http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 6, 1838: Morse demonstrates telegraph
On this day in 1838, Samuel Morse's telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, would eventually revolutionize long-distance communication, reaching the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s.
Samuel Finley Breese Morse was born April 27, 1791, in Charlestown, Massachusetts. He attended Yale University, where he was interested in art, as well as electricity, still in its infancy at the time. After college, Morse became a painter. In 1832, while sailing home from Europe, he heard about the newly discovered electromagnet and came up with an idea for an electric telegraph. He had no idea that other inventors were already at work on the concept.
Morse spent the next several years developing a prototype and took on two partners, Leonard Gale and Alfred Vail, to help him. In 1838, he demonstrated his invention using Morse code, in which dots and dashes represented letters and numbers. In 1843, Morse finally convinced a skeptical Congress to fund the construction of the first telegraph line in the United States, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. In May 1844, Morse sent the first official telegram over the line, with the message: "What hath God wrought!"
Over the next few years, private companies, using Morse's patent, set up telegraph lines around the Northeast. In 1851, the New York and Mississippi Valley Printing Telegraph Company was founded; it would later change its name to Western Union. In 1861, Western Union finished the first transcontinental line across the United States. Five years later, the first successful permanent line across the Atlantic Ocean was constructed and by the end of the century telegraph systems were in place in Africa, Asia and Australia.
Because telegraph companies typically charged by the word, telegrams became known for their succinct prose--whether they contained happy or sad news. The word "stop," which was free, was used in place of a period, for which there was a charge. In 1933, Western Union introduced singing telegrams. During World War II, Americans came to dread the sight of Western Union couriers because the military used telegrams to inform families about soldiers' deaths.
Over the course of the 20th century, telegraph messages were largely replaced by cheap long-distance phone service, faxes and email. Western Union delivered its final telegram in January 2006.
Samuel Morse died wealthy and famous in New York City on April 2, 1872, at age 80.
Jan 6, 1777: Washington sets up winter quarters in Morristown
After two significant victories over the British in Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey, General George Washington marches north to Morristown, New Jersey, where he set up winter headquarters for himself and the men of the Continental Army on this day in 1777. The hills surrounding the camp offered Washington a perfect vantage point from which to keep an eye on the British army, which was headquartered across the Hudson River in New York City. Morristown's position also allowed Washington to protect the roads leading from the British strongholds in New Jersey to New England and the roads leading to Philadelphia, where the leaders of the American Revolution were headquartered.
In addition to tracking the British, Washington used much of his time in Morristown to reorganize the Continental Army, which had begun to shrink following the victories in Trenton and Princeton. Some soldiers chose desertion over another cold winter without adequate supplies; others refused to reenlist, returning home when their enlistments expired.
Fortunately for the Americans, Washington's leadership on the battlefield and his growing popularity throughout the country helped attract new recruits, and Washington orchestrated changes to hold on to the new troops and make them more effective soldiers. In an effort to instill discipline, maximum punishment for soldiers rose from 39 to 100 lashes. To make committing to the army more attractive, the Continental Army promised any man enlisting for three years a cash bonus. Those enlisting for the duration of the war could look forward to a land bounty. These promises would come back to haunt the army later, but in the early months of 1777, they allowed Washington to train and then maintain a seasoned force. By the time fighting resumed, Washington's immediate command numbered 11,000 men, including militia. In New York, an additional 17,000 Patriots agreed to fight for the cause.
Jan 6, 1941: Franklin D. Roosevelt speaks of Four Freedoms
On this day in 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses Congress in an effort to move the nation away from a foreign policy of neutrality. The president had watched with increasing anxiety as European nations struggled and fell to Hitler's fascist regime and was intent on rallying public support for the United States to take a stronger interventionist role. In his address to the 77th Congress, Roosevelt stated that the need of the moment is that our actions and our policy should be devoted primarily--almost exclusively--to meeting the foreign peril. For all our domestic problems are now a part of the great emergency.
Roosevelt insisted that people in all nations of the world shared Americans' entitlement to four freedoms: the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom to worship God in his own way, freedom from want and freedom from fear. After Roosevelt's death and the end of World War II, his widow Eleanor often referred to the four freedoms when advocating for passage of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Mrs. Roosevelt participated in the drafting of that declaration, which was adopted by the United Nations in 1948.
Jan 6, 1942: Roosevelt commits to biggest arms buildup in U.S. history
On this day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces to Congress that he is authorizing the largest armaments production in the history of the United States.
