January History

January History

January 1:

• The Julian Calendar first went into effect, introduced by Julius Caesar the calendar includes 12 months and 365.25 days as opposed to the Gregorian Calendar of 365.2425 days. (After 1500 years the non leap day of the Julian Calendar adds up to significant problems). The calendar also changes a Roman tradition of having the new year begin in March around the time of spring planting, instead the new year begins in January. January is named after the Roman God Janus who was the god of: beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages and endings. Traditionally the pre Julian Roman Calendar had about 60 days from the winter solstice to spring to try out new adventures, habits, routines, enjoy life by adding something new into it, then return to work in the Spring until harvest in the Fall/Winter. We still follow those traditions today but it all began by Julius Caesar on this day; 45 BC (December is the end of the year, the 12 month even though Deci in latin is 10. That’s because the tradition of the pre Julian Calendar was to have the new year begin in March (named after Mars. In fact in many countries it took centuries for them to change the beginning of the new year from March to January)
• Lorenzo de Medici was born; 1449
• Protestant Europe adopts the Gregorian Calendar (except Britain); 1700.
• Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit who invented the mercury thermometer proposes as system of measuring heat. The system was adopted by English Speaking countries and others until the 1970’s when it was replaced by the Celsius scale. The Fahrenheit scale is still used in the United States along with the British Imperial measurement for distances in miles and feet. (The British adopted the Metric scale some time ago). The Fahrenheit scale began on this day; 1724.
• Paul Revere was born in Boston Massachusetts, technically he was born on December 21, 1734 according to the calendar in use in that part of America at the time, however when the British adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752 his birthday changed to January 1; 1735.
• The Starting point of naming and classifying species begins. According to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature the work of Systema Naturae by Carl Linnaeus is the beginning of how animals are named using a binomial nomenclature and a system of organizing animals into groups. The Animal Kingdom is broken into six classes, mammals, Aves, Amphibia, Pisces, Insects, Vermes. The second volume published a year later details the nomenclature of plant life. Scientists and Zoologists have been updating and adding names ever since, but it all began on this day; 1758.
• The United Kingdom is formed when the Irish Parliament votes to join the kingdom of Great Britain, hence “United”; 1801.
• The USA bans the slave trade; 1808
• The Emancipation Proclamation goes into effect; 1863
• The Euro is introduced in Europe; 2002.

January 2:

• The USA’s first commemorative stamp to feature a woman is introduced, featuring Queen Isabella the patron of Christopher Columbus; 1893
• The first junior high school in America opens in Berkeley California; 1910
• Isaac Asimov is born; 1920
• The DeYoung museum in Golden Gate Park opens; 1921

January 3:

• Martin Luther is excommunicated; 1521
• Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo the Spanish explorer who discovered and named California dies; 1543
• Stephen F. Austin receives a land grant from the government of Mexico named Texas; 1823
• Mexico imprisons Stehen F. Austin in Mexico City; 1834
• Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City begins, originally using the designs of John A. Roebling who pioneered a new style of suspension bridge using a unique wire rope which he manufactured along with other steel just outside of Trenton New Jersey. John A. Roebling died from tetanus when his foot got crushed by a ferry at the job site. His son Washington Roebling would replace him as chief engineer and finish the construction. Roebling steel would eventually close, however it also supplied the wire rope and some steel for the Golden Gate Bridge which is famous for being the first job site to enforce hard hats, and in all the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge was very safe. The older and just as iconic bridge in New York City began construction on this day in; 1870.
• J.R.R. Tolkien is born; 1892
• Sergio Leone is born; 1929
• Fidel Castro is excommunicated; 1962

January 4:

• Isaac Newton was born; 1643
• Louis braille who developed the “braille” system of printing and writing which is used by the blind is born in Paris; 1809
• Samuel Colt sells his first revolver to the US Government; 1847
• Utah enters the Union under the condition that it outlaws polygamy; 1896
• Albert Camus is killed in an automobile accident; 1960

January 5:

• First divorce in the colonies, Anne Clarke is granted a divorce from her husband Denis Clarke who admitted to abandoning her and his two children for another woman who he also had two children with. He refused to go back to his original wife giving the court no choice but to grant a divorce to Anne Clarke; 1643
• Anton Drexler founded the German Worker’s Party the forerunner of the nazi party in Munich Germany; 1919
• The Golden Gate Bridge begins construction; 1933

