History Thread...

[CMRivdogs]

January 18

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-18?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0118-01182026

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On January 18, 1803, Thomas Jefferson requests funding from Congress to finance the Lewis and Clarkexpedition.

Jefferson officially asked for $2,500 in funding from Congress, though some sources indicate the expedition ultimately cost closer to $50,000. Meriwether Lewis was joined by his friend William Clark and 50 others on the journey, including an enslaved African American and a female Native American guide named Sacagawea. The team, which Jefferson called the Corps of Discovery, first surveyed the territory that comprised the Louisiana Purchase, a vast expanse that reached as far north as present-day North Dakota, south to the Gulf of Mexico and stopped at the eastern border of Spanish territory in present-day Texas. The team then crossed the Rockies and navigated river routes to the Pacific coast of present-day Oregon. Upon their return, the duo’s reports of the exotic and awe-inspiring new lands they had encountered sparked a new wave of westward expansion.

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On January 18, 1862, former U.S. President and Confederate congressman-elect John Tyler dies at age 71 in Richmond, Virginia.

Tyler, who was born in Virginia in 1790, served as a U.S. congressman and as governor of his home state before winning election to the U.S. Senate. state during the 1830s. A Whig, Tyler became the 10th U.S. Vice President in March 1841. Within a month of his inauguration, President William Henry Harrison died in office and Tyler vaulted into the executive chair. The major achievement of his administration was the addition of Texas to the Union in 1845.

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On January 18, 1996, Major League Baseball owners unanimously approve interleague play for the 1997 season. The owners' vote, which called for each team to play 15 or 16 interleague games, breaks a 126-year tradition of teams only playing games within their league during the regular season.

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January 18, 2009, marks the final day of a week-long auction in which auto giant General Motors (GM) sells off historic cars from its Heritage Collection. GM sold around 200 vehicles at the Scottsdale, Arizona, auction, including a 1996 Buick Blackhawk concept car for $522,500, a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro ZL-1 COPO Coupe for $319,000 and a 1959 Chevrolet Corvette convertible for $220,000. Other items included a 1998 Cadillac Brougham, which was built for the pope. (That vehicle was blessed by the pope but never used because of safety issues; it sold for more than $57,000.) Most were preproduction, development, concept or prototype cars.

The vehicles came from GM’s Heritage Center, an 81,000 square foot facility in Sterling, Michigan, that houses hundreds of cars and trucks from GM’s past, along with documents chronicling the company’s history and other artifacts and “automobilia.” Rumors spread that the financially troubled GM was selling off its entire fleet of historic vehicles, but that was not the case. As The New York Times reported shortly after the January auction: “Much has been made of the timing of the sale coinciding with G.M.’s current situation, but G.M. is simply doing the same thing that many large-scale collectors and museums regularly do in culling certain pieces from their collections. This was hardly a wholesale dumping of G.M.’s heritage.”

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1943 In a wartime rationing effort, the US government bans the sale of sliced bread—in theory, to conserve wax paper and the steel used in bread-slicing machines. After huge backlash, they rescind the order in less than two months

 

[Netnerd]

Nice summary of the Corps of Discovery. Hope you enjoyed your trip, CMR!

[CMRivdogs]

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-19?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0119-01192026

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1840 

During an exploring expedition, Captain Charles Wilkes sights the coast of eastern Antarctica and claims it for the United States. Wilkes’ group had set out in 1838, sailing around South America to the South Pacific and then to Antarctica, where they explored a 1,500-mile stretch of the eastern Antarctic coast that later became known as Wilkes Land. In 1842, the expedition returned to New York, having circumnavigated the globe.

Antarctica was discovered by European and American explorers in the early part of the 19th century, and in February 1821 the first landing on the Antarctic continent was made by American John Davis at Hughes Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula.

During the next century, many nations, including the United States, made territorial claims to portions of the barely inhabitable continent. However, during the 1930s, conflicting claims led to international rivalry, and the United States, which led the world in the establishment of scientific bases, enacted an official policy of making no territorial claims while recognizing no other nation’s claims. In 1959, the Antarctic Treaty made Antarctica an international zone, set guidelines for scientific cooperation, and prohibited military operations, nuclear explosions, and the disposal of radioactive waste on the continent.