Committed to war in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, the U.S. had to reassess its military preparedness, especially in light of the fact that its Pacific fleet was decimated by the Japanese air raid. Among those pressing President Roosevelt to double U.S. armaments and industrial production were Lord William Beaverbrook, the British minister of aircraft production, and members of the British Ministry of Supplies, who were meeting with their American counterparts at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington. Beaverbrook, a newspaper publisher in civilian life, employed production techniques he learned in publishing to cut through red tape, improve efficiency, and boost British aircraft production to manufacturing 500 fighters a month, and he felt the U.S. could similarly beef up armament production.
Spurred on by Lord Beaverbrook and Prime Minister Churchill, Roosevelt agreed to the arms buildup. He announced to Congress that the first year of the supercharged production schedule would result in 45,000 aircraft, 45,000 tanks, 20,000 antiaircraft guns, and 8 million tons in new ships. Congressmen were stunned at the proposal, but Roosevelt was undeterred: "These figures and similar figures for a multitude of other implements of war will give the Japanese and Nazis a little idea of just what they accomplished."
Jan 6, 1971: Army drops charges of My Lai cover-up
The Army drops charges of an alleged cover-up in the My Lai massacre against four officers. After the charges were dropped, a total of 11 people had been cleared of responsibility during the My Lai trials.
The trials were a result of action that occurred in March 1968. During the incident, 1st Lt. William Calley, a platoon leader in the 23rd (Americal) Division, allegedly led his men to massacre innocent Vietnamese civilians, including women and children, in a cluster of hamlets in Son Tinh District in the coastal south of Chu Lai.
By 1971, charges were pending only against Lt. Calley, Capt. Ernest Medina, and Capt. Eugene Kotouc. On March 29, 1971, a Fort Benning court-martial jury found Calley guilty of the premeditated murder of at least 22 South Vietnamese civilians and sentenced him to life in prison. Kotouc was cleared by a court-martial on April 29, and Medina was acquitted on September 22.
On May 19, the Army disciplined two generals for failing to conduct an adequate investigation of My Lai, demoting Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Koster from two-star to one-star rank. At the same time, both Koster and Brig. Gen. George W. Young Jr., his assistant divisional commander at the time of the massacre, were stripped of their Distinguished Service Medals, and letters of censure were placed in their personnel files. The trials ended on December 17, when Col. Oren K. Henderson was acquitted of cover-up charges. He was the highest-ranking officer to be tried.
Of those originally charged, only Calley was convicted. Many believed that Calley was a scapegoat, and the widespread public outcry against his life sentence moved President Nixon to intervene on April 3, 1971. He had Calley removed from the Fort Benning stockade and ordered him confined to quarters pending review of his case. On August 20, Calley's life term was reduced to 20 years. In November 1974, a Federal Court judge ruled that Calley was convicted unjustly, citing "prejudicial publicity." Although the Army disputed this ruling, Calley was paroled for good behavior after serving 40 months, 35 of which were spent in his own home.
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
1066 - King Harald of England crowned
1099 - Henry V crowned German king
1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.
1227 - Ferrand of Portugal freed from the Louvre
1352 - French king Jean II introduces Order of the Star
1449 - Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI is crowned at
Mistra.
1453 - Emperor Frederik III becomes archduke of Austria
1494 - The first Mass in the New World is celebrated at La
Isabela, Hispaniola.
1496 - Moorish fortress Alhambra, near Grenada, surrenders
to the Christi
1497 - Jews are expelled from Graz in Styria, Austria
1579 - Artois/Hainault/Dowaai sign pro-Spanish Union of
Arras
1579 - The Union of Atrecht is signed.
1622 - Pope Gregory XV forms Congregatio the Propagande Fide
1639 - Virginia is 1st colony to order surplus crops
(tobacco) destroyed
1649 - The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial
for treason and other "high crimes"
1661 - The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempt to seize
control of London.
1663 - Great earthquake in New England
1681 - 1st recorded boxing match (Duke of Albemarle's butler
vs his butcher)
1690 - Joseph I, later Holy Roman Emperor and son of Emperor
Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.
1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble
publishes its findings.
