1855 – The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge
1941 – Groundbreaking for NACA (now NASA) Lewis Research Center
1941 – WOR-AM in Newark NJ moves to NYC
1965 – “King Family Show” (musical variety) premieres on ABC TV
1968 – Joe Medwick elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
1973 – Helgafell, island of Heimaey Iceland erupts for 1st time in 7,000 yrs
1986 – “Jerome Kern Goes to Hollywood” opens at Ritz Theater NYC for 13 performances
1993 – Graham Gooch scores his 100th 100, on tour at Cuttack
2009 – UK officially enters recession as GDP falls by 1.5% in the last quarter of 2008 following a 0.6% drop in the third quarter, with unemployment growing by 131,000 to 1.92 million (6.1%)
2020 – Actress Annabella Sciorra testifies in court that Harvey Weinstein raped her 25 years ago at his trial in New York
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 22nd January 2021
565 – Eutychius is deposed as Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus
1873 – British SS Northfleet sinks at Dungeness, England, 300 die
1949 – “All for Love” opens at Mark Hellinger Theater NYC for 121 performances
1964 – World’s largest cheese (15,723 kg) manufactured in Wisconsin for New York’s World Fair
1976 – Bank robbery in Beirut nets $20-50 million (record)
1979 – 10,000s UK public sector workers go on strike
1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India
2002 – Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
2010 – Conan O’Brien’s last The Tonight Show episode after a big controversy over the Tonight Show timeslot
2017 – Chile declares a State of Emergency and requests international assistance as wildfires rage out of control
Historical Events for 21st January 2021
1879 – Henrik Ibsen’s “Et Dukkehjem” premieres in Copenhagen
1893 – Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana)
1903 – International Theater (Majestic, Park) opens at 5 Columbus Circle NYC
1908 – “Sullivan Ordinance” is passed in NYC, making it illegal for a woman to smoke in public places. It was vetoed 2 weeks later by mayor George B. McClellan Jr.
1972 – Assam’s North East Frontier Agency becomes Arunachal Pradesh territory
1986 – Allison J Brown, 17, of Oklahoma, crowned 4th Miss Teen USA
1986 – Czech tennis star Ivan Lendl defeats Boris Becker of Germany 6-2, 7-6, 6-3 to claim the season-ending ATP Masters Grand Prix title for a third time at Madison Square Garden, NYC
1994 – Dow Jones passes 3900 (record 3,914.20)
1995 – 52nd Golden Globes: “Forrest Gump”, Tom Hanks, and Jessica Lange win
2013 – 1 person is killed and 15 are injured by a magnitude 5.9 earthquake in Indonesia
Historical Events for 20th January 2021
1265 – First English Parliament summoned other than by royal command (in this instance by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester) mets in Westminster Hall
1502 – The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored
1839 – Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance
1939 – Charles Ives’ 1st Sonata “Concord” premieres
1981 – Ronald Reagan inaugurated as the 40th President of the United States of America
1986 – Military coup in Lesotho under major general Lekhanya and premier Leabua Jonathan
1989 – Reagan becomes 1st US President elected in a “0” year, since 1840, to leave office alive
1989 – Pittsburgh center Mario Lemieux becomes just the 2nd player in NHL history to score 50 goals in less than 50 games; #50 in 44th game as the Penguins lose 7-3 to the Jets in Winnipeg
1991 – “Black and Blue” closes at Minskoff Theater NYC after 829 performances
1996 – 46th NHL All-Star Game, FleetCenter, Boston, MA: East beats West, 5-4; MVP: Ray Bourque, Boston Bruins, D
Historical Events for 19th January 2021
1939 – Ernest Hausen of Wisconsin sets chicken-plucking record of 4.4 sec
1940 – The Three Stooges film “You Nazty Spy!” about the Nazis released with the disclaimer “Any resemblance between the characters in this picture and any persons, living or dead, is a miracle.”
