0374 Halley’s Comet approaches within 0.0884 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
0527 Justinianus becomes compassionate emperor of Byzantium
0705 Greek pope John VII chosen as successor to John VI
1064 Body of bishop Eleutherius of Blandain moved to Doornik
1504 English guilds/corp goes under state control
1572 Bloys van Treslong conquers Brielle
1578 William Harvey of England discovers blood circulation
1581 Portugese Cortes subjects himself on Philip II
1663 Gemert fines unwed motherhood (50 guilder penalty)
1724 Henry Pelham becomes English minister of War
1724 Jonathan Swift publishes Drapier’s letters
1748 Ruins of Pompeii found
1776 Friedrich von Klinger’s “Sturm und Drang”, premieres in Leipzig
1778 Oliver Pollock, a New Orleans businessman, creates “$” symbol
1789 House of Representatives 1st full meeting, New York NY, F Muhlenberg 1st speaker
1792 Gronings feminist Etta Palm demands women’s right to divorce
1793 Volcano Unsen on Japan erupts killing about 53,000
1803 French law rules the use of intention
1826 Samuel Mory patents internal combustion engine
1836 Charles Darwin aboard HMS Beagle reaches Cocos Islands
1850 San Francisco County government established
1853 Cincinnati becomes 1st US city to pay firefighters a regular salary
1862 Shenandoah Valley campaign, Jackson’s Battle of Woodstock VA
1863 1st wartime conscription law in US goes into effect
1865 Battle of 5 Forks VA, signalling end of Lee’s army
1865 Battle at Blakely AL
1866 US Congress rejects presidential veto gives all equal rights in US
1867 Blacks vote in municipal election in Tuscumbia AL
1867 International Exhibition opens in Paris France
1867 Singapore, Penang & Malakka become British crown colonies
1868 Hampton Institute opens
1872 1st edition of The Standard
1873 British White Star steamship Atlantic sinks off Nova Scotia, 550+ die
1873 Mehmed Kemals play “Vatan” premeres in Constantinople
1876 1st official National League baseball game (Boston-6, Philadelphia-5)
1881 Anti-Jewish riots in Jerusalem
1881 Kingdom post office in Netherlands opens
1888 Soccer team Sparta forms in Rotterdam
1889 1st dishwashing machine marketed (Chicago)
1891 London-Paris telephone connection opens
1891 Painter Gauguin leaves Marseille for Tahiti
1899 North Carolina Mutual opens doors for business
1900 1st edition of Dutch newspaper “The People”
1905 British East African Protectorate becomes colony of Kenya
1910 Dumitru Dan (Romania) completed a 62,137 mile (100,000 m) walk
1916 1st US national women’s swimming championships held
1918 England’s Royal Flying Corps replaced by Royal Air Force
1918 Henry Miller’s Theater opens at 124 W 43rd St New York NY
1920 Church disestablished in Wales
1920 Stanley Cup Ottawa Senators (NHL) beat Seattle (PCHA), 3 games to 2
1924 Crown takes over Northern Rhodesia from British South Africa Co
1924 Imperial Airways is formed in Britain
1924 Hitler sentenced to 5 years labor but General Ludendorff acquitted
1925 1st transmission of Danish state radio
1926 Halsteren Soccer team forms in Halsteren
1927 1st automatic record changer introduced by His Master’s Voice
1928 Chiang Kai-shek’s army crosses Yang-tse
1929 Morehouse College, Spelman College & Atlanta University affiliate to form Atlanta University Center
1929 Austrian government of Ignaz Seipel falls
1929 Doorne’s trailer factory in Einsdhoven Netherlands opens
1929 Louie Marx introduces Yo-Yo
1929 Luis Buñuel releases “Un Chien Andalou”, 24-minute film
1930 "Blue Angel", starring unknown Marlene Dietrich, premieres in America
1931 Jackie Mitchell becomes 1st female in professional baseball
1931 Earthquake devastates Managua Nicaragua, kills 2,000
1933 Nazi Germany begins persecution of Jews boycotting Jewish businesses
1933 Hammond scores 336 vs New Zealand at Auckland, 47 fours 10 sixes
1933 Heinrich Himmler becomes Police Commander of Germany
1934 Bonnie & Clyde kill 2 police officers
1935 1st radio tube made of metal announced, Schenectady NY
1936 Orissa constitutes a province of British India
1937 Aden becomes British crown colony
1938 Baseball Hall of Fame opens in Cooperstown NY
1938 Joe Louis KOs Harry Thomas in 5 for heavyweight boxing title
1939 US recognizes Franco government in Spain at end of Spanish civil war Pope Pius XII congratulates Generalissimo Franco’s victory in Spain
