| Ivan the Terrible had himself officially crowned as the first Russian Czar (Caesar) although he had already ruled Russia since 1533. His reign lasted until 1584 and brought much needed reforms including a new legal code and cultural development. However, during his reign he instituted a campaign of terror against the Russian nobility and had over 3,000 persons put to death. He also killed his own son during a fit of rage. |
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| General Washington allowed the enlistment of free blacks with "prior military experience" in January 1776, and extended the enlistment terms to all free blacks in January 1777 in order to help fill the depleted ranks of the Continental Army. Because the states constantly failed to meet their quotas of manpower for the army, Congress authorized the enlistment of all blacks, free and slave, in 1777. This led to the all-black First Rhode Island Regiment, composed of 33 freedmen and 92 slaves, who were promised freedom if they served to the end of the war. The regiment distinguished itself at the Battle of Newport. |
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| The first roller skate was patented on this day in 1866. The inventor was Everett Barney who thought it would be nice to roll without changing ones shoes. His skates clamped to the edges around the soles. |
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| Detroit's William Davis patented a refrigerator car that employed metal racks to suspend the carcasses above a frozen mixture of ice and salt. He sold the design in 1868 to George Hammond, a Chicago meat-packer, who built a set of cars to transport his products to Boston. The loads had the unfortunate tendency of swinging to one side when the car entered a curve at high speed, and the use of the units was discontinued after several derailments. |
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| The passage of the Civil Service Act of 1883 marked the beginning of the merit system in Federal service, creating the U.S. Civil Service Commission. For the first time, certain federal jobs were now to be filled through competitive examinations opened to all citizens and selection of the best qualified applicants were made without regard to political considerations. Merit, as basis for hiring, was guaranteed by law. |
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| It seems simple enough on paper; the Red Sox buy OF George Stone from Washington. The Browns reclaim Frank Huelsman from the Senators, where he had been on loan, and send him along with OF Jesse Burkett to Boston for Stone. Boston then sends Huelsman back to Washington in payment for George Stone. This is Huelsman's 4th trade in 8 months. |
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| The magnetic South Pole was first reached during Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition (1907-1909) by Professor Edgeworth David and Sir Douglas Mawson (Australian geologists) and Alistair Mackay who claimed the surrounding Victoria Land for the British Crown. At that time the magnetic pole lay within the Antarctic continent at latitude 71.6°S and longitude 152°E. Today it lies far out to sea at latitude 65°S and longitude 139°E. and travels 10 to 15 km north-westerly each year. Electric currents and the rolling motion of the liquid iron core of the Earth dictate the position of the magnetic poles. |
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| Robert I. Aitken, a New York artist, designed the octagonal and round 1915-S Panama-Pacific International Exposition $50 pieces, both of which have the same design, except that unlike the round issue, the octagonal coins display dolphins in the angles on the obverse and reverse between the inscription and the points of the border. The $1 Gold Panama-Pacific commemorative coin features a Panama Canal workman. | |
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| In December 1917, Congress passed the 18th Amendment. A month later, President Woodrow Wilson instituted partial prohibition to conserve grain for the war effort. Beer was limited to 2.75 percent alcohol content and production was held to 70 percent of the previous year's production. In September, the president issued a ban on the wartime production of beer. At midnight, January 16, 1920, the United States went dry. Breweries, distilleries, and saloons were forced to close their doors. Even before the 18th Amendment was ratified, about 65 percent of the country already banned alcohol. In 1916, seven states adopted anti-liquor laws, bringing to 19 the number of states prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. |
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| “The Kid” was Charlie Chaplin’s first full-length movie. It, more than anything else to that date, made Chaplin a living legend. It took over a year to produce, and was an incredible success for Chaplin. The opening title reads: “A comedy with a smile - and perhaps a tear.” |  |
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| On January 16, 1938, Goodman brought a new level of recognition to jazz with a concert in Carnegie Hall, presenting Harry James, Ziggy Elman, Jess Stacy, Hampton, Krupa, and Wilson from his own entourage, as well as guest soloists from the bands of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. |  |
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| “I Love A Mystery” was a serialized radio and movie adventures of three soldiers of fortune. Jack Packard (the leader and brains of the trio), Doc Long (a Texan who loves the ladies and fighting), and Reggie York (British with enormous strength). Three adventurous men who met in an Oriental prison and later founded the A-1 Detective Agency in Hollywood. First aired over NBC Pacific stations on January 16, 1939 with the sponsor Standard Brand's product Fleischman's Yeast. |
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| The tune is about the problems associated with wearing the garish, exaggerated ‘hep’ fashion. Kyser's personal performing style can best be described as enthusiastic, sometimes intentionally comedically so. Unlike most other bandleaders of the time, Kyser would also sing with his group and dance. Kyser and his band appeared in several motion pictures during the 1940s appearing as themselves. He also hosted his own radio show, “Kay Kyser’s Kollege of Musical Knowledge” and was the first band to perform in front of military personnel in WWII. |
