http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 5, 1976: Pol Pot renames Cambodia
On this day in 1976, Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot announces a new constitution changing the name of Cambodia to Kampuchea and legalizing its Communist government. During the next three years his brutal regime sent the nation back to the Middle Ages and was responsible for the deaths of an estimated 1 to 2 million Cambodians.
Pol Pot, who was born Saloth Sar in 1925 to a relatively well-off Cambodian family, became involved in the Communist movement as a young man studying in Paris. After he returned home to Cambodia, which gained its independence from France in 1954, he rose through the ranks of his homeland's small, underground Communist Party. Influenced by China's Mao Zedong, by the mid-1960s, Pol Pot, also known as Brother Number One, was heading up Cambodia's Communist movement and living in a remote part of the country with a band of supporters.
Cambodia's ruler, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, was overthrown in a pro-American coup in 1970 and the Khmer Rouge, with initial help from Vietnamese Communists, then waged a civil war against the new government of Lon Nol. At the same time, the U.S. launched a bombing campaign and sent in soldiers to Cambodia to hunt down North Vietnamese Communist troops operating there.
In April 1975, following five years of fighting, Pol Pot's guerillas seized power in the Cambodian capitol of Phnom Pehn. Exhausted by years of conflict, many of the city's 2 million residents initially welcomed the Khmer Rouge as liberators who would bring about a social revolution. Instead, Pol Pot's inept attempt at building a peasant-based agrarian utopia became a nightmarish reign of terror and genocide. Cambodians were forced into the countryside to work in communes, anyone with education or wealth was killed and schools, newspapers, hospitals, culture, religion and private property were abolished. Tens of thousands of Cambodians died of starvation while countless others succumbed to disease and forced labor or were murdered.
In December 1978, following clashes over territory, Vietnam invaded Cambodia. Pol Pot fled to Thailand and spent almost two decades hiding out in jungle camps there and in northern Cambodia, protected by guerillas and the Thai military. In 1997, following an internal power struggle, Pol Pot was arrested by members of his own party on charges of treason. He died of natural causes on April 15, 1998, without ever having to face justice for his crimes.
Jan 5, 1895: Dreyfus Affair in France
French officer Alfred Dreyfus, condemned for passing military secrets to the Germans, is stripped of his rank in a humiliating public ceremony in the courtyard of Paris' Ecole Militaire. The Jewish artillery captain, convicted on flimsy evidence in a highly irregular trial, began his life sentence on the notorious Devil's Island Prison in French Guyana four months later.
The Dreyfus case demonstrated the anti-Semitism permeating France's military and, because many praised the ruling, in France in general. Interest in the case lapsed until 1896, when evidence was disclosed that implicated French Major Ferdinand Esterhazy as the guilty party. The army attempted to suppress this information, but a national uproar ensued, and the military had no choice but to put Esterhazy on trial. A court-martial was held in January 1898, and Esterhazy was acquitted within an hour.
In response, the French novelist Emile Zola published an open letter on the front page of the Aurore entitled "J'Accuse," which accused the judges of being under the thumb of the military. By the evening, 200,000 copies had been sold. One month later, Zola was sentenced to jail for libel but managed to escape to England. Meanwhile, out of the scandal a perilous national division was born, in which nationalists and members of the Catholic Church supported the military, while republicans, socialists, and advocates of religious freedom lined up to defend Dreyfus.
In 1898, Major Hubert Henry, discoverer of the original letter attributed to Dreyfus, admitted that he had forged much of the evidence against Dreyfus and committed suicide. Soon after, Esterhazy fled the country. The military was forced to order a new court-martial for Dreyfus. In 1899, he was found guilty in another show trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison. However, a new French administration pardoned him, and in 1906 the supreme court of appeals overturned his conviction. The debacle of the Dreyfus affair brought about greater liberalization in France, a reduction in the power of the military, and a formal separation of church and state.
