-------BIRTHDAYS-------

1588 01/12 John Winthrop, 1st governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1643 01/04 Sir Issac Newton
1706 01/17 Benjamin Franklin
1735 01/01 Paul Revere
1736 01/19 James Watt, made the steam engine workable.
1737 01/12 John Hancock
1738 01/10 Ethan Allen, Revolutionary War fighter (lead the Green Mtn Boys)
1741 01/14 Benedict Arnold, fink
1743 01/21 John Fitch, had a working steamboat years before Fulton.
1755 01/11 Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the US Treasury
1756 01/27 Wolfgang A. Mozart, musical prodigy
1759 01/25 Robert Burns, the Scottish poet.
1771 01/17 Charles Brockden Brown, father of the American novel.
1779 01/05 Stephen Decatur, early American Naval hero
1779 01/18 Peter Roget, of Thesaurus fame, invented Slide Rule, pocket chessboar
1782 01/18 Daniel Webster, early American orator and politician.
1786 01/08 Nicholas Biddle, made 2nd Bank of US 1st effective central bank.
1800 01/07 Millard Fillmore, 13th President (1850-1853)
1807 01/11 Ezra Cornell, founded Western Union Telegraph & Cornell University.
1807 01/19 Robert E. Lee
1809 01/04 Louis Braille, developed reading system for the blind.
1809 01/19 Edgar Allen Poe
1811 01/06 Charles Sumner, leading Reconstruction Senator
1813 01/18 Joseph Farwell Glidden, invented 1st commercially useable barbed wire
1813 01/21 John C Fremont, mapmaker & explorer of Western US
1815 01/21 Horace Wells, dentist, pioneer in use of medical anethesia.
1830 01/31 James G. Blaine, the 'Plumed Knight'.
1832 01/13 Horatio Alger, Jr.
1832 01/27 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (you know him as Lewis Carroll)
1838 01/04 Charles Stratton (alias General Tom Thumb, famous short person)
1839 01/19 Paul Cezanne, painter
1840 01/03 Father Damien, helped the lepers in Hawaii.
1843 01/29 William McKinley, 25th President (1897-1901)
1850 01/27 Samuel Gompers, 1st president of the American Federation of Labor
1850 01/29 Lawrence Hargrave, invented the box kite
1854 01/18 Thomas A. Watson, needed by Bell.
1855 01/05 King Camp Gillette, inventor of the safety razor
1855 01/28 William Seward Burroughs, invented recording adding machine.
1860 01/29 Anton Chekhov, writer (The Cherry Orchard)
1862 01/08 Frank Nelson Doubleday, publisher & founder of Doubleday & Co.
1868 01/08 Sir Frank Dyson, proved Einstein right about light bent by gravity
1870 01/09 Joseph B. Strauss, civil engineer & builder of Golden Gate Bridge.
1872 01/31 Zane Gray, American West novelist
1874 01/25 Somerset Maugham, poet
1877 01/10 precipitator, used for polution control and air ionizers.
1877 01/10 Frederick Gardner Cottrell, invented the elecrostatic
1878 01/06 Carl Sandburg
1880 01/17 Mack Sennett, created Keystone Kops
1880 01/26 Douglas MacArthur, he did return!
1880 01/29 Claude William Dukenfield (better known as W.C. Fields)
1882 01/06 Samuel Rayburn, Speaker of the House (1940 - 1957)
1882 01/25 Virginia Woolf, author.
1882 01/30 Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President (1933-1945)
1888 01/24 Ernst Heinrich Heinkel, built 1st rocket-powered aircraft.
1892 01/03 J.R.R. Tolkien, the REAL Lord of the Rings.
1892 01/14 Hal Roach, early film director and producer.
1892 01/18 Oliver Hardy, of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy.
1896 01/20 Nathan Birnbaum (better known as George Burns)
1901 01/09 Chic Young, creator of the "Blondie" comic strip.
1901 01/29 Allen B DuMont, perfected 1st commercially practical cathode ray tube
1908 01/15 Edward Teller, fathered the H-bomb.
1913 01/09 Richard M. Nixon, 37th President (1968-1974)
1919 01/01 J. D. Salinger, author of 'Catcher in the Rye'.
1919 01/31 Jackie Robinson, 1st black major league baseball player
1929 01/15 Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamer
1935 01/08 Elvis Presley, singer.
1942 01/17 Muhammed Ali, who floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.
1946 01/08 Tod Brannan


