This Day in History

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January 15

Today is Wikipedia Day. Wikipedia is 16 years old. I'm not entirely sure we can live without Wikipedia.


Events

1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.

1759 – The British Museum opens.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present-day Vermont) declares its independence.

1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.

1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

1910 – Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 325 ft (99 m).

1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio.

1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.

1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

1973 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

1976 – Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

2001 – Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

2002 - 1980's British pop legend Adam Ant was admitted to a mental ward 24 hours after being charged by police with pulling a gun on staff in a London pub.

2005 – ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon.

2009 – Captain Sully (Chesley Sullenberger) emergency landed a US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River saving all 155 passengers after the plane collided with birds few minutes after take-off. [The event became known as The Miracle On The Hudson.]

Births

1622 – Molière; 1870 – Pierre S. du Pont; 1902 – Saud of Saudi Arabia; 1906 – Aristotle Onassis; 1909 – Gene Krupa; 1913 – Lloyd Bridges; 1918 – Gamal Abdel Nasser; 1924 – George Lowe; 1926 – Maria Schell; 1929 – Earl Hooker; 1929 – Martin Luther King, Jr.; 1941 – Captain Beefheart♪ ♫; 1948 – Ronnie Van Zant♪ ♫; 1953 – Randy White; 1957 – Mario Van Peebles; 1958 - Ken Judge; 1965 – Bernard 'The Executioner' Hopkins; 1966 – Lisa Lisa♪ ♫; 1968 – Chad Lowe; 1971 – Regina King; 1979 – Drew Brees; 1988 – Skrillex♪ ♫

Deaths

1876 – Eliza McCardle Johnson (18th FLOTUS); 1896 – Mathew Brady; 1950 – Henry H. Arnold; 1964 – Jack Teagarden♪ ♫; 1970 – William T. Piper (founded Piper Aircraft); 1987 – Ray Bolger ('Scarecrow' in The Wizard Of Oz); 1990 – Gordon Jackson (Upstairs Downstairs); 1993 – Sammy Cahn♪ ♫; 1994 – Harry Nilsson♪ ♫; 1996 – Minnesota Fats; 1998 – Junior Wells♪ ♫; 2005 – Ruth Warrick(All My Children); 2007 – James Hillier (co-invented the electron microscope); 2014 – Roger Lloyd-Pack; 2016 – Dan Haggerty; 2016 – Ken Judge