1493 – Christopher Columbus returned to Spain from his first visit to what would become America.
    1776 - Continental Congress approves General George Washington's order to enlist free Negroes.
http://courant.ctnow.com/projects/bhistory/arabusa.htm
http://www.free-essays-free-essays.com/dbase/7c/svn25.shtml
http://www.blackcommentator.org/washingtons_slaves.html
http://www.digitalessays.com/history/195.shtml
    1777 – Vermont declared itself independent from New York
    1786 - The Virginia Legislature adopted the Ordinance of Religious Freedom, authored by Thomas Jefferson, which guaranteed that no man would be forced to attend or support any church. This mandate later became the model for the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
    1843 - Sara Rosetta Wakeman’s birthday, in NYC.  A/K/A Lyons/Edwin Wakeman, she died while with the 153rd NYSV, Co. G&H, as a regular soldier in the Civil War. Her letters, a photo in uniform identifying her, and some personal belongings were found in a trunk in the family attic almost 100 years after her death.   Her war record was found under the name of Lyons Wakeman. Her last letter was from Brandycore Landing, Louisiana, "Made advance up the river about 40 miles to Pleasant Hill - had a fight. Retreated 10 miles, next day the fight resumed at 8." While on guard duty at Cairo Prison in 1863, she had written of a female Union prisoner who had gone into battle as a Major leading her men. The ring she wore, which was inscribed "Rosetta Wakeman, NY Vol. Co. H, 153rd," was sent home after her death in the Marine U.S. Army General Hospital in New Orleans. She had been hospitalized for chronic diarrhea, a major killer of soldiers during the Civil War. She is buried in grave #4066, Section 52, of what is now the Chalmette National Cemetery, Chalmette, LA.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/BookSearch/results.asp?sourceid=000014
68617162357229&bfdate=01-16-2004+04:04:19&title=+An+Uncommon
+Soldier&match=exact&options=and
    1847 –John C. Fremont appointed Governor of California. A leader in the successful fight to wrest California away from Mexico, the explorer and mapmaker John C. Fremont briefly becomes governor of the newly won American territory. Still only in his early mid-30s at the time, Fremont had already won national acclaim for his leadership of two important explorations of the West with the military's Corps of Topographical Engineers. Shortly after the government published Fremont's meticulously accurate maps of the Far West, they became indispensable guides for the growing numbers of overland emigrants heading for California and Oregon. In 1845, though, the lines between military exploration and military conquest began to blur when President James Polk sent Captain Fremont and his men on a third "scientific" mission to explore the Rockies and Sierra Nevada with 60 armed men accompanying them. Polk's ambition to take California from Mexico was no secret, and Fremont's expedition was clearly designed to place a military force near the region in case of war. When Mexico and the U.S. declared war in May 1846, Fremont and his men were in Oregon. Upon hearing the news, Fremont immediately headed south, calling his return "the first step in the conquest of California." When the Anglo-American population of California learned of Fremont's arrival, many of them began to rebel against their Mexican leaders. In June, a small band of American settlers seized Sonoma and raised a flag with a bear facing a five-pointed star.  With this act, the revolutionaries declared the independent Republic of California. The Bear Flag Republic was short-lived. In August, Fremont and General Robert Stockton occupied Los Angeles. By January 1847, they had put down the small number of Californians determined to maintain a nation independent of the United States. With California now clearly in the U.S. hands, Stockton agreed to appoint Fremont as the territorial governor. However, a dispute broke out within the army over the legitimacy of Fremont's appointment, and the young captain's detractors accused him of mutiny, disobedience, and conduct prejudicial to military discipline. Recalled to Washington for a court martial, Fremont was found guilty of all three charges, and his appointment to take the position of governor was revoked. Though President Polk pardoned him and ordered him back to active duty in the army, Fremont was deeply embittered, and he resigned from the military and returned to California a private citizen. Although he never regained the governorship of California, the turmoil of Fremont's early political career did not harm his future prospects. In 1851, citizens of California elected him a senator, and became the territorial governor of Arizona in 1878. Today, however, Fremont's youthful accomplishments as an explorer and mapmaker are more celebrated than his subsequent political career.
