1624 – Sir Thomas Warner founds the first English colony in the Caribbean, on Saint Kitts.
1855 – The first locomotive runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean on the Panama Railway
1939 – Australian Championships Men’s Tennis: Australian John Bromwich wins his 1st Australian title; beats doubles partner Adrian Quist 6-4, 6-1, 6-3
1954 – 1954 NFL Draft: Bobby Garrett from University of Stanford first pick by Cleveland Browns
1978 – Ted Nugent autographs a fan’s arm with his knife
1979 – Arthur Kopit’s play “Wings” premieres in NYC
1985 – Charity single “We Are the World” recorded by supergroup USA for Africa (Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, Quincy Jones, Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and other pop stars)
1986 – Space Shuttle Challenger explodes 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all 7 crew members, including Christa McAuliffe who was to be the first teacher in space
1986 – Angolan revolutionary and leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi visits Washington, D.C.
1990 – “Independent on Sunday” begins publishing in London
Category: Historical Events
Historical Events for 27th January 2024
1534 – French King Francis I signs classified treaty with Landgrave of Hesse
1927 – Australian Championships Men’s Tennis: Gerald Patterson wins his only home title; beats countryman John Hawkes 3-6, 6-4, 3-6, 18-16, 6-3
1956 – RCA records releases Elvis Presley’s single “Heartbreak Hotel”, his first million-seller (written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden)
1964 – Margaret Chase Smith (Sen-R-Maine) tries for Republican President bid
1969 – 9 Jews publicly executed in Damascus, Syria
1972 – The British Army and the Irish Republican Army engage in gun battles near County Armagh; British troops fire over 1,000 rounds of ammunition
1976 – “Laverne and Shirley” TV spinoff from “Happy Days” starring Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams premieres on ABC TV
1976 – Morocco-Algeria battles in West Sahara
1979 – Islanders ends 23 undefeated games at home streak (15-0-8)
1992 – Mike Tyson goes on trial for rape (he is found guilty)
Historical Events for 26th January 2024
1863 – American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent (54th Massachusetts Regiment)
1931 – “Cimarron” directed by Wesley Ruggles and starring Richard Dix and Irene Dunne premieres in New York. 1st western to win Best Outstanding Production/Picture (1931)
1957 – Francis Poulenc’s opera “Dialogue des Carmelites” premieres at La Scala, in Milan
1958 – Jack Smith takes over from Art Baker as TV host of “You Asked for It”
1959 – Australian Championships Men’s Tennis: American based Peruvian Alex Olmedo wins his first Grand Slam event; beats Neale Fraser of Australia 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3
1969 – Minister of Health and Social Services William Morgan resigns from the Northern Ireland government
1983 – Nazi Gestapo war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia
1988 – Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart’s musical “Phantom of the Opera”, directed by Hal Prince and starring Michael Crawford and Sarah Brightman, opens at Majestic Theater, NYC ; runs for 13,981 performances, winning 7 Tony Awards, and becoming Broadway’s longest-running shows
1997 – Mario Lemieux ties NHL record with 4 goals in the 3rd period as Pittsburgh wins, 5-2 at Montreal; 39th career hat trick and 13th 4-goal game, tying NHL record shared by Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy
2021 – Antony Blinken confirmed by US Senate as Secretary of State
Historical Events for 25th January 2024
1648 – French theologian Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet obtains his first thesis in theology with Louis II de Bourbon, Prince of Condé, as a witness
1721 – Tsar Peter the Great makes the Moscow patriarchate and Russian Orthodox Church subordinate to the state
1904 – 179 die in coal mine explosion at Cheswick, Pennsylvania
1904 – John Millington Synge’s play “Riders to the Sea” premieres in Dublin
1909 – Richard Strauss’ one-act opera “Elektra” premieres in Dresden
1959 – 1st transcontinental commercial jet flight (American) (LA to NY for $301)
1964 – Dale Wasserman’s stage play “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, adapted from the novel by Ken Kesey, starring Kirk Douglas, Ed Ames; Joan Tetzel, and Gene Wilder, closes at Cort Theatre, NYC, after 82 performances
1988 – Ramsewak Shankar sworn in as President of Suriname
1989 – Augusto Alcalde, 1st South American Zen teacher, receives Dharma Transmission
1996 – Ottawa Senators set an NHL record with 16th consecutive home game without a win (0-15-1) in a 4-2 loss to Detroit at the Palladium; old record (15) shared by 1928 Black Hawks and 1939 Canadiens
Historical Events for 24th January 2024
1568 – In Netherlands, Duke of Alva declares William I of Orange an outlaw
1722 – Edward Wigglesworth appointed 1st north American divinity professor (Harvard)
1908 – Lieutenant General Robert Baden-Powell publishes “Scouting for Boys” as a manual for self-instruction in outdoor skills and self-improvement. The book becomes the inspiration for the Scout Movement.
