Crossroads)
1863 - General Mieroslawski appointed dictator of Poland
1865 - NV Suriname Bank established
1865 - Union occupies Fort Anderson, NC
1871 - 1st Negro lodge of US Masons approved, New Jersey
1883 - The first electric lighting system employing overhead
wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
1884 - Jules Massenet's opera "Manon," premieres
in Paris
Inventor Thomas EdisonInventor Thomas Edison 1885 - Battle
at Abu Klea Sudan: 800-1000 killed
1886 - Aurora Ski Club, 1st in US, founded in Minnesota
1893 - Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder premieres in
Berlin.
1898 - Brown defeats Harvard 6-0 in 1st intercollegiate
hockey game
1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan forms
1903 - 1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US
& England
1903 - New bicycle race "Tour de France" announced
1906 - Gerhart Hauptmann's "Und Pippa Tanzt!,"
premieres in Berlin
1909 - Eugene Walter's "Easiest Way," premieres in
NYC
1910 - Germany & Bolivia ends commerce/friendship treaty
1910 - National Institute of Arts & Letters incorporated
by Congress
1913 - Raymond Poincaré installed as president of France
1915 - 1st German Zeppelin attack over Great Britain, 4 die
1915 - Neon Tube sign patented by George Claude
1917 - Silvertown Essex's ammunition factory explodes; 300
die
Author and Nobel Laureate Gerhart HauptmannAuthor and Nobel
Laureate Gerhart Hauptmann 1918 - Soviets disallows a Constitution Assembly
1918 - Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between
the Red Guards and the White Guard.
1920 - Alexandre Millerand forms French government
1920 - US Senate votes against membership in League of
Nations
1921 - Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador
sign Pact of Union
1922 - Geological survey says US oil supply would be
depleted in 20 years
1923 - WMC-AM in Memphis TN begins radio transmissions
1925 - -48°F (-44°C), Van Buren, Maine (state record)
1927 - British government decides to send troops to China
1929 - Acadia National Park, Maine established
1929 - Clas Thunberg skates world record 500m in 42.8 sec
1932 - Charlie Conacher becomes 1st Toronto Maple Leaf to
score 5 goals in a game, 1st coming at 7 seconds of game
1934 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis denies Joe Jackson's appeal
for reinstatement
1935 - KLM begins flight path between Curacao & Aruba
1935 - Coopers Inc. sells the world's first briefs.
1937 - Cy Young, Tris Speaker & Nap Lajorie elected to
Baseball Hall of Fame
1937 - Millionaire Howard Hughes sets transcontinental air
record (7h28m25s)
1938 - General Motors begins mass production of diesel
engines
1939 - Ernest Hausen of Wisconsin sets chicken-plucking
record-4.4 sec
1941 - British offensive in Eritrea
1941 - British troops occupies Kassalaf Sudan
1942 - Japanese forces invade Burma
1942 - Titus Brandsma arrested by German occupiers
1943 - Uprising in Warsaw ghetto
1943 - Joint Chiefs of Staff decide on invasion in Sicily
1947 - SS Himera runs aground at Athens, kills 392
1949 - Cuba recognises Israel.
1950 - Maiden flight by Canada's Avro Canada CF-100 military
plane
1952 - NFL takes control of NY Yanks
1952 - PGA approves allowing black participants
1953 - Jesse Owens named Illinois Athletic Commission
secretary
1955 - "Millionaire" TV program premieres on CBS
1955 - "Scrabble" debuts on board game market
1955 - 1st presidential news conference filmed for TV
(Eisenhower)
1956 - Hoboken dedicates a plaque honoring achievements of
Alexander Cartwright in organizing early baseball at Elysian Field
1957 - USSR performs atmospheric nuclear test
1958 - Canadian Football Council renamed Canadian Football
League
1960 - Eisenhower & Premier Kishi sign US-Japanese
Security pact
1961 - 1st episode for "Dick Van Dyke Show" is
filmed
1964 - AFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 27-24
1964 - KFME TV channel 13 in Fargo, ND (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1966 - Indira Gandhi elected India's 3rd prime minister
1966 - Neil Simons, Coleman & Fields' musical
"Sweet Charity," premieres
1966 - Tippetts cantate "Vision of St Augustine,"
premieres in London
1967 - Herr Karl Tausch writes shortest will "Vse
Zene" (All to wife)
1968 - WKBF TV channel 61 in Cleveland, OH (IND) begins
broadcasting
1969 - AFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 38-25
1969 - Joanne Carner wins LPGA Burdine's Golf Invitational
1969 - NFL Pro Bowl: West beats East 10-7
1970 - Dutch bishops says he is in favor of married priest
1970 - Nixon nominates G Harold Carswell to Supreme Court
(fails)
1970 - UCLA fires Angela Davis for being a communist
1971 - "No, No Nanette" opens at 46th St Theater
NYC for 861 performances
1971 - 24th NHL All-Star Game: West beat East 2-1 at Boston
1971 - Beatles' "Helter Skelter" is played at
Charles Manson trial
1971 - NHL Writers' Association renamed Professional Hockey
Writers' Association
1972 - Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, & Early Wynn elected to
Hall of Fame
1974 - Belgium government of Leburton falls
1974 - Notre Dame beats UCLA, ends NCAA-record 88-game
basketball win streak
1975 - 4 mail truck assault on El Al B-747 in Paris, escape
to Iraq
1975 - Kathy Whitworth wins LPGA Colgate Golf Triple Crown
1975 - Triple J begins broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.