        -------SPECIAL EVENTS-------

Yrly 01/01 Independence Day, celebrated in Haiti and Sudan
Yrly 01/01 The start of a new year... Enjoy the bowl games.
Yrly 01/04 National Trivia Day.
Yrly 01/06 Arizona becomes the 47th state.
Yrly 01/06 Epiphany (Twelfth Night in England)
Yrly 01/16 National Nothing Day
Yrly 01/20 Reindeer Day
Yrly 01/23 National Handwriting Day
Yrly 01/25 the start of the Chinese New Year.
Yrly 01/26 Australia Day, celebrated in (where else?) Australia.
1265 01/20 1st English Parliament called into session by the Earl of Leicester
1610 01/07 Galileo discovers the 4 major moons of Jupiter.
1644 01/18 1st UFO sighting in America, by perplexed Pilgrims in Boston.
1714 01/07 the typewriter is patented (it was built years later)
1776 01/10 "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine is published.
1778 01/18 Captain James Cook stumbles over the Hawaiian Islands.
1784 01/14 the Revolutionary War formally ends.
1785 01/07 1st balloon flight across the English Channel.
1788 01/26 1st settlement established by the English in Australia.
1793 01/09 1st balloon flight in North America.
1799 01/09 1st income tax imposed, in England.
1804 01/01 Haiti gains it's independence
1807 01/28 London's Pall Mall is the 1st street lit by gaslight.
1813 01/11 first pineapples planted in Hawaii.
1813 01/21 the pineapple is introduced to Hawaii.
1815 01/08 War of 1812 had ended on 12/24/1814, but nobody knew that).
1815 01/08 Battle of New Orleans, made a hero out of Andrew Jackson (the
1822 01/07 first printing in Hawaii.
1839 01/09 the daguerrotype process announced at French Academy of Science
1840 01/10 the Penny Post mail system is started.
1847 01/30 Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco.
1848 01/24 James Marshall finds gold in Sutter's Mill in Coloma.
1850 01/05 the California Exchange opens.
1852 01/03 first Chinese arrive in Hawaii.
1854 01/13 Anthony Foss obtains patent for the Accordion.
1861 01/15 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis, forming base for his
1861 01/15 elevator company.
1861 01/17 Flush toilet is patented by Mr. Thomas Crapper (Honest!!).
1861 01/29 Kansas becomes a state.
1862 01/30 US Navy's 1st ironclad warship, the "Monitor", launched.
1863 01/01 Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln.
1863 01/10 1st underground railway opens in London.
1871 01/17 1st Cable Car is patented by Andrew S. Hallidie.
1878 01/28 George W. Coy hired as 1st full-time telephone operator.
1880 01/08 the passing of Norton I, Emperor of the US, Protector of Mexico
1887 01/16 Cliff House badly damaged when a cargo of powder on the
1887 01/16 schooner "Parallel" explodes nearby.
1888 01/03 1st drinking straw is patented.
1892 01/11 Hawaii Historical Society founded.
1893 01/17 the Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic.
1894 01/27 Midwinter Fair opens in Golden Gate Park.
1898 01/01 Lightship replaces whistling buoy at mouth of San Francisco Bay.
1899 01/24 the rubber heel is patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.
1902 01/01 1st Rose Bowl game held in Pasadena, California.
1903 01/19 1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US & England.
1904 01/29 1st athletic letters given: to Univ of Chicago football team.
1911 01/18 USS Pennsylvania).
1911 01/18 1st shipboard landing of a plane (from Tanforan Park to the
1914 01/06 Stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch founded.
1914 01/14 Henry Ford introduces the Assembly Line for his cars.
1915 01/09 Exposition (now Civic) Auditorium dedicated.
1915 01/25 Alexander Bell in New York calls Thomas Watson in San Francisco.
1917 01/30 1st jazz record in United States is cut.
1920 01/13 NY Times Editorial says rockets can never fly.
1921 01/02 DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opens.
1926 01/27 1st public demonstration of television.
1929 01/07 "Tarzan", one of the first adventure comic strips appears.
1934 01/01 Alcatraz officially becomes a Federal Prison.
1935 01/11 Amelia Earhart flies from Hawaii to California (non-stop, of course).
1935 01/24 1st beer in cans is sold.
1936 01/14 L.M. "Mario" Giannini elected president of Bank of America.
1938 01/28 1st Ski Tow starts running (in Vermont).
1943 01/17 It was Tin Can Drive Day.
1945 01/10 Los Angeles Railway (with 5 streetcar lines) forced to close.
1948 01/15 The Pentagon Building in Washington is completed.
1948 01/27 1st Tape Recorder is sold.
1949 01/22 Chinatown telephone exchange closed.
1949 01/25 1st Emmy Awards are given out.
1950 01/26 India becomes a republic.
1954 01/21 The submarine Nautilus launched.
1956 01/01 Sudan gains it's independence
1958 01/01 European Economic Community (EEC) starts operation.
1958 01/31 1st U.S. satellite launched, Explorer I.
1959 01/03 Alaska becomes the 49th state.
1959 01/25 1st transcontinental commercial jet flight (LA to NY for $301).
1961 01/31 Ham the chimp is 1st animal sent into space by the US.
1963 01/07 First Class postage raised from 4 cents to 5 cents.
1968 01/07 First Class postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents.
1971 01/13 Apollo 14 launched (what was that about rockets can't fly??)
1971 01/31 Apollo 14 launched, 1st landing in lunar highlands.
1977 01/03 Apple Computer incorporated.
1979 01/21 Neptune becomes the outermost planet (Pluto moves closer).
1982 01/09 5.9 earthquake in New England/Canada; last one was in 1855.
1984 01/01 AT & T broken up into 8 companies.
1986 01/24 Voyager II flies past Uranus.
1986 01/28 Space Shuttle Challenger explodes, killing a brave crew and NASA