    1861 - The Crittenden Compromise, the last chance to keep North and South together, dies in the U.S. Senate. Proposed by Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, the compromise was a series of constitutional amendments. The amendments would continue the old Missouri Compromise provisions of 1820, which divided the west along the latitude of 36º 30". North of this line, slavery was prohibited. The Missouri Compromise was negated by the Compromise of 1850, which allowed a vote by territorial residents (popular sovereignty) to decide the issue of slavery. Other amendments protected slavery in the District of Columbia, forbade federal interference with the interstate slave trade, and compensated owners whose slaves escaped to the free states. Essentially, the Crittenden Compromise sought to alleviate all concerns of the southern states. Four states had already left the Union when it was proposed, but Crittenden hoped the compromise would lure them back. Crittenden thought he could muster support from both South and North and avert either a split of the nation or a civil war. The major problem with the plan was that it called for a complete compromise by the Republicans with virtually no concession on the part of the South. The Republican Party formed in 1854 solely for the purpose of opposing the expansion of slavery into the western territories, particularly the areas north of the Missouri Compromise line. Just six years later, the party elected a president, Abraham Lincoln, over the complete opposition of the slave states. Crittenden was asking the Republicans to abandon their most key issues. The vote was 25 against the compromise and 23 in favor of it. All 25 votes against it were cast by Republicans, and six senators from states that were in the process of seceding abstained. One Republican editorial insisted that the party "cannot be made to surrender the fruits of its recent victory." There would be no compromise; with the secession of states continuing the country marched inexorably towards civil war.
    1865 - General William ‘Tecumseh’ Sherman issued Field Order #15 granting land for blacks.  Sherman confiscated as Union property a strip of coastline stretching from Charleston, South Carolina, to the St. John's River in Florida, including Georgia's Sea Islands and the mainland thirty miles in from the coast. The order redistributed the roughly 400,000 acres of land to newly freed black families in forty-acre segments.  Sherman's order came on the heels of his successful March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah and just prior to his march northward into South Carolina. The orders were in effect for only one year.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/40acres/ps_so15.html
    1865 – A drunken sailor attacked a munitions cache at Ft. Fisher, NC and 40 die.
    1866 - Everett Barney of Springfield, MA, obtained a patent covering his invention of a screw-clamp skate. He marketed the first all-metal roller skate and the country was taken by storm over this new sport.  This predated Melanie’s hit song, “Brand New Key” by over a century.
    1868 – The refrigerated rail car was patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit
    1870 - Virginia became 8th state to be readmitted to U.S. after the Civil War
    1871 - Jefferson Franklin Long takes oath of office as first Black Congressman from Georgia.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=L000419
    1874 - Poet Robert William Service was born in Lancashire, England.
http://www.ude.net/service/index.html
    1879 - January record 13" of snow falls in New York City, a record that would stand until Jan 7, 1996.
    1883 - The U.S. Congress passed a bill creating the Civil Service, in an attempt to end political patronage in the Federal government.    
    1887 – The Cliff House, on the ocean in San Francisco, is damaged when schooner "Parallel's” powder cargo explodes.
    1893 - Hawaii: Queen Liliuokalani’s regime is overthrown by US pineapple tycoon Sanford Dole and pro-annexation sugar interests. With an amazing sense of timing, US troops just happen to land, "to protect US interests." With support from beloved and respected comrade leader, US Minister John Stevens, beloved and respected comrade Dole declares himself Hawaii's president and lobbies for US annexation. It's manifestly in the can. The Senate Foreign-Relations Committee recommends annexation, declaring it (quote) "a duty that has its origin in the noblest sentiments that inspire the love of a father for his children." In 1898, President William McKinley signs a joint resolution of Congress authorizing the annexation.
http://www.milimili.com/hawaii/aliis.htm
See John L. Stevens bio: http://www.rootsweb.com/~mecreadf/mtvnotab.htm
http://www.uic.edu/depts/owa/history/liliuokalani.html
   1894 - Birthday of publisher Irving Mills, was born Isadore Minsky on the lower East Side of New York City.  He was a jazz music publisher and musician, also known by the name of "Joe Primrose."  Mills went down to the Kentucky Club in lower Manhattan. The owner had brought in a small band from Washington, DC and wanted to know what Mills thought of them. Instead of going out and making the rounds he stayed all evening to listen to the band. That band was Duke Ellington and his Kentucky Club Orchestra, which he signed the very next day. They made numerous records together, not only under the name of Duke Ellington, but using groups that incorporated Duke's sidemen, who were great instrumentalists in their own right.  Mills' contract with Ellington was a very favorable one; he owned 50% of Duke Ellington Inc. and thus got his name tag on quite a number of tunes that became popular standards.  He was one of the first to record black and white musicians together.  Mills died in 1985 in Palm Springs, CA.  http://www.redhotjazz.com/irvingmills.html
    1900 - The US Senate accepted the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to Samoa.