1745 - Bonnie Prince Charlies army draws to Glasgow
1773 - Massachusetts slaves petition legislature for freedom
1781 - Battle of Jersey (Island in UK)
1784 - Turkey & Russia sign treaty in Constantinople
1832 - New England Anti-Slavery Society organizes (Boston)
1839 - 2 day storm off Irish & English coast
immortalized as "Big Wind"
1842 - 4,500 British & Indian troops leave Kabul,
massacred before India
1857 - Patent for reducing zinc ore granted to Samuel
Wetherill, Penn
1861 - Florida troops seize Federal arsenal at Apalachicola
1861 - NYC mayor proposes NY become a free city, trading
with N & S
1870 - The inauguration of the Musikverein (Vienna).
1873 - Pope Pius IX encyclical "On the Church in
Armenia"
1873 - US Congress begins investigating Crédit Mobilier
scandal
1880 - Record snow cover in Seattle - 120 cm
1883 - Ontario Rugby Football Union forms
1887 - `Abd-allah II of Harar opens the Battle of Chelenqo
with an attack on the camp of the Shewan army of Negus Menelik II.
1893 - Great Northern Railway connects Seattle with east
coast
1893 - The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by
Congress. The charter is signed by President Benjamin Harrison.
1896 - 1st US women's 6-day bicycle race starts, Madison
Square Garden
1896 - Cecil Rhodes resigns as premier of Cape colony
1898 - 1st telephone message from a submerged submarine, by
Simon Lake
1900 - Boers attack at Ladysmith, about 1,000 killed or
injured
1900 - Maurice Ravel's "Albaradode Gracioso," premieres
in Paris
1903 - Dutch Press museum opens in Amsterdam
1906 - Maurice Ravel's "Miroirs," premieres in
Paris
Educator Maria MontessoriEducator Maria Montessori 1907 -
Maria Montessori opens her 1st (Montessori) school (Rome)
1912 - New Mexico becomes 47th state
1914 - Stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch founded
1922 - -13] Conference of Cannes concerning German
retribution payments
1924 - Poulenc/Nijinska's ballet "Les Biches,"
premieres in Monte Carlo
1925 - Paavo Nurmi, sets indoor record, 4:13.6 mile &
14:44.6 5,000m
1926 - Kees Boeke opens 1st comprehensive school in Holland
1927 - US marines sent to Nicaragua
1928 - Pope Pius XI publishes encyclical Mortalium animos
(against oecumene)
1929 - Alexander I establishes a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia
1929 - Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin a her work
amongst India's poorest and diseased people.
1930 - 1st diesel engine automobile trip (in a Packard
sedan) completed
1930 - Bradman scores 452* for NSW against Qld, 377 mins, 49
fours
1931 - Thomas Edison submits his last patent application.
1936 - Barbara Hanley became Canada's 1st woman mayor
(Webbwood, Ontario)
Inventor Thomas EdisonInventor Thomas Edison 1937 - Bradman
scores 270 Aust v England at the MCG, incl 110 singles
1938 - Bronze memorial statue of Henry Hudson erected in
Bronx
1939 - Daily newspaper comic strip "Superman"
debuts
1940 - Mass execution of Poles, committed by Germans in the
city of Poznań, Warthegau.
1941 - FDR's "4 Freedoms" speech (speech, worship,
from want & from fear)
1942 - 1st around world flight (Pan Am "Pacific
Clipper")
1942 - Bob Feller, enlists in Navy & reports for duty to
Norfolk Virginia
1942 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial
airline to schedule a flight around the world.
1946 - Pope Pius XII publishes encyclical Quemadmodum
1947 - Ray Lindwall smashes 100 v England in MCG Test
1950 - "Happy as Larry" opens at Coronet Theater
NYC for 3 performances
1950 - Britain recognizes Communist government of China
1951 - "Pardon Our French" closes at Broadway
Theater NYC after 100 perfs
1951 - Indianapolis beats Rochester 75-73 in NBA-record 6
overtimes
1953 - WKBN TV channel 27 in Youngstown, OH (CBS) begins
broadcasting
32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt32nd US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1956 - KGNS TV channel 8 in Laredo, TX (NBC/ABC) begins
broadcasting
1956 - Federal court bars former Little League Commissioner
Carl Stotz from forming a rival group
1957 - Elvis Presley makes his 7th & final appearance on
Ed Sullivan Show
1957 - Yeshiva Kol Ya'ackov opens in Moscow Russia
1958 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to ee cummings
1958 - Gibson patents Flying V Guitar
1958 - WIPR TV channel 6 in San Juan, PR (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1963 - "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" with
Marlin Perkins begins on NBC
1963 - "Oliver!" opens at Imperial Theater NYC for
774 performances
1964 - Charlie Finlay announces he wants to move KC A's to
Louisville
1964 - Rolling Stones' 1st tour as headline act (with
Ronettes)
1965 - Geoff Boycott takes 3-47 against South Africa, his
best Test bowling
1967 - "Milton Berle Show" last airs on ABC-TV
1967 - KHTV TV channel 39 in Houston, TX (IND) begins
broadcasting
1967 - 2 homemade buses collided on a mountain road in
Terpate, Philippines plunging off a cliff, killing 84, injuring 140
Singer & Cultural Icon Elvis PresleySinger &
Cultural Icon Elvis Presley 1967 - United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops
launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.