1941 Navy takes over Treasure Island (San Francisco Bay)
1941 Lillian Hellman’s “Watch on the Rhine”, premieres in NYC
1941 Nazi’s forbid Jews access to cafés
1941 Pro-German Rashid Ali al-Ghailani grabs power in Iraq
1942 México changes from 3 time zones to 2
1942 Allied air raid on harbor city Kupang Timor
1944 German Abwehr ends England spiel, after 132 killed
1944 Japanese troops conquer Jessami, East-India
1945 US forces launch invasion of Okinawa during WWII
1945 1st edition of Indonesia Merdeka publishes
1945 Canadian troop free Doetinchem, Enschede, Borculo & Eibergen
1945 Ruhrgebied sealed off by US 1st & 9th army
1945 Sons of Elburger Soccer team forms in Elburg
1946 400,000 US mine workers strike
1946 Tsunamis generated by a quake in Aleutian Trench strike Hilo HI
1946 Van Acker forms Belgian government (without CVP)
1946 Weight Watchers forms
1947 1st Jewish immigrants to Israel disembark at Port of Eilat
1948 H H H Johnson bowls West Indies to win vs England 10-96 match on debut
1952 Big Bang theory proposed in Physical Review by Alpher, Bethe & Gamow
1952 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
1953 J van Bale appointed Governor of New Guinea
1953 KXMC TV channel 13 in Minot ND (CBS/ABC) begins broadcasting
1953 Walcott Worrell & Weekes all make centuries in innings vs India
1954 1st army helicopter battalion is formed, Fort Bragg NC
1954 US Air Force Academy established
1954 1st Dutch motorway, Amsterdam-Utrecht, opens
1954 Earthquake/tsunami ravage Aleutians, 200 killed
1954 WQED TV channel 13 in Pittsburgh PA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1955 Armed military action taken against bureaucratic strike in Amsterdam
1955 EOKA-bomb attacks against British government buildings in Cyprus
1955 WTVT TV channel 13 in Tampa-St Petersburg FL (CBS) 1st broadcast
1956 10th Tony Awards Diary of Anne Frank & Damn Yankees win
1956 KPIC TV channel 4 in Roseburg OR (CBS) begins broadcasting
1956 Violent clashes in Algeria, at least 380 killed
1957 Trial begins in Budapest against participants october uprising
1957 World’s biggest glass oven used
1957 WYES TV channel 12 in New Orleans LA (PBS) begins broadcasting
1958 KVIQ TV channel 6 in Eureka CA (NBC/ABC/CBS) begins broadcasting
1958 Marshal Boelganin becomes director of Russian Staatsbank
1960 Mabry Harper catches a 25 lb Walleye in Tennessee
1960 U Nu elected premier of Burma
1960 France performs nuclear test at Reggane Proving Grounds Algeria
1960 RCA TIROS (TV & Infra-Red Observation ‘weather’ Satellite) I launched
1961 Jim Bakker marries Tammy Faye
1963 NYC’s newspapers resume publishing after a 114 day strike
1963 Soap operas “General Hospital” & “The Doctors” premier on TV
1963 New York Mets purchase Duke Snider from the Dodgers for $40,000
1964 John Lennon is reunited with his father Freddie after 17 years
1964 10ºF lowest temperature ever recorded in Cleveland OH in April
1964 Robert Lowell’s “Benito Cereno”, premieres in NYC
1965 Syncom 3, 1st geosynchronous communications satellite, passes from civilian to military control
1965 South Africa worker’s union leader Henry Fazzie sentenced to 10 years
1966 1st world festival of black art (Dakar Senegal)
1966 China premier Tsjoe en-Lai starts “Cultural revolution”
1967 1st British ombudsman sir Edward Compton begins work
1968 KEMO (now KOFY) TV channel 20 in San Francisco CA (IND) 1st broadcast
1969 Royal Canadian Mint formally forms as a Crown Corp
1969 Seattle Pilots trade minor league outfielder Lou Piniella to Royals
1970 John Lennon & Yoko Ono release hoax they are having dual sex change operations
1970 Milwaukee Brewers Baseball Club, headed by Bud Selig, purchases the Seattle Pilots for $10,800,000; although negotiations were conducted over a period of months, it was not until March 13 when a federal bankruptcy referee declared the Pilots bankrupt
1970 President Richard Nixon signs bill limiting cigarette advertisements on 1/1/71
1971 United Kingdom lifts all restrictions on gold ownership
1971 US/Canada ISIS 2 launched to study ionosphere
1972 30,000 attend Mar Y Sol rock concert, Vega Baja, Puerto Rico
1972 Major league baseball players stages 1st collective strike
1973 Japan allows its citizens to own gold
