http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 25, 1924: First Winter Olympics
On January 25, 1924, the first Winter Olympics take off in style at Chamonix in the French Alps. Spectators were thrilled by the ski jump and bobsled as well as 12 other events involving a total of six sports. The "International Winter Sports Week," as it was known, was a great success, and in 1928 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially designated the Winter Games, staged in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as the second Winter Olympics.
Five years after the birth of the modern Olympics in 1896, the first organized international competition involving winter sports was staged in Sweden. Called the Nordic Games, only Scandinavian countries competed. Like the Olympics, it was staged thereon every four years but always in Sweden. In 1908, figure skating made its way into the Summer Olympics in London, though it was not actually held until October, some three months after the other events were over.
In 1911, the IOC proposed the staging of a separate winter competition for the 1912 Stockholm Games, but Sweden, wanting to protect the popularity of the Nordic Games, declined. Germany planned a Winter Olympics to precede the 1916 Berlin Summer Games, but World War I forced the cancellation of both. At the 1920 Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, ice hockey joined figure skating as an official Olympic event, and Canada took home the first of many hockey gold medals. Soon after, an agreement was reached with Scandinavians to stage the IOC-sanctioned International Winter Sports Week. It was so popular among the 16 participating nations that, in 1925, the IOC formally created the Winter Olympics, retroactively making Chamonix the first.
In Chamonix, Scandinavians dominated the speed rinks and slopes, and Norway won the unofficial team competition with 17 medals. The United States came in third, winning its only gold medal with Charles Jewtraw's victory in the 500-meter speed-skating event. Canada won another hockey gold, scoring 110 goals and allowing just three goals in five games. Of the nearly 300 athletes, only 13 were women, and they only competed in the figure-skating events. Austrian Helene Engelmann won the pairs competition with Alfred Berger, and Austrian Herma Planck Szabo won the women's singles. The Olympics offered a particular boost to skiing, a sport that would make enormous strides within the next decade. At Chamonix, Norway won all but one of the nine skiing medals.
Jan 25, 1981: Mao's widow sentenced to death
Jiang Qing, the widow of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death for her "counter-revolutionary crimes" during the Cultural Revolution.
Originally an actress in Communist theater and film, her marriage to Mao in 1939 was widely criticized, as his second wife, Ho Zizhen, was a celebrated veteran of the Long March who Mao had divorced while she lay languishing in a Moscow hospital. His first wife, Yang Kaihui, was killed by the Nationalists during the Chinese Civil War.
Jiang Qing was ordered to stay out of politics, and she did so until the 1960s, when she openly criticized traditional Chinese opera and the bourgeois influences in Chinese arts and literature. In 1966, Mao made her first deputy head of the Cultural Revolution and gave her far-reaching powers over China's intellectual and cultural life. The Cultural Revolution was Mao's attempt to revolutionize Chinese society, and Jiang proved adept at manipulating the media and the young radicals known as the Red Guards. The movement was characterized by terror and purges in which tens of thousands were killed and millions suffered.
In the late 1960s, the Cultural Revolution waned, and Jiang faded from the public eye. However, after her husband's death in 1976, she and three other radicals who had come to power in the revolution were singled out as the "Gang of Four." Jiang was arrested and in 1977 expelled from the Communist Party. Three years later, the Gang of Four were put on trial. Jiang was held responsible for provoking the turmoil and bloodshed of the revolution, but she denied the charges and denounced China's leaders. She was found guilty and sentenced to die. On January 25, 1983, exactly two years after she was condemned, the Chinese government commuted her sentence to life imprisonment. In 1991, she died in prison of an apparent suicide.
Jan 25, 1905: World's largest diamond found
On January 25, 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered during a routine inspection by the mine's superintendent. Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the "Cullinan," it was the largest diamond ever found.
Frederick Wells was 18 feet below the earth's surface when he spotted a flash of starlight embedded in the wall just above him. His discovery was presented that same afternoon to Sir Thomas Cullinan, who owned the mine. Cullinan then sold the diamond to the Transvaal provincial government, which presented the stone to Britain's King Edward VII as a birthday gift. Worried that the diamond might be stolen in transit from Africa to London, Edward arranged to send a phony diamond aboard a steamer ship loaded with detectives as a diversionary tactic. While the decoy slowly made its way from Africa on the ship, the Cullinan was sent to England in a plain box.
