# Today in History **URL:** \ **Category:** Thread Games\ **Created:** [July 10, 2016, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530 "2016-07-10T04:53:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 21
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/402 "2017-01-16T17:33:18Z")
January 16: 1865 - Union General William Tecumseh Sherman decreed that 400,00 acres of land in the South would be divided into 40-acre lots and given to former slaves. This may have been the source of the expression, “Forty acres and a mule.” (The order was later revoked by President Andrew Johnson.) 2007 - Senator Barack Obama launched his successful bid for the White House (about 23 acres). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/403 "2017-01-16T18:31:05Z")
Can we get a rule to post just one event each? **January 16, 1412:** The Medici family is appointed official banker of the papacy. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2017, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/404 "2017-01-17T11:12:34Z")
**January 17, 1998:** Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his _Drudge Report_ website. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/405 "2017-01-19T03:44:47Z")
**January 18, 1644:** Perplexed Pilgrims in Boston report America’s 1st UFO sighting. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/406 "2017-01-19T11:35:20Z")
**January 19, 1940:** _You Nazty Spy!_, the very first Hollywood film of any kind to satirize Adolf Hitler and the Nazis premieres, starring The Three Stooges, with Moe Howard as the character “Moe Hailstone” satirizing Hitler. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/407 "2017-01-19T17:27:17Z")
January 19, 1764 – John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/408 "2017-01-20T04:45:16Z")
**January 19, 1935:** Coopers Inc sells the world’s first men’s briefs in Chicago, calling them the Jockey. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/409 "2017-01-20T07:43:54Z")
**January 20, 1909** : [The Chicago Crib Disaster](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://worldhistoryproject.org/1909/1/20/chicago-crib-disaster&ved=0ahUKEwjNmIX7m9DRAhXKJiYKHdOfB0YQFggaMAA&usg=AFQjCNFcAZy4eettJG_uk37U0YTcYQObiw&sig2=UHf40aUYO3OVGo_a1iHnZw) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/410 "2017-01-20T09:28:00Z")
**January 20, 1920:** The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/411 "2017-01-20T17:10:53Z")
Jan. 20, 1961 - John F. Kennedy is sworn in as President of the United States, and says in his Inaugural Address, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2017, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/412 "2017-01-21T10:18:03Z")
**January 21, 1793:** After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/413 "2017-01-22T07:34:42Z")
**January 21, 1954:** The USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched on the Thames River in Connecticut. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/414 "2017-01-22T12:09:59Z")
**January 22, 1984:** The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/415 "2017-01-22T19:27:16Z")
**January 22, 1964:** The world’s largest cheese (15,723 kg) is manufactured in Wisconsin for New York’s World Fair. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2017, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/416 "2017-01-22T23:59:39Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > **January 22, 1964:** The world’s largest cheese (15,723 kg) is manufactured in Wisconsin for New York’s World Fair. I was there, and remember seeing that. After the fair, the cheese toured the U.S. in the Cheese-Mobile. ---
**Author:** ![Biotop](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biotop/32/321_2.png) [@Biotop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biotop)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/417 "2017-01-23T05:00:29Z")
**January 23, 1556** : The deadliest earthquake in recorded history, [the Shaanxi Earthquake](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1556_Shaanxi_earthquake&ved=0ahUKEwjvrof-udfRAhVH5iYKHdhIC-AQFgicATAZ&usg=AFQjCNGbKISseN9z0_UIfnMmJVWbn2po-Q&sig2=HWZspR24r_Glo81NkPg2gw) kills an estimated 830,000 people in China. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2017, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/418 "2017-01-23T10:49:06Z")
**January 23, 1849:** Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States’ first female doctor. ---
**Author:** ![Ignatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/3be4f8/32.png) [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/419 "2017-01-24T23:10:19Z")
**January 24, 1961** - A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber crashed near Goldsboro, North Carolina, dropping its payload of two nuclear bombs, neither of which went off, three crewmembers being killed. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2017, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/420 "2017-01-25T07:29:29Z")
**January 25, 1947:** Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a “Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device”, the first ever electronic game. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2017, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530/421 "2017-01-26T03:59:30Z")
**January 25, 1858:** Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” is first played, at the wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Victoria, to the crown prince of Prussia. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/today-in-history/759530.md?page=22)