    1901 – Frank Zamboni was born in Eureka, UT.  Guess what he’s famous for?  The 10,000th machine was delivered to the Montreal Canadiens in April 2012 for use at the Bell Centre.   The company is still owned and operated by the Zamboni family, including Frank's son and grandson. He died in 1988 in Paramount, CA. 
    1905 - Outfielder Frank Huelsman was traded for eighth time in 8 months.  Huelsman started his major league career in 1897 with the St. Louis Browns, then of the National League. He was out of the Majors for six full seasons and then became the first player in major league history to play for four different teams in a season.  Huelsman appeared in three games with the Chicago White Sox in 1904 before moving to the Detroit Tigers, the White Sox again, the new St. Louis Browns of the American League, and the Washington Senators. In January 1905, the Boston Americans obtained outfielder George Stone from the Senators. Then, the Browns reclaimed Huelsman from Washington, where he had been on loan, and sent him along with outfielder Jesse Burkett to Boston in exchange for Stone. Boston then sent Huelsman back to Washington in payment for Stone. For Huelsman, it was his eight transaction in less than a year.
     1909 - Ethel Merman was born Ethel Zimmerman in Queens, NYC.  One of the great American entertainers, whose 29-year Broadway and screen career went from hit to hit, she started with “Girl Crazy” (1930) then “Gypsy” (1959) with a stop in 1951 to win the Tony for her work in “Call Me Madame”. She is probably best known for the show-stopping "There's No Business Like Show Business" from the 1954 show of the same name. EM was awarded the 1972 Tony for her overall distinguished work on behalf of the Broadway theatre. Brassy, exuberant, and energetic, her strong song styling was once described as having "a trumpet in her throat."   She won the New York Critics Award three times.  Merman died in Manhattan in 1984.
http://www.musicals101.com/mermbio.htm
http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0581062/
    1911 - Jay Hanna “Dizzy” Dean, Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher, was born at Lucas, AR. His 17-year Major League career was with the St. Louis Cardinals, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Browns, during which he won 150 games.  In the modern era, he is the only National Leaguer to win 30 games, in 1934.  Following his baseball career, Dean established himself as a radio and TV sports announcer and commentator, becoming famous for his innovative delivery: “He slud into third”, and “It ain’t bragging if ya can back it up.”  On another occasion explained that “Me and Paul (baseball player brother Paul “Daffy” Dean)...didn't get much education.” He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953.  Died at Reno, NV, July 17, 1974.
    1915 – Congress authorized the issue of $1 and $50 Panama-Pacific International Expo gold coins
    1918 – Screen writer and producer Stirling Silliphant was born in Detroit.  He may be best known for his screenplay for “In the Heat of the Night” and co-creating the television series “Route 66”.  He died in Thailand in 1996.
    1919 - Nebraskabecame the 36th state to ratify the prohibition amendment and the 18th Amendment became part of the US Constitution. One year later, Jan 16, 1920, the 18th Amendment took effect and the sale of alcoholic beverages became illegal in the US with the Volstead Act providing for enforcement. This was the first time that an amendment to the Constitution dealt with a social issue. The 21st Amendment, repealing the 18th, went into effect Dec 6, 1933.
    1920 - Zeta Phi Beta founded at Howard University.
http://www.cbu.edu/Clubs/pbs/zpb.html
http://www.zphib1920.org/
    1920 - The League of Nations held its first council meeting in Paris.   
    1925 - James Robinson "Robbie" Risner was born in Mammoth Spring, AR. He was a general officer and fighter pilot in the Air Force and an ace during the Korean War.  Risner was a double recipient of the Air Force Cross, the second highest military decoration for valor that can be awarded to a member of the United States Air Force. He was the first living recipient of the medal, awarded the first for valor in aerial combat during the Vietnam War, and the second for gallantry as a POW of the North Vietnamese for more than seven years.  Risner commanded a squadron in the first missions of Operation Rolling Thunder in 1965. He flew a combined 163 combat missions, was shot down twice, and was credited with destroying eight MiG-15s. Risner retired as a brigadier general in 1976.  He died in 2013.
