Today in History January 13

Today in History January 13 :

1915  The U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.

1932  Hattie W. Caraway, a democrat from Arkansas became the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate.

1964  One month after Zanzibar became independent, the ruling Zanzibar Nationalist Party was overthrown in a violent coup.

1991  A divided Congress gave President Bush the go-ahead on the Persian Gulf War.

1998  Nineteen European countries signed an agreement banning human cloning.


2010  Haiti is dealt a catastrophic blow when a magnitude 7.0 earthquake strikes 10 miles southwest of Port-au-Prince, the country's capital. It is the region's worst earthquake in 200 years. The number of fatalities were between 46,000 and 85,000 people.

Today in History January 12

Today in History January 12:

1935  Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1964  The first government report regarding the dangers of cigarette smoking was issued by the U.S. Surgeon General, Luther Terry.

1973  Baseball's American League adopted the "designated hitter" rule which allowed another player to bat for the pitcher.

2002  The first al-Qaeda prisoners arrive at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

2003  Outgoing Illinois governor George Ryan cleared the state's death row by commuting the sentences of 167 inmates.


2011  The Arab Spring movement begins in Tunisia when demonstrators take to the streets to protest chronic unemployment and police brutality.

Today in History January 11

Today in History January 11

1863  The first underground passenger railway, the Metropolitan, opened in London.

1920  The League of Nations came into existence.

1946  The first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.

1967  The first African-American senator elected by popular vote, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, took his seat.

1984  The U.S. and the Vatican reestablished diplomatic relations after a 117-year break.

2003  North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Today in History January 10th

1863  The first underground passenger railway, the Metropolitan, opened in London.

1920  The League of Nations came into existence.

1946  The first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.

1967  The first African-American senator elected by popular vote, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts, took his seat.

1984  The U.S. and the Vatican reestablished diplomatic relations after a 117-year break.

2003  North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Today in History January 9th

1861  Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union.

1905  The Russian Revolution of 1905 was sparked by troops firing on petitioners to Czar Nicholas in St. Petersburg.

1964  Anti-American rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone.

1968  Surveyor 7, the last of America's unmanned lunar probes, landed on the Moon.

Today in History January 8th

1918  Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points peace program.

1958  Bobby Fischer won the United States Chess Championship for the first time at age 14.

1959  Charles de Gaulle became the first president of France's Fifth Republic.

1964  President Lyndon Johnson announced his War on Poverty.

1982  The AT&T Bell System telephone monopoly agreed to divest itself of 22 Bell System companies and split itself into seven "Baby Bells."

1998  The mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Yousef, was sentenced to life in prison.

2011  Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords is among 17 shot by a gunman at a meeting outside a grocery store. Six people are fatally wounded, including United States District Court Judge John Roll, and a young girl. Police identify the gunman as Jared Lee Loughner.

Today in History January 7th

1927  Transatlantic commercial telephone service began between New York and London.

1953  Harry Truman announced that the U.S. had developed the hydrogen bomb.

1955  Marian Anderson made her Metropolitan Opera debut.

1979  Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge government.

1989  Japan's Emperor Hirohito died.

1999  The impeachment trial of President William Clinton began in the Senate.

Today in History January 6th

1838  Samuel Morse gave the first public demonstration of the telegraph.

1912  New Mexico became the 47th state in the United States.

1919  Former president Theodore Roosevelt died in Oyster Bay, N.Y.

1987  University of California astronomers first witnessed the birth of a galaxy that contained 1 billion stars.

1994  Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan clubbed on leg by men including husband of rival skater Tonya Harding.

Today in History January 5th

1914  Henry Ford introduced the $5-a-day minimum wage.

1925  Nellie Tayloe Ross became the first woman governor of a state (Wyoming).

1972  President Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle.

2000  INS Commissioner Doris Meissner ruled that 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez must be returned to Cuba.

Today in History January 4th

1904  In Gonzales v. Williams, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that citizens of Puerto Rico are not aliens and can enter the U.S. freely.

1948  Burma (Myanmar) gained independence from Great Britain.

1951  During the Korean War, North Korean and Communist Chinese forces captured the city of Seoul.

1965  President Johnson outlined his "Great Society" in his State of the Union address.

1999  Former wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota's governor.

1999  The U.S. Mint began distributing the 50 State Quarters.

2007  California Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Today in History January 3rd

1920   The New York Yankees acquired Babe Ruth and so began the "curse of the Bambino" that haunted the Boston Red Sox until 2004.

1947   Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time.

1958   Sir Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole overland.

1959   Alaska became the 49th state in the United States.

1962  Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.

1967   Jack Ruby, the man who shot John Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, died.

1987   Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

1990   Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces.