| After capture, Joan of Arc attempted several escapes, on one occasion leaping from a seventy foot tower to the soft earth of a dry moat. The English government obtained her from Duke Philip of Burgundy. Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais, an English partisan and member of the Council which oversaw the English occupation of northern France, assumed a prominent role in these negotiations and her later trial. |
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| In 1520, Luther completed three celebrated works in which he stated his views. The bull of Pope Leo X, Exsurge Domine, issued on June 15, 1520, gave Luther 60 days to recant, and Decet Romanum Pontificem of January 3, 1521, excommunicated him. |  |
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| Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School November 5, 1824 with a letter to Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which he asks him to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. The school opened on Monday, January 3, 1825 at the Old Bank Place, a building at the north end of Troy, NY. The school attracted students from the State of New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The fact that the school attracted students from afar is attributed to the reputation of Senior Professor Amos Eaton. |
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| Sir James Clark Ross stated: "On the 3rd of January, in Latitude 27 degrees, 26 minutes S., longitude 17 degrees, 29 minutes W, the weather and all other circumstances being propitious, we succeeded in obtaining soundings with two thousand four hundred and twenty-five fathoms of line, a depression of the bed of the ocean beneath its surface very little short of the elevation of Mount Blanc above it." |  |
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| The caisson foundations were built 1869-1872 by pneumatic excavation, causing workers to get the bends, or "caisson disease. The Gothic Revival twin towers were built 1870-1876. The four main cables were installed starting in 1876, with 6829 wires in each cable provided by the low bidder J. Lloyd Haigh. By 1877 it was discovered the wires were defective, but Roebling kept the work already done and added 250 extra wires per cable. The main span of 1595 feet was the longest in the world at that time. The last phase of construction was the roadway and railway 1878-1883, and the bridge officially opened May 24, 1883, connecting Manhattan with Brooklyn across the East River. |
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| In 1871, a concoction known as “oleomargarine” was patented by a Binghamton resident named Henry Bradley. Using a concoction of beef tallow, vegetable oils and some buckets of water, Bradley created a “new or improved lard or shortening for culinary use” (according to the patent). |  |
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| The Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office is the official journal relating to patents and trademarks. It has been published weekly since January 1872 (replacing the old "Patent Office Reports"), and is now issued each Tuesday in two parts, one describing patents and the other trademarks. |
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| In 1888, the first wax drinking straw and the spiral winding tube-making process was patented by Marvin C. Stone in Washington, DC. Stone was already a manufacturer of paper cigarette holders. His idea was to make paper drinking straws to replace the use of natural rye grass straws. Stone made his prototype straw by winding strips of paper around a pencil and gluing it together. He then tried paraffin-coated manila paper, so the straws would not become soggy while someone was drinking. The first straws were hand rolled, and by 1890 his factory was producing more straws than cigarette holders. |
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| The first postal savings bank was authorized by President William Howard Taft on June 25, 1910, to "establish postal savings depositories for depositing savings at interest." It was a popular program and the system was soon extended to over 5,000 post offices from its original 48 sites. The outbreak of World War I greatly curtailed shipments of funds overseas, and more deposits and fewer withdrawals at postal banks ensued. During the Great Depression, small savers turned increasingly to the Postal Savings System despite the large number of bank failures, and its patrons reached 2.5 million in number by 1935. |
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| The deal that made the Yankees into a powerhouse came in January 1920, when they bought Babe Ruth from the Red Sox as Boston owner Harry Frazee sold off his stars to finance his Broadway shows. The Yankees purchased the contract from the Boston Red Sox for $125,000 and a $350,000 loan against the mortgage on Fenway Park. Ruth changed baseball history by hitting 54 HR in 1920, breaking the record of 29 that he had set the previous season. |
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| The Alabama centennial half dollar commemorative was minted to celebrate the centennial of Alabama's admission to the Union in 1819. This was also the first commemorative coin minted with the image of a living individual. The obverse of the coin was designed by Laura Gardin Fraser (wife of James Earle Fraser) and depicts overlapping profiles of the William Bibb, who was the governor in 1819, and Thomas Kilby, who was the governor in 1919. |
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| In January 1938, alarmed by decades of worsening polio epidemics and the terrible toll the virus was taking on America’s young, President Roosevelt established the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. The name "March of Dimes" for the fundraising campaign was coined by entertainer Eddie Cantor as a play on the popular newsreel feature of the day, The March of Time. Along with Cantor, many top Hollywood, Broadway, radio, and television stars served as promoters of the charity. Because of his close association with the cause, Roosevelt was portrayed on the US dime after his death. |