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1977 President Gerald R. Ford pardons Tokyo Rose. Although the nickname originally referred to several Japanese women who broadcast Axis propaganda over the radio to Allied troops during World War II, it eventually became synonymous with a Japanese-American woman named Iva Toguri. On the orders of the Japanese government, Toguri and other women broadcast sentimental American music and phony announcements regarding U.S. troop losses in a vain attempt to destroy the morale of Allied soldiers. After the war, she had been convicted of treason.

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On January 19, 1993, the band Fleetwood Mac reunites to perform at the recently elected U.S. President Bill Clinton’sfirst inaugural gala.

Fleetwood Mac had faced much intra-band squabbling since their 1970s heyday, why they released one of the biggest albums of all time—Rumours—and a string of decade-defining hits like “Landslide,” “Rhiannon,” “Say You Love Me” and “Go Your Own Way.” And then, of course, there was “Don’t Stop” (as in “thinking about tomorrow”), which was candidate Bill Clinton’s unofficial theme song during the 1992 presidential campaign.

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1977 On her last day in the White House, First Lady and ERA supporter Betty Ford—on a whim—jumps on the Cabinet Room table and strikes a pose. At the time, only three women had ever sat at that table as presidential cabinet members.

 

[CMRivdogs]

January 20

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-20?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0120-01202026

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On January 20, 1981, minutes after Ronald Reagan’s inauguration as the 40th president of the United States, the 52 U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Teheran, Iran, are released, ending the 444-day Iran Hostage Crisis.

On November 4, 1979, the crisis began when militant Iranian students, outraged that the U.S. government had allowed the ousted shah of Iran to travel to New York City for medical treatment, seized the U.S. embassy in Teheran. The Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran’s political and religious leader, took over the hostage situation, refusing all appeals to release the hostages, even after the U.N. Security Council demanded an end to the crisis in an unanimous vote. However, two weeks after the storming of the embassy, the Ayatollah began to release all non-U.S. captives, and all female and minority Americans, citing these groups as among the people oppressed by the government of the United States. The remaining 52 captives remained at the mercy of the Ayatollah for the next 14 months.

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1841. During the First Opium War, China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British with the signing of the Chuenpi Convention, an agreement seeking an end to the first Anglo-Chinese conflict.

In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country’s economic and political affairs. One of Britain’s first acts of the war was to occupy Hong Kong, a sparsely inhabited island off the coast of southeast China. In 1841, China ceded the island to the British, and in 1842 the Treaty of Nanking was signed, formally ending the First Opium War.

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On January 20, 1863, Union General Ambrose Burnside’s Army of the Potomac begins an offensive against General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia that quickly bogs down as several days of heavy rain turn the roads of Virginia into a muddy quagmire. The campaign was abandoned a few days later.

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1942. 

Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question.”

In July 1941, Hermann Goering, writing under instructions from Hitler, had ordered Reinhard Heydrich, SS general and Heinrich Himmler’s number-two man, to submit “as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative, material, and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question.”

 

[CMRivdogs]

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One regiment will go to Canada, and two will join Maj. Gen. Charles Lee’s expedition to Long Island, N.Y., where “it appears necessary that the utmost exertion be used to prevent the mischievous operations of our enemies in that colony.” 2/2

 

[CMRivdogs]

For those of us who grew up with coal furnaces

 

[CMRivdogs]

January 21

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-21?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0121-01212026

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On January 21, 1977, U.S. President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.

In total, some 100,000 young Americans went abroad in the late 1960s and early '70s to avoid serving in the war. Ninety percent went to Canada, where after some initial controversy they were eventually welcomed as immigrants. Still others hid inside the United States.

In addition to those who avoided the draft, a relatively small number—about 1,000—of deserters from the U.S. armed forces also headed to Canada. While the Canadian government technically reserved the right to prosecute deserters, in practice they left them alone, even instructing border guards not to ask too many questions.

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1793 One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris.

Louis ascended to the French throne in 1774 and from the start was unsuited to deal with the severe financial problems that he had inherited from his grandfather, King Louis XV. In 1789, in a last-ditch attempt to resolve his country’s financial crisis, Louis assembled the States-General, a national assembly that represented the three “estates” of the French people—the nobles, the clergy and the commons. The States-General had not been assembled since 1614, and the third estate—the commons—used the opportunity to declare itself the National Assembly, igniting the French Revolution. On July 14, 1789, violence erupted when Parisians stormed the Bastille—a state prison where they believed ammunition was stored.