Hall of Fame MLB shortstop Ernie BanksHall of Fame MLB
shortstop Ernie Banks 1977 - Ernie Banks elected to Hall of Fame
1977 - Pres Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (Tokyo Rose)
1977 - World's largest crowd-12.7 million-for Indian
religious festival
1977 - Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time
in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred. It also fell in the
Bahamas.
1978 - Eddie Mathews elected to Hall of Fame
1978 - Judge William H Webster appointed head of FBI
1978 - The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves
VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America would continue until
2003.
1979 - John N Mitchell (former AG) released on parole from
federal prison
1981 - Muhammad Ali talks a despondent 21 year old out of
committing suicide
1981 - US & Iran sign agreement to release 52 American
hostages
1982 - Aust-WI one-day game that produced a Privy Council
libel case
1982 - Heater explodes at Star Elementary School-Oklahoma,
kills 6 kids & teacher
1983 - Klaus Barbie, SS chief of Lyon in Nazi-France,
arrested in Bolivia
1984 - Francesco Moser bicycles world record time: 50,808 km
1984 - California Supreme Court rejects quadriplegic
Elizabeth Bouvia, who wants to starve herself to death in a public hospital
Heavyweight Boxing Champion Muhammad AliHeavyweight Boxing
Champion Muhammad Ali 1985 - "Born In The USA" by Bruce Springsteen peaked
at #9
1985 - 4 die in a car & train crash in Buda Ill
1986 - Cerebral Palsy telethon
1986 - Israeli premier Simon Peres visits Netherlands
1986 - Spain recognizes Israel
1987 - Guy Hunt becomes Alabama's 1st Republican governor
since 1874
1988 - "48 Hours" premiers on CBS-TV
1989 - President Reagan pardons George Steinbrenner for
illegal funds for Nixon
1990 - Test debut of Mushtaq Ahmed, v Australia at Adelaide
1991 - 42nd NHL All-Star Game: Campbell beat Wales 11-5 at
Chicago
1991 - 48th Golden Globes: Dances with Wolves
1991 - Eastern Airlines shuts down operation
1991 - Jumbo Tsuruta beats Stan Hansen to win All Japan
Triple Crown title
1991 - Sgt Slaughter defeats Ultimate Warrior for WWF
championship belt
1992 - "City of Angels" closes at Virginia Theater
NYC after 878 performances
New York Yankees Owner George SteinbrennerNew York Yankees
Owner George Steinbrenner 1992 - Cerebral Palsy telethon raises 23,500,000
1992 - IBM announces a nearly $5B loss for 1992
1992 - Nature Boy Ric Flair becomes WWF champ at Royal
Rumble
1992 - Rowdy Roddy Piper beats Mountie to become WWF
Intercontinental Champ
1993 - Israel recognizes PLO as no longer criminal
1993 - Oakland A's unveil new elephant logo
1993 - Robert M Gates, ends term as 15th director of CIA
1993 - STS-54 (Endeavour) lands
1994 - -20°F (-29°C) (5:32 AM) coldest day ever recorded in
Cleveland Ohio
1994 - -36°F (-38°C) in New Whiteland, Indiana (state
record)
1995 - Jean-Claude Juncker (28) sworn in as premier of
Luxembourg
1996 - NHL approves move of Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix
1997 - 54th Golden Globes: English Patient, Brenda Blethyn
& Geoffrey Rush
1997 - Cerebral Palsy telethon
1997 - Michelle McGann wins LPGA Healthsouth Inaugural
Palestinian Leader Yasser ArafatPalestinian Leader Yasser
Arafat 1997 - Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and
joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank
city.