    1928 - Singer Eartha Kitt was born in North, SC.
http://www.bettemidleraloha.com/eartha.htm
    1932 - Dian Fossey was born in San Francisco.  An American zoologist, she became the world's leading authority on the mountain gorillas of Africa.   She founded the Karisoke Research Centre for the study of gorillas. Wrote the noted study, “Gorillas in the Mist” which was made into a Hollywood movie. She was murdered in 1985, evidently for her conservation measures on behalf of the gorillas.
http://www.gorillafund.org/008_df_frmset.html
    1933 - Susan Sontag was born in New York City.  She was a writer, critic, and novelist known for her reflections on modern culture. She draws amazing parallels between Nazi terrorism and the swing to the philosophical right in American culture. In her critical essays, she has disagreed with many of the simplistic outlooks on life by the leaders of many modern American movements including feminism.  She died in 2004 in NYC.
http://www.susansontag.com/biography.htm
    1935 - A.J. (Anthony Joseph) Foyt, former auto racer, was born in Houston, TX.  He is the only driver to win the Indianapolis 500 (which he won four times), the Daytona 500, the 24 Hours of Daytona, and the 24 Hours of LeMans. Foyt won the International Race of Champions all-star racing series in 1976 and 1977. In the NASCAR stock car circuit, he won the 1964 Firecracker 400 and the 1972 Daytona 500. Foyt survived three major crashes that caused serious injuries, and narrowly escaped a fourth. Foyt's success has led to induction in numerous motorsports halls of fame.
http://www.formulaone.free-online.co.uk/index.html
http://www.foytracing.com/
    1936 – The Screen Actors Guild incorporated with King Vidor as president   
    1936 – The first photo finish camera was installed at Hialeah Race track in Hialeah Fla
    1937 - Birthday of Bob Bogle, bass guitarist and founding member of the Ventures, in Portland, Oregon. The Ventures proved to be one of the most popular and influential guitar-based instrumental groups in rock history. Bogle and rhythm guitarist Don Wilson formed the band in the Seattle area in 1959, and by the time they began recording later that year, Nokie Edwards had joined as lead guitarist. Their breakthrough came in 1960 with "Walk Don't Run," an adaptation of a tune by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith. It became their biggest hit, reaching number-two on the Billboard chart. The Ventures hit the Top Five again in 1969 with the TV theme "Hawaii Five-O." Although the group's popularity had waned in North America by 1970, they remained huge stars in Japan.
    1938 - The first jazz concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City: Benny Goodman Band appeared and the concert recording became an overnight sensation, especially “Sing, Sing, Sing” featuring handsome drummer Gene Krupa (his birthday was yesterday).  Goodman originally refused to play because they would not let his black musicians perform.
    1938 – The comic strip, “Superman” first appeared.  The Superman character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster in 1933, and the character was sold to Detective Comics, Inc. (later DC Comics) in 1938.
    1941 - Cab Calloway features bassist Milt Hinton on “Ebony Silhouette,” Okey 6192
    1941 – The US War Department formed the 1st Army Air Corps squadron for black cadets
    1942 - For Columbia Records, Kay Kyser and the band recorded "A Zoot Suit", about the problems associated with wearing the garish, fashion.
http://www.artistdirect.com/store/artist/album/0,,949578,00.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/kaykyser/music/
http://www.zootsuitstore.com/Shopping/Catalog/product_detail.asp?Produ
ctCode=HWBD2003
http://www.elpachuco.com/remotemenu.html
    1942 – Actress Carole Lombard, her mother, and 20 others were killed in plane crash. Lombard, married to actor Clark Cable, was on a war-bond drive.
http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carole_Lombard
http://www.obituary.com/lombardcarole.html
    1942 - CALUGAS, JOSE, Medal of Honor.