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Referred to as the "Ellis Island of the West," Angel Island in California's San Francisco Bay opens January 21, 1910, as America's major port of entry for Asian immigrants. Over the next 30 years, an estimated 100,000 Chinese and 70,000 Japanese are processed through the station.

Established as a military reserve during the Civil War, 20 acres of 740-acre island was transferred for use as an immigrant station in 1905, according to the National Parks Service.

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1950 

In the conclusion to one of the most spectacular trials in U.S. history, former State Department official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury. He was convicted of having perjured himself in regards to testimony about his alleged involvement in a Soviet spy ring before and during World War II. Hiss served nearly four years in jail, but steadfastly protested his innocence during and after his incarceration.

The case against Hiss began in 1948, when Whittaker Chambers, an admitted ex-communist and an editor with Timemagazine, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and charged that Hiss was a communist in the 1930s and 1940s. Chambers also declared that Hiss, during his work in the Department of State during the 1930s, had passed him top secret reports.

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1968 In a “broken arrow” nuclear incident, an American B-52 bomber with four nuclear warheads crashes into a fjord in Greenland, releasing widespread radiation. The crew had been forced to eject due to an accidental cabin fire.

 

[CMRivdogs]

January22

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-22?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0122-01222026

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In a Sacramento, California, courtroom on January 22, 1998, Theodore J. Kaczynski pleads guilty to all federal charges against him, acknowledging his responsibility for a 17-year campaign of package bombings attributed to the “Unabomber.”

Born in 1942, Kaczynski attended Harvard University and received a PhD in mathematics from the University of Michigan. He worked as an assistant mathematics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, but abruptly quit in 1969. In the early 1970s, Kaczynski began living as a recluse in western Montana, in a 10-by-12 foot cabin without heat, electricity or running water. From this isolated location, he began the bombing campaign that would kill three people and injure more than 20 others.

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On January 22, 1840, colonists aboard The New Zealand Company’s ship, the Aurora, become the first European settlersto arrive at Petone to found the settlement that would become Wellington.

In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman became the first European to discover the South Pacific island group that later became known as New Zealand. While attempting to land, several of Tasman’s crew were killed by warriors from the native Maori people, who interpreted the Europeans’ exchange of trumpet signals as a prelude to battle. The islands, which were named after the Dutch province of Zeeland, did not attract much additional European attention until the late 18th century, when English explorer Captain James Cook traveled through the area and wrote detailed accounts of New Zealand.

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1879 

Cheyenne chief Dull Knife (also anglicized as "Morning Star") and his people are defeated by U.S. army soldiers after one of their "outbreaks" from reservation confinement. In doing so, the so-called Dull Knife Outbreak came to an end.

A leading chief of the Northern Cheyenne, Dull Knife had long urged peace with the powerful soldiers invading his homeland in the Powder River country of modern-day Wyoming and Montana. However, the 1864 massacre of more than 200 peaceful Cheyenne Indians by Colorado militiamen at Sand Creek, Colorado, led Dull Knife to question whether the U.S. army could ever be trusted. He reluctantly led his people into a war he suspected they could never win. In 1876, many of Dull Knife’s people fought alongside Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull at their victorious battle at Little Bighorn, though the chief himself apparently did not participate.

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1918 

Soon after the Bolsheviks seized control in immense, troubled Russia in November 1917 and moved toward negotiating peace with the Central Powers, the former Russian state of Ukraine declares its total independence.

One of pre-war Russia’s most prosperous areas, the vast, flat Ukraine (the name can be translated as at the border or borderland) was one of the major wheat-producing regions of Europe as well as rich with mineral resources, including vast deposits of iron and coal. The majority of Ukraine was incorporated into the Russian empire after the second partition of Poland in 1793, while the remaining section—the principality of Galicia—remained part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and was a key battleground on World War I’s Eastern Front.

Immediately following the overthrow of the czar in February 1917, Ukraine set up a provisional government and proclaimed itself a republic within the structure of a federated Russia. After Vladimir Lenin and his radical Bolsheviks rose to power in November, Ukraine—like its fellow former Russian property, Finland—took one step further, declaring its complete independence in January 1918.

