| In 1681, an English newspaper (Protestant Mercury) described a boxing match between the Duke of Albermarle’s Footman and a butcher. Early English boxing not only included fighting with fist but also other weapons. Participants were often described as being bloody and cut. |
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| Washington married Martha Custis in 1759; she was a rich widow who had two children, Martha "Patsy" and John "Jacky." Washington had been commander of the First Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War and had been elected a burgess representing Frederick County in 1758. Their home in Virginia was called Mt. Vernon. George and Martha did not have children together. |  |
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| On January 6, 1773, the first of five appeals within a two-year period, asking for a range of rights, was submitted by black petitioners to Governor Hutchinson and the General Court of Massachusetts. |
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| With the help of Leonard Gale who had read Joseph Henry's 1831 article on electromagnetism, the original one-cell battery was replaced with a 20-cell battery, and 100 turns of wire were wound around the electromagnet. By Oct. 3, 1837, the device could transmit through 10 miles of wire, and Morse file a patent caveat. Gale owned a share of the patent, as well as a new partner, Arthur Vail, who helped redesign and improved the telegraph for a successful demonstration January 6, 1838, at Vail's Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey, transmitting 2 miles the sentence: "Railroad cars just arrived, 345 passengers." |
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| In the period of national crisis immediately preceding the American Civil War, Democratic Mayor Fernando Wood, widely considered the most corrupt in the city's history, proposed the secession of the city as a sovereign city-state to be called the Free City of Tri-Insula (Tri-Insula meaning "three islands" in Latin), and incorporating Manhattan, Long Island and Staten Island. In an address to the city's Common Council on January 6, 1861, Mayor Wood expressed a desire to maintain profitable cotton shipping, confidence that the city-state would prosper on the import tariffs that then supplied 2/3 of the Federal revenues, and especially dissatisafaction with the state government at Albany. But the idea of leaving the United States proved too radical even in the turmoil of 1861 and was poorly received. |
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| The wind had blown so hard and cold that it pushed into homes "through cracks not known before to exist." That night the rain froze and the next day, Monday, January 5, the snow began to fall... and continued to fall. In eight days of snowfall, 64 inches of snow made a record for a long time to come. |
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| Construction of the Pacific Coast extension westward from near Havre, Mont. began in 1890. The final spike was driven near Scenic, Wash., on January 6, 1893, completing the transcontinental project. By midsummer of 1893 Seattle and the East were linked by regular service. |  |
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| Simon Lake, distinguished marine engineer, played a major role in the development of the modern submarine. He is credited with the development of the basic submarine technologies essential for safe and successful operation of such boats. These include the even-keel hydroplanes, ballast tanks, divers' compartments, periscope, and twin-hull design. |  |
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| In 1906, she accepted an invitation to set up a school in a slum neighborhood of Rome in order to put her theories into practice. Her instructions were to occupy the children of the families while their parents worked during the day, and she was given no money or resources to do so. Still, she obtained some tables, toys, colored pencils and paper through donations, recruited women from the neighborhood as teachers, and brought in a number of her special "teaching toys." She officially opened her school in January of 1907. This became Montessori's first Casa dei Bambini, or Children's Home. |
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| The very first diesel-engine automobile trip was completed on January 6, 1930. The trip was from Indianapolis to New York City. A 1,200 pound engine, delivering 50 h.p. at 1,000 r.p.m., was installed in a 7- passenger Packard sedan. The 3-day trip began in Indianapolis, Indiana, and ended in New York City, covering 792 miles at a total fuel cost of $1.38.This feat helped to prove the usefulness of the internal combustion engine. |
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| The daily Superman newspaper comic strip began in January 6, 1939, and a separate Sunday strip was added on November 5, 1939. These strips ran continuously until May 1966. In 1941, the McClure Syndicate had placed the strip in hundreds of newspapers. At its peak, the strip was in over 300 daily newspapers and 90 Sunday papers, with a readership of over 20 million. |
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| In his annual address to Congress on January 6, 1941, Franklin Roosevelt presented his reasons for American involvement, making the case for continued aid to Great Britain and greater production of war industries at home. In helping Britain, President Roosevelt stated, the United States was fighting for the universal freedoms that all people possessed. As America entered the war these "four freedoms" - the freedom of speech, the freedom of worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear - symbolized America's war aims and gave hope in the following years to a war-wearied people because they knew the were fighting for freedom. |
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| On the morning of January 6th, a startled officer in the control tower of New York's LaGuardia Airport heard on the loudspeaker: "Pacific Clipper, inbound from Auckland, New Zealand. Due arrive Pan American Marine Terminal at LaGuardia in seven minutes." The incredible month-long, 31,500-mile journey was the longest ever made by a commercial aircraft and the first around the world. The Pacific Clipper had flown over three oceans, made 18 stops in 12 different countries, and crossed the equator six times. |
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| Presley's final appearance on the show occurred on January 6, 1957. Although it has often been mentioned that it was the controversy over Presley's provocative hip and pelvis movements that prompted Sullivan, on this occasion, to order the show's cameras to shoot the rock star from the waist up, the decision to do so, according to one of Sullivan's camera directors, was prompted by a rumor circulating on the studio, just prior to Presley's entrance, that Presley was getting ready to use a sock or some kind of device, and hang it inside his pants near the top of his left leg. It is no small wander, then, that following Sullivan's visual check that, after all, Presley had no such device on him, that he profusely thanked Presley after his last number saying, "This is a real decent, fine boy. We've never had a pleasanter experience on our show with a big name than we've had with you." |
