http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
Jan 9, 1493: Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids
On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, sees three "mermaids"--in reality manatees--and describes them as "not half as beautiful as they are painted." Six months earlier, Columbus (1451-1506) set off from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, hoping to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, his voyage, the first of four he would make, led him to the Americas, or "New World."
Mermaids, mythical half-female, half-fish creatures, have existed in seafaring cultures at least since the time of the ancient Greeks. Typically depicted as having a woman's head and torso, a fishtail instead of legs and holding a mirror and comb, mermaids live in the ocean and, according to some legends, can take on a human shape and marry mortal men. Mermaids are closely linked to sirens, another folkloric figure, part-woman, part-bird, who live on islands and sing seductive songs to lure sailors to their deaths.
Mermaid sightings by sailors, when they weren't made up, were most likely manatees, dugongs or Steller's sea cows (which became extinct by the 1760s due to over-hunting). Manatees are slow-moving aquatic mammals with human-like eyes, bulbous faces and paddle-like tails. It is likely that manatees evolved from an ancestor they share with the elephant. The three species of manatee (West Indian, West African and Amazonian) and one species of dugong belong to the Sirenia order. As adults, they're typically 10 to 12 feet long and weigh 800 to 1,200 pounds. They're plant-eaters, have a slow metabolism and can only survive in warm water.
Manatees live an average of 50 to 60 years in the wild and have no natural predators. However, they are an endangered species. In the U.S., the majority of manatees are found in Florida, where scores of them die or are injured each year due to collisions with boats.
Jan 9, 1776: Thomas Paine publishes Common Sense
On this day in 1776, writer Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet "Common Sense," setting forth his arguments in favor of American independence. Although little used today, pamphlets were an important medium for the spread of ideas in the 16th through 19th centuries.
Originally published anonymously, "Common Sense" advocated independence for the American colonies from Britain and is considered one of the most influential pamphlets in American history. Credited with uniting average citizens and political leaders behind the idea of independence, "Common Sense" played a remarkable role in transforming a colonial squabble into the American Revolution.
At the time Paine wrote "Common Sense," most colonists considered themselves to be aggrieved Britons. Paine fundamentally changed the tenor of colonists' argument with the crown when he wrote the following: "Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious liberty from every part of Europe. Hither they have fled, not from the tender embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home, pursues their descendants still."
Paine was born in England in 1737 and worked as a corset maker in his teens and, later, as a sailor and schoolteacher before becoming a prominent pamphleteer. In 1774, Paine arrived in Philadelphia and soon came to support American independence. Two years later, his 47-page pamphlet sold some 500,000 copies, powerfully influencing American opinion. Paine went on to serve in the U.S. Army and to work for the Committee of Foreign Affairs before returning to Europe in 1787. Back in England, he continued writing pamphlets in support of revolution. He released "The Rights of Man," supporting the French Revolution in 1791-92, in answer to Edmund Burke's famous "Reflections on the Revolution in France" (1790). His sentiments were highly unpopular with the still-monarchal British government, so he fled to France, where he was later arrested for his political opinions. He returned to the United States in 1802 and died in New York in 1809.
Jan 9, 1952: Truman warns of Cold War dangers
In his 1952 State of the Union address, President Harry S. Truman warns Americans that they are "moving through a perilous time," and calls for vigorous action to meet the communist threat.
Though Truman's popularity had nose-dived during the previous 18 months because of complaints about the way that he handled the Korean War, his speech received a standing ovation from congressmen and special guest Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Truman spent much of his speech addressing foreign policy concerns. The primary focus was on meeting the communist challenge. The president declared that the United States was confronted with "a terrible threat of aggression." He also pointed with pride to U.S. action in meeting that threat. In Korea, combined U.S. and United Nations forces "turned back the Chinese Communist invasion;" elsewhere in Asia, U.S. assistance to its allies was helping to "hold back the Communist advance;" and in Europe and the Middle East, the fight against Soviet expansion was also ongoing.