Edward entrusted the cutting of the Cullinan to Joseph Asscher, head of the Asscher Diamond Company of Amsterdam. Asscher, who had cut the famous Excelsior Diamond, a 971-carat diamond found in 1893, studied the stone for six months before attempting the cut. On his first attempt, the steel blade broke, with no effect on the diamond. On the second attempt, the diamond shattered exactly as planned; Asscher then fainted from nervous exhaustion.
The Cullinan was later cut into nine large stones and about 100 smaller ones, valued at millions of dollars all told. The largest stone is called the "Star of Africa I," or "Cullinan I," and at 530 carats, it is the largest-cut fine-quality colorless diamond in the world. The second largest stone, the "Star of Africa II" or "Cullinan II," is 317 carats. Both of these stones, as well as the "Cullinan III," are on display in the Tower of London with Britain's other crown jewels; the Cullinan I is mounted in the British Sovereign's Royal Scepter, while the Cullinan II sits in the Imperial State Crown.
Jan 25, 1942: Thailand declares war on the United States and England
On this day, Thailand, a Japanese puppet state, declares war on the Allies.
When war broke out in Europe in September 1939, Thailand declared its neutrality, much to the distress of France and England. Both European nations had colonies surrounding Thailand and hoped Thailand would support the Allied effort and prevent Japanese encroachment on their Pacific territory. But Thailand began moving in the opposite direction, creating a "friendship" with Japan and adding to its school textbooks a futuristic map of Thailand with a "Greater Thailand" encroaching on Chinese territory.
Thailand's first real conflict with the Allies came after the fall of France to the Germans and the creation of the puppet government at Vichy. Thailand saw this as an opportunity to redraw the borders of French Indochina. The Vichy government refused to accommodate the Thais, so Thai troops crossed into French Indochina and battled French troops. Japan interceded in the conflict on the side of the Thais, and used its political alliance with Germany to force Vichy France to cede 21,000 square miles to Thailand.
On December 8, 1941, the Japanese made an amphibious landing on the coast of Thailand, part of the comprehensive sweep of South Pacific islands that followed the bombing raid at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The Japanese had assistance, though: Thailand's prime minister, Lang Pipul, collaborated with the Japanese, embracing the Axis power's war goal of usurping territory in China and ruling over the South Pacific. Pipul wanted to partake in the spoils; toward that end, he declared war on the United States and England. In October, he took dictatorial control of Thailand and became a loyal puppet of the Japanese.
Jan 25, 1980: Paul McCartney is released from a Tokyo jail and deported from Japan
Paul McCartney's arrival at Tokyo's Narita International Airport on January 16, 1980, marked his first visit to Japan since the Beatles tour of 1966. The occasion was a planned 11-city concert tour by his band Wings. Instead, Paul's visit was limited to a nine-day stint in the Tokyo Narcotics Detention Center, which ended on this day in 1980.
McCartney was found to be carrying nearly half a pound of marijuana in his baggage upon arrival at Narita—an amount that Paul would later assure Japanese authorities was intended solely for his personal use. The amount was large enough, however, to warrant a smuggling charge and a potential seven-year prison sentence. Given Japan's reputation for rigorous enforcement of its strict anti-drug laws, it was by no means a foregone conclusion that McCartney would escape trial and possible imprisonment, yet he was released and quickly deported from Japan on January 25, 1980, prior to making any appearance in court.
That a celebrity of McCartney's stature would avoid the consequences that a less-famous drug smuggler might have faced was hardly surprising. After all, who could blame Japanese authorities for applying a double-standard to a prisoner whose sing-alongs inside the jailhouse and screaming fans outside threatened to create a significant distraction from the normal workings of the justice system? The question that troubled the minds of observers at the time was, "What was Paul thinking?" Half a pound of marijuana was a prodigious amount for one man to carry around for personal use—particularly a man who had had reason to expect especially close examination of his person and his baggage by Japanese customs officials. After all, Paul had been denied a Japanese entry visa just five years earlier due to his numerous earlier drug arrests in Europe.
Twenty years after his 1980 arrest, Paul would opine that his psychological motivation may have been to find an excuse to disband Wings, which he in fact did immediately following his return to England. In another interview, however, Sir Paul offered an explanation that may be the more compelling for its simplicity: "We were about to fly to Japan and I knew I wouldn't be able to get anything to smoke over there," McCartney said in 2004. "This stuff was too good to flush down the toilet, so I thought I'd take it with me."
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
41 - After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as
Roman Emperor by the Senate.