1968 - Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour," album goes
#1 & stays #1 for 8 weeks
1968 - Dr N E Shumway performs 1st US adult cardiac
transplant operation
1968 - Surveyor 7 (last of series) launched by US for
soft-landing on Moon
1969 - Supremes release "I'm Livin' In Shame"
1969 - WLIW TV channel 21 in Garden City, NY (PBS) begins
broadcasting
1971 - Berkeley chemists announces 1st synthetic growth
hormones
1971 - Cecil Partee elected president pro tem of Illinois
state senate
1971 - Neil Young returns to his homeland of Canada for his
first concert there since his pre-stardom days
1972 - US female Figure Skating championship won by Janet
Lynn
1972 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Kenneth
Shelley
1972 - Vladimir Bukovski is exiled from USSR
1973 - "Schoolhouse Rock," premieres on ABC-TV
with Multiplication Rock
1974 - "CBS Mystery Theater," premieres on radio
1974 - England begins 3 day work week during mine strike
1974 - In response to the 1973 energy crisis, daylight
saving time commences nearly four months early in the United States.
1975 - "AM America," premieres on ABC-TV with Bill
Beutel as host
1975 - "Wheel Of Fortune," debuts on NBC-tv
1975 - 1000 Led Zeppelin fans, waiting overnight inside the
lobby of the Boston Garden for tickets to the group's February 4th gig to go on
sale, cause a riot and an esimated $30,000 damage
1976 - China PR performs nuclear test at Lop Nor PRC
1976 - Ted Turner purchases Atlanta Braves for reported $12
million
1977 - EMI records drop punk rock group Sex Pistols
1978 - 1st postage stamp copyrighted by US (Carl Sandburg
stamp)
1978 - US hand over St Stephan crown to Hungary
1979 - The Village People's Y.M.C.A becomes their only UK
No.1 single. At it's peak it sold over 150,000 copies a day
1980 - "1940's Radio Hour" closes at St James
Theater NYC after 105 perfs
1980 - Indira Gandhi's Congress Party wins elections in
India
1980 - Phil Flyers set NHL record of 35 straight games
without a defeat
1980 - The beginning of the first GPS epoch.
1981 - 50th hat trick in Islander history-John Tonelli
scored 5 goals
1984 - Challenger moves to Vandenberg AFB for mating of STS
41 B mission
1984 - Last day of Test cricket for Chappell, Marsh &
Lillee
1986 - British Defense Secretary Michael Heseltine resigns
1986 - Impala Platinum fires 20,000 black mine workers in
Johannesburg
1986 - Last day in Test cricket for Bob Holland
1986 - STS 61-C scrubbed at T-31sec because of liquid oxygen
valve problem
1987 - 100th US Congress convenes
1987 - Astronomers at University of California see 1st sight
of birth of a galaxy
1990 - NY Lotto pays $35 million to one winner (#s are
18-25-26-32-42-44)
1991 - "Gypsy" closes at St James Theater NYC
after 477 performances
1991 - "Real Life With Jane Pauley" premieres on
NBC-TV
1991 - Jorge Serrano Elias elected president of Guatemala
1991 - Qian Hong swims female world record 50m butterfly
(27.30 sec)
1992 - NY Yankees sign free agent Danny Tartabul
1992 - Robert Schenkkan's "Kentucky Cycle,"
premieres in LA
1992 - Sachin Tendulkar completes 148* v Australia at the
SCG
1992 - Shane Warne takes 1-150 in his 1st Test innings
1993 - Bill Wyman announces he will leave Rolling Stones
1993 - Jean Mueller discovers comet Mueller/1993a
1993 - Last day of Test cricket for Greg Matthews
1994 - "Government Inspector" opens at Lyceum
Theater NYC for 37 performances
1994 - Dow-Jones hits record 3803.88
1994 - Ice skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked by Tonya
Harding's bodyguard
1994 - Yat Weiju swims world record 50m butterfly stroke
(26.44)
1994 - Zhong Weiju swims world record 25m pool (26.44)
1995 - Atlanta Hawks' Lenny Wilkens becomes NBA's winningest
coach (939)
1995 - A chemical fire in an apartment complex in Manila,
Philippines, leads to the discovery of plans for Project Bojinka, a mass-terrorist
attack.