Jan 5, 1968: Prague Spring begins in Czechoslovakia
Antonin Novotny, the Stalinist ruler of Czechoslovakia, is succeeded as first secretary by Alexander Dubcek, a Slovak who supports liberal reforms. In the first few months of his rule, Dubcek introduced a series of far-reaching political and economic reforms, including increased freedom of speech and the rehabilitation of political dissidents. Dubcek's effort to establish "communism with a human face" was celebrated across the country, and the brief period of freedom became known as the "Prague Spring."
On August 20, 1968, the Soviet Union answered Dubcek's reforms with invasion of Czechoslovakia by 600,000 Warsaw Pact troops. Prague was not eager to give way, but scattered student resistance was no match for Soviet tanks. Dubcek's reforms were repealed, and the leader himself was replaced with the staunchly pro-Soviet Gustav Husak, who re-established an authoritarian Communist regime in the country.
In 1989, as Communist governments folded across Eastern Europe, Prague again became the scene of demonstrations for democratic reforms. In December 1989, Husak's government conceded to demands for a multiparty Parliament. Husak resigned, and for the first time in two decades Dubcek returned to politics as chairman of the new Parliament, which subsequently elected playwright Vaclav Havel as president of Czechoslovakia. Havel had come to fame during the Prague Spring, and after the Soviet crackdown his plays were banned and his passport confiscated
Jan 5, 1945: Soviets recognize pro-Soviet Polish Provisional Government
On the eve of a major offensive into Poland, the Soviet Union decides to recognize the pro-Soviet Lublin Committee as the Provisional Government of Poland instead of the government-in-exile that was temporarily being headquartered in London.
On September 1, 1939, a massive German army invaded Poland. Sixteen days later, the USSR invaded Poland from the east. During this tumultuous period, Gen. Wladyslaw Sikorski became leader of a Polish government-in-exile in London. He developed a good working relationship with the Allies until April 1943, when Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin broke off Polish-Soviet diplomatic relations after Sikorski requested that the Red Cross investigate the alleged Soviet slaughter of Polish officers in the Katyn forest of eastern Poland in 1942.
As the war progressed and the Soviets battled the Germans in western Poland, the Polish government-in-exile began to fear that Soviet domination might follow if the Soviets defeated Germany for control of the Polish territory. Stanislaw Mikolajczyk, Sikorski's successor as the provisional government head, pleaded with the Allies to secure Poland's postwar borders and sovereignty, but no such assurances were granted. In August 1944, the Polish Home Army, fearful that the Soviets would march on Warsaw to battle the Germans and never leave the capital, led an uprising against the German occupiers. They hoped that if they could defeat the Germans, the Allies would help install the anti-Communist government-in-exile after the war.
Unfortunately, the Soviets, rather than aiding the uprising that they encouraged in the name of beating back their common enemy, stood idly by and watched as the Germans slaughtered the Poles and sent survivors to concentration camps.
With native Polish resistance eradicated, and in anticipation of one last offensive against the Germans, the Soviet Union created its own pro-communist Polish provisional government to counter the anti-communist government-in-exile. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, the Allies agreed that an interim government would be formed from both the pro- and anti-communist sides, with free elections to follow. The Soviets had other plans, though, and promptly turned the exhausted and battered Poland into a nondemocratic satellite country, which it remained until 1989.
Jan 5, 1933: Golden Gate Bridge is born
On January 5, 1933, construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.
Following the Gold Rush boom that began in 1849, speculators realized the land north of San Francisco Bay would increase in value in direct proportion to its accessibility to the city. Soon, a plan was hatched to build a bridge that would span the Golden Gate, a narrow, 400-foot deep strait that serves as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula with the southern end of Marin County.
Although the idea went back as far as 1869, the proposal took root in 1916. A former engineering student, James Wilkins, working as a journalist with the San Francisco Bulletin, called for a suspension bridge with a center span of 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of any in existence. Wilkins’ idea was estimated to cost an astounding $100 million. So, San Francisco's city engineer, Michael M. O'Shaughnessy (he’s also credited with coming up with the name Golden Gate Bridge), began asking bridge engineers whether they could do it for less.
Engineer and poet Joseph Strauss, a 5-foot tall Cincinnati-born Chicagoan, said he could.