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On January 22, 2003, the U.S. Census Bureau releases detailed statistics on race and ethnicity, the first time such numbers had been released since the 2000 census. The numbers showed that the Hispanic population of the United States had increased by 4.7 percent since the last count, officially making Hispanics the largest minority group in the country.

The trends of the last several decades had indicated that this milestone was approaching. The foreign-born population of the United States had been increasing exponentially, from just 9.6 million in 1970 to 31.1 million by 2000, and immigrants from Latin America accounted for a large percentage of those newcomers. The 2000 census showed that 29 percent of immigrants in the U.S. had come from Mexico alone, while immigrants from other Latin American nations made up another 22 percent. Birth rates in the Hispanic-American community were also among the highest in the nation.

 

[CMRivdogs]

January 23

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-23?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0123-01232026

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On January 23, 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs—now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

The story of the Frisbee began in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where William Frisbie opened the Frisbie Pie Company in 1871. Students from nearby universities would throw the empty pie tins to each other, yelling “Frisbie!” as they let go. In 1948, Walter Frederick Morrison and his partner Warren Franscioni invented a plastic version of the disc called the “Flying Saucer” that could fly further and more accurately than the tin pie plates. After splitting with Franscioni, Morrison made an improved model in 1955 and sold it to the new toy company Wham-O as the “Pluto Platter”–an attempt to cash in on the public craze over space and Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs).

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At a graduation ceremony at a church in Geneva, New York on January 23, 1849, Geneva Medical College bestows a medical degree upon Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United States to receive one. Despite the near-uniform opposition of her fellow students and medical professionals, Blackwell pursued her calling with an iron will and dedicated her life to treating the sick and furthering the cause of women in medicine.

Blackwell’s family was remarkable by any standard. Her father was a staunch abolitionist and both her brother and his wife were active in the women’s suffrage movement. Another sister-in-law was the first female minister to be ordained in a mainstream Protestant denomination, and Elizabeth’s younger sister Emily also studied medicine.

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Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American to be elected to the United States Senate on January 23, 1907. His tenure later as Herbert Hoover's vice president made him the highest-ranking Native American ever to serve in the federal government.

Curtis was born in the Kansas Territory shortly before it became his state. His mother, Ellen Papin, was of French, Kaw, Osage and Potawatomi heritage, making him 3/8 Native American. As a child, he learned both French and Kansa, the language of the Kaw people, and spent much of his time on the Kaw reservation. He studied law and opened a practice in Topeka, eventually becoming a prosecutor and securing election to the House of Representatives in 1893.

Curtis' experience made him a proponent of Native American assimilation into American society. He successfully sponsored the Curtis Act of 1898, a law which stripped many Native American communities of their autonomy and paved the way for the selling of their communal lands to private individuals. Still a member of the Kaw nation, he was entitled to and received an allotment of land when his tribe's lands were divided up.

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On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence vessel, is engaged in a routine surveillance of the North Korean coast when it is intercepted by North Korean patrol boats. According to U.S. reports, the Pueblo was in international waters almost 16 miles from shore, but the North Koreans turned their guns on the lightly armed vessel and demanded its surrender.

The Americans attempted to escape, and the North Koreans opened fire, wounding the commander and two others. With capture inevitable, the Americans stalled for time, destroying the classified information aboard while taking further fire. Several more crew members were wounded.

 

[CMRivdogs]

January 24

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-24

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Larry Nassar, a former doctor at Michigan State and for USA Gymnastics, is sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison for sexual assault on January 24, 2018. Nassar was found guilty of using his position in sports medicine to abuse hundreds of women and girls in one of the most high-profile cases to arise from the #MeToo movement.

The scandal resulted not only in his imprisonment, likely for the rest of his life, but also criticism of the institutions that failed to detect and respond to his behavior. In the wake of the revelations, the president of Michigan State and the entire board of USAG resigned, while Nassar’s accusers, who number over 260, received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

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On January 24, 1781, Patriot commanders Lieutenant Colonel Light Horse Henry Lee and Brigadier General Francis Swamp Fox Marion of the South Carolina militia combine forces and conduct a raid on Georgetown, South Carolina, which is defended by 200 British soldiers.