Rank and organization: Sergeant, U.S. Army, Battery B, 88th Field Artillery, Philippine Scouts. Place and date: At Culis, Bataan Province, Philippine Islands, 16 January 1942. Entered service at: Fort Stotsenburg, Philippine Islands. Born: 29 December 1907, Barrio Tagsing, Leon, Ploilo, Philippine Islands. G.O. No.: 10, 24 February 1942. Citation: The action for which the award was made took place near Culis, Bataan Province, Philippine Islands, on 16 January 1942. A battery gun position was bombed and shelled by the enemy until 1 gun was put out of commission and all the cannoneers were killed or wounded. Sgt. Calugas, a mess sergeant of another battery, voluntarily and without orders ran 1,000 yards across the shell-swept area to the gun position. There he organized a volunteer squad which placed the gun back in commission and fired effectively against the enemy, although the position remained under constant and heavy Japanese artillery fire.
    1942 – Singer, songwriter Barbara Lynn was born in Beaumont, TX.  She is best known for her R&B chart-topping hit, "You’ll Lose a Good Thing" (1962).
    1944 - Top Hits
“My Heart Tells Me” - The Glen Gray Orchestra (vocal: Eugenie Baird)
“Shoo, Shoo, Baby” - The Andrews Sisters
“Paper Doll” - The Mills Brothers
“Pistol Packin' Mama” - Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
    1944 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in London to assume command of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe (SHAEF). Having demonstrated his organizational abilities in North Africa as well as his strength as an arbitrator of inter-Allied rivalries, Eisenhower was charged with the most far-reaching push of the war, Operation Overlord, the invasion of France.
    1946 – Country music singer and pianist Ronnie Milsap was born in Robbinsville, NC.  He was one of country music's most popular performers of the 1970s and 1980s. He became country music's first successful blind singer, appealing to both country and pop music markets with hit songs that incorporated pop, R&B, and rock and roll elements. His biggest crossover hits include "Smoky Mountain Rain", "(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me", "I Wouldn’t Have Missed It for the World”, and “Any Day Now". He is credited with six Grammy Awards and forty No. 1 country hits, third to George Strait and Conway Twitty. He was selected for induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2014.
    1947 - Sara Jane Olson, formerly Kathleen Ann Soliah, was born in Fargo, ND.  She was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in the 1970s.  In 2001, she pled guilty to two counts of possessing explosives with intent to murder stemming from her SLA activities in the 1970s. She was mistakenly released for five days in March, 2008 due to an error made in calculating her parole before being rearrested.   She was finally released on parole on March 17, 2009.
    1947 – Dr. Laura Schlesinger was born in Brooklyn.  Talk radio host, conservative commentator and author, her radio program consists mainly of her responses to callers' requests for personal advice and has occasionally featured her short monologues on social and political topics. After going into national syndication, she concentrated her efforts on the daily “The Dr. Laura Program”. In August 2010, she announced that she would end her syndicated radio show in December 2010, and moved to Sirius XM Radio on January 3, 2011.
    1951 – The world's largest gas pipeline opened to carry natural gas from Brownsville, TX, to 134th St, New York City.
    1952 - Top Hits
“Slowpoke” - Pee Wee King
“Sin (It's No)” - Eddy Howard
“Undecided” - The Ames Brothers
“Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way” - Carl Smith
    1952 – The U.S. Standard Board cleared St. Louis Cardinal OF Stan Musial contract for an $85,000 salary.
    1954 – “South Pacific” closed at Majestic Theater, NYC after 1928 performances
    1956 - Egyptian President Nasser pledged to reconquer Palestine
    1957 – Three US B-52 bombers left California for the first non-stop round-the-world flights
    1958 - Pianist Ahmad Jamal records “Poinciana” at Pershing Lounge, Chicago (Argo 628)
    1960 - Top Hits
“Why” - Frankie Avalon
“Running Bear” - Johnny Preston
“Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” - Freddie Cannon
“El Paso” - Marty Robbins
    1961 - Mickey Mantle signed the contract that made him the American League's highest paid baseball player. "The Mick" played the 1961 season for $75,000. In the National League, Willie Mays, made more money than any other baseball player with a contract for $85,000.
    1962 – Litigation accused the New York City Board of Education of using racial quotas.
    1962 – Shooting began on "Dr. No"
    1964 - In New York City, "Hello Dolly!" starring Carol Channing opened at the St. James Theatre. A musical adaptation of Thornton Wilder's play, "The Matchmaker", the show was called the "possible hit of the season" by critics. "Hello Dolly!" played for 2,844 performances, before returning to in the 1990s with, again star, Carol Channing.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan16.html
    1964 – American league owners voted 9-1 against Charlie Finley moving his Kansas City A's to Louisville.