Eventually, O'Shaughnessy and Strauss concluded they could build a pure suspension bridge within a practical range of $25-30 million with a main span at least 4,000 feet. The construction plan still faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. By the time most of the obstacles were cleared, the Great Depression of 1929 had begun, limiting financing options, so officials convinced voters to support $35 million in bonded indebtedness, citing the jobs that would be created for the project. However, the bonds couldn’t be sold until 1932, when San-Francisco based Bank of America agreed to buy the entire project in order to help the local economy.
The Golden Gate Bridge officially opened on May 27, 1937, the longest bridge span in the world at the time. The first public crossing had taken place the day before, when 200,000 people walked, ran and even roller skated over the new bridge.
With its tall towers and famous red paint job, the bridge quickly became a famous American landmark, and a symbol of San Francisco.
Jan 5, 1781: Benedict Arnold captures and destroys Richmond
American traitor and British Brigadier General Benedict Arnold enjoys his greatest success as a British commander on this day in 1781. Arnold's 1,600 largely Loyalist troops sailed up the James River at the beginning of January, eventually landing in Westover, Virginia. Leaving Westover on the afternoon of January 4, Arnold and his men arrived at the virtually undefended capital city of Richmond the next afternoon.
Virginia's governor, Thomas Jefferson, had frantically attempted to prepare the city for attack by moving all arms & other Military Stores records from the city to a foundry five miles outside Richmond. As news of Arnold's unexpectedly rapid approach reached him, Jefferson then tried to orchestrate their removal to Westham, seven miles further north. He was too late--Arnold's men quickly reached and burned the foundry and then proceeded towards Westham, which Jefferson had asked the formidable Prussian military advisor Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben to guard. Finding von Steuben, Arnold chose to return to Richmond, burning much of the city the following morning.
Only 200 militiamen responded to Governor Jefferson's call to defend the capital--most Virginians had already served and therefore thought they were under no further obligation to answer such calls. Despite this untenable military position, the author of the Declaration of Independence was criticized by some for fleeing Richmond during the crisis. Later, two months after Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, he was cleared of any wrongdoing during his term as governor. Jefferson went on to become the leader of the Democratic-Republican Party, and his presidential victory over the Federalists is remembered as The Revolution of 1800.
After the war, Benedict Arnold attempted and failed to establish businesses in Canada and London. He died a pauper on June 14, 1801, and lays buried in his Continental Army uniform at St. Mary's Church, Middlesex, London. To this day, his name remains synonymous with the word "traitor" in the United States.
Jan 5, 1643: First divorce in the colonies
In the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston, Massachusetts. In a signed and sealed affidavit presented to John Winthrop Jr., the son of the colony's founder, Denis Clarke admitted to abandoning his wife, with whom he had two children, for another woman, with whom he had another two children. He also stated his refusal to return to his original wife, thus giving the Puritan court no option but to punish Clarke and grant a divorce to his wife, Anne. The Quarter Court's final decision read: "Anne Clarke, beeing deserted by Denis Clarke hir husband, and hee refusing to accompany with hir, she is graunted to bee divorced."
Jan 5, 1920: New York Yankees announce purchase of Babe Ruth
On this day in 1920, the New York Yankees major league baseball club announces its purchase of the heavy-hitting outfielder George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for the sum of $125,000.
In all, Ruth had played six seasons with the Red Sox, leading them to three World Series victories. On the mound, Ruth pitched a total of 29 2/3 scoreless World Series innings, setting a new league record that would stand for 43 years. He was fresh off a sensational 1919 season, having broken the major league home run record with 29 and led the American League with 114 runs-batted-in and 103 runs. In addition to playing more than 100 games in left field, he also went 9-5 as a pitcher. With his prodigious hitting, pitching and fielding skills, Ruth had surpassed the great Ty Cobb as baseball’s biggest attraction.