Marion won fame and the Swamp Fox moniker for his ability to strike and then quickly retreat into the South Carolina swamps without a trace. His military strategy is considered an 18th-century example of guerilla warfare and served as partial inspiration for the film The Patriot, starring Mel Gibson.

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1848. 

A millwright discovers gold along the banks of Sutter’s Creek in California, forever changing the course of history in the American West.

A tributary to the South Fork of the American River east of the Sacramento Valley and San Francisco, Sutter’s Creek was named for a Swiss immigrant who came to Mexican California in 1839. John Augustus Sutter became a citizen of Mexicoand won a grant of nearly 50,000 acres in the lush Sacramento Valley, where he hoped to create a thriving colony. He built a sturdy fort that became the center of his first town, New Helvetia, and purchased farming implements, livestock, and a cannon to defend his tiny empire. Copying the methods of the Spanish missions, Sutter induced the local Indians to do all the work on his farms and ranches. Workers who dared leave his empire without permission were often brought back by armed posses to face brutal whippings or even execution.

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On January 24, 1908, the Boy Scouts movement begins in England with the publication of the first installment of Robert Baden-Powell’s Scouting for Boys. The name Baden-Powell was already well known to many English boys, and thousands of them eagerly bought up the handbook. By the end of April, the serialization of Scouting for Boys was completed, and scores of impromptu Boy Scout troops had sprung up across Britain.

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Canned beer makes its debut on January 24, 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production.

By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn’t until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.

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1943. 

German Gen. Friedrich Paulus, commander in chief of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, urgently requests permission from Adolf Hitler to surrender his position there, but Hitler refuses.

The Battle of Stalingrad began in the summer of 1942, as German forces assaulted the city, a major industrial center and a prized strategic coup. But despite repeated attempts and having pushed the Soviets almost to the Volga River in mid-October and encircling Stalingrad, the 6th Army, under Paulus, and part of the 4th Panzer Army could not break past the adamantine defense of the Soviet 62nd Army.

By January 24, the Soviets had overrun Paulus’ last airfield. His position was untenable and surrender was the only hope for survival. Hitler wouldn’t hear of it: “The 6th Army will hold its positions to the last man and the last round.” Paulus held out until January 31, when he finally surrendered. Of more than 280,000 men under Paulus’ command, half were already dead or dying, about 35,000 had been evacuated from the front, and the remaining 91,000 were hauled off to Soviet POW camps. Paulus eventually sold out to the Soviets altogether, joining the National Committee for Free Germany and urging German troops to surrender. Testifying at Nuremberg for the Soviets, he was released and spent the rest of his life in East Germany.

 

[CMRivdogs]

January 25

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/january-25?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2026-0125-01252026

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On January 25, 1924, the first Winter Olympics take off in style at Chamonix in the French Alps. Spectators were thrilled by the ski jump and bobsled as well as 12 other events involving a total of six sports. The “International Winter Sports Week,” as it was known, was a great success, and in 1928 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially designated the Winter Games, staged in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as the second Winter Olympics.

In Chamonix, Scandinavians dominated the speed rinks and slopes, and Norway won the unofficial team competition with 17 medals. The United States came in third, winning its only gold medal with Charles Jewtraw’s victory in the 500-meter speed-skating event. Canada won another hockey gold, scoring 110 goals and allowing just three goals in five games. Of the nearly 300 athletes, only 13 were women, and they only competed in the figure-skating events. Austrian Helene Engelmann won the pairs competition with Alfred Berger, and Austrian Herma Planck Szabo won the women’s singles. The Olympics offered a particular boost to skiing, a sport that would make enormous strides within the next decade. At Chamonix, Norway won all but one of the nine skiing medals.

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On January 25, 1776, the Continental Congress authorizes the first national Revolutionary War memorial in honor of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed during an assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775.

Montgomery, along with Benedict Arnold, led a two-pronged invasion of Canada in late 1775. Before joining Arnold at Quebec, Montgomery successfully took Montreal. But the Patriot assault on Quebec failed, and Montgomery became one of the first generals of the American Revolution to lose his life on the battlefield.

When word of his death reached Philadelphia, Congress voted to create a monument to Montgomery’s memory and entrusted Benjamin Franklin to secure one of France’s best artists to craft it. Franklin hired King Louis XV’s personal sculptor, Jean Jacques Caffieri, to design and build the monument.