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| In the '50s, high school dances in America were often referred to as "The Hop." Sometimes, these dances would be "Sock Hops" because school administrators would make the kids take off their shoes so they didn't scuff up the floor of the gymnasium, where the dance was usually held. This was originally titled "Do The Bop." Dick Clark suggested renaming it "At The Hop" after "Do The Bop" flopped. Changing from "Bop" to "Hop" gave it the pop to put it over the top, and the band later signed with Clark's Swan Records. |
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| Gibson first manufactured prototypes of the guitar in 1957. They were made of korina wood, a trademarked name for limba, a wood similar to but lighter than mahogany. This Flying V, along with the Explorer and, initially, the Moderne, made up a line of modernist guitars designed by then-president Ted McCarty. These designs were meant to add a more futuristic aspect to Gibson's image, but they didn't sell well. After the initial launch in 1958, the line was discontinued by 1959. |
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| "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" was recorded in South Africa, where it was a big hit. Around 1948, the South African record company sent a copy to Decca Records in the US, hoping to get it distributed there. Folk singer Pete Seeger got a hold of it and started working on an English version. The original title was "Mbube," which means "lion." It was a hunting song originally sung in Zulu in what is now Swaziland. |  |
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| Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, or simply Wild Kingdom was an American television show that featured wildlife and nature. Created by Don Meier, NBC began airing the half-hour show on Sundays in 1963 and continued until 1971, when the program entered syndication. As a prime-time syndicated program, Wild Kingdom enjoyed great popularity. |  |
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| After his Tuesday night run ended in 1956, Berle hosted three subsequent series and made many appearances on other comedy and variety shows. He has received numerous tributes as a television pioneer. In dramatic roles, he received an Emmy nomination for "Doyle Against the House," an episode of The Dick Powell Show (1961), and was notable in his role as a blind aircrash survivor in the first ABC Movie of the Week, Seven in Darkness (1969). |
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| A "Magical Mystery Tour" was a bus trip to an unknown destination. They were popular in England at the time. Five months after recording this, The Beatles started making a movie with this as the title track. It became the 4th Beatles movie. |  |
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| John Lennon hated the song. He viewed it as an inconsequential song of McCartney's, saying it was "three minutes of contradictions and meaningless juxtapositions." What further infuriated Lennon was that his "I Am The Walrus," was issued as the B-side to McCartney's A-side "Hello Goodbye." |  |
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The series of animated cartoon shorts used appealingly goofy characters, catchy tunes and repetition to teach kids about multiplication tables, the parts of speech, American history, science and computer mechanics. Schoolhouse Rock's genesis took place in 1971 when chairman David McCall noticed that his son could sing every Beatles and Stones lyric ever recorded but couldn't handle simple multiplication tables. His solution was simple: Link math with contemporary music and the kids will breeze through school on a song. Composer/pianist Bob Dorough accepted the mission with great enthusiasm, plowing through his daughter's arithmetic books and plunking out notes until he'd created the soothing ballad "Three Is a Magic Number." |
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| Simon has never said who this is about. Some of the rumors are Warren Beatty, Kris Kristofferson, Cat Stevens, and Mick Jagger, all of whom she had affairs with. She started recording this with Harry Nilsson singing backup, but Mick Jagger ended up singing on it instead, although he was not credited on the album. |  |
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| Premiering on January 6, 1974, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater was a notable attempt to revive the tradition of radio thrillers like Suspense (1942-1962) and Inner Sanctum Mysteries (1941-52). Created by Inner Sanctum producer Himan Brown, the CBS Radio Mystery Theater featured many voices from the golden age of radio, including Agnes Moorehead, Les Tremayne, Santos Ortega, Bret Morrison, and Mercedes McCambridge. E. G. Marshall was its first host. The series ended on December 31, 1982. |
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| "Wheel Of Fortune" had its origins with "Shopper's Bazaar" the pilot episode, premiering on January 6, 1975. The object was to spin a wheel to win money to spend on great prizes! Notwithstanding the pilot, the original host of Wheel of Fortune was Chuck Woolery, and the original letter turner was Susan Stafford. Charlie O'Donnell was the original announcer. The show replaced Art Fleming's original version of Jeopardy!, and has been running continuously ever since. From December 11, 1975 to January 19, 1976, Wheel of Fortune was an hour-long show on NBC. |
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| Spirits Having Flown ("Tragedy," "Too Much Heaven," "Love You Inside Out") then solidified their status as the biggest band in the world, and during this time they became the only artists in history to write and produce six consecutive number one hits and the only ones to have five songs in the U.S. Top 10 at the same time. |  |
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| "Another Day in Paradise" addresses the problem of ignoring the needy and homeless. David Crosby of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, sings on this. |  |
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| With the vanquished Vice President Al Gore presiding, Congress formally certified George W. Bush the winner of the close and bitterly contested 2000 presidential election. |  |
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| World Trade Center Site Memorial designers Michael Arad and Peter Walker presented the refined memorial design, Reflecting Absence, at a press conference at Federal Hall on Wednesday, January 14, 2004. Their Reflecting Absence consists of a field of trees interrupted by two large voids containing recessed pools, marking the footprints of the Twin Towers. The deciduous trees are arranged in rows, forming informal clusters, clearings and groves. |
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