Despite Ruth’s performance, the Red Sox stumbled to a 66-71 record in 1919, finishing at sixth place in the American League. New ownership took control of the club, and in early January, owner Harry Frazee made the decision to sell Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 in cash and some $300,000 in loans (which Frazee reportedly used to finance his Broadway production interests). After the sale, the Yankees took over Ruth’s contract, which called for a salary of $10,000 per year. Aware of his value, Ruth had demanded a salary raise, and New York agreed to negotiate a new contract with terms that would satisfy their new slugger. The deal paid off--in spades--for New York, as Ruth went on to smash his own home run record in 1920, hitting 54 home runs. He connected for 59 homers in 1921, dominating the game and increasing Yankee revenues to the point that the team was able to leave the Polo Grounds (shared with the New York Giants baseball team) and build Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923 and became known as "the house that Ruth built." Throughout the rest of the 20th century, the legacy of Frazee’s lopsided trade continued to hover over major league baseball, as the Yankees won 39 AL pennants and 26 World Series titles and the Red Sox went 86 years without a World Series win. In 2004, the Sox finally shook the "Curse of the Bambino," coming from behind to beat the Yankees in the AL Championship and beating the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first Series since 1918.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1349 - Margaretha of Bavaria names her son Willem V earl of
Holland/Zealand
1438 - Pope Eugenius IV deallocated council of Basel to
Ferrara
1463 - French poet Francois Villon banished from Paris
1477 - Battle at Nancy, Burgundy vs Switz, 7000 + killed
including their leader Charles Duke of Burgundy
1500 - Duke Ludovico Sforza's troops reconquer Milan
1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation
in Zürich, is executed by drowning. (b. 1498)
1554 - Great fire in Eindhoven Neth
1593 - William Louis of Nassau becomes governor/viceroy of
Drenthe
1638 - Petition in Recife Brazil leads to closing of their 2
synagogues
1649 - Francesco Cavalli's opera "Giasone,"
premieres in Venice
1675 - Battle at Turkheim (Colmar): French army beats
Brandenburg
1709 - Sudden extreme cold kills 1000s of Europeans
1717 - Prussian King Frederik Willem I buys conscript for
nobles
1719 - Engl/Hannover/Saxony-Poland/Austria sign
anti-Prussian/Russian pact
1757 - Failed assassination attempt on French king Louis XV
by Damiens
1776 - Assembly of New Hampshire adopts its 1st state
constitution
1781 - British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burns
Richmond, Va
1800 - 1st Swedenborgian temple in US holds 1st service,
Baltimore
1804 - Ohio legislature passes 1st laws restricting free
blacks movement
US Defector General Benedict ArnoldUS Defector General
Benedict Arnold 1809 - Treaty of Dardanelles concluded between Britain &
France
1822 - Central America proclaims annexation to Mexican
Empire
1828 - 1st edition of Amsterdam General Trade Journal
(Algemeen Handelsblad)
1834 - Kiowa Indians record this as the night the stars fell
1836 - Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the
Alamo
1840 - Records show 95,820 licensed public houses in England
on this date
1841 - James Clark Ross (UK) is 1st to enter pack ice near
Ross Ice Shelf
1846 - The United States House of Representatives votes to
stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
1850 - California Exchange opens
1854 - Steamship San Francisco wrecked-300 die
1859 - 1st steamboat sails, Red River
1861 - 250 Federal troops are sent from New York to Ft
Sumter
1861 - Alabama troops seize Forts Morgan & Gaines at
Mobile Bay
1875 - Charles Garnier's new Opera opens in Paris
1875 - President Grant sends federal troops to Vicksburg,
Miss
Frontiersman/Soldier Davy CrockettFrontiersman/Soldier Davy
Crockett 1887 - 1st US school of librarianship opens at Columbia University
1888 - Dutch Heidemaatschappij established
1892 - 1st successful auroral photograph made
1895 - Henry James' play "Guy Domville" opens in
London
1895 - Victor Trumper makes first-class debut for NSW 17 yrs
64 days
1895 - French Capt Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason,
publicly stripped of his rank; later declared innocent
1896 - Isaac Albeniz' opera "Pepita Jiminez,"
premieres in Barcelona
1899 - Start of Sherlock Holmes adventure-Charles Augustus Milverton
(BG)
1900 - Irish leader John Edward Redmond calls for a revolt
against British rule.
