1732 – Richard Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Colony of Virginia.  In August 1774, Lee was chosen as a delegate to the First Continental Congress. Lee’s resolution on June 7, 1776, during the Second Continental Congress, put moved to declare Independence from Great Britain.  Lee had returned to Virginia by the time Congress voted on and adopted the Declaration of Independence, but he signed the document upon his return. Lee was elected the sixth President of Congress under the Articles of Confederation on November 30, 1784 and served as President Pro Tempore of the Senate under President Washington (Apr-Oct, 1792) while serving as Senator from Virginia.  He died in 1794.
    1777 - Battle of Millstone, New Jersey:  Brigadier General Philemon Dickinson leads 400 raw men from the New Jersey militia and 50 Pennsylvania riflemen under Captain Robert Durkee in an attack against a group of 500 British soldiers foraging for food led by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Abercromby near Van Nest's Mills in Millstone.  The British, who were stealing flour and supplies from Van Nest's Mills with which to supply their troops in New Brunswick, had set up small cannon defenses at a bridge crossing the Millstone River. The Patriots caught the British forces by surprise when they, avoiding the cannons, forded the deep and icy water.  In the ensuing 20-minute battle, Dickinson reported that the Patriots captured 107 horses, 49 wagons, 115 cattle, 70 sheep, 40 barrels of flour—106 bags and many other things. They also took 49 prisoners. General Washington reported to John Hancock that the British removed a good many dead and wounded in light wagons, estimated to be 24 or 25 in total compared to the 4 or 5 losses sustained by the Patriots.
    1778 - Captain James Cook discovered Hawaii when he landed first at Waimea on Kauai Island. A graffiti marked plaque honors the spot, although the town has a statue of the famed explorer who evidently is not liked to this day by the islanders.
http://members.tripod.com/~cuculus/cook.html
    1778 – The first American military court martial trial begins, Cambridge, Mass
    1781 – In Pompton, New Jersey, troops mutiny. They are suppressed on January 27 by General Robert Howe’s 600-man force sent by Washington. Two leaders of the mutiny are executed.
    1783 - The fighting of the Revolutionary War ended. Britain signed peace agreements with France and Spain, who allied against it in the American War of Independence. The peace agreement between the US and England will not go into effect until England and France reach a settlement.
    1785 – Samuel Ellis advertised to sell Oyster Island (Ellis Island), in New York Harbor.  There were no takers
    1801 - John Marshall was appointed the fourth chief justice of the US Supreme Court.
    1806 – Birthday in Portland, ME of writer/editor Nathaniel P. Willis, who founded the "American Monthly Magazine" in 1831.  He worked with several notable American writers including Poe and Longfellow, and he became the highest-paid magazine writer of his day.
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/eaf/authors/allibone/npwAl.html
http://www.nagasaki-gaigo.ac.jp/ishikawa/amlit/w/willis19ro.htm
    1847 - Birthday of Rev. W.R. Pettiford, founder of the Alabama Penny Savings Bank and the Alabama Publishing Company, in Granville County, NC.  The Alabama Penny Savings Bank was Alabama's first black-owned bank and the first of three banks in the nation owned and operated by African-Americans in the early 1900s.
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/boothe/ill91.html
    1868 - Florida constitutional convention meets in Tallahassee
    1869 - Elizabeth Cady Stanton became the first woman to testify before Congress    
    1870 - Hiram Rhodes Revels elected U.S. Senator from Mississippi, becoming the first Black US Senator in US history. Revels won the seat vacated by Jefferson Davis when Davis resigned to become President of the CSA.  His ancestry was Black, American Indian, and Lumbee Indian. Republican. Member of Mississippi state senate, 1870; US Senator from Mississippi, 1870-71; Secretary of State, Mississippi, 1873.  Died in Aberdeen, MS, January 16, 1901. Polite and unassuming, Revels was a national sensation and honored guest at lavish Washington receptions. When he presented his credentials on Feb. 23, Senate galleries were packed. To Republicans, he was living proof the war had advanced civil rights. The portly Revels was seated by a convincing 48-8 vote. On Feb. 25 at 4:40 p.m., he officially became the first black man to serve in either the Senate or the House of Representatives. Sen. Revels' dignified congressional service ended in March 1871. Returning to Mississippi, he co-founded Revels University for African-American students, became its first president and then crusaded to change the school name to Alcorn University to honor the white governor who supported his efforts. He also taught at Shaw University and was elected Mississippi secretary of state. To obtain election, politics would change and a deal was made with southern Democrats, and reconstruction would end. It would not be until November 8, 1966 that another black would be elected to the US Senate: Edward W. Brooke of Massachusetts.
http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000166
http://freepages.folklore.rootsweb.com/~docbratt/hiram_rhodes.htm
    1872 - Birthday of Julia Morgan, American architect, in San Francisco.