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| The U.S. Standardization Board clears the way for Stan Musial to get a salary increase to $85,000. Prior to this relaxation of the rules, there was a wage freeze in effect due to the Korean War. Under the new rules, a team is free to raise individual salaries, as long as they do not exceed a complicated formula, based on total team salaries for any one year, from 1946-50, plus 10 percent. |  |
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| As a singer in the '50s Eddie Fisher became a teen idol, starring in his own radio and TV shows; he also appeared in three films. His greatest notoriety stems from his romantic life: in 1959 he divorced actress Debbie Reynolds to marry actress Elizabeth Taylor, and in 1964 Taylor left him to marry her Cleopatra co-star, Richard Burton. Later he married and divorced actress/singer Connie Stevens. |  |
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| On January 16, Maj. Gen. Archie J. Old, Jr. (USAF) led a flight of three Boeing B-52 bombers. Their mission: to fly non-stop around the world. On Jan. 18, 1957, they completed the world's first non-stop round-the-world flight by jet aircraft, lasting 45 hours and 19 minutes with only three aerial refuelings en route. |
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| By the late '50s, Robbins had pop hits of his own with teen fare like "A White Sport Coat (And a Pink Carnation)." Almost simultaneously, he completed work on his Song of the Islands album. In 1959, Robbins stretched even further with the hit single "El Paso," thus heralding a pattern of "gunfighter ballads" that lasted the balance of his career. |  |
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| One month after this song's release (and two days after Christmas), The Supremes performed this song while making their debut guest appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. |  |
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| In 1969, two Soviet-built spacecraft met in space, docked together, and formed what was termed "the world's first space station" with a crew of four aboard. The remained docked for four and a half hours - three orbits of the Earth. During that time, two cosmonauts 'space walked' from Soyuz 4 to Soyuz 5, becoming the first spacefarers to return to Earth in a different spacecraft from the one in which they went into space. |
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| Curt Flood, Cardinals Gold Glove outfielder, files a civil lawsuit challenging ML baseball's reserve clause, a suit that will have historic implications. Flood refused to report to the Phillies after he was traded by the Cardinals three months ago, contending the baseball rule violates federal antitrust laws. |  |
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| "My Sweet Lord" was Harrison's first single as a solo artist. It was his biggest hit. In 1976, Bright Tunes Music sued Harrison because this sounded too much like the 1963 Chiffons hit "He's So Fine." Bright Tunes owned the copyright to "He's So Fine" and received $587,000 when a judge ruled that Harrison "subconsciously plagiarized" the song. Harrison claimed he got the idea for this from The Edwin Hawkins Singers' "Oh Happy Day," not The Chiffons' "He's So Fine." |
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| Lunokhod 2 moon rover was an improved version of Lunokhod 1. It was carried to the moon on Luna 21 and landed on January 16, 1973. Lunokhod 2 was faster and carried an additional television camera. It travelled 37km in only 8 weeks. Lunokhod 2 descended on a pair of ramps on Luna 21's landing stage and moves onto the moon's surface - it travelled 30 metres from Luna 21 and is parked. |
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| Bonanza was an American western/cowboy television series which aired on NBC from September 12, 1959 until January 16, 1973. Bonanza was the first network television series to film all of its episodes in color. The main sponsor of Bonanza was Chevrolet and the stars appeared endorsing their vehicles. The show chronicled the weekly adventures of the Cartwright family, headed by widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright (played by Lorne Greene). He had three sons, each by a different wife: the oldest was Adam (Pernell Roberts); the second was Eric, better known to viewers by his nickname of "Hoss" (Dan Blocker); and the youngest was Joseph or "Little Joe" (Michael Landon). |
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| “It's out there in the water...waiting. Nature's most fearsome predator. The seaside community of Amity is at its mercy. A small-town police chief, a marine biologist, and a modern-day Ahab must try to stop it. But they are only three men...alone against the Great White Death.” |  |
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| Songwriters Steve Kipner and Terry Shaddick came up with this. Instead of writing about the emotions of love, they decided to write this about the physical side, which many listeners found very refreshing in a pop song. This was #1 in the US for 10 weeks. The only song to that point that stayed at #1 longer was Elvis Presley's "Hound Dog." |  |
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| An early version of Kermit appeared in 1955, in a five minute puppet show for WRC-TV “Sam and Friends.” The prototype Kermit was created from a green ladies' coat that Henson's mother had thrown in the trash can, and two ping-pong balls for eyes. The early Kermit was a sort of lizard-like creature; Kermit's first appearance as a frog was in the television special “Hey Cinderella” in 1969, and he's been a frog ever since. |
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| On his “Cloud Nine” album, Harrison serves up masterpiece after masterpiece. These include “Got My Mind Set On You” and “When We Was Fab.” “Got My Mind Set On You” is a cover of a song written by Rudy Clark. Harrison's take on the song hit number one on the pop charts. |  |
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| In 2006, the Stardust capsule successfully returned to Earth, carrying dust from a comet, which could shed light on the origins of our planetary system. It ended its six-year mission by entering the atmosphere at 28,860mph - faster than any other man-made object before. Its speed was reduced to 14.8 feet per second as it parachuted back to the United States, and was retrieved by NASA scientists. It was the first successful collection of cometary and interstellar material, and the first rock samples taken from space since the Apollo missions. A prior attempt by the same team to retrieve solar wind particles - the Genesis return probe - ended 16 months earlier without properly opening its parachute and had been badly damaged by hitting the ground at 193mph. |
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