Truman was particularly proud of the Point Four program, which provided U.S. scientific and technical assistance (such as in the field of agriculture) to the underdeveloped world, claiming that it helped "feed the whole world so we would not have to stomach communism." There could be no slacking of effort, however, since the Soviet Union was "increasing its armed might," and with the Soviet acquisition of atomic bomb technology, the world was still walking "in the shadow of another world war."
Truman's speech was a stirring rebuttal to domestic critics like Senator Joseph McCarthy, who attacked Truman's "softness" on communism. Perhaps such criticism contributed to Truman's decision not to run for re-election. Adlai Stevenson ran as the Democratic candidate, but he lost the election to Dwight Eisenhower.
Jan 9, 1976: Stallone starts filming Rocky
The classic rags-to-riches story got a macho spin in the Oscar-winning Rocky, which was written by its star, Sylvester Stallone, and began filming on this day in 1976. Stallone had his own rags-to-riches tale: Born in the gritty Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, he was a juvenile delinquent who was kicked out of a number of schools before he turned 15. After attending high school in Philadelphia and studying drama at the University of Miami, Stallone moved back to New York and later to Los Angeles, with dreams of becoming an actor.
When the idea for Rocky came to him, Stallone was living in a seedy apartment in Hollywood with his wife and dog; he began writing scripts so that he would have better roles to play. According to a profile in the New York Times, published November 28, 1976, he wrote the entire Rocky script in a frenzied three and a half days. After a long negotiation process, Stallone sold the script to the producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, on the condition that he play the lead character, the underdog boxer Rocky “The Italian Stallion” Balboa, himself. His only previous leading role was in the low-budget flop The Lords of Flatbush (1974), and the producers had wanted to cast an actor with a higher profile, such as James Caan, Burt Reynolds or Ryan O’Neal.
The inspiration for Rocky was a real-life fight between the world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali and a little-known club fighter named Chuck Wepner. In March 1975, Wepner went 15 rounds against Ali in a title bout in Cleveland, Ohio; he had been such a big underdog before the fight that Sports Illustrated ran his picture on their cover with the headline “Boxing’s Strange Encounter.” In the movie, Rocky Balboa is a club fighter from Philadelphia who takes on the reigning world heavyweight champion, Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), with the help of his trainer, Mickey (Burgess Meredith), and his love interest, Adrian (Talia Shire). Stallone trained six hours a day for five months to don Rocky’s boxing gloves, popping vitamins and hitting the gym to develop his 46-inch chest and 16-inch biceps.
Directed by John Avildsen and shot in 28 days on a $1 million budget, Rocky divided critics between raves and pans, but it became the sleeper hit of the year, making Stallone--who got 10 percent of the grosses--a rich man and a bona fide star. It was the first feature-length movie to employ the Steadicam, which was used primarily in the fight scenes and the scenes of Rocky running in Philadelphia during his training. Garrett Brown’s pioneering invention helped keep the moving camera steady to create a fluid, smooth shot. At the 1977 Academy Awards, Rocky was nominated in no fewer than 10 categories, including Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, and won three Oscars: Best Director, Best Picture and Best Film Editing. It also spawned five sequels, including Rocky II-V over the course of the 1980s and Rocky Balboa (2006).
Here's a more detailed look at events that transpired on this date throughout history:
475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital
at Constantinople.
1296 - Earl Floris V signs accord with French king
1317 - Phillips V, the Tall, crowned king of France
1349 - 700 Jews of Basel Switzerland, burned alive in their
houses
1431 - Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc
begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.
1464 - 1st meeting of States-General of Netherlands
1493 - 1st sight of manatees (by Christopher Columbus)
1522 - Adriaan F Boeyens elected only Dutch pope (Adrian VI)
1558 - Geneva becomes independent from Berne canton,
Switzerland
1570 - Tsar Ivan the terrible kills 1000-2000 residents of
Novgorod
1718 - France declares war on Spain
1760 - Afghans defeat Marathas in battle of Barari Ghat
1768 - Philip Astley stages the first modern circus in
London.