1139 - Godfried II the Young becomes duke of Brabant
1327 - King Edward III accedes to the English throne
1348 - Earthquake destroys Villach, killing 5,000
1494 - Alfonso II replaces his father as king of Naples
1554 - Sir Thomas Wyatt gathers an army in Kent, rebels
against Queen Mary
1554 - Founding of São Paulo city, Brazil.
1565 - Battle at Talikota India: Moslems destroy
Vijayanagar's army
1573 - Battle of Mikatagahara, in Japan; Takeda Shingen
defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
1579 - Treaty of Utrecht signed, marks beginning of Dutch
Republic
1721 - Czar Peter the Great ends Russian-orthodox patriarchy
1755 - Moscow University established on Tatiana Day.
1775 - Americans drag cannon up hill to fight British (Gun
Hill Road, Bronx)
1787 - Shays' Rebellion suffers a setback when debt-ridden
farmers, led by Capt Daniel Shays, fail to capture an arsenal at Springfield,
Mass
1792 - The London Corresponding Society is founded.
1799 - 1st US patent for a seeding machine, Eliakim Spooner,
Vermont
1802 - Napoleon elected president of Italian (Cisalpine)
Republic
1817 - Rossini's opera "La Cenerentola" premieres
in Rome
1825 - 1st US engineering college opens, Rensselaer
Polytechnic, Troy, NY
Russian Tsar Peter the GreatRussian Tsar Peter the Great
1835 - Vincenzo Bellini's opera "I Puritani," premieres in Paris
1844 - Recontre between Reps Weller & Shriver, US House
of Representative
1854 - Aleksandr Ostrovsky's "Bednost ne Porok,"
premieres in Moscow
1856 - Battle of Seattle; skirmish between settlers &
Indians
1858 - Mendelssohn's "Wedding March" 1st played,
at wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Victoria, to crown prince of
Prussia
1863 - Battle of Kinston, NC
1863 - General Joseph Hooker replaces Burnside as head of
Army of Potomac
1865 - CSS Shenandoah arrives in Melbourne, Australia
1870 - Soda fountain patented by Gustavus Dows
1875 - Anti-slavery society forms (NY)
1877 - Congress determines presidential election between
Hayes-Tilden
1879 - The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
1881 - Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the
Oriental Telephone Company.
1882 - Bilu, a Russian Zionist organization, forms
1885 - Vincent d'Indy's "Saugefleurie," premieres
Inventor Alexander Graham BellInventor Alexander Graham Bell
1890 - National Afro-American League forms in Chicago
1890 - Nellie Bly beats Phileas Fogg's time around world by
8 days (72 days)
1890 - United Mine Workers of America forms
1894 - James J Corbett KOs Charley Mitchell in 3 for
heavyweight boxing title
1902 - Aleksandr Skriabin's 2nd Symphony in C premieres in
St Petersburg
1904 - 179 die in coal mine explosion at Cheswick,
Pennsylvania
1904 - J M Synge's "Ruders to the Sea," premieres
in Dublin
1905 - Largest diamond, Cullinan (3106 carets), found in
South Africa
1906 - Del Valle Inclans "El Marqués de Bradomin,"
premieres in Madrid
1907 - Julia Ward Howe is 1st woman elected to Natl Inst of
Arts & Letters
1908 - John Blockx' opera "Baldie" premieres in
Antwerp
1909 - Richard Strauss' premier of "Elektra" in
Dresden
1910 - 1st stumping by a 12th man in Tests (N C Tufnell, SAf
v Eng)
1910 - Children initiate idea of planting trees in Jerusalem
1915 - Alexander Graham Bell in NY calls Thomas Watson in SF
1915 - Giordano, Sardou & Moreau's opera "Madame
Sans Gêne" premieres in NYC
1915 - Transcontinental telephone service inaugurated (NY to
SF)
1916 - Montenegro surrenders to Austria-Hungary
1918 - Russia declared a republic of Soviets
1919 - Founding of League of Nations, 1st meeting 1 year
later
1921 - Karel Capék's "RUR," premieres in Prague
1923 - NVV donates 100,000 gulden to mine workers of
Ruhrgebied
1924 - 1st Winter Olympic games open in Chamonix, France
1929 - Bradman scores 340* for NSW v Victoria, 488 mins, 38
fours
1932 - 1st commencement exercises at Hebrew U in Jerusalem
1932 - Bradman scores 167 NSW v Victoria, 224 mins, 22 fours
1937 - 1st broadcast of "Guiding Light" on NBC
radio
1937 - Miami-to-Tampa bus overturned in a canal, kills 13
1937 - Soap Opera "Guiding Light" premieres on
radio
1938 - Ian Hay's "Bachelor Born," premieres in NYC
1939 - Earthquake hits Chillan Chile, 10,000 killed
1939 - Joe Louis KOs John Henry Lewis in 1 for heavyweight
boxing title
1940 - Nazi decrees establishment of Jewish ghetto in Lodz
Poland
1941 - Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the
Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic
Diocese of Honolulu.