1973 John & Yoko form a new country with no laws or boundaries, called Nutopia, its national anthem is silence
1973 Betsy Cullen wins LPGA Alamo Ladies Golf Classic
1974 Pioneer Hall opens
1974 Yourdon, Inc forms
1974 Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an Islamic Republic in Iran
1975 Cambodia President Lon Nol flees for Red Khmer
1976 Stephen Wozniak & Steven Jobs originate Apple Computer
1977 NFL decides to experiment with a 7th official in some preseason games
1977 Attempt for Moslem state in Chad fails
1979 Iran proclaimed an Islamic Republic following fall of Shah
1979 Joanne Carner wins LPGA Women’s Kemper Golf Open
1980 Wayne Gretzky breaks Bobby Orr’s record with 103rd assist
1980 Baseball Players’ Association votes to cancel 92 remaining exhibition games
1980 Failed assassination attempt on Iraqi vice-premier Tariq Aziz
1980 France performs nuclear test
1981 CNN airs a videotape that shows that Tamara Rand predicts that Reagan is in danger from someone named Jack Humley (a hoax)
1982 US formally transfers Canal Zone to Panamá
1982 Anguilla (dependent territory of UK) adopts constitution
1983 New York Islander Mike Bossy becomes 1st to score 60 goals in 3 consecutive seasons
1983 Anti-nuke demonstrators link arms in 14-mile human chain in England
1984 14th Easter Seal Telethon raises $24,600,000
1984 3rd NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Southern California beats Tennessee 72-61
1984 8 men record longest distance (13 miles) rowed in 24 hours
1985 47th NCAA Men’s Basketball Champion Villanova beats Georgetown 84-75
1986 US sub Nathaniel Green runs aground in the Irish Sea
1986 World oil prices dip below $10 a barrel
1986 Delhi beats Haryana by innings & 141 to win Ranji Trophy
1989 1st New York Mets-New York Yankees game in NYC since 1983, Yankees win 4-3
1989 A Bartlett Giamatti replaces Ueberroth as 7th commissioner of baseball
1990 "Ha!" the Comedy Channel on cable tv begins transmitting
1990 CBS fires sportscaster Brent Mussburger
1990 It becomes illegal in Salem OR to be within 2’ of nude dancers
1990 Jack Nicklaus wins 1st start on Senior PGA tour
1990 Wrestlemania VI (67,678 in Toronto); Ultimate Warrior beats Hulk Hogan for championship
1990 19th Nabisco Dinah Shore Golf Championship won by Betsy King
1990 2nd Seniors Golf Tradition Jack Nicklaus wins
1990 9th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship Stanford beats Auburn 88-81
1990 Guns & Roses’ Duff divorces Mandy Brix, lead singer for Lame Flames
1991 Dwight Goodin signs $5.15 million 3 year contract with New York Mets
1991 US minimum wage goes from $3.80 to $4.25 per hour
1991 Warsaw Pact officially dissolves
1991 53rd NCAA Mens Basketball Champion Duke Bluedevils beats Kansas 72-65
1991 Iran releases British hostage Roger Cooper after 5 years
1991 Supreme Court rules jurors can’t be barred from serving due to race
1992 NFL decides to stay with 17 week schedule instead of expanded 18 games
1992 5th Largest wrestling crowd (64,287-Toronto SkyDome)
1992 Battleship USS Missouri (on which, Japan surrendered) decommissioned
1992 Last defendant in St John sex assault case sentenced to 3 years probation
1992 NHL players begin 1st strike in 75-year history
1992 Rocker Billy Idol fined $2,000 for hitting a woman
1992 Western Australia beats New South Wales by 44 runs to win the Sheffield Shield Final
1992 World’s 7 wealthiest nations agree on $24 billion aid for former USSR
1993 Alan Bennett’s “Madness of George III”, premieres in London
1993 Stephane Powers weds Patrick de la Chenais
1994 Bob Feller Statue on Indians Plaza, dedicated
1995 Carlson Wagonlit Travel Agency begins charging $15 service fee
1995 New York Islanders retire Bobby Nystrom’s uniform #23
1996 58th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Kentucky beats Syracuse 76-67
1996 Howard Stern Radio Show premieres in Boston MA on WBCN 104.1 FM (morning)
1997 69 year old Gordie Howe begins playing AHL game with Syracuse Crunch
1997 Comet Hale-Bopp Perihelion (0.914 AU)
1998 World Ice Pairs Figure Skating Championship in Minneapolis MN; Russians Yelena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze win
2001 20th NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship at St Louis
2002 64th NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship at Georgia Dome Atlanta