2006 - A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.
2006 - The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the
first mission to Pluto.
2006 - Terrorist blows himself up in Tel Aviv, killing only
himself but injuring 20 people, one of them seriously.
2007 - Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink assassinated in front
of his newspaper's office by 17 year old Turkish ultranationalist Ogün Samast.
2012 - FBI shuts down Megaupload.com for alleged copyright
infringement, hacker group Anonymous responds by attacking government and
entertainment industry websites
2013 - 4 climbers are killed by an avalanche in Glen Coe,
Scotland
2013 - Calcium deposits are discovered on Mars by NASA’s
Curiosity Rover
2013 - The 2012-2013 NHL season begins after a 119-day
lockout
2013 - Lance Armstrong admits to doping in all seven of his
Tour de France victories
1419 - Rouen surrendered to Henry V, completing his conquest of Normandy. 1764 - John Wilkes was expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel. 1793 - King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine. 1825 - Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett of New York City patented a canning process to preserve salmon, oysters and lobsters. 1861 - Georgia seceded from the Union. 1883 - Thomas Edison's first village electric lighting system using overhead wires began operation in Roselle, NJ. 1907 - The first film reviews appeared in "Variety" magazine. 1915 - George Claude, of Paris, France, patented the neon discharge tube for use in advertising signs. 1915 - More than 20 people were killed when German zeppelins bombed England for the first time. The bombs were dropped on Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn. 1937 - Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record. He flew from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds. 1942 - The Japanese invaded Burma (later Myanmar). 1944 - The U.S. federal government relinquished control of the nation's railroads after the settlement of a wage dispute. 1949 - The salary of the President of the United States was increased from $75,000 to $100,000 with an additional $50,000 expense allowance for each year in office. 1952 - The National Football League (NFL) bought the franchise of the New York Yankees from Ted Collins. The franchise was then awarded to a group in Dallas on January 24. 1953 - Sixty-eight percent of all TV sets in the U.S. were tuned to CBS-TV, as Lucy Ricardo, of "I Love Lucy," gave birth to a baby boy. 1955 - U.S. President Eisenhower allowed a filmed news conference to be used on television (and in movie newsreels) for the first time. 1957 - Philadelphia comedian, Ernie Kovacs, did a half-hour TV show without saying a single word of dialogue. 1966 - Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India. 1969 - In protest against the Russian invasion of 1968, Czech student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square. 1971 - At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles' "Helter Skelter" was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome murders, the words "helter skelter" were written on a mirror. 1971 - "No, No Nanette" opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York City. 1977 - U.S. President Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino (the "Tokyo Rose"). 1979 - Former U.S. Attorney General John N. Mitchell was released on parole after serving 19 months at a federal prison in Alabama. 1981 - The U.S. and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months and for arrangements to unfreeze Iranian assets and to resolve all claims against Iran. 1983 - China announced that it was bannning 1983 purchases of cotton, soybeans and chemical fibers from the United States. 1993 - IBM announced a loss of $4.97 billion for 1992. It was the largest single-year loss in U.S. corporate history. 1995 - Russian forces overwhelmed the resistance forces in Chechnya. 1996 - U.S. first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury. The investigation was concerning the discovery of billing records related to the Whitewater real estate investment venture. 1997 - Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years. He joined 60,000 Palestinians in celebration over the handover of the last West Bank city in Israeli control. 2000 - In New York's Time Square, the first WWF restaurant opened. 2001 - Texas officials demoted a warden and suspended three other prison workers in the wake of the escape of the "Texas 7."
1915 The electric neon sign was patented in the United States by George Claude of Paris, France. 1953 Lucy Ricardo gave birth to baby Ricky on I Love Lucy. More people tuned in to watch the show than the inauguration of President Eisenhower. 1955 President Eisenhower okayed the first filming of a news conference for television. 1966 Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India. 1981 The United States and Iran signed an agreement paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months. 1997 Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron for the first time in 30 years, as Israel hands over control of the West Bank city to Palestinians. 2001 President Clinton admitted he made false statements under oath about Monica Lewinsky.
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/jan19.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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