Once again, it should be reiterated, that this does not pretend to be a very extensive history of what happened on this day (nor is it the most original - the links can be found down below). If you know something that I am missing, by all means, shoot me an email or leave a comment, and let me know!
475 - Byzantine Emperor Zeno is forced to flee his capital at Constantinople.
1431 - Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begin in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.
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.
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.
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
Joan of Arc Statue in Philadelphia
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.
Statue of Thomas Paine at Burnam Park in, Morristown, New Jersey
Thomas Paine
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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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