1788 - Connecticut becomes 5th state
1792 - Russia & Turkey sign Peace of Jassy
1793 - 1st hot-air balloon flight in the US lifts off in
Philadelphia, piloted by Jean Pierre Blanchard
1793 - Dutch Prince Willem V establishes 2 brigades Drive
Artillery
1799 - British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income
tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.
1806 - Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson receives a state funeral
and is interred in St Paul's Cathedral.
Russian Tsar Ivan the TerribleRussian Tsar Ivan the Terrible
1811 - 1st Women's Golf Tournament held
1812 - Swedish Pomerania (Germany) seized by Napoleon
1834 - HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port San Julian,
Patagonia
1839 - Daguerrotype photo process announced at French
Academy of Science
1839 - Thomas Henderson measures 1st stellar parallax (Alpha
Centauri)
1847 - 1st SF newspaper published (California Star)
1848 - 1st commercial bank in SF established
1848 - People's uprising in Palermo Sicily
1854 - Astor Library opens in NYC
1855 - Clipper Guiding Star disappears in Atlantic, 480 dead
1857 - 7.9 earthquake shakes Fort Tejon Calif
1858 - Anson Jones, the last President of the Republic of
Texas, commits suicide.
1861 - 1st hostile act of Civil War; Star of West fired on,
Sumter, SC
1861 - Mississippi becomes 2nd state to secede
1863 - -Jan 11th] Battle of Arkansas Post, AR (Ft Hindman)
Naturalist Charles DarwinNaturalist Charles Darwin 1866 -
Fisk University establishes
1878 - Umberto I becomes King of Italy.
1879 - Cheyenne prisoners led by Dull Knife revolt at Ft
Robinson
1879 - Kirland Warbler discovered on Andros Island in
Bahamas
1880 - 6' (1.8 meters) of snow falls in Seattle in 5 days
1880 - The Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and
Washington with high wind and heavy snow.
1894 - "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze"
released in movie theaters
1894 - Georges Feydeau's "Un à la Patte,"
premieres in Paris
1894 - New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the
first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.
1901 - NSW (918) defeat S Australia (157 & 156) by
innings & 605
1903 - 2 NYers buy Baltimore baseball franchise for $18,000
& moved it to NY
1903 - Baseball's National & American Leagues make peace
1903 - Wind Cave National Park, SD established
1903 - Frank Farrell & Bill Devery purchase AL Balt
franchise for $18,000 & move it to NYC (Yankees)
1905 - Bloody Sunday-demonstrators fired on by tsarist
troops (1/22 NS)
1908 - Frans Schollaert succeeds De Trooz as premier of
Belgium
1908 - Muir Woods National Monument, California established
1909 - Ernest Shackleton reaches 88°23' south
1912 - US marines invade Honduras
1915 - Exposition (now Civic) Auditorium dedicated, SF
1916 - The Ottoman Empire prevails in the Battle of
Çanakkale, as the last British troops are evacuated.
1917 - World War I: the Battle of Rafa occurs near the
Egyptian border with Palestine.
