A quick look at Today in History, check out some Celebrity Birthdays, and find out what Days of the Year to celebrate.
TODAY IN HISTORY:
1841 – The State of Alabama enacted the first dental legislation in the U.S.
1862 – President Abraham Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union thus dividing Virginia in two.
1877 – President Rutherford B. Hayes became the first U.S. President to celebrate his silver (25th) wedding anniversary in the White House.
1879 – In Menlo Park, NJ, Thomas Edison gave his first public demonstration of incandescent lighting.
1891 – New York’s new Immigration Depot was opened at Ellis Island, to provide improved facilities for the massive numbers of arrivals.
1907 – The first New Year’s Eve celebration was held in Times Square (then called Longacre Square) in New York, NY.
1929 – Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played “Auld Lang Syne” as a New Year’s Eve song for the first time.
1935 – The Parker Brothers received a patent for their board game “Monopoly”.
1940 – As a result of a dispute between the radio networks and the American Society of Composers and Publishers [ASCAP], the radio industry began a ten month ban on playing ASCAP licensed music.
1946 – President Harry Truman officially proclaimed the end of hostilities in World War II.
1953 – Jockey Willie Shoemaker broke his own record, winning his 485th race of the year.
1955 – General Motors became the first corporation in the United States to earn more than a billion dollars in a single year.
1967 – Daredevil Evel Knievel lost control of his motorcycle during a jump of 141 feet over the fountains in front of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, NV. In the crash, he suffered a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist, and both ankles and a concussion. He spent nearly a month in a coma.
1967 – The Green Bay Packers won the National Football League championship game by defeating the Dallas Cowboys 21-17. The game, played at a wind chill factor of -40 degrees, is dubbed “The Ice Bowl.”
1972 – Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” aired for the first time on New Year’s Eve.
1974 – Private citizens were allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.
1975 – Elvis Presley performed for 62,500 fans at the Silverdome, in Pontiac, MI. He set a world record for earning $816,000 for a single concert by a single artist.
1979 – At year end, oil prices were 88% higher than at the start of 1979.
1981 – MTV hosted the first New Year’s Eve Rock and Roll Ball.
1983 – The AT&T Bell System was broken up by the United States Government.
1984 – Drummer Rick Allen of Def Leppard lost his left arm when his car overturned near Sheffield, England.
1985 – Ricky Nelson and six others died in an airplane crash near DeKalb, TX. A fire had broken out on the plane.
1995 – Bill Watterson ended his comic strip “Calvin & Hobbes”.
1999 – The United States Government handed control of the Panama Canal (as well as all the adjacent land to the canal known as the Panama Canal Zone) over to Panama. The act complied with the signing of the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.
2009 – Both a blue moon and a lunar eclipse occurred.
2010 – Tornadoes touched down in midwestern and southern states in the U.S., including Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and Oklahoma. A total of 36 tornadoes touched down, resulting in 9 deaths and $113 million in damages.
2011 – NASA succeeded in putting the first of two Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory satellites in orbit around the moon.
2012 – ABC aired Dick Clark’s “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” for the first time since Dick Clark’s death. Ryan Seacrest, who joined as co-host in 2005, took over the annual show.
2019 – The World Health Organization is informed of cases of pneumonia with an unknown cause, detected in Wuhan, China. This later turned out to be COVID-19 — the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2020 – The World Health Organization’s issued their first emergency use validation for a COVID-19 vaccine.
BIRTHDAYS:
Taylor Hackford – 81 years old (1944) – Director, producer, and screenwriter
Connie Willis – 80 years old (1945) – Author
Cliff Richey – 79 years old (1946) – Tennis player
Ellen Datlow – 76 years old (1949) – Anthologist and author
Susan Shwartz – 76 years old (1949) – Author
Bob Gilder – 75 years old (1950) – Golfer
Cheryl Womack – 75 years old (1950) – Businesswoman
Kenny Roberts – 74 years old (1951) – Motorcycle racer
Jane Badler – 72 years old (1953) – Actress
Pula Nikolao Pula – 70 years old (1955) – 9th governor of American Samoa
Steve Rude – 69 years old (1956) – Author and illustrator
Phill Kline – 66 years old (1959) – Lawyer and politician
Paul Westerberg – 66 years old (1959) – Musician, singer, and songwriter
Rick Aguilera – 64 years old (1961) – Baseball player and coach
Fabian Nicieza – 64 years old (1961) – Argentine-American comic book writer and editor
Tyrone Corbin – 63 years old (1962) – Basketball player and coach
Jennifer Higdon – 63 years old (1962) – Composer
Michael McDonald – 61 years old (1964) – Comedian, actor, and director
Junot Diaz – 57 years old (1968) – Dominican-born American novelist, short story writer, and essayist
Bryon Russell – 55 years old (1970) – Basketball player
Brent Barry – 54 years old (1971) – Basketball player and sportscaster
Heath Shuler – 54 years old (1971) – Football player and politician
Shandon Anderson – 52 years old (1973) – Basketball player
Ryan Sakoda – 51 years old (1974) – Japanese-American wrestler and trainer
Jeff Waldstreicher – 46 years old (1979) – Lawyer and politician
Jesse Carlson – 45 years old (1980) – Baseball player
Matt Cross – 45 years old (1980) – Wrestler
Jason Campbell – 44 years old (1981) – Football player
The Rocket Summer – 43 years old (1982) – Singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer
Jonathan Horton – 40 years old (1985) – Gymnast
Nate Freiman – 39 years old (1986) – Baseball player
Javaris Crittenton – 38 years old (1987) – Basketball player
ND Stevenson – 34 years old (1991) – Cartoonist
Gabby Douglas – 30 years old (1995) – Gymnast
Edmond Sumner – 30 years old (1995) – Basketball player
J. J. Arcega-Whiteside – 29 years old (1996) – Spanish-American football player
Cameron Carter-Vickers – 28 years old (1997) – English-American soccer player
Alycia Parks – 25 years old (2000) – Tennis player
Katie Volynets – 24 years old (2001) – Tennis player
Sophia Laforteza – 23 years old (2002) – Filipino-American singer
Joe Scally – 23 years old (2002) – Soccer player
TODAY IS:
Today's special observances are temporarily unavailable. Please check back soon.
For additional information check out websites like: www.on-this-day.com, www.born-today.com, www.famousbirthdays.com, www.daysoftheyear.com, and www.nationaldaycalendar.com.