1903 - SF-Hawaii telegraph cable opens for public use
1904 - -34°F (-36.7°C), River Vale, New Jersey (state
record)
1904 - -42°F (-41.1°C), Smethport, Pennsylvania (state
record)
1904 - England beat Australia at the MCG, Rhodes 7-56 &
8-68
1905 - Charles Perrine announces discovery of Jupiter's 7th
satellite, Elara
1905 - National Association of Audubon Society incorporates
1909 - Colombia recognizes Panama's independence
1911 - Portuguese expel Jesuits
1911 - San Francisco has its first air meet
1912 - 1st National Hockey Association game (Victoria)
1912 - The Prague Party Conference takes place.
1914 - Ford Motor Co wages jump from $2.40/9-hr day to
$5.00/8-hr day
1916 - Austria-Hungary offensive against Montenegro
1918 - British premier Lloyd George demand for unified peace
1919 - National Socialist Party (Nazi) forms as German
Farmers Party
1919 - Spartacus uprising in Berlin: state of siege
Baseball Great Babe RuthBaseball Great Babe Ruth 1920 -
Boston Red Sox sell Babe Ruth to NY Yankees
1925 - James Gleason & Richard Tabers "Is zat
so?" premieres in NYC
1925 - Nellie Taylor Ross became governor of Wyoming, 1st
woman gov in USA
1925 - Under Polish control, Danzig establishes Port Gdansk
post office
1925 - French Baseball Federation awards silver medals to
John McGraw, Charlie Comiskey, & Hugh Jennings
1927 - Fox Studios exhibits Movietone
1927 - Judge Landis begins 3-day public hearing on charges
that 4 games played between Chicago & Detroit in 1917 had been thrown to
White Sox
1929 - Coup by King Alexander in South Slavia
1930 - Mao Tse-tung writes "A Single Spark Can Start a
Prairie Fire"
1931 - 1st woman to purchase a baseball team Lucille Thomas
purchases Topeka franchise in the Western League
1933 - Work on Golden Gate Bridge begins, on Marin County
side
1934 - Fenway Park catches fire for 2nd time (May 8th 1926
also)
1934 - National & American baseball leagues select a
uniform ball
1937 - Fingleton & Bradman make record stand of 346 for
6th wkt
1937 - Only unicameral state legislature in US opens 1st
session (Nebr)
Chinese Communist Revolutionary and Politician Mao
Tse-TungChinese Communist Revolutionary and Politician Mao Tse-Tung 1940 - FCC
hears 1st transmission of FM radio with clear, static-free signal
1940 - Finnish offensive at Suomossalmi against Russia
1940 - FM radio is demonstrated to the FCC for the first
time.
1941 - British/Australian troops conquer Bardia Lybia
1942 - 55 German tanks reach North-Africa
1943 - Teams agrees to start season later due to WW II
1943 - William H Hastie, civilian aide to secretary of war,
resigns to protest segregation in armed forces
1944 - The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic
newspaper.