1922 - KQV-AM in Pittsburgh PA begins radio transmissions
1922 - Rotterdam metal strike ends
1923 - Juan de la Cierva makes 1st autogiro (helicopter)
flight, Spain
1925 - German Postal Minister A Hofle resigns due to
corruption
1927 - Dmitri Shostakovitch' Octet opus 11, premieres in
Moscow
1927 - Fire in Laurier Palace cinema in Montreal, 78
children died
1928 - Eugene O'Neill's "Marco Millions,"
premieres in NYC
1929 - Buddy DeSylva & Lew Brown's musical "Follow
Thru" premieres in NYC
1929 - KDB-AM in Santa Barbara CA begins radio transmissions
1930 - Boston Bruins wins then NHL record 14th straight game
1933 - Amsterdam confectionery worker go on strike against
wage reduction
1936 - Noel Coward's "Astonished Heart," premieres
in London
1936 - Semi-automatic rifles adopted by US army
1937 - Italian regime bans marriages between Italians &
Abyssinians
1937 - Maxwell Anderson's "High Tor" premieres in
NYC
1940 - 2 German officers make emergency landing in Belgium
1940 - J Thurber & E Nugent's "Male Animal,"
premieres in NYC
1941 - 6,000 Jews exterminated in pogrom in Bucharest
Romania
1941 - Maiden flight by Canada's British-built Avro
Lancaster military plane
1942 - Joe Louis KOs Buddy Baer in 1 for heavyweight boxing
title
1942 - US Joint Chiefs of Staff created
1943 - Japanese government in Java limits sale & use of
motorcars
WW2 General Douglas MacArthurWW2 General Douglas MacArthur
1945 - US soldiers led by Gen Douglas MacArthur invades Philippines
1946 - "Would-Be Gentleman" opens at Booth Theater
NYC for 77 performances
1947 - "Street Scene" opens at Adelphi Theater NYC
for 148 performances
1947 - Roger Sessions' 2nd Symphony, premieres in SF
1947 - Elizabeth "Betty" Short, the Black Dahlia,
is last seen alive.
1948 - Walter Piston's 3rd Symphony in E, premieres in
Boston
1951 - Life After Tomorrow, 1st film to receive an
"X" rating, premieres
1951 - Washington Capitals NBA club folds
1952 - Belgian Pholien government resigns
1952 - Karel Sys wins European heavyweight boxing title
1952 - Marines give notice that they will recall Ted
Williams to active duty
1953 - Bevo Francis, Rio Grande College, scores 116 pts in
basketball game
1953 - Korean ferryboat "Chang Tyong-Ho" sank off
Pusan killing 249
1954 - -87°F (-66°C), Northice Station, Greenland (Greenland
record)
1954 - Bert Olmstead, Mont Canadiens, ties NHL record of 8
points in game
Baseball Player Ted WilliamsBaseball Player Ted Williams
1954 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to Louise Bogan & Leonie Adams
1956 - Abigail Van Buren's "Dear Abby" column 1st
appears in newspapers
1956 - Samir el-Rifai forms government in Jordan
1957 - British premier Anthony Eden resigns
1957 - Checheno-Ingush ASSR reformed in RSFSR
1957 - Dutch Newspaper Society expels communist daily paper
"Truth"
1957 - Kalmyk Autonomous Region reformed in RSFSR
1957 - Karachayevo-Cherkess Autonomous Region reestablished
in RSFSR
1958 - In basketball Oscar Robertson (Cin) scores 56, Seton
Hall team 54
1959 - "Rawhide" with Clint Eastwood premieres on
CBS TV
1959 - Dam across Tera River collapses after heavy winter
rains, 135 die
1959 - Pat O'Connor beats Dick Hutton in St Louis, to become
NWA champ
1960 - Building of Aswan dam in Egypt, begins
1961 - Twins agree on $500,000 payment to AA for Minn/St
Paul territory
1962 - Mister M (Dr X) beats Verne Gagne in Minn, to become
NWA champ
Actor Clint EastwoodActor Clint Eastwood 1962 - NFL
prohibits grabbing of face masks
1962 - US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1963 - Mao Tse-tung writes his poem "Reply to Comrade
Kuo Mo-jo"
1964 - Anti-US rioting broke out in Panama Canal Zone
1965 - Beatles' 65 album goes #1 & stays #1 for 9 weeks
1966 - Polish government denies exit visa to Cardinal
Wyszynski revisionism
1967 - Georgia legislature seats Rep Julian Bond
1967 - NFL New Orleans' franchise takes name
"Saints"
1968 - 1st ABA All-Star Game: East 126 beats West 120 at
Indiana
1968 - Surveyor 7 space probe soft lands on Moon
1969 - 1st trial flight of Concorde
1969 - Concorde jetliner's 1st test flight (Bristol England)