German WWII Field Marshal Erwin RommelGerman WWII Field
Marshal Erwin Rommel 1942 - Lt General Rommels African corps reaches Msus
1945 - Dan Topping, Del Webb & Larry MacPhail purchase
NY Yanks for $2.8 mil
1945 - Grand Rapids, Michigan becomes 1st US city to
fluoridate its water
1945 - Japanese occupiers of Batavia arrest Indo-European
youths
1945 - NY Yankees sold by Ruppert estate to Larry MacPhail,
Dan Topping, &
1945 - West Africa 82nd division occupies Myohaung, Burma
1946 - Richard Strauss' "Metamorphosis," premieres
in Zurich
1946 - United Mine Workers union rejoins American Federation
of Labor
1949 - 1st Emmy Awards: Shirley Dinsdale & Pantomime
Quiz (KTLA) win
1949 - 1st Israeli election - Ben-Gurion's Mapai party wins
1950 - 73°F (23°C) highest temperature ever recorded in
Cleveland in January
1951 - UN begins counter offensive in Korea
1952 - Test debut of Richie Benaud, v West Indies at the SCG
1953 - WABI TV channel 5 in Bangor, ME (CBS) begins
broadcasting
1953 - Yuri Sergejev skates world record 500m in 40.9 sec
1955 - Jill Kinmont hits a tree & breaks her back in
Snow Cup Ski Race
1955 - Russia ends state of war with Germany
1955 - US & Panama sign canal treaty
1955 - Columbia U scientists develope an atomic clock
accurate to within one second in 300 years
1956 - 96.5 cm (38.0") of rainfall, Kilauea Plantation,
HI (state record)
1957 - FBI arrests Jack & Myra Sobel, charged with
spying for USSR
1959 - 1st transcontinental coml jet flight (American) (LA
to NY for $301)
262nd Pope John XXIII262nd Pope John XXIII 1959 - Pope John
XXIII proclaims 2nd Vatican council
1961 - 1st live, nationally televised presidential news
conference (JFK)
1961 - Louise Suggs wins LPGA Naples Pro-Am Golf Tournament
1961 - Military coup in El Salvador
1961 - Walt Disney's "101 Dalmations" released
1964 - Beatles 1st US #1, "I Want to Hold your
Hand" (Cashbox)
1964 - Echo 2, US communications satellite launched
1966 - WCMC (now WMGM) TV channel 40 in Wildwood, NJ (NBC)
1st broadcast
1968 - Risse St in Bronx named
1968 - Robert Anderson's "I Never Sang for My
Father," premieres in NYC
1969 - US-North Vietnamese peace talks begin in Paris
1970 - Robert Altman's "M*A*S*H," premieres
1971 - Charles Manson & 3 women followers convicted of
Tate-LaBianca murders
1971 - Himachal Pradesh becomes 18th Indian state
1971 - Military coup in Uganda under Gen Idi Amin Dada
Animator Walt DisneyAnimator Walt Disney 1971 - Phila mint's
1st trial strike of Eisenhower dollar
1971 - WHMB TV channel 40 in Indianapolis, IN (IND) begins
broadcasting
1972 - 25th NHL All-Star Game: East beats West 3-2 at
Minnesota
1972 - 7' Ohio State center Luke Witte is stomped in face
during a brawl in a game with Minnesota
1974 - Bulent Ecevit forms government in Turkey
1974 - Christian Barnard transplants 1st human heart without
removal of old
1974 - Ray Kroc, CEO (McDonald's), buys SD Padres for $12
million
1975 - 10th hat trick in Islander history-Denis Potvin's 1st
1975 - Parliament disposes of premier sheik Mujib ur-Rahman
1976 - Surinder Amarnath scores 124 on Test debut Ind v NZ
Auckland
1978 - Muriel Humphrey (D-Mn) appointed to fill late husband's
Senate seat
1978 - Padres trade pitcher Dave Tomlin & $125,000 to
Rangers for Gaylord Perry (He wins 1978 Cy Young Award)
1979 - 22.2-km Oshimizu railroad tunnel holed through,
central Honshu, Japan
1979 - Pope John Paul II's 1st overseas trip as supreme
pontiff
1980 - Bani Sadr elected president of Iran
264th Pope John Paul II264th Pope John Paul II 1980 - Dutch
government demands boycott of Olympics
1980 - Highest speed attained by a warship, 167 kph, USN
hovercraft
1980 - Paul McCartney is released from Tokyo jail &
deported
1981 - 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days