1945 - Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Bros cartoon
"Odor-able Kitty"
1945 - Surprise attack on Liese-Aktion-office on Marnix St,
Amsterdam
1946 - "Show Boat" opens at Ziegfeld Theater NYC
for 417 performances
1949 - General Spoor orders cease-fire on Sumatra
1949 - President Harry Truman labels his administration the
"Fair Deal"
1950 - Carson McCuller's "Member of the Wedding,"
premieres in NYC
1951 - Babe Didrikson-Zaharias wins LPGA Ponte Vedra Beach
Women's Golf Open
33rd US President Harry Truman33rd US President Harry Truman
1952 - Flying Enterprise sinks
1953 - -6] Passenger ships Willem Ruys & Orange collide
in the Red Sea
1953 - Samuel Beckett's "En Attendant Godot,"
premieres in Paris
1955 - KMSP TV channel 9 in Minneapolis-St Paul, MN (IND)
1st broadcast
1957 - Dodgers' Jackie Robinson retires rather than be
traded to NY Giants
1957 - Eisenhower asks Congress to send troops to the Mid
East
1959 - "Bozo the Clown" live children's show premieres
on TV
1959 - Buddy Holly releases his last record "It Doesn't
Matter"
1960 - Continental League, a proposed third major league,
gets an assurance of congressional support from NY Senator Kenneth Keating
1961 - US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
1962 - Tony Sheridan & Beatles produce "My
Bonnie" & "The Saints"
1963 - "Camelot" closes at Majestic Theater NYC
after 873 performances
1963 - "Carnival!" closes at Imperial Theater NYC
after 719 performances
1963 - San Diego beats Boston 51-10 in AFL championship game
1964 - Pope Paul VI visits Jordan & Israel
Singer-songwriter Tony SheridanSinger-songwriter Tony
Sheridan 1964 - San Diego Chargers win AFL-championship
1967 - KLXA (now KTBN) TV channel 40 in Fontana-San Ana, CA
(IND) begins
1968 - Dr Benjamin Spock indicted for conspiring to violate
draft law
1968 - Dubcek succeeds pres Novotny as party leader of
Czechoslovakia
1969 - "Maggie Flynn" closes at ANTA Theater NYC
after 82 performances
1969 - Bollingen prize for poetry presented to John Berryman
& Karl Shapiro
1969 - Neville Williams' "Chronology of the Expanding
World" completed
1969 - USSR Venera 5 launched for 1st successful planet
landing (Venus)
1970 - 23,000 Belgian mine workers strike
1970 - KPTS TV channel 8 in Hutchinson-Wichita, KS (PBS)
begins broadcasting
1970 - Soap Opera "All My Children," premieres on
ABC
1971 - 1st one-day international, Australia v England at the
MCG
1971 - Globetrotters lose 100-99 to NJ Reds, ending 2,495-game
win streak
1971 - US heavyweight "Sonny" Liston's (36) corpse
found
1972 - Largest crowd at Cleveland Arena (Cavs vs
Lakers-11,178)
Pediatrician Benjamin SpockPediatrician Benjamin Spock 1972
- NASA announces development of space shuttle
1972 - NYC transit fare rises from 30 cents to 35 cents
1972 - Pres Nixon signs a bill for NASA to begin research on
manned shuttle
1972 - West-Pakistani sheik Mujib ur-Rahman freed
1973 - Mali & Niger break diplomatic relations with
Israel
1973 - Netherlands recognizes German DR
1974 - Raul Julia appears on Bob Newhart Show in "Oh,
Brother"
1974 - An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and
damages hundreds of houses.
1975 - "Wiz" opens at Majestic Theater NYC for
1672 performances
1975 - Charlie Smalls' "Wiz," premieres in NYC
1975 - Salyut 4 with crew of 2 is launched for 30 days
1975 - 14 die when British freighter "Lake
Illawarra" rams pylon bridge between Derwent & Hobart, Tasmania &
ship sinks
1976 - "MacNeil-Lehrer Report" premieres on PBS
1976 - Cambodia is renamed "Democratic Kampuchea"
1976 - Greg Chappell scores 182* at SCG against West Indies
1981 - "Nightline" with Ted Koppel extended from
20 mins to 30 mins
1981 - British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, a truck driver
later convicted of "Yorkshire Ripper" murders of 13 women
1982 - Arkansas judge rules against obligatory teaching of
creation
1984 - Adrian Dantly (Utah), ties NBA record of 28 free
throws
1984 - Greg Chappell scores 182* in his last Test innings
1985 - Bryan Trottier failed on 9th Islander penalty shot
1985 - Discovery moves to launch pad for STS 51-C mission
1987 - Surrogate Baby M case begins in Hackensack, NJ
1989 - 2 French TV newsmen arrested for trying to plant fake
bombs on 3 airlines at JFK airport in security test
1989 - Baseball signs $400M with ESPN, showing 175 games in
1990
1990 - J Donald Crump appointed 8th Commissioner of CFL
1991 - "Oh, Kay!" closes at Richard Rodgers
Theater NYC after 77 performances
1991 - Edwin Jongejans of Neth wins 1-meter springboard
diving title
1991 - Kevin Bradshaw of US Intl scores NCAA Div 1 record 72
pts
1992 - "6 Degrees of Separation" closes at Vivian
Beaumont NYC after 496 perf
1992 - "Crucible" closes at Belasco Theater NYC
after 32 performances
1992 - "On Borrowed Time" closes at Circle in Sq
Theater NYC after 99 perfs
1992 - "Peter Pan" closes at Minskoff Theater NYC
after 48 performances
1992 - Ravi Shastri scores 206 at SCG before being Warne's
1st crick Test wkt
1993 - Brian Lara completes 277 v Australia at cricket SCG
1993 - Price is Right model Janice Pennington sues CBS for
show accident
1993 - Reggie Jackson elected to Hall of Fame
1993 - The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of
the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
1993 - Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by
hanging (the first legal hanging in America since 1965).
