January 4
Today is
World Braille Day, celebrating
Louis Braille, who developed the 6-dot finger tip reading system known as Braille [
by the age of 15].
Events
1490 –
Anne of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the King of France will be considered guilty of the crime of
lèse-majesté.
1642 – King
Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing
England's slide into civil war.
1717 – The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the
Triple Alliance.
1847 –
Samuel Colt sells his first
revolver pistol to the United States government. ["God created all men. Sam Colt made them equal."]
1853 – After having been kidnapped and sold into slavery in the American South,
Solomon Northup regains his freedom; his memoir
Twelve Years a Slave later becomes a national bestseller.
1865 – The
New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters near
Wall Street in New York City.
1889 – The
Oklahoma Land Run opens two million acres of unused Oklahoma Territory to first-come first-served settlers on April 22.
1896 –
Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
1903 –
Topsy, a performing elephant, is poisoned, strangled, and electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island, . The Edison film company shoots the film
Electrocuting an Elephant of Topsy's death.
1912 –
The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Empire by royal charter.
1951 – Korean War:
Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
1958 –
Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from orbit.
1959 –
Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
1972 –
Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the
Old Bailey in London, England.
1976 – The Troubles: The
Ulster Volunteer Force shoots dead six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day,
gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians nearby in retaliation.
1987 – The
Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, D.C., collides with Conrail engines in Chase, Maryland, killing 16 people.
1989 –
Second Gulf of Sidra incident: A pair of Libyan
MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy
F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
1998 – A
massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
1999 – Former professional wrestler
Jesse 'The Body' Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
2004 –
Spirit, a NASA
Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars.
2007 – The
110th United States Congress convenes, electing
Nancy Pelosi as the first female
Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
Births
1785 – Jacob Grimm (Grimm's Fairy Tales); 1809 – Louis Braille; 1838 – General Tom Thumb; 1890 – Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson (founder DC Comics); 1895 – Leroy Grumman (co-founded Grumman Aeronautical Engineering Co.); 1900 – Bond, James Bond (no, not
that one, this one's an orthin- an onritho- he studies birds); 1905 – Sterling Holloway; 1920 – William Colby; 1927 – Barbara Rush (Peyton Place, All My Children); 1930 – Don Shula [Bum Phillips was asked who was the greatest coach, he said "Don Shula. He can take his'n, and beat yourn, then take yourn, and beat his'n."]; 1935 – Floyd Patterson
; 1937 – Dyan Cannon; 1957 – Patty Loveless♪ ♫; 1958 – Matt Frewer; 1958 – Julian Sands; 1959 – Vanity♪ ♫
; 1960 – Michael Stipe♪ ♫(R.E.M.); 1962 – Robin Guthrie♪ ♫(Cocteau Twins); 1962 – Peter Steele
(Type O Negative); 1963 – Dave Foley; 1963 – Till Lindemann♪ ♫(Rammstein); 1965 – Julia Ormond; 1966 – Deana Carter♪ ♫
Deaths
1821 – Elizabeth Ann Seton; 1877 – Cornelius Vanderbilt; 1960 – Albert Camus; 1961 – Erwin Schrödinger (
Schrödinger's cat); 1965 – T. S. Eliot; 1967 – Donald Campbell
; 1986 – Phil Lynott
(Thin Lizzy); 1997 – Harry Helmsley (Leona's husband); 1999 – Iron Eyes Cody (the crying Native American in the old anti-pollution commercial); 2001 – Les Brown♪ ♫; 2011 – Gerry Rafferty♪ ♫(Stealer's Wheel)