***first woman student University of California at Berkeley College of Engineering
***first woman admitted and first woman graduate of the architectural section of the Cole des Beaux-Arts of Paris
***first woman to get an architectural license in California.
Ms. Morgan had a very successful architectural firm that built a number of landmarks in California and became the favorite architect of Phoebe Apperson Hearst. She designed more than 800 buildings but is best known for William Randolph Hearst's San Simeon complex, which took 21 years to complete. At her peak, she employed 35 architects in a learning atmosphere. She owned a plane with a full-time pilot to take her to various construction sites during her 40-year career. Even though Hearst's La Casa Grande is one of the most lavish private residences in the world, JM was noted for designing fine buildings with beautiful interiors on limited budgets. Her genius is particularly prominent in San Francisco and the Bay Area because she'd opened her office in SF just prior to the 1906 earthquake.
http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/spec_coll/morgan/bio/bio.html
http://www.greatbuildings.com/architects/Julia_Morgan.html
http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/jmindex/genericindex.html
    1872 - California Stock Exchange Board organized
    1879 – Birthday of great American modernist dancer Ruth St. Denis in Englewood, New Jersey. “The dance is the rhythmic articulation of the soul.”
— Ruth St. Denis
http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2ruth1.htm
http://writetools.com/women/stories/stdenis_ruth.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0292770464/
inktomi-bkasin-20/103-7172481-0590248
    1882 – Mobster Johnny Torrio was born Giovanni Torrio in southern Italy.  He helped build the criminal empire in Chicago in the 1920s that was later inherited by his protégé, Al Capone.   He also put forth the idea of the National Crime Syndicate in the 1930s and later became an unofficial adviser to the Genovese family.  He died in 1957.
    1885 – La Marcus Thompson of Coney Island, New York patented the roller coaster. His coaster was 450 feet long, with a highest drop of 30 feet.
http://www.expage.com/page/coasterhistory2
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cone http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/press/pp0155.htmly/sfeature/history.html
    1887 - The Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
    1889 - Huddie (HOO'-DEE) Ledbetter, better known as Leadbelly, was born in Morningsport, Louisiana. Leadbelly, popular during the 1930's and '40s, was probably the first country blues artist to become known to the white audience. Many of his songs, such as "Goodnight Irene," "Rock Island Line" and "The Midnight Special" are still sung wherever folk music is played. Leadbelly spent more than a dozen years in the prisons of Texas and Louisiana for violent crimes, including murder. My father had all his records and played them often, and can remember them from when I was a very little boy. Ledbetter died in New York in December, 1949. Six months later, his "Goodnight Irene" became a million-selling hit for The Weavers.
http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C16
    1891 – Under the direction of Dr. James Naismith, the first basketball game was played at the International YMCA in Springfield, MA. Peach baskets with the bottoms still in them were used as the goals. It wasn't until 1905 that someone had the bright idea to remove the baskets' bottoms, thereby eliminating a climb up a ladder after every goal.
    1894 - Birthday of American composer Walter Piston, Rockland, Maine
http://www.schirmer.com/composers/piston_bio.html
http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/piston.html
    1894 - Birthday of Harold Lincoln Gray, the creator of “Little Orphan Annie”, at Kankakee, IL. The comic strip, featuring the 12-year-old Annie, her dog Sandy and her mentor and guardian Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks, began appearing in the Chicago Tribune in 1924. While controversial for its strong conservative views, the strip was highly popular for its stories demonstrating the values of perseverance, independence and courage. Gray created the strip for 44 years until his death May 9, 1968 at La Jolla, CA, at age 74.
    1896 - Birthday of George Burns, comedian, born Nathan Birnbaum at New York City. He began in vaudeville without much success until he teamed up with “…a young Irish Catholic lady in 1923…,” Gracie Allen, who became this wife. "And all of a sudden," he said famously in later years, "the audience realized I had a talent. They were right. I did have a talent—and I was married to her for 38 years." As Burns and Allen, the two had a long career on radio, in film and with their hit TV Show, “The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show.” Later he starred in Neil Simon’s “The Sunshine Boys” winning 1975’s Oscar for Best Actor.   He played the role of Rod and the Devil in the “Oh, God!” movies and in “Going in Style” in 1979 with Art Carney and Lee Strasburg.  He has three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He lived to be 100 and died March 9, 1996, at Los Angeles, CA.
    1899 – The Philippine Commission was appointed by President McKinley, headed by Jacob G. Schurman who will suggest US rule of the islands until the Filipinos are ready for self-government. The move will prevent annexation by Germany which had moved its navy nearby. It also made the US a major power in the Pacific, bringing it into conflict with Japan.