1994 - Aleksandr Popov swims world record 100m free style
(47.82)
1994 - Yat Weiju swims world record 100m butterfly stroke
(58.71)
1994 - Zhong Weiju swims world record 25m pool record
(58.71)
1995 - AFC beats NFC 41-13 in the pro bowl
1995 - Lockheed C-140 Jetstar crashes at Isfahan Persia, 18
killed
1996 - Miami Dolphin coach Don Shula announces his
retirement
1996 - Muralitharan no-balled for throwing in ODI v WI at
the Gabba
1996 - Hamas operative Yahya Ayyash is killed by an
Israeli-planted booby-trapped cell phone.
1997 - "Juan Darien-Carnival Mass" closes at
Vivian Beaumont NYC
1997 - "Love Thy Neighbor," closes at Booth
Theater NYC
1997 - "Show Boat," closes at Gershwin Theater NYC
1998 - Ice storm knocks out electricity in Quebec &
Ontario
1998 - Vandals decapitate Copenhagen's Little Mermaid
2005 - Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar
system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David
L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar
Observatory.
1781 - Richmond, VA, was burned by a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold. 1885 - The Long Island Railroad Company became the first to offer piggy-back rail service which was the transportation of farm wagons on trains. 1896 - It was reported by The Austrian newspaper that Wilhelm Roentgen had discovered the type of radiation that became known as X-rays. 1900 - In Ireland, Nationalist leader John Edward Redmond called for a revolt against British rule. 1903 - The general public could use the Pacific cable for the very first time. 1914 - Ford Motor Company announced that there would be a new daily minimum wage of $5 and an eight-hour workday. 1925 - Mrs. Nellie Taylor Ross was sworn in as the governor of Wyoming She was the first female governor in the U.S. 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge began. 1934 - Both the National and American baseball leagues decided to use a uniform-size baseball. It was the first time in 33 years that both leagues used the same size ball. (MLB) 1935 - Phil Spitalny’s All-Girl Orchestra was featured on CBS radio on the program, "The Hour of Charm." 1940 - The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) got its very first demonstration of FM radio. 1944 - The London "Daily Mail" was the first transoceanic newspaper to be published. 1948 - Warner Brothers-Pathe showed the very first color newsreel. The footage was of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football classic. 1956 - In the Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy walked on two legs for the first time. 1961 - "Mr. Ed" debuted. The show would run for six years. 1970 - "All My Children" premiered on ABC. 1972 - U.S. President Richard M. Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle. 1987 - U.S. President Ronald Reagan underwent prostate surgery. 1993 - The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd. It was America's first legal hanging since 1965. Dodd was an admitted child sex killer. 1996 - Yahya Ayyash, a member of the Hamas in Israel, is killed by a booby-trapped cellular phone. 1998 - U.S. Representative Sonny Bono died in skiing accident. 2002 - A 15 year-old student pilot, Charles Bishop, crashed a small plane into a building in Tampa, FL. Bishop was about to begin a flying lesson when he took off without permission and without an instructor.
1896 A German newspaper reported German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of X-rays. 1914 Henry Ford introduced the $5-a-day minimum wage. 1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman governor of a state (Wyoming). 1972 President Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle. 2000 INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ruled that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez must be returned to Cuba.
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/jan05.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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