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| William Joyce went to Germany just before the outbreak of World War II and throughout the war broadcast German propaganda in English from Berlin. Known as “Lord Haw Haw,” he was captured by British soldiers in Germany in 1945. Despite his American birth, he was adjudged subject to British jurisdiction because he held a British passport. He was convicted of treason and hanged. |
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| "Dragnet" was an instant hit on television, maintaining a top 10 position in the ratings through 1956. The series was applauded for its realism--actually a collection of highly stylized conventions which made the show an easy target for parodists and further increased its cultural cachet. Episodes began with a prologue promising that "the story you are about to see is true; the names have been changed to protect the innocent," then faded in on a pan across the L.A. sprawl. |
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| Boyd was only 13 years old when he recorded this song. When this was released in 1953, some people thought it was a little too risqu?, the thought of a married woman, possibly having an affair. A closer listen implies that Santa Claus is actually the child's father, but this didn't stop radio stations in some cities, including Boston, from banning it when it came out. |  |
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| In 1957, the world's first electric watch was introduced in Lancaster, PA by the Hamilton Watch Company. Research began in 1946, but it was to take more than ten years to develop a viable watch. On this day, Hamilton held a press conference." The idea of a watch which never needed winding was very exciting to 1950's consumers, who were captivated by progress and modernity. The Hamilton Electric was an instant hit. Its popularity was enhanced by a number of very dramatic case styles with non-traditional asymmetrical styling; they were visual reminders of the ultra-modern movements inside the case. |
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| Before this time, Alaska was given territorial status and thereby granted certain rights and privileges of self-government. However, Alaska and its residents fought hard for statehood. Congress was reluctant to grant statehood because a state had not been admitted to the Union since 1912. After much effort from Alaska's residents, on June 30, 1958, Congress finally approved the Alaska Statehood Act. Alaska officially became the 49th state on January 3, 1959. |
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| Late in 1958, Ross Bagdasarian released “The Chipmunk Song” with the singing credits going to The Chipmunks with David Seville. In the first five weeks after its release, the song sold three and a half million records, and in December, 1958 it was the #1 song on the pop charts. |  |
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| In the two years after Communist dictator Fidel Castro had seized power relations with Cuba had been heading downhill for months. Cuba took over, without compensation, American businesses worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In October 1960, the United States imposed stiff economic sanctions against the island. Cuba was cozying up to the Soviet Union. Triggering the break was a speech by Castro, who contended that the U.S. embassy was a nest of spies and demanded that the staff be reduced from 87 to 11. Eisenhower decided to sever relations the following morning, just weeks before John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the next president. |
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| Many believe it was Hofheinz' presentation of the multi-purpose structure which ultimately convinced the owners that Houston was indeed ready for big league baseball. After all, the owners were mesmerized by the structure, and it appeared the voters of Harris County were mesmerized, too. After six months of detailed drawings and further planning, ground was broken for the Astrodome on January 3, 1962. |  |
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| The Mersey Sound documentary was first broadcast on 9 October 1963. The "She Loves You" performance was also sold on to the Jack Paar Show in America where it became the first Beatles US TV show appearance on January 3, 1964. |  |
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| Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote this for the film "Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid," starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It was the first million-seller for the legendary songwriters. Thomas was getting over laryngitis when he recorded this. It gave the song a raspy quality that the producers of the movie liked. A few weeks later, Thomas recorded another version that was released as a single in October 1969. By January, 1970 it was a #1 hit. |
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| "American Pie" is about the death of Buddy Holly. "The Day The Music Died" is February 3, 1959, when Holly, Ritchie Valens, and The Big Bopper were killed in a plane crash after a concert. McLean wrote the song from his memories of the event. The Beatles Sgt. Pepper album was a huge influence, and McLean has said in numerous interviews that the song represented the turn from innocence of the '50s to the darker, more volatile times of the '60s - both in music and politics. |
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| Entrepreneur Tam Paton remained firmly in control of the band’s visual image (all fresh faces clad in tartan scarves and trousers) which struck a chord with young teenagers and pre-pubescent fans in search of pin-up pop stars. 1975 proved the watershed year with two consecutive UK number 1 hits, "Bye Bye Baby" (a Four Seasons cover version) and "Give A Little Love". That same year they topped the US charts with "Saturday Night". |