January 6:

• Feast of Epiphany where 3 wise men visited Christ as a child after following an angel who guided their way to Bethlehem; 1 (Concludes Christmas celebrations, also known as Old Christmas)
• Joan of Arc is born; 1412
• George Washington marries Martha Washington; 1759
• Jedediah Smith is born; 1798
• Samuel Morse demonstrates the telegraph machine for the first time in Morristown New Jersey; 1838
• Theodore Roosevelt dies; 1919
• Franklin Roosevelt gives a speech about 4 freedoms; 1941
• Due to a law passed in 1948 (June 25) Congress is to meet at 1:00 pm Eastern Standard Time in the House of Representatives Hall. Fowling a meeting of the electoral college and delivery of the certificates to the Congress. The Senate and the House of Representatives shall open the certifications of the states for President, they shall be opened, presented, and counted in the order of the States beginning with the letter A. The presiding officer of this proceeding is to be the President of the Senate who is to announce the count for the record and journal.
• Congress certifies the 2000 election after a series of legal arguments over hanging chads in Florida and a Supreme Court Decision; 2001
• A violent mob of insurrectionists (traitors) attack the US Capitol to stop the certification of the 2020 election of Joseph R. Biden as President of the United States of America. One person is killed during the attack by officers defending our nation’s capitol building, another was stampeded to death outside, another died from a heart attack. Officer Brian Sicknick died on Jan 7 from injuries suffered by the hands of his fellow Americans (a.k.a traitors) who attacked the Capitol. Also in the aftermath officer Jeffrey Smith and officer Howard S. Liebengood took their own life.
  • For the record more Americans died because of this single event than the 2 people killed during the attack on fort Sumter which began the civil war, those deaths were accidental and happened during the lowering of the flag during a cannon salute that went bad.

January 7:

• The first American colonists arrive in the African nation of Liberia. The original intention of the colonizationists of America’s abolitionist movement was to give blacks a place to be free in their native land of Africa. However, even with the good intentions, the actual colonization and story of Liberia is not a kumbaya kind of story. The freed American slaves who colonized the area quickly expanded their land by being brutal and ruthless, much like they were treated by their former white owners in America they treated the native African tribes like that. A system of racism was in place in Libera for many decades and has lead to several overthrows of governments and civil wars in the 1990’s. The main conflict coming from the indigenous Liberians (those who were there first and abused by the colonists) and the colonial oppressors who were former American slaves. This sad story began on this day; 1822.
• President Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial begins; 1999
• Terrorists attack the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris killing 12 people; 2015.

January 8:

• Galilileo Galilei dies in Italy at 77; 1642
• Andrew Jackson leads a ragtag army of random people in New Orleans including pirates against the British. They store ammunition at the oldest bar in America (allegedly) and run it to the battlefield. This makes Andrew Jackson a hero and the savior of New Orleans. The Battle of New Orleans occurred after the treaty to end the war had been signed, however the news of the treaty had yet to reach the British navy or the Americans in New Orleans; 1815
• African American men gain the right to vote in Washington D.C.; 1867
• Crazy Horse makes his last stand at Wolf Mountain Montana, where he and his warriors are attacked by surprise by the US Cavalry seeking revenge for Custer. Crazy Horse successfully was able to retreat in a blizzard, however a few months later he surrendered and later was stabbed by a guard at a fort in Nebraska. But his last battle was fought on this day; 1877
• Elvis Presley is born; 1935
• David Bowie is born; 1947

January 9:

• The Daguerreotype photo process is announced at French Academy of Sciences, invented by Louis-Jacques Mande Daguerre it is considered the first commercially successful form of photography; 1839
• nothing else of importance happened on this day in any other year ever…. Except iTunes in 2001, iPhone in 2007, Columbus confusing manatees for mermaids in 1493

January 10:

• Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon which signaled the beginning of a civil war between his army and that of Pompey; 49 BC
• Common Sense is published by Thomas Paine; 1776
• A geyser of oil in Spindletop Hill in Beaumont Texas begins a crude oil boom and changes the way people go from point A to point B forever; 1901
• The USA and the Vatican start diplomatic relations after 117 years; 1984
• David Bowie dies; 2016

January 11:

• Teddy Roosevelt makes the Grand Canyon a national monument; 1908
• The Surgeon General announces a link between smoking cigarets and lung cancer; 1962

January 12:

• The eighth Mission in California was founded Santa Clara de Asis; 1777
• Jack London is born in San Francisco. His mother was a gypsy psychic from Ohio who stayed a night in the home of one of Seattle Washington’s founding fathers where she conceived Jack London. She then arrived pregnant in San Francisco a few months later and married a man named London. Jack London would go on to write American classics and be quoted in the send off of the latest James Bond film. He had a reputation of being a man’s man and a drinker. He sobered up and retired in Glenn Ellen California just not of Sonoma California. His home burned and is a state park, there is a small trail leading to his gravesite. A true California and Western legend, few men left a mark like Jack London; 1876

January 13:

• Pope Honorius II grants papal sanction to the Knights Templar; 1128
• Horatio Alger is born; 1832
• Wyatt Earp dies in Los Angeles; 1929

January 14:

• First Connecticut Constitution known as the Fundamental Orders is published. This is considered the first constitution ever by some historians; 1639
• Continental Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris ending the American Revolutionary War; 1784
• The Opera Tosca by Giacomo Puccini premiers in Rome’s Costanzi theater; 1900
• Joe Dimaggio and Marylin Monroe marry at the City Hall in San Francisco California; 1954

January 15:

• British Museum opens to the public; 1759
• University of Notre Dame is founded; 1844
• Thomas Nast uses the Donkey as a symbol for the Democratic Party for the first time; 1870
• Martin Luther King Jr. is born; 1929
• The First Super Bowl between the Packers and the Chiefs, the Packers win 35-10; 1967

January 16:

• The Medici Family become the official bankers of the papacy; 1412
• Louis XVI is sentenced to death during the French Revolution; 1793
• Prohibition is ratified into the US Constitution as the 18th amendment. It will be repealed with the 21st amendment; 1919

January 17:

• Benjamin Franklin was born; 1706
• Betty White was born; 1922
• Muhammad Ali formerly known as Cassius Clay was born; 1942
• Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles kills 54 people and caused billions in damage; 1994

January 18:

• Captain James Cook becomes the first European to explore the Hawaiian Islands. He names them in honor of one of his patrons, the Earl of Sandwich, the Sandwich Islands. On his second voyage to the island a year later he landed in a sacred bay and interrupted a festival to a fertility god. The Europeans were mistaken for gods by the Hawaiians and were treated royally. Until one of the sailors died ending that belief and angering the natives, the rough seas forced Cook and his crew to go back to the islands where they were met with rocks. After killing a local chief a mob of angry Hawaiians killed Captain Cook. But it all began on this date when he first landed on the islands in; 1778

January 19:

• Robert E. Lee was born; 1807
• Edgar Allen Poe was born; 1809
• Paul Cezanne was born; 1839
• Janis Joplin was born; 1943
• Dolly Parton was born; 1946

January 20:

• Nothing but every American President’s inauguration since 1937.

January 21:

• Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in Paris; 1793
• Christian Dior was born; 1905
• Women’s March is held in part to show opposition to President Donald Trump, it is considered the largest demonstration in US History; 2017

January 22:

• 150 British soldiers hold off over 3,000 Zulu warriors at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift in South Africa; 1879
• Queen Victoria of England died; 1901
• Roe v Wade ruling is issued by the Supreme Court of the United States legalizing the right to abortion in the USA to women; 1973
• The Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski is sentenced to four terms of life in prison without parole for killing 3 people and injuring 22 in 16 attacks of mailing bomb.’ 1998

January 23:

• Edouard Manet is born in Paris France; 1832
• Elizabeth Blackwell receives a medical degree becoming the first woman to earn a medical degree in the USA; 1849
• Charles Lindbergh testifies before Congress urging them to negotiate a neutrality pact with Hitler and the nazis. Charles Lindbergh gained popularity when he became the first person to fly non stop from New York to Paris when he landed The Spirit of St. Louis after a 33 hour flight in 1927, this led him to gain international acclaim as a pioneer in aviation and a $25,000 price. In 1932 he made headlines again when his two year old son was kidnapped and later found dead. The killer Bruno Hauptmann was executed. To get out of the public eye Charles and his wife moved to Europe where he became sympathetic to Germany’s policies at the time under Hitler, Lindbergh even allowed himself to receive medals by the nazis. Upon his return Charles Lindbergh began the America First Committee based in St. Louis which proposed neutrality with Germany and argued against intervention. At one point the group was quite popular with over a million members. This committee drew the disdain from other Americans like Dr. Sues who routinely drew disparaging political cartoons of Charles Lindbergh and the America First Committee. After Pearl Harbor the America First Committee collapsed, Charles Lindbergh flew 50 combat missions in the Pacific and was promoted to the rank of General of the Air Force Reserve by President Eisenhower. The book and movie “Spirt of St. Louis” tended to only focus on the good of Charles Lindbergh and leave out the not so good which has helped his reputation remain decent in the public’s eye. But on this day Charles Lindbergh proposed America negotiate a peace with the nazis; 1941