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On January 25, 1919, in Paris, delegates to the peace conference formally approve the establishment of a commission on the League of Nations.

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson insisted on chairing the commission—for him, the establishment of the League lay squarely at the center of the peace negotiations. He was supported by British Prime Minister David Lloyd George. Though France’s Georges Clemenceau was more skeptical, believing the peace with Germany to be the more important goal, he went along with his American and British colleagues, refusing to let France be seen as an obstacle to the League’s formation. The commission was originally made up of two representatives from each of the Big Five nations—France, the British empire, Italy, Japan and the United States. Later, after smaller nations such as Belgium protested, they were granted the right to nominate additional representatives, first five and eventually nine.

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The first Emmy Awards ceremony is held on January 25, 1949 at the Hollywood Athletic Club. The awards recognize excellence in television (which in the 1940s was a novel medium).

Hollywood’s first television academy had been founded three years earlier by Sid Cassyd, a former film editor for Frank Capra who later worked as a grip at Paramount Studios and an entertainment journalist. At a time when only about 50,000 American households had TV sets, Cassyd saw the need for an organization that would foster productive discussion of the fledgling entertainment medium. The academy’s membership grew quickly, despite the lack of support from the Hollywood motion-picture establishment, which perhaps understandably felt threatened by TV and its potential to keep audiences entertained at home (and away from the theaters).

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[CMRivdogs]

 

[Screwball]

Of note on this day in history. I dispute the date by a day, but doesn't matter. Anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978. The link is from 2022 but that's not important. Funny, we are getting our butts kicked right now if you live in Ohio or Michigan. I remember the one in 78. It was wild.

[Screwball]

23 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Of note on this day in history. I dispute the date by a day, but doesn't matter. Anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978. The link is from 2022 but that's not important. Funny, we are getting our butts kicked right now if you live in Ohio or Michigan. I remember the one in 78. It was wild.

We had many people on snowmobiles, 4 wheel drive things, whatever could get through, get people to work and back so they could provide groceries and medial care for those who needed it. It was really scary.

[CMRivdogs]

17 minutes ago, Screwball said:

Of note on this day in history. I dispute the date by a day, but doesn't matter. Anniversary of the Blizzard of 1978. The link is from 2022 but that's not important. Funny, we are getting our butts kicked right now if you live in Ohio or Michigan. I remember the one in 78. It was wild.

I remember a few "blizzards" in the late 70's in Virginia. Especially 1979 and 1980. My favorite story was in 1979. My wife was working at a radio station in Richmond, Va. WRVA was the equivalent to say WJR in Detroit or WGN in Chicago, a 50 thousand watt clear channel blowtorch. Long time legend for a morning man and monster ratings.

Anyway we got about 9-10 inches of snow, if I remember correctly. I was working at a local Arby's at the time and when we closed early I put a set of chains on my Pinto. It was a Sunday afternoon, I heard her boss on the air on the way in and mentioned it. She called in, he said come on in. We spent the night in the sales manager's office. They got us up around 5, the only station folks were the morning guy, news guy, overnight jock who usually did his show from a truck stop 35 miles away, my wife and myself.

Too long story short, they put out a call for 4-wheel drive vehicles to ferry staff in. I think they were offering $50 an hour. When enough staff made it in, my wife and I took off, all these guys standing around with their big trucks, I cleaned off the Pinto and drove off. I still can remember the look on their faces.

"GODAMN PINTO" 

[CMRivdogs]

Norfolk, Va and environs had a major storm in 1980. I think it was late February that year. Once again a Sunday afternoon storm. The circus was in town at the big arena in Norfolk. The building also hosted minor league hockey, the Virginia Squires when the ABA was a thing and concerts. The storm was bad enough for police not to let people leave for a day or two. Her parents came to Richmond Saturday afternoon (about 2 hours away) and ended up spending 4 days.

The station had a four wheel drive by then, International Harvester whose wipers broke with the first serious snow. My wife was putting in 18 hour days covering stories and ferrying employees. She wondered why she was so tired. Turned out she was five months pregnant. 

[Screwball]

6 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

I remember a few "blizzards" in the late 70's in Virginia. Especially 1979 and 1980. My favorite story was in 1979. My wife was working at a radio station in Richmond, Va. WRVA was the equivalent to say WJR in Detroit or WGN in Chicago, a 50 thousand watt clear channel blowtorch. Long time legend for a morning man and monster ratings.

