On January 9th...

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1464 The States-General of the Netherlands met for the first time.

1522 Adriaan F. Boeyens became the only Dutch Pope to date (as Adrian VI).

1554 Pope Gregory XV was born.

1558 Geneva became independent from Berne Canton, Switzerland.

1718 France declared war on Spain.

1768 Philip Astley staged the world's first modern circus in London, England.

1788 Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the Constitution.

1793 Jean Pierre Blanchard became the first person ever to fly a hot-air balloon in the United States.

1799 British Prime Minister William Pitt introduced income taxes to raise funds for the war against Napoleon.

1811 The first women's golf tournament was held.

1812 Swedish Pomerania was seized by Napoleon.

1839 The Daguerrotype photo process was announced at the French Academy of Science.
1839 John Knowles Paine, the first professor of music in the United States, was born.

1848 The first commercial bank in San Francisco, California, was established.
1848 Astronomer Caroline Herschel died.

1855 The clipper Guiding Star, with 480 persons aboard, disappeared in the Atlantic.

1859 Carrie Chapman Catt, leader of the women's suffrage movement, was born.

1861 Citadel cadets fired the first shots of the Civil War when they fired on the Union ship Star of the West entering the harbor of Charlotte, South Carolina.
1861 Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union.

1863 The Battle of Arkansas Post (Arkansas) began.

1866 Fisk University was established.

1870 Joseph Strauss, designer of the Golden Gate Bridge, was born.

1873 Emperor Napoleon III of France died.

1878 John Broadus Watson, founder of behavioral psychology, was born.
1878 King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy died.

1879 Dull Knife led Cheyenne prisoners in a revolt at Fort Robinson.

1890 Author Karel Capek was born.

1894 "Edison Kinetoscopic Record of a Sneeze" was released in movie theaters.
1894 The New England Telephone and Telegraph installed the first battery-operated telephone switchboard in Lexington, Massachusetts.

1901 Cartoonist Chic Young was born.

1903 Wind Cave National Park was established in South Dakota.
1903 Frank Farrell and Bill Devery purchased the American League Baltimore franchise and moved it to New York City.

1908 Muir Woods National Monument was established in California.

1912 U.S. Marines invaded Honduras.

1913 Richard Milhous Nixon, 37th President of the United States, was born.

1915 Actor Fernando Lamas was born.

1925 Actor Lee Van Cleef was born.

1927 Fire in the Laurier Palace cinema in Montreal, Canada, killed 78 children.

1928 Novelist Judith Krantz was born.

1934 Football player Bart Starr was born.

1935 Actor Bob Denver was born.

1941 Singer Joan Baez was born.

1942 The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff was created.

1944 Guitarist Jimmy Page was born.

1945 U.S. forces invaded the Philippines.

1950 Musician David Johansen, aka Buster Poindexter, was born.

1951 Life After Tomorrow, the first film ever to receive an "X" rating, premiered.
1951 Singer Crystal Gayle was born.

1953 The Korean ferryboat Chang Tyong-Ho sank off Pusan, killing 249 persons.

1955 Actor J.K. Simmons was born.

1956 The first Abigail Van Buren-penned "Dear Abby" column appeared.

1959 A hydroelectric dam on the shore of Lake Sanabria in northwestern Spain collapsed, causing the deaths of 132 persons.
1959 "Rawhide" premiered on CBS-TV.

1960 Construction of the Aswan Dam began.

1964 An Argentine airlines DC-3 caught fire in flight and crashed in Zárate, Argentina, killing 28 of the 31 persons aboard.

1967 The NFL team in New Orleans adopted the name "Saints."
1967 Musician Dave Matthews was born.

1968 Surveyor 7 landed on the Moon.

1969 The first trial flight of the Concorde took place over Bristol, England.
1969 The Beatles released the single "Yellow Submarine" and its album Revolver in the United States.

1973 Luna 21 was launched on a mission to the Moon.

1975 Clara Stover, co-founder of Russell Stover Candies, died.

1978 The Commonwealth of Northern Marianas was established.
1978 Football player Chad Ochocinco was born.

1979 The Boston Bruins retired Bobby Orr's #4 jersey.

1982 Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William of Great Britain, was born.

1984 "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes" premiered on NBC-TV.

1985 The Calgary Flames set an NHL record of 264 regular season games without being shut-out.

1986 After losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak was forced to give up its instant camera line.

1991 Major League Baseball officially banned Pete Rose from ever being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

1995 A worker accidentally cut electrical wires at Newark (New Jersey) Airport.

1998 Anatoly Solovyov and Pavel Vinogradov set a spacewalk record of 3 hours 8 minutes.

2001 Apple announced iTunes as the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, California.

2007 Apple announced the iPhone.

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This page was last updated on January 08, 2018.