January 24:

• James Wilson Marshall, who left Missouri for cleaner air and settled in the Sacramento California region, he found work building a mill for John Sutter in the town of Coloma California discovers GOLD!!! EUREKA!!! Is declared and the Gold Rush of California is on; 1848
• Winston Churchill dies in London; 1965

January 25:

• University of Virginia is founded by Thomas Jefferson; 1819
• Charles Manson and his followers are convicted of murder; 1971

January 26:

• 11 British ships with 1,000 people including 700 convicts and 300 marines arrive to form a penal colony on New South Wales. This continent is known as Australia; 1788
• The Battle of Seattle occurs, warned by friendly Indian Chief Seattle the 50 settlers of the small town along the Puget Sound were about to be attacked by hundreds of unfriendly Indians. The US Navy ship Decatur fired cannons and rounds into the trees to repel the attack, they also evacuated the white settlers. Some accounts say there were no Indians who died during the attack however, there were several white settlers who died from the Indians. In the aftermath Chief Pat Kanim of the Snoqualmie tribe issued a reward for the scalps of those who attacked Seattle, $80 for a chief, $20 for a warrior. In the months that followed rewards were issued and prisoners captured. Local settlers began negotiating fairer trades with the local Indians and eventually the economic ties between the tribes and the settlers became strong enough where fighting became pointless. The last battle happened on this day; 1856
• Work begins on the Eiffel Tower; 1887
• Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash at 42; 2020

January 27:

• Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Over 6 million jews would be murdered by the nazis during the holocaust; 1945
• The Paris accord is signed ending the Vietnam War; 1973

January 28:

• Pride and Prejudice is published; 1813
• The space shuttle Challenger explodes killing 7 people including 37 year old high school teacher Christa McCauliffe who was to become the first civilian in space; 1986

January 29:

• Peter, Paul and Mary sign their first record contract. Peter Yarrow, Noel Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers were individual folk singers and artists in New York City who played in Greenwich Village. Albert Grossman got them to play together. Peter, Paul, and Mary did not write their own songs, but they were talented and publicly acceptable. It also didn’t quite matter because one of Albert Grossman’s other clients was a young up and coming NYC based folk artist and songwriter named Bob Dylan. One of the first times a “Dylan Song” was publicly played and made popular was Blowing in the Wind when it was performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary. In the first week of its release in 1963 the Peter, Paul, and Mary version would sell over 1,000,000 copies and spent 5 weeks as #1 on the easy listening chart and #2 on Billboard’s pop chart. Bob Dylan made $5,000 ($48,000 in today’s money) from the publishing rights to the song. Peter Paul and Mary made Bob Dylan’s songs famous before people knew who Bob Dylan was. By the time Bob Dylan reached the pop charts with Like a Rolling Stone in 1965 people have been listening to covers of his songs by Johnny Cash and Peter Paul and Mary for 2 years. It all began on this day in; 1962

January 30:

• Yerba Buena California changes their name to San Francisco. (Whenever I get irritated at the politics of changing names of stuff for no reason from SF leaders I call it Yerba Buena, because they already did it, it’s done, no need to go back. Feel free to steel this politically correct/incorrect trick); 1847
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born; 1882
• Mahatma Ghandi was assassinated; 1948
• California celebrates Fred Korematsu Day for the first time. Fred Korematsu resisted relocating during 1940’s during America’s internment of the Japanese Americans. Since then Virginia, Florida, NYC, and Arizona have recognized Korematsu Day; 2011 (The bill was signed in 2010)

January 31:

• Guy Fawkes is executed; 1606
• Jackie Robinson is born; 1919
• The Pompidou Centre opens in Paris; 1977