arrived back in US
1981 - Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death
1981 - Super Bowl XV: Oakland Raiders beat Philadelphia
Eagles, 27-10 in New Orleans Super Bowl MVP: Jim Plunkett, Oakland, QB
1982 - 9th American Music Award: Pat Benatar & Kenny
Rogers win
1983 - China's supreme court commutes Chiang Ch'ing's death
sentence to life
1983 - Infrared telescope satellite launched into polar
orbit
1983 - Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia
1985 - "Black & Blue," premieres in Paris
1985 - Test debut of Wasim Akram, v New Zealand at Auckland
(2-105)
1986 - General Tito Okello's government flees Kampala Uganda
1987 - 75th Australian Mens Tennis: S Edberg beats Pat Cash
(63 64 36 57 63)
1987 - Super Bowl XXI: NY Giants beat Denver Broncos, 39-20
in Pasadena Super Bowl MVP: Phil Simms, NY Giants, QB
Singer and actress Whitney HoustonSinger and actress Whitney
Houston 1988 - 15th American Music Award: Anita Baker, Paul Simon & Whitney
Houston
1988 - George Harrison releases "When We Was Fab"
1988 - Longest winless streak in Toronto Maple Leaf history
(15 games)
1988 - Ramsewak Shankar sworn in as pres of Suriname
1988 - VP George Bush & Dan Rather clash on "CBS
Evening News" as Rather attempts to question Bush about his role in
Iran-Contra affair
1989 - Augusto Alcalde, 1st South American Zen teacher,
receives Dharma Transmission
1989 - Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his
5th season
1989 - Yank owner George Steinbrenner meets with Pope John
Paul II
1990 - Avianca Flight 52, runs out of fuel & crashes in
Cove Neck NY, 73 die
1990 - Former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega is
transferred to a Miami jail
1990 - West-Europe's strongest hurricane
1990 - The Burns' Day storm hits northwestern Europe.
1990 - Honduras becomes a member of the Berne Convention
copyright treaty.
1991 - Brett Hull is 3rd NHLer to score 50 goals in less
than 50 games (49)
1991 - Manuel Noriega is given access to assets frozen by US
government
New York Yankees Owner George SteinbrennerNew York Yankees
Owner George Steinbrenner 1991 - Mark Waugh scores ton in 1st Test Cricket
innings, v England Adelaide
1991 - Soap opera "Generation's" last episode
after a 2½ year run
1992 - 66th Australian Womens Tennis: Monica Seles beats M
Fernandez (62 63)
1992 - Dan Jansen skates world record 500m in 36.41"
1992 - Hubble space telescope optics finds NGC3862/3C264
1993 - 20th American Music Award: Michael Jackson, Mariah
Carey win
1993 - Puerto Rico adds English as its 2nd official language
1993 - Sears announces it is closing its catalog sales dept
after 97 years
1993 - Five people were shot outside CIA headquarters in
Langley, Virginia resulting in two murders.
1994 - Australia beat South Africa 2-1 to win the World
Series Cup
1994 - Mine fire at Asansol India, kills 55
1994 - US space probe Clementine launched
1994 - Accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy, Michael
Jackson settles a civil lawsuit out of court
1995 - Jacques Santer succeeds Jacques Delors as chairman of
Euro Committee
1997 - 71st Australian Womens Tennis: Martina Hingis beat
Mary Pierce (62 62)
Tennis Player Martina HingisTennis Player Martina Hingis
1998 - "Grease," closes at Eugene O'Neill Theater NYC after 1,503
performance
1998 - "Patti LaBelle On Broadway," closes at St
James Theater NYC
1998 - Britain's Queen Mother, 97, gets an emergency hip
replacement
1998 - Helen Alfredsson wins Office Depot LPGA tournament
1998 - Spice Girl Victoria Adams (Posh) & soccer David
Beckham get engaged
1998 - Super Bowl XXXII: Denver Broncos beat Green Bay
Packers 31-24
1998 - Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide
attack on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people injuring 25 others.