Anyway we got about 9-10 inches of snow, if I remember correctly. I was working at a local Arby's at the time and when we closed early I put a set of chains on my Pinto. It was a Sunday afternoon, I heard her boss on the air on the way in and mentioned it. She called in, he said come on in. We spent the night in the sales manager's office. They got us up around 5, the only station folks were the morning guy, news guy, overnight jock who usually did his show from a truck stop 35 miles away, my wife and myself.

Too long story short, they put out a call for 4-wheel drive vehicles to ferry staff in. I think they were offering $50 an hour. When enough staff made it in, my wife and I took off, all these guys standing around with their big trucks, I cleaned off the Pinto and drove off. I still can remember the look on their faces.

"GODAMN PINTO" 

Ha! That's a great story. Thanks for sharing. It's also a blast from the past. I guess we are dating ourselves, but "chains" and "Pinto's" are a blast from the past. I almost mentioned chains in my post above but I didn't think too many would know what they are. There were studs too. In 74 the car shop I worked at used to put studs in tires for the winter, and sold chains.

The Pinto. I'm sorry, and this is coming from a guy who worked on them - were a piece of **** - not to mention the gas tank thing... Sorry. But I will make up for it. When I go to my little ****hole bar I pass a house that has a Pinto sitting in the driveway. It hasn't moved for years. Faded blue paint and the back end of the car facing the street. I laugh every time I see it and say "piece of ****." Next time I go by, and I'm itching to do so since stormageddon has set in and I've been stuck in the house - I will get a picture for you. It's butt ugly. 🙂

[CMRivdogs]

January 26

Happy Admittance Day Michigan

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On January 26, 1837, more than a year after Michigan adopted its first constitution and elected its first governor, President Andrew Jackson signed the bill making Michigan the nation’s 26th state. The delay was caused by a disagreement and subsequent “war” over the port-town Toledo. The compromise that gave Michigan the western two thirds of the Upper Peninsula shaped Michigan’s future of copper and iron riches, as well as timber and other natural resources.

 

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On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales, effectively founding Australia. After overcoming a period of hardship, the fledgling colony began to celebrate the anniversary of this date with great fanfare and it eventually became commemorated as Australia Day. In recent times, Australia Day has become increasingly controversial as it marks the start of when the continent's Indigenous people were gradually dispossessed of their land as white colonization spread across the continent.

 

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1838. The first Prohibition law in the history of the United States is passed in Tennessee, making it a misdemeanor to sell alcoholic beverages in taverns and stores. The bill stated that all persons convicted of retailing “spirituous liquors” would be fined at the “discretion of the court” and that the fines would be used in support of public schools.

The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, several states and dozens of cities had enacted prohibition laws, and temperance groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for total national abstinence. In December 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment, commonly known as the Prohibition Amendment. It took effect in January 1919, following state ratification.

Despite an often-vigorous effort by law-enforcement agencies, the federal government failed to prevent the large-scale distribution of alcoholic beverages, and organized crime flourished in America during the 1920s. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and ratified, repealing Prohibition.

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1980. At the request of President Jimmy Carter, the U.S. Olympic Committee votes to ask the International Olympic Committee to cancel or move the upcoming Moscow Olympics. The action was in response to the Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan the previous month.

Demonstrating once again that the Cold War infiltrated every facet of world life, the action indicated that even the Olympic games, an arena for sportsmanship and friendly international competition, could be a highly politicized event. Although the Committee stopped short of announcing a U.S. boycott of the Olympics in Moscow, the U.S. stance left little room for optimism on that count.

President Carter made it clear that if the Soviets did not disengage from Afghanistan by February 20, a cancellation of U.S. participation in the Olympics was all but certain. As one member of the committee stated, the vote reflected “what the president requested the committee to do.” He indicated that the vote was a message to the Soviets that “their aggression in Afghanistan will not go unanswered.” On the other side of the argument, a number of U.S. Olympic athletes were highly critical of both the vote and President Carter’s ultimatum, feeling that an international sports competition should not be a tool for political statements.

The Soviets ignored the vote and the ultimatum, and the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to boycott the games. It was the first time in the modern history of the Olympics that the United States refused to participate. Almost a decade passed before the Soviets pulled out of Afghanistan.