1941 – British troops occupies Kassalaf, Sudan
1947 – SS Himera runs aground at Athens, kills 392
1955 – 1st presidential news conference filmed for TV (Eisenhower)
1971 – “No, No Nanette” opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 861 performances
1993 – STS-54 (Endeavour) lands
2003 – NFC Championship, Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia: Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10
2013 – Calcium deposits are discovered on Mars by NASA’s Curiosity Rover
2020 – NFC Championship, Levi’s Stadium, Santa Clara: San Francisco 49ers beat Green Bay Packers, 37-20
Historical Events for 18th January 2021
1840 – The Electro-Magnet, and Mechanics Intelligencer, 1st US electrical journal, appears
1850 – British blockade Piraeus, Greece, to enforce mercantile claims
1944 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
1948 – Ted Mack’s “Original Amateur Hour” begins, DuMont (later NBC/ABC/CBS)
1951 – Mount Lamington in Papua New Guinea erupts, killing 2,942 people
1956 – German Democratic Republic (East Germany) forms own army (National People’s Army)
1961 – Zanzibar’s Afro-Shirazi party wins 1 seat by a single vote and parliament by a single seat
1965 – H L de Vries appointed Dutch governor of Suriname
1969 – United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay, killing all 38 people on-board
2014 – 20th Screen Actors Guild Awards: Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett win
Historical Events for 17th January 2021
1799 – Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed
1832 – Johannes van den Bosch appointed governor general of Dutch East Indies
1915 – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s Hospital in Amsterdam opens
1953 – Australian Championships Men’s Tennis: In an all-Australian final Ken Rosewall wins his first Grand Slam title; beats Mervyn Rose 6-0, 6-3, 6-4
1966 – B-52/KC-135 tankers crash near Spanish coast at Palomares, 7 die
1979 – USSR performs underground nuclear test
1982 – “Cold Sunday” in the United States would see temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities
1985 – Azharuddin scores second Test century in second Test (v England)
2011 – “Sure Thing” single released by Miguel (Billboard Song of the Year 2011)
2013 – 4 people are killed and over 2,000 are evacuated after a massive flood hits Jakarta, Indonesia
Historical Events for 16th January 2021
1756 – Britain and Prussia sign Treaty of Westminster
1832 – Charles Darwin lands at Porto Prayo in the Cape Verde islands, the first landing of his HMS Beagle voyage
1896 – Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.
1905 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators rout Dawson City (Yukon), 23-2 for 2-0 series sweep; most lopsided challenge playoff game in history; Frank McGee 14 goals
1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into the Fuhrerbunker, his underground bunker in Berlin
1947 – Vincent Aurial elected President of France
1972 – Super Bowl VI, Tulane Stadium, New Orleans, LA: Dallas Cowboys beat Miami Dolphins, 24-3; MVP: Roger Staubach, Dallas, QB
1979 – Bakhtiar government established by the Shah in Iran, will preside until unrest in the country subsides
2001 – Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
2013 – A four day occupation of an Algerian BP facility by Amenas militants begins, killing 48 hostages
Historical Events for 15th January 2021
1908 – Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority: first Greek-letter organization established by African American college for women
1956 – Dmitri Shostakovich appointed honorary member of Academia Santa Cecilia
1970 – Riots break out in the Ardoyne area of Belfast
1972 – TV drama “Emergency” with Randolph Mantooth and Robert Fuller premieres on NBC TV
1974 – 24th NBA All-Star Game, Seattle Center Coliseum: West beats East, 134-123; MVP: Bob Lanier, Detroit Pistons, C
1984 – Martina Navratilova’s 54-match winning streak ends when beaten by Hana Mandlíková 7-6, 3-6, 6-4 in the final of the Virginia Slims of California tennis event in Oakland; after loss Navratilova wins next 74 matches for new record
1990 – Golden State coach Don Nelson becomes 2nd man in NBA history to appear in 1,000 games both as a player and coach (joining Lenny Wilkens) as the Warriors lose to the Indiana Pacers, 144-105
1993 – 7.5 earthquake strikes northern Japan, killing 2 people
1997 – San Francisco head coach George Seifert announces his resignation after 8 highly-successful NFL seasons with the 49ers: winningest coach in team history at 108-35; 2 Super Bowl titles
2019 – LGBTQ activists accuse the Russian republic of Chechnya of a new gay purge with 40 detained and two killed
Historical Events for 14th January 2021
1861 – Fort Pikens, Florida, falls into state hands (US Civil War)
1940 – 2nd NFL All Star Game, Gilmore Stadium, LA, CA: Green Bay Packers beat NFL All-Stars, 16-7
1949 – Black and Indian race rebellion in Durban, South Africa; 142 die
1964 – 14th NBA All-Star Game, Boston Garden: East beats West, 111-107; MVP: Oscar Robertson, Cincinnati Royals, PG
1973 – 2 Royal Ulster Constabulary officers are killed in Derry by a booby-trap bomb attached to their car by the Irish Republican Army
1991 – Jorge Serrano Elias sworn in as President of Guatemala
1993 – “Anna Christie” opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 54 performances, starring Natasha Richardson and Liam Neeson,
1994 – Inna Lassovskaya triple-jumps ladies world record (14.61m)
1995 – 16th ACE Cable Awards: John Malone wins the Golden CableACE for outstanding achievements in advancing the development of cable programming
2015 – 63 people are killed and 70,000 are left homeless after floods devastate Mozambique and Malawi