1999 - A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia
killing at least 1,000.
2001 - A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad
Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24
2002 - Wikipedia switches to the new version of its software
("Phase II") aka Magnus Manske Day.
2004 - Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
2005 - A stampede at the Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi
in India kills at least 258.
2006 - Three independent observing campaigns announce the
discovery of OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first
cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.
2010 - Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 crashes into the
Mediterranean Sea shortly after take-off from Beirut Rafic Hariri International
Airport, killing all 90 people on-board.
2011 - Egyptian Revolution of 2011 begins in Egypt, with a
series of street demonstrations, marches, rallies, acts of civil disobedience,
riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria, and throughout
other cities in Egypt.
2013 - Tropical cyclone Oswald makes landfall in Queensland,
Australia, causing mass flooding
2013 - 6 civilians and 1 police officer are shot dead and
456 people are injured during a nationwide protest against Egypt’s 2011
revolution
2013 - Islamist forces are driven out of Hombori by the
Malian army
2013 - 8 people are killed by 2 car bombs in Golan Heights,
Syria
2013 - 50 people are killed and 90 are injured in a prison
riot in Barquisimeto, Venezuela
1504 - The English Parliament passed statutes against retainers and liveries, to curb private warfare. 1533 - England's King Henry VIII secretly married his second wife Anne Boleyn. Boleyn later gave birth to Elizabeth I. 1579 - The Treaty of Utrecht was signed marking the beginning of the Dutch Republic. 1799 - Eliakim Spooner patented the seeding machine. 1858 - Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" was presented for the first time, as the daughter of Queen Victoria married the Crown Prince of Prussia. 1870 - G.D. Dows patented the ornamental soda fountain. 1881 - Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others signed an agreement to organize the Oriental Telephone Company. 1890 - The United Mine Workers of America was founded. 1915 - In New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service. 1924 - The 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps. 1927 - Jack Benny married Sadye Marks on this day. Sadye changed her name to Mary Livingstone. 1937 - NBC radio presented the first broadcast of "The Guiding Light." The show remained on radio until 1956 and began on CBS-TV in 1952. 1945 - Richard Tucker debuted at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City in the production of "La Gioconda". 1946 - The United Mine Workers rejoined the American Federation of Labor. 1949 - The first Emmys were presented at the Hollywood Athletic Club. 1950 - A federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury. 1959 - In the U.S., American Airlines had the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707. 1961 - John F. Kennedy presented the first live presidential news conference from Washington, DC. The event was carried on radio and television. 1971 - Charles Manson and three female members of his "family" were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and seven counts of murder in the first degree. They were all sentenced to death for the 1969 killings. The sentences were later commuted to life sentences. 1971 - Maj. Gen. Idi Amin led a coup that deposed Milton Obote and became president of Uganda. 1981 - Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, was tried for treason and received a death sentence, which was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. 1981 - The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States and were reunited with their families. 1987 - The New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos, 39-20, in Super Bowl XXI on NBC. The game featured TV commercials cost $550,000 for 30 seconds. 1993 - A gunman shot and killed two CIA employees outside the agencies headquarters in Virginia. Mir Aimal Kansi, a Pakistani national, was later convicted of the shootings. 1995 - The defense gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial. 1998 - The Denver Broncos beat the Green Bay Packers 31-24 in Super Bowl XXXII. The Broncos had lost 3 previous Super Bowl appearances with quarterback John Elway. 1999 - At least 1,000 people were killed when an earthquake hit western Columbia. The quake registered 6.0 on the Richter Scale. 1999 - In Louisville, KY, man received the first hand transplant in the United States. 2001 - A minor earthquake hit northeastern Ohio. The quake measured only 4.2 on the Richter Scale. 2010 - In Arlington, TX, the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame had its grand opening.
1890 Nellie Bly bested Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days by completing her circumnavigation in 72 days. 1890 United Mine Workers of America was founded. 1915 Alexander Graham Bell inaugurated transcontinental telephone service. 1924 The first Winter Olympic games opened at Chamonix, France. 1961 President John F. Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television. 1971 Charles Manson was found guilty of murdering Sharon Tate and six others.
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/jan25.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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