    1965 - Elmer Valentine, Los Angeles, California opened the Whiskey a-Go-Go, the first discotheque, where the music is provided by a disk jockey playing recordings not by a live band. Valentine borrowed the discotheque concept from a club in Paris, which was also called the Whiskey a-Go-Go. For a time, "disco" and "go-go" were synonymous: Go-go clubs featured scantily clad women dancing in cages to tunes pumped from a jukebox. Discos emerged in larger cities, with disc jockeys pulling music from albums, particularly those recorded by black musicians like Sly and the Family Stone, James Brown, KC and the Sunshine Band, and Donna Summer. The clubs were especially popular among the gay male and urban black subcultures. Cheaper than live-music clubs, discos also became popular with lower-income young people. The underground disco subculture turned into a national sensation when the film “Saturday Night Fever” was released in 1977. John Travolta starred as Tony Manero, a young man from Brooklyn who dreamed of becoming a professional dancer and danced away his cares at Disco 2001. The movie's soundtrack, featuring the chart-topping songs "Stayin' Alive" and "Disco Inferno," sold 20 million copies and urged its spandex- and lamé-clad fans onto the dance floor. Older music, even Beethoven's, gained a fresh popularity when remixed into disco tunes. Even mainstream pop artists, including the Rolling Stones, tried their hand at disco. But the fad didn't last long; in 1979, disco died almost overnight. Disco albums were returned to producers by the truckload as New Wave took over in popularity. But disco's basic structure set the stage for the evolution of rap, hip-hop, and techno music.
    1966 - Joan Baez is jailed for 10 days for Vietnam antiwar protest during a demonstration, Oakland, California.
    1967 - Lucius D. Amerson sworn in as first Black sheriff of the South since Reconstruction, in Macon County, AL. The county seat of Macon County, Alabama, is Tuskegee.
    1968 - Top Hits
“Hello Goodbye” - The Beatles
“Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)” - John Fred & His Playboy Band
Woman, Woman - The Union Gap
“For Loving You” - Bill Anderson & Jan Howard
    1972 - The Dallas Cowboys won the first Super Bowl in their history by defeating the Miami Dolphins, 24-3, in Super Bowl VI. Dallas was led by quarterback Roger Staubach, named the game's Most Valuable Player.
    1973 - Long-running western series “Bonanza” is finally cancelled after 14 seasons. The show, which debuted in 1959, was the first western to be televised in color. Throughout the 1960s, the show, which featured the adventures of the Cartwright family on their ranch, the Ponderosa, was one of the most highly rated programs on television. My father Lawrence Menkin wrote several of the early episodes. Its trademark theme song rose to No. 19 on Billboard's Top Singles chart in 1961
    1974 - Muhammad Ali, boxing champion, named the Associated Press Athlete of the Year.
http://www.chs.helena.k12.mt.us/faculty/hhillZ/web00/webper1/
pmarshall1.htm
http://www.boxing-memorabilia.com/muhammad%20ali%20biography.htm
    1976 - “Donny and Marie” premiered on TV. ABC show hosted by brother-and-sister act Donny and Marie Osmond. There were seven other talented siblings in the Osmond family who appeared on the show at times along with regulars Jim Connell and Hank Garcia. The sister-and-brother team could sing, dance and perform on ice skates.
    1976 - Top Hits
“I Write the Songs” - Barry Manilow (written by my high school friend Bruce Johnston, now plays with the Beach Boys.)
“Theme from Mahogany (Do You Know Where You're Going To)” - Diana Ross
“Fox on the Run” - Sweet
“Convoy” - C.W. McCall
    1979 – The last Shah of Iran fled with his family to Egypt.
    1980 – Slugger Albert Pujols was born in Santo Domingo, DR.  After a stellar career as 1B for the St. Louis Cardinals, he left in 2011 in free agency for the LA Angels for a reported 10-year deal worth around $254 million.  Beset by injuries since, he still has amassed impressive numbers.  On April 22, 2014, Pujols hit his 499th and 500th home run of his career, becoming the 26th player ever to reach the 500 home run mark and the third youngest to reach it. On September 6, 2014 against the Minnesota Twins, Pujols collected his 2,500th career hit. He also passed the 1,500 run mark in the same game. In the process, he became the fifth player in major league history with 2,500 hits and 500 home runs while maintaining a .310 lifetime batting average, joining Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx, Ted Williams, and Manny Ramirez.