1996 - Record $65.2 million British lottery won by 3 people
(2-3-4-13-42-44)
1997 - "It's a Slippery Slope," closes at Vivian
Beaumont Theater NYC
1998 - Barry Switzer resigns as Dallas Cowboy coach
1998 - Don Sutton selected to Baseball Hall of Fame
2002 - Daniel Bedingfield returns to No.1 on the UK singles
chart for the second time with Gotta Get Thru This
2004 - Costas Simitis announces his resignation as president
of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement in Greece.
2005 - Mississippi Civil Rights Workers Murders: Edgar Ray
Killen is arrested as a suspect for the 1964 murders of three Civil Rights
workers.
2013 - 10 people are killed by a US drone attack in South
Waziristan, Pakistan
2013 - The NHL reaches an agreement to end a 113 day lockout
0871 - England's King Alfred defeated the Danes at the Battle of Ashdown. 1205 - Philip of Swabia was crowned as King of the Romans. 1453 - Frederick III erected Austria into an Archduchy. 1540 - King Henry VIII of England was married to Anne of Cleves, his fourth wife. 1720 - The Committee of Inquiry on the South Sea Bubble published its findings. 1759 - George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married. 1838 - Samuel Morse publicly demonstrated the telegraph for the first time. 1896 - The first American women’s six-day bicycle race was held at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 1900 - In India, it was reported that millions of people were dying from starvation. 1900 - Off of South Africa, the British seized the German steamer Herzog. The boat was released on January 22, 1900. 1912 - New Mexico became the 47th U.S. state. 1930 - The first diesel-engine automobile trip was completed after a run of 792 miles from Indianapolis, IN, to New York City, NY. 1931 - Thomas Edison executed his last patent application. 1941 - Richard Widmark made his debut on radio in "The Home of the Brave." 1941 - Alice Marble made her professional tennis debut when she defeated Ruth Hardwick of Great Britain at Madison Square Garden in New York City. 1942 - The first commercial around-the-world airline flight took place. Pan American Airlines was the company that made history with the feat. 1942 - The National Collegiate Football Rules Committee abolished the Y formation. 1945 - The Battle of the Bulge ended with 130,000 German and 77,000 Allied casualties. 1950 - Britain recognized the Communist government of China. 1952 - "Peanuts" debuted in Sunday papers across the United States. 1963 - "Wild Kingdom" premiered on NBC. 1967 - U.S. and South Vietnamese forces launched a major offensive, known as Operation "Deckhouse V", in the Mekong River delta. 1974 - CBS radio debuted "Radio Mystery Theatre." 1975 - The Broadway show "The Wiz" opened. 1975 - ABC-TV debuted "A.M. America." 1982 - William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles, CA, of being the "freeway killer" who had murdered 14 young men and boys. 1987 - After a 29-year lapse, the Ford Thunderbird was presented with the Motor Trend Car of the Year Award. It was the first occurrence of a repeat winner of the award. 1994 - Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the right leg by an assailant at Cobo Arena in Detroit, MI. Four men were later sentenced to prison for the attack, including Tonya Harding's ex-husband. 1998 - The spacecraft Lunar Prospect was launched into orbit around the moon. The craft was crashed into the moon, in an effort to find water under the lunar surface, on July 31, 1999. 1999 - The 106th U.S. Congress opened. The first item on the agenda was the impeachment proceedings of U.S. President Bill Clinton. The trial was set to begin January 7, 1999. 1999 - Bob Newhart received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
1540 King Henry VIII of England married his 4th wife, Anne of Cleves. 1759 George Washington married Martha Custis. 1838 Samuel Morse gave the first public demonstration of the telegraph. 1912 New Mexico became the 47th state in the United States. 1919 Former president Theodore Roosevelt died in Oyster Bay, N.Y. 1987 University of California astronomers first witnessed the birth of a galaxy that contained 1 billion stars. 1994 Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan clubbed on leg by men including husband of rival skater Tonya Harding.
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/jan06.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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