January 12, 1967: Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved with intent of future resuscitation. To this day, he is still frozen.
January 12, 1879: Cal Rodgers, the first person to fly across America, “crash by crash” (it took him almost three months), is born in Pittsburgh.
An early-aviation hero of mine.
January 12, 1918: The Minnie Pit Mine Disaster kills 156 in England. Of the dead miners, 44 are children under the age of 16.
January 13, 1910: The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the operas Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci are sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York.
January 14, 1967: The “Human Be-In” takes place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love.
January 15, 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).
January 15, 1943: in Arlington VA, the Pentagon was dedicated.
January 16, 1964: Hello, Dolly! opens on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.
January 17, 1929: Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
January 18, 1943: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in Poland’s Warsaw Ghetto.
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.
January 19, 1809: Edgar Allan Poe is born.
Dolly Parton, too (in 1946)
And I’ll bet Edgar Allan Poe doesn’t have a bridge named after HIM!
-“BB”-
January 20, 1920: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.
January 21, 1854: The RMS Tayleur, sometimes referred to as the “first Titanic,” runs aground off Lambay Island on its maiden voyage. 370 of the 650 aboard perish.
January 21, 1793: After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
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.
January 22, 1973: The U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, declared a nationwide constitutional right to abortion.
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.
January 23, 1997: Madeleine Albright was sworn in as the United States secretary of state to become the first woman to hold this position. Albright’s impressive career highlights a combination of scholarly research and political activity.