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| Apple was founded on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne (and later incorporated January 3, 1977 without Wayne, who sold his share of the company back to Jobs and Wozniak) to sell the Apple I personal computer kit at $666.66. They were hand-built in Jobs' parents' garage, and the Apple I was first shown to the public at the Homebrew Computer Club. The Apple I was delivered in June, and was paid for on delivery. Eventually 200 Apple I computers were built. The Apple I was a motherboard (with CPU, RAM, and basic textual-video chips), not a complete personal computer as we know it today. Much has changed in the last thirty years. |
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| "(Just Like) Starting Over" was one of the last songs recorded for the album. Lennon was not sure he should record it, but his producer and session musicians convinced him it would be a hit. It became the first single from Double Fantasy. Lennon wrote this while vacationing in Bermuda earlier in the year. This didn't not reach #1 until 3 weeks after Lennon's death. |  |
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| "Walk Like an Egyptian" was the biggest hit for The Bangles, but it's one of their least favorite songs. The Bangles needed one more song to complete their album, so they took it. In the US, this was the #1 song of 1987. |  |
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| On January 3, 1990 Noriega surrendered to US forces after spending 10 days hiding in the Vatican embassy and is sent to the US for trial. Two years later, Manuel Noriega began his 40 year prison term for racketeering, money laundering, and drug trafficking. |  |
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| The United States of America and the Russian Federation agreed to cut the number of nuclear warheads they have by between 3,000 and 3,500. Currently each side had about 10,000 warheads and Start II marks the biggest reduction ever agreed. In addition, sea-based weapons were cut to 1,750 each and all land-based multiple-warhead missiles were eliminated. |  |
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| The rover, protected by its lander structure and airbags, is designed to bounce up to four or five stories high and roll as far as 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) across the martian surface before it comes to a complete stop. About 14 minutes after Spirit hit the ground and four minutes after it stoped bouncing and rolling, transmission of tones resumed from the rover's low-gain X-band antenna. |  |
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1431 Joan of Arc handed over to the bishop
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1521 Martin Luther excommunicated by Roman Catholic
Church
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1825 The first engineering college in the U.S.,
(Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) opens
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1840 First deep sea sounding
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1870 Brooklyn Bridge construction begins; completed
May 24, 1883
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1871 Oleomargarine patented by Henry Bradley,
Binghamton, NY
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1872 First patent list issued by US Patent Office
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1876 First free kindergarten in US opens in Florence,
MA
1888 First wax drinking straw patented, by Marvin
C Stone in Washington, DC
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1911 US postal savings bank inaugurated
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1920 New York Yankees purchase Babe Ruth from
Red Sox for $125,000
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1922 First living person identified on a US coin
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1938 March of Dimes established to fight polio
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1943 First missing persons telecast (New York
City, NY)
1946 Nazi propagandist "Lord Haw Haw"
(William Joyce) hung for treason in London
More ...
1947 First opening session of Congress to be televised
1952 "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premieres
on NBC TV
More ...
1953 "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
by Jimmy Boyd topped the charts
More ...
1957 The Hamilton Watch Company was the first
to introduce an electric watch
More ...
1959 Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. state
More ...
1959 "Chipmunk Song" by David Seville
and the Chipmunks topped the charts
More ...
1961 President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke off
diplomatic relations with Cuba
More ...
1962 Ground is broken for the Houston Astrodome
More ...
1964 Jack Paar Show, shows a clip of the Beatles
singing "She Loves You"
More ...
1967 Jack Ruby, a man who shot accused presidential
assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital
1967 "Tonight Show" is shortened from
105 to 90 minutes
1967 Patent for an apparatus for solar cooling
and heating a house was received by Harry Thomason
1970 "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head"
by B. J. Thomas topped the charts
More ...
1972 Don McLean received a gold record for
"American Pie"
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1973 George Steinbrenner III buys Yankees from
CBS for $12 million
1976 "Saturday Night" by the Bay City
Rollers topped the charts
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1977 Apple Computer incorporated
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1980 Gold hits record $634 an ounce
1981 "(Just Like) Starting Over" by
John Lennon topped the charts
More ...
1987 "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The
Bangles topped the charts
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1990 Manuel Noriega, the deposed leader of Panama,
surrendered to American authorities
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1993 President George Bush and Russian President
Boris Yeltsin signed the Start-II Treaty
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2004 NASA's Mars rover, Spirit, touched down on
Mars
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