This Week in History 1/16 – 1/22

This Week in History

April 16:

• The Virginia Statute of Religious Liberty passed allowing religious freedom in Virginia and paving the way for the First Amendment (1786)
• The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliba (2002)
• The 18th Amendment is ratified prohibiting the sale and distribution of alcoholic beverages (1920)
• Prohibition ratified by 3/4 of US states (1919)
• WW2: General Eisenhower took command of Allied Invasion Force in London (1944)
• US Revolutionary War: Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks (1776)
• Vermont declares independence from New York (1777)
• US Civil War: Virginia becomes 8th state readmitted to US after Civil War (1870)
• French Revolution: French King Louis XVI sentenced to death by the National Convention (1793)
• Ivan IV the Terrible crowns himself first tsar of Moscow (1547)
• In the aftermath of Lenin’s death, Stalin and Trotsky battle for leadership until on this day, Trotsky resigns as chairman of the Russian Revolutionary Military Council (1925)
• Great Britain established full diplomatic relations with the Vatican (1982)
• First assembly of the League of Nations in Paris (1920)
• US Revolutionary War: Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks (1776)
• US Revolutionary War: Vermont declares independence from New York (1777)
• Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, sworn in as Liberia’s new president, becomes Africa’s first female elected head of state (2006)
• The first grammar of a modern language, Spanish, is presented to Queen Isabella (1492)
• First ever flower grown in space – a zinnia aboard the International Space Station using NASA Veggie system (2016)

January 17:

• King James Bible was commissioned to be written (1604)
• Doomsday Clock set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea’s first nuclear test (2007)
• WW2: Auschwitz concentration camp begins evacuation (1945)
• Mexico permits Moses Austin & 300 US families to settle in Texas (1821)
• Operation Desert Storm begins against Saddam Hussein (1991)
• Roman Emperor Theodosius divided the empire into western and eastern portions (395 AD)
• US President Bill Clinton faces sexual harassment charges from Paula Jones (1998)
• First day Prohibition comes into effect in the US as a result of the 18th amendment (1920)
• First fully automatic photographic film developing machine patented (1928)
• Captain James Cook becomes first to cross Antarctic Circle 66° 33′ S (1773)
• Beginning of Giovanni da Verrazzano’s voyage to find a passage to China (1524)
• Popeye makes first appearance in comic strip Thimble Theater (1929)
• Avalanche destroys every building in Leukerbad, Switzerland, killing 53 (1718)
• Nine old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests in Kalisk, Poland (1775)
• Antony of Egypt, known as the first monk, died at 105 (356 AD)
• The Edict of St. Germain officially recognized French Protestantism (1562)
• The Baptist World Mission was incorporated in Chicago (1963)

January 18:

• WW1: Peace Conference begins in Paris (1919)
• Peter Deyneka, known as Peter Dynamite for his bold sermons and who preached the Gospel to Communist Russia through radio messages, was saved (1920)
• Plans for World Trade Center announced (1964)
• Captain James Cook stumbles over Sandwich Islands now known as Hawaiian Islands (1778)
• Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observed in all 50 states for first time (1993)
• San Jose California, founded (1777)
• The first Armenian church was consecrated in the United States at Worcester, Massachusetts after Armenian Turks came to America to escape persecution (1891)
• Edgar Allen Poe is born (1809)
• The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony (1788)
• US Civil War: Confederate Territory of Arizona forms (1862)
• Taylor University was established in Fort Wayne, Indiana, under Methodist sponsorship (1846)
• Pilgrims in Boston reported America’s first UFO sighting (1644)

January 19:

• US Civil War: Robert E. Lee is born (1807)
• Mel Trotter, who founded a series of missions for alcoholics, was saved and delivered from alcoholism (1897)
• The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey (1883)
• First presidential news conference filmed for TV with US President Eisenhower (1955)
• Millionaire Howard Hughes sets transcontinental air record at 7h28m25s (1937)
• General Motors begins mass production of diesel engines (1938)
• Coopers Inc. sells the world’s first men’s briefs in Chicago, calls it the “Jockey” (1935)

January 20:

• WW2: At the notorious Wannsee Conference in Berlin, German Nazi officials decided on their “final solution,” which called for a mass extermination of all the Jews in Europe (1942)
• Iran Hostage Crisis ends when Iran releases prisoners as President Reagan is inaugurated (1981)
• Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th US President and the first African-American president (2009)
• John Marshall appointed first US chief justice (1801)
• Susanna Annesley Wesley, mother of John and Charles Wesley, was born (1669)
• Fabian, Bishop of Rome for fourteen years, was the first martyr by Emperor Decius who determined to smash Christianity (250 AD)
• FDR inaugurated for fourth time, the only US president to have 4 terms (1945)
• First US Presidential Inauguration day held on Jan 20th (1937)
• In Russia, following the Bolshevik Revolution, all church property was confiscated and all religious instruction in the schools was abolished (1918)
• Women’s activist Elizabeth Cady Stanton becomes first woman to testify before US Congress (1869)
• The first Parliament of England summoned other than by royal command, in this instance by Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, met in Westminster Hall (1265)
• First live US coast-to-coast inauguration address by US President Eisenhower (1953)
• Actress Audrey Hepburn dies (1993)
• Pineapple introduced to Hawaii (1813)
• Clara Swain, first medical female missionary, arrived in Bareilly in Asia (1870)
• John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as Robert Frost recites Gift Outright (1961)
• Edward VIII succeeds British king George V after George V abdicates his thrown to marry a divorcee (1935)
• Harry Houdini escapes from Halvemaansteeg police station in Amsterdam (1903)
• NYC regulation makes it illegal for a woman to smoke in public (1908)
• Alias Smith & Jones premieres on ABC TV (1971)

January 21:

• Agnes, a thirteen year old girl was tortured and beheaded for refusing to renounce Christ (304 AD)
• US President Jimmy Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders (1977)
• History’s first Anabaptist baptismal service took place in Zurich, Switzerland (1525)
• US Civil War: Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and 4 other southern senators resign (1861)
• French Revolution: King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris (1793)
• Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins (1968)
• Charismatic Bible Ministries was founded in Oklahoma (1986)
• First American novel, WH Brown’s “Power of Sympathy” is published (1789)
• First medical publication in America, pamphlet on smallpox (1677)

January 22:

• Postal service between New York & Boston inaugurated (1673)
• The Fifth Street Presbyterian Church of Troy, New York, became the first church in America to be illuminated by electric lighting (1882)
• 75% of North America is covered by snow (1982)
• Queen Victoria dies (1901)
• Prince William of Orange, future King William III of Britain, summons Convention Parliament to discuss ruling jointly with his wife Mary, daughter of exiled King James II (1689)
• Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer-winner of small-town life in Grover’s Corners, NH, premieres (1938)
• In St Petersburg, Russia, a large demonstration of workers led by Father Gapon, march to the Winter Palace with a petition to the Tsar; troops fire on protesters in what becomes known as ‘Bloody Sunday’ (1905)
• US Supreme Court legalizes most abortions in Roe vs Wade decision (1973)
• US president sets up CIA, Central Intelligence Agency (1946)