1970 - Constitution of Singapore enacted
1971 - "Lovely Ladies, Kind Gentlemen" closes at
Majestic NYC after 19 perf
1972 - Billionaire Howard Hughes says Clifford Irving's bio
is a fake
Chinese Communist Revolutionary and Politician Mao
Tse-TungChinese Communist Revolutionary and Politician Mao Tse-Tung 1972 -
Marlene Hagge wins LPGA Burdine's Golf Invitational
1972 - Passenger ship Queen Elizabeth destroyed by fire
1973 - Luna 21 launched, to Moon
1975 - 600 employees of Royal Canadian Mint go on strike
1975 - Australia beat England by 171 runs in 4th Test to
regain Ashes
1976 - Bryan Trottier failed in 4th Islander penalty shot
1976 - CW McCall CB song "Convoy" hit #1 on the
country music charts
1976 - Ringo releases "Oh My My" in UK
1977 - "Porgy & Bess" closes at Uris Theater
NYC after 122 performances
1977 - Superbowl XI: Oakland Raiders beat Minnesota Vikings,
32-14 in Pasadena Superbowl MVP: Fred Biletnikoff, Oakland, WR
1978 - Commonwealth of Northern Marianas established
1979 - Bollingen Prize for poetry awarded to WS Merwin
1979 - High-school player Daryl Moreau makes 126th
consecutive free throws
1979 - K-Mart pulls Steve Martin's "Let's Get
Small" for being in "bad taste"
1979 - Supreme Court strikes down (6-3) PA law requiring
doctors performing an abortion to try to preserve lives of potentially viable
fetuses
1980 - 63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia
1981 - Francisco Balsamao elected pres of Portugal
1982 - 5.9 earthquake in New England & Canada; 1st since
1855
1982 - Steve D'Innocenzo scores 3 hockey goals in 12 sec in
Mass HS game
British Prime Minister Margaret ThatcherBritish Prime
Minister Margaret Thatcher 1983 - British PM Margaret Thatcher visits Falkland
Islands
1984 - "TV's Bloopers & Practical Jokes"
premieres on NBC TV (Whoops)
1984 - Braves pitcher Pascual Perez is arrested for cocaine
possession
1984 - EAA moves operations to Oshkosh
1984 - John Lennon single "Nobody Told Me"
released posthumously
1985 - Flames set NHL record 264th regular season game
without being shut-out
1986 - NY Islanders greatest shutout margin (9-0) vs
Pittsburgh Penguins
1986 - After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak
must give up its instant camera business.
1987 - Chinese/Vietnamese border fights, 1500 killed
1987 - New Nicaraguan constitution takes effect
1988 - August Wilson's "Piano Lesson," premieres
in Boston
1988 - US male Figure Skating championship won by Brian
Boitano
1989 - "Pat Sajak Show" premieres on CBS
1989 - Johnny Bench & Carl Yastrzemski elected to
Baseball Hall of Fame
1990 - 64th US manned space mission STS 32 (Columbia 10)
launches into orbit
1990 - Boston Celtics worst ever (6 pts in 2nd vs NJ Nets)
& lose 87-78
1990 - Jim Palmer & Joe Morgan elected to Baseball Hall
of Fame
1990 - Supreme Court strikes down Dallas' ordinance imposing
strict zoning on sexually oriented businesses
1991 - Baker & Aziz meet in Geneva; talks fail to defuse
gulf crisis
1991 - Baseball officially bans Pete Rose from being elected
to Hall of Fame
1991 - Dean Smith of NC is 6th to win 700 career coaching
basketball games
1993 - Franziska van Almsick swims world record 100 m free
style (53.33)
1994 - 14th United Negro College Fund raises $11,000,000
1994 - Gunda Niemann skates world record (167.282 pts)
1994 - Rintje Ritsma skates world record (156.201 points)
1995 - Ecuador & Peru involve in boundary fight
1995 - Worker accidentally cuts electrial wires at Newark
Airport
1996 - First episode of "Third Rock from the Sun"
screened on NBC
Singer/Actor Frank SinatraSinger/Actor Frank Sinatra 1997 -
Heart attacks sends Frank Sinatra back to hospital
1998 - Anatoly Karpov defeats Viswanathan Anand to retain
chess title
1998 - Anatoly Solovyov & Pavel Vinogradov spacewalk
record 3 hrs 8 mins
1998 - Boston Red Sox Mo Vaughn pleads not guilty to drunken
driving
1998 - Decapitated head of Danish Little Mermaid is returned
1998 - Hockey News selects Wayne Gretzky best NHL player
ever
2001 - ABC-TV deputs "The Mole" for the first time
2001 - Shenzhou 2, an unmanned Chinese spacecraft, is
launched.