    1903 - Theodore Roosevelt issues Executive Order placing Midway Islands under jurisdiction of the Navy Department. The Midway Islands consist of a circular atoll, 6 miles in diameter, enclosing two islands. Lying about 1,150 miles west-northwest of Hawaii, the islands were first explored by Captain N. C. Brooks on July 5, 1859, in the name of the United States. The atoll was formally declared a U.S. possession in 1867, and in 1903, Theodore Roosevelt made it a naval reservation. The island was renamed “Midway” by the U.S. Navy in recognition of its geographic location on the route between California and Japan. Air traffic across the Pacific increased the island's importance in the mid-1930s; the San Francisco–Manila mail route included a regular stop on Midway. Its military importance was soon recognized, and the Navy began building an air and submarine base there in 1940.  The Battle of Midway was one of the most important naval battles of World War II.  During June 4-7, 1942, only six months after Pearl Harbor, the US Navy decisively defeated an attack by the Japanese Navy, inflicting irreparable damage on the Japanese fleet. Military historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in the history of naval warfare." It was Japan's first naval defeat since in 1863.  Four Japanese aircraft carriers - Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu, all part of the fleet that attacked Pearl Harbor - and a heavy cruiser were sunk at a cost of one US carrier and a destroyer. After Midway and the exhausting attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign, Japan's shipbuilding and pilot training programs were unable to keep pace in replacing their losses, while the U.S. steadily increased its output in both areas.
    1906 – Greek shipping magnate, billionaire, and second husband of Jackie Kennedy, Aristotle Onassis was born in Smyrna, Ottoman Empire.  He amassed the world's largest privately owned shipping fleet and was one of the world's richest and most famous men.  He died in 1975 in France.
    1909 - Newly formed automaker General Motors (GM) bought into the Oakland Motor Car Corporation, which later became GM's long-running Pontiac division.
    1910 - Birthday of Joy Friederike Victoria Adamson, born Friederike Victoria Gessner in Austria-Hungary.  A conservationist and writer, she is best known for her “Born Free” series on lions which tracked the life of Elsa and her cubs. It was made into a highly popular movie. Adamson founded the Elsa Wild Animal Appeal (1961). Ironically, the two most noted conservationists in Africa of their generation were murdered there: Joy Adamson at the game reserve in Kenya in 1980 and Dian Fosse in Rwanda in 1985.
    1920 - American Civil Liberties Union founded.
http://www.aclu.org/about/aboutmain.cfm
    1920 - Birthday of harmonica player Gene Dennis, Mt. Pleasant, TN
    1920 – DeForrest Kelly, Dr. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy of the USS Enterprise in the television and film series “Star Trek” was born in Toccoa, GA.  He died in 1999.
    1922 - Birthday of singer Connie Haines, born Yvonne Marie Antoinette JaMais in Savannah, GA.  Her 200 recordings were frequently up-tempo big band songs with the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, and Frank Sinatra.  Haines died in 2008.
http://www.bigbandsandbignames.com/Conniehaines.html
http://www.conniehaines.com/
    1922 - Birthday of bandleader, trumpeter, songwriter, and actor. Ray Anthony, was born Raymond Antonini in Bentleyville, PA.  He played in Glenn Miller’s orchestra from 1940–1941 and appeared in the Glenn Miller movie “Sun Valley Serenade” in 1941 before joining the Navy during World War II. After the war he formed his own group. The Ray Anthony Orchestra became very popular in the early 1950s, with recordings that included Anthony's classic dance songs "The Bunny Hop" and the "Hokey Pokey," as well as the theme from “Dragnet”.   He had a #2 chart hit with a remake of the Glenn Miller tune, "At Last", in 1952, the highest charting pop version of the song in the U.S.  In 1953, Anthony and his orchestra were featured when Helen O’Connell and Bob Eberly headlined a summer replacement program for Perry Como’s CBS television show.
http://www.spaceagepop.com/anthony.htm
http://shop.store. http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/bio/0,,397923,00.html?
artist=Ray+Anthony yahoo.com/ggroup/dreamdanraya.html
    1924 - Birthday of Otis Dewey “Slim” Whitman in Tampa.  He was the first country singer to perform at the London Palladium and one of the first singers to hawk his songbook on late-night TV infomercials.
