On January 12th...

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National Pharmacist Day

1528 Gustav I was crowned King of Sweden.

1554 Bayinnaung was crowned King of Burma.

1588 Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was born.

1628 Author Charles Perrault was born.

1729 Edmund Burke, British statesman, orator, and political writer, was born.

1737 John Hancock, signer of the Declaration of Independence, was born.

1746 Educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was born.

1773 The first public museum in the North American colonies was established in Charleston, South Carolina.

1777 Mission Santa Clara de Asis was founded in California.

1807 A gunpowder ship exploded in Leiden, Netherlands, killing 150 persons.

1812 The first steam-powered cargo ship arrived at New Orleans, Louisiana.

1816 France decreed the Bonaparte family excluded from France forever.

1820 The Astronomical Society of London was founded.

1822 Inventor Étienne Lenoir was born.

1834 William Wyndham Grenville, former Prime Minister of Great Britain, died.

1839 Anthracite coal was used to smelt iron for the first time, at Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania.

1852 Joseph Jacques Césaire Joffre, Commander-in-Chief of the French Army during World War I, was born.

1856 Painter John Singer Sargent was born.

1866 The Royal Aeronautical Society was formed in London, England.

1872 Yohannes IV was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia.

1875 Kwang-su became Emperor of China.

1876 Novelist Jack London was born.

1880 Ellen Arthur, wife of President Chester Alan Arthur, died.

1890 Mordecai Wyatt Johnson, president of Howard University, was born.

1893 Hermann Goering, founder of the Gestapo, was born.

1895 The National Trust was founded in England.

1896 Dr. Henry Smith took the first x-ray photograph in the United States.

1899 Distillery founder Hiram Walker died.

1902 King Saud of Saudi Arabia was born.

1903 The Rhodes Opera House in Boyertown, Pennsylvania, burned, killing 170 persons.

1905 Musician Tex Ritter was born.

1906 The Dow Jones closed above 100 for the first time in history.

1907 The United Kingdom granted self-government to the Transvaal.

1911 The University of the Philippines College of Law was formally established.

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

1916 The United Kingdom proclaimed the Gilbert and Ellice Islands as a colony.
1916 P. W. Botha, President of South Africa, was born.

1917 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, transcendental meditation guru, was born.

1918 Finnish Jews became full citizens.

1921 Kennesaw Mountain Landis became the first Commissioner of Baseball.

1924 The History of Science Society was organized in Boston, Massachusetts.

1925 Katherine MacGregor was born.

1926 Musician Ray Price was born.

1930 Singer Glenn Yarbrough was born.

1932 Hattie W. Caraway of Arkansas became the first woman U. S. Senator.

1993 The U. S. Congress recognized the independence of the Philippines.

1935 Amazing Kreskin, magician/mentalist, was born.

1937 A plough for laying submarine cable was patented.
1937 Actress Shirley Eaton was born.
1937 Émile Lahoud, President of Lebanon, was born.

1942 The National War Labor Board was created.

1943 Frankfurters were replaced by "Victory Sausages" (a mix of meat and soy meal) in the United States.
1943 Actor Richard Moll was born.

1944 Boxer Joe Frazier was born.

1945 German forces in Belgium were forced to retreat during the Battle of the Bulge.
1945 U. S. Task Force 38 destroyed 41 Japanese ships in the Battle of the South China Sea.

1947 Football player Tom Dempsey was born.

1948 Mohandas Gandhi began what became his final fast.
1948 The first supermarket in Great Britain opened for business.
1948 Actor Anthony Andrews was born.

1950 A Swedish tanker rammed the British submarine Truculent in the Thames River, killing 64 persons.

1951 Actress Kirstie Alley was born.
1951 Radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh was born.

1952 The University of Tennessee admitted its first black student.
1952 Singer Ricky Van Shelton was born.

1954 Radio personality Howard Stern was born.

1957 The Southern Christian Leadership Council was founded.
1957 A U. S. Air Force plane crashed and exploded at Fairbanks, Alaska, killing all 12 persons aboard.
1957 Film director John Lasseter was born.

1958 The NCAA added the 2-point conversion to football scoring.
1958 Television news reporter Christiane Amanpour was born.

1959 Berry Gordy, Jr., founded Tamla Records.

1960 Actor Oliver Platt was born.
1960 Basketball player Dominique Wilkins was born.

1961 W. D. Thompson made the first flight of the experimental wing Cessna 210A.

1964 A revolution overthrew the government of Zanzibar and forced the Sultan to flee into exile.
1964 Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, was born.

1965 "Hullabaloo" premiered on NBC-TV.
1965 Singer Rob Zombie was born.

1966 "Batman" premiered on ABC-TV.

1968 The nighttime version of "Hollywood Squares" premiered on NBC-TV.

1969 The New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III.

1970 The civil war between Nigeria and the break-away republic of Biafra ended with the surrender of Biafra to Nigeria.

1971 The Congressional Black Caucus was organized.
1971 "All in the Family" premiered on CBS-TV.

1973 Football player Turk Edwards died.

1975 The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 16-6, to win Super Bowl IX.

1976 The UN Security Council voted 11-1 to seat the Palestine Liberation Organization.
1976 Author Agatha Christie died.

1979 Kenneth Bianchi, the "Hillside Strangler" of Los Angeles, was arrested in Bellingham, California.
1979 A record blizzard struck the Midwest, killing more than 100.

1981 "Dynasty" premiered on ABC-TV.

1988 Actor Andrew Lawrence was born.

1990 Romania banned the Communist Party.

1992 Voters in Mali approved a constitution providing for freedom to form political parties.

1993 Singer Zayn Malik was born.

1995 An earthquake killed 5,092 persons in Kobe, Japan.

2001 Businessman William Hewlett died.

2002 Cyrus Vance, former U. S. Secretary of State, died.

2003 Musician Maurice Gibb died.

2004 The ocean line Queen Mary 2 made its maiden voyage.

2005 The Deep Impact space mission was launched.

2006 A stampede during a ritual at the Hajj in Mina, Saudi Arabia, killed 362 Muslim pilgrims.

2010 An earthquake killed approximately 160,000 persons in Haiti and destroyed most of Port-au-Prince.

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This page was last updated on January 12, 2019.