2001 - Apple announced iTunes at the Macworld Expo in San
Francisco, for organizing and playing digital music and videos. Now widely used
by Windows and Mac users.
2002 - Michael Jackson receives the Artist of the Century
award at the American music awards
2002 - 29th American Music Award: Janet Jackson & Lenny
Kravitz win
2005 - The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement,
commonly known as the Naivasha Agreement between the Government of Sudan and
the Sudan People's Liberation Movement rebel group in Naivasha, Kenya.
2005 - Elections are held to replace Yasser Arafat as head
of the Palestine Liberation Organization. He is succeeded by Rawhi Fattouh.
2007 - Apple Inc CEO, Steve Jobs announces the iPhone.
1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the U.S. 1799 - British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax, at two shillings (10p) in the pound, to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars. 1848 - The first commercial bank was established in San Francisco, CA. 1861 - The state of Mississippi seceded from the United States. 1894 - The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company put the first battery-operated switchboard into operation in Lexington, MA. 1902 - New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public. 1905 - In Russia, the civil disturbances known as the Revolution of 1905 forced Czar Nicholas II to grant some civil rights. 1929 - The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, TN. The company's purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind. 1936 - The United States Army adopted the semi-automatic rifle. 1937 - The first issue of "Look" went on sale. Within a month, "Look" became a biweekly magazine. 1940 - Television was used for the first time to present a sales meeting to convention delegates in New York City. 1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City. 1961 - The play, "Rhinoceros," opened on Broadway. 1969 - The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol. 1972 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor. 1972 - British miners went on strike for the first time since 1926. 1981 - Hockey Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito, announced that he would retire as a hockey player after the New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres hockey game. The game ended in a tie. (NHL) 1984 - Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's. 1986 - Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years due to a loss in a court battle that claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents. 1991 - U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf. 1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, 51, completed his 366th day in outer space aboard the Mir space station, breaking the record for the longest continuous time spent in outer space. 1997 - Tamil rebels attacked a military base in Sri Lanka. 200 soldiers and 140 rebels were killed. 2000 - ABC-TV began airing "The Mole." 2002 - Yasmine Bleeth was sentenced to two years of probation, regular drug tests, 100 hours of community service and pay the court costs in connection to a cocaine-possession charge. 2002 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. 2003 - Archaeologists announced that they had found five more chambers in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor. The rooms were believed to cover about 750,000 square feet. 2006 - Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a dual ceremony.
1788 Connecticut became the 5th state in the United States. 1861 Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union. 1905 The Russian Revolution of 1905 was sparked by troops firing on petitioners to Czar Nicholas in St. Petersburg. 1964 Anti-American rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone. 1968 Surveyor 7, the last of America's unmanned lunar probes, landed on the Moon.
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/jan09.htm
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history
http://www.infoplease.com/dayinhistory
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