History Thread...

[CMRivdogs]

January 18

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

Quote

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.

Quote

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.

Quote

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.

Quote

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.”

Quote

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!