    1984 - At the 11th annual American Music Awards, Michael Jackson received eight awards, including favorite pop and soul male vocalist, pop and soul album winner for "Thriller", pop and soul video winner for "Beat It" and best pop song for "Billie Jean".
    1984 - Top Hits
“Say Say Say” - Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson
“Owner of a Lonely Heart” - Yes
“Karma Chameleon” - Culture Club
“Slow Burn” - T.G. Sheppard
    1985 – Super Bowl-winning Baltimore Ravens QB, Joe Flacco, was born in Audubon, NJ.  He is the only quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game in each of his first five seasons, and has taken his team to the playoffs in six of his seven seasons. With Flacco at QB, the Ravens have won the AFC North twice, appeared in three AFC Championship Games, and defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII, of which he was named MVP, concluding a postseason run in which he tied Joe Montana’s single postseason record for touchdown passes (11) without an interception.
    1985 - Hugh Hefner took the staples out of "Playboy" magazine, ending its 30-year tradition of stapling centerfold models in the bellybutton. The decision made the centerfold more difficult to remove it.
    1988 - Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder, a pro football gambling expert employed by CBS on its hit show, “The NFL Today”, was fired by the network because of racially insensitive remarks he made the previous day on Martin Luther King, Jr’s. birthday during an interview with WRC-TV in Washington, DC.  [Ralph Mango notes:  years later, I read “Sports in America” by James Michener in 1976.  The reference for which Snyder was terminated dealt with the conscious mating of slaves by plantation owners to produce the strongest and biggest offspring by which to increase production across future generations.  To my surprise and in the context of Snyder’ remarks, Michener included the very same thesis in this book…but there was never any reference to this even as a mild defense for the defenseless comments.]
    1991 - Allied forces launched a major air offensive against Iraq to begin the Gulf War. The strike was designed to destroy Iraqi air defenses, command, control and communication centers. As Desert Shield became Desert Storm, the world was able to see and hear for the first time an initial engagement of war as CNN broadcasters, stationed at Baghdad, broadcasted the attack live. A little known historic fact:  the launch was predicted by pizza orders. At 5am that morning, the Domino's Pizza fast-food chain put out a warning to its franchises that war was likely later that day, based on the record order of pizza the previous night from the Pentagon. The Pentagon is the headquarters of the Department of Defense in Washington, DC, and is the world's largest office building.
    1996 - Jamaica: Authorities open fire on Jimmy Buffett's seaplane, mistaking it for a drug trafficker's plane. U2 singer Bono was with Buffett, but neither was hurt
    1996 - Wayne Newton performs his 25,000th show in Las Vegas.
    1997 - Comedian/actor Bill Cosby's only son was shot to death, the victim of a possible robbery attempt while changing a flat tire on his Mercedes convertible along a freeway, police said. The body of Ennis William Cosby, age 27, was found about 1:45 a.m. in a pool of blood next to the car of a woman passer-by. The murder occurred in a well-to-do area near the Santa Monica Mountains not far from the exclusive Bel-Air section of Los Angeles. The Columbia University graduate student was the son of one of the world's richest entertainers, a man for whom fatherhood was the source of much of his humor
    1997 - Microsoft launched Office 97. It became a best-selling suite of word processing, spreadsheet, database, graphics, and other applications, rapidly become the leading office software suite, holding more than eighty percent of the market. In what is perhaps the only remaining vestige of Microsoft Bob, the company's cutesy animated interface introduced in 1995, Office 97 included animated characters like a talking paperclip and a tiny Einstein to coach users through their computer tasks.
    2001 – President Clinton awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to former President Theodore Roosevelt for his service in the Spanish-American War.
    2002 - The UN Security Council unanimously established an arms embargo and froze the assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.   
    2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia took off for its final mission; it disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
    2012 - The English Wikipedia protested anti-piracy legislation proposed by the U.S. Congress by shutting down its website
    2014 - A report from the U.S. Senate on the 2012 Benghazi attack that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, determined that the attack was 'likely preventable'.

Super Bowl Champion This Date:  1972 Dallas Cowboys