1959 – WHCT TV channel 18 in Hartford, CT (IND) begins broadcasting
1960 – Algeria uprises against French President de Gaulle
1969 – Students protest the erection of steel gates around the London School of Economics
1970 – Valeri Muratov skates world record 500m (38.99 sec)
1985 – 15th Space Shuttle (51-C) Mission-Discovery 3 is launched
1988 – NBC premiere of fact based “The Murder of Mary Phagan”
2023 – Third baseman Scott Rolen (Philadelphia Philleis, St. Louis Cardinals) elected to Baseball Hall of Fame
Historical Events for 23rd January 2024
1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell becomes 1st woman in the US to earn a medical degree graduating from New York’s Geneva Medical College
1855 – 1st bridge over the Mississippi River in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, opens; today made by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge
1879 – US National Archery Association forms in Crawfordsville, Indiana
1958 – “Body Beautiful” opens at Broadway Theater NYC for 60 performances
1958 – Dictator Marcos Perez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazabal takes power
1962 – British intelligence officer Kim Philby defects to USSR
1976 – The results to U.S. advice columnist Ann Landers’ question (if they could do it all over, would parents still become parents) state that 70% of 10,000 responding parents were negative about being parents
1993 – Indian Airlines B737 crashes at Aurangabad, killing 61
1998 – Michael Jordan scores in double figures for 800th consecutive game in a 100-98 OT win over New Jersey; adds 40 more double-figure scoring games to his NBA record before retiring for the second time (1998)
2018 – American singer-songwriter Neil Diamond abruptly retires from touring after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease
Historical Events for 22nd January 2024
1472 – Great comet of 1471 (C/1471 Y1) becomes the closest comet in modern times, coming within 10 million kilometers of Earth
1517 – Ottoman forces take Cairo, capital of the Mamluk Sultanate
1931 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia
1945 – Burma highway reopens
1953 – 1953 NFL Draft: Harry Babcock from University of Georgia first pick by San Francisco 49ers
1969 – Orbiting Solar Observatory 5 launched into earth orbit
1987 – Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national television, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism
1994 – 51st Golden Globes: Schlinder’s List, Tom Hanks, and Holly Hunter win
1998 – STS 89 (Endeavour 12) launches into orbit
2018 – Netflix becomes the largest digital media and entertainment company in the world worth $100 billion
Historical Events for 21st January 2024
1793 – Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine in Paris, following his conviction for “high treason” by the newly created French Parliament (Convention nationale), during the French Revolution
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.
1930 – Boston Bruins become first team in NHL history to score 100 goals in a season, in a 5-1 win over Chicago at Boston Garden; Cooney Weiland scores Bruins’ 100th goal in their 26th game of the year
1941 – Australian and British troops attack Tobruk, Libya
1961 – “Conquering Hero” closes at ANTA Theater NYC after 8 performances
1973 – 23rd NFL Pro Bowl, Texas Stadium, Irving, Texas: AFC beats NFC, 33-28; MVP: O. J. Simpson, Buffalo Bills, RB
1980 – Gold hits record $850 an ounce
1992 – Bill Cowher becomes the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, becoming only the second head coach of the team since 1970 (Chuck Noll)
2010 – LA Lakers forward Kobe Bryant becomes the youngest NBA player to reach 25,000 career points at 31 years, 151 days; beats Wilt Chamberlain by 35 days
2013 – 30 people are killed in a car bombing in Salamiyeh, Syria
Historical Events for 20th January 2024
1840 – Dutch King Willem II crowned
1840 – Dumont D’Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica
1868 – Florida constitutional convention meets in Tallahassee
1910 – Stanley Cup, Dey’s Arena, Ottawa, ON: Ottawa Senators outclass Edmonton HC, 13-7 for a 2-0 sweep of challenge series
1925 – The Soviet and Japan sign a convention resuming relations: Russia agrees to limit revolutionary activity of the Third Communist International, while Japan agrees to leave the Sakhalin
1949 – J. Edgar Hoover gives Shirley Temple a tear gas fountain pen
1953 – 1st US telecast transmitted to Canada from Buffalo, New York
1982 – Piet Dankert elected chairman of European Parliament
1989 – George H. W. Bush inaugurated as 41st US President, Dan Quayle becomes 44th Vice President
2013 – NFC Championship, Georgia Dome, Atlanta: San Francisco 49ers beat Atlanta Falcons, 28-24
Historical Events for 19th January 2024
1885 – Battle of Abu Kru (Battle of Gubat), Sudan: British Desert Column defeat Mahdist forces: 121 British and untold Mahdists killed
1903 – French newspaper L’Auto announces new 5-stage, long distance bicycle race, “Tour de France”
1918 – Soviets disallow a Constitution Assembly
1950 – Maiden flight by Canada’s Avro Canada CF-100 military plane
1971 – “No, No Nanette” opens at 46th St Theater NYC for 861 performances
1991 – Iraq files SCUD missiles at Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel during the Gulf War
1992 – Cerebral Palsy telethon raises $23.5 million
1994 – -36°F (-38°C) in New Whiteland, Indiana (state record)
2003 – NFC Championship, Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia: Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10
2023 – Cyclone Cheneso makes landfall in northern Madagascar, killing at least 25 people and leaving about 40,000 homeless