    1925 - Miriam "Ma" Ferguson was inaugurated as Texas' first woman governor. Her husband "Pa" Ferguson had been governor in the previous decade but was impeached. When Ma ran in 1924, the slogan was "two governors for the price of one."
http://castor.tsl.state.tx.us/governors/personality/index.html#MaFerguson
http://castor.tsl.state.tx.us/governors/personality/mferguson-p01.html
http://castor.tsl.state.tx.us/governors/personality/mferguson-p02.html
http://castor.tsl.state.tx.us/governors/personality/mferguson-p03.html
http://castor.tsl.state.tx.us/governors/personality/mferguson-p04.html
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/FF/ffe6.html
http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/governors/personality/mferguson-hopkins.html
    1926 - Birthday of Patricia Neal was born in Packard, KY.  A solid character actor, she was best known for her film roles:  World War II widow Helen Benson in the now-cult classic, “The Day The Earth Stood Still” (1951); “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961); she won the Academy Award for Best Actress for “Hud” (1963), and she was nominated in 1968 for “The Subject Was Roses”. She won Broadway's Tony award as Regina in “Another Part of the Forest” (1947).  She suffered a stroke and her rehabilitation was an inspiration to millions, finally succumbing in 2010 in Edgartown, MA.
    1929 - Birthday of drummer Jimmy Cobb, Washington, DC
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_cobb_jimmy.htm
http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Jimmy%20Cobb.html
http://www.jazzreview.com/cdreview.cfm?ID=635
  1929 - The movie, "In Old Arizona", the first full-length talking picture filmed outside, was released. The outdoor scenes were filmed in Utah and California.
http://awards.fennec.org/movie/in_old_arizona.html#oscar
http://www.hollywood.com/movies/detail/movie/246675   
    1929 – One of the original cast members of “Laugh-In”, Arte Johnson, was born in Benton Harbor, MI.
    1929 – Race car champion Edward Glenn ‘Fireball’ Roberts was born in Tavares, FL.   One of the pioneering drivers of NASCAR, in his 206 career NASCAR Grand National races, he won 33 times and had 32 poles. He finished in the top-five 45 percent of the time. He won both the Daytona 500 and Firecracker 250 events in 1962.  He died in 1964 from complications of a wreck at the World 600.
    1930 – Buzz Aldrin was born Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr. in Glen Ridge, NJ. An engineer and former astronaut, and the second person to walk on the moon, he was the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history. He set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 (UTC) on July 21, 1969, following mission commander Neil Armstrong.      
    1931 - Birthday of organ player Earl Grant, Oklahoma City, OK.   “Ebb Tide” was a big hit in 1961.
http://music.lycos.com/artist/bio.asp?QT=A&QW=Earl+Grant&AN=
Earl+Grant&MID=10656&MH =
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000AF0X/
ref=ase_inktomi-musicasin-20/103-7172481-0590248#product-details
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/clipserve/B00000AF0X001005/
103-7172481-0590248
    1935 – Remember the Bay Bombers?  The Brooklyn Red Devils?  The New York Chiefs?  One of the queens of Roller Derby, Joan Weston, was born in Huntington Beach, CA.  At 5’10” and 165 lbs., she was perfect for the rough and tumble sport that grew in the 1950s and 60s.  In her post-roller derby career, she was a champion softball player.  She died in Hayward, CA in 1997 of a rare brain disorder.
    1937 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first President of the United States inaugurated on January 20th. The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution officially set the date for the swearing in the President and Vice President. In 1933, the amendment was ratified by Congress. On November 3, 1936, he was reelected president of the United States in a Democratic landslide that carried every state except Maine and Vermont. John Nance Garner was elected Vice President. Congress became more than three-quarters Democratic in both houses. The electoral vote was Roosevelt, 523; Govern Alfred M. Landon of Kansas, 8. The popular vote was Roosevelt, 27,751,612; Landon, 16,687,933. Lemke, Union Party, 891,858; Thomas, Socialist, 187,342; Brosder, Communist, 80,181; Dr. Colvin, Prohibition, 37,609; Aiken Socialist Labor, 12,729. The campaign was bitter. About 80% of the press opposed Roosevelt. In congressional elections, the Democrats gained seven Senate seats, for a 76-16 majority, with four seats going to minor parties. In the House, their majority was 331-9, with 13 seats going to the minor parties. It was also the wettest Inaugural Day of record with 1.77 inches of rain in 24 hours. Temperatures were only in the 30s as Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn in for his second term.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan20.html
    1940 - Birthday of Carol (Elizabeth) Heiss, leading U.S. woman figure skater from 1955 through 1960, in Ozone Park, Queens, NY. She held more international titles than any North American woman in history. She won the Olympic figure skating gold in 1960.
    1942 - On Columbia Records, Harry Babbitt sang with Kay Kyser and his orchestra on, "Who Wouldn't Love You". The record was a hit for Kyser
    1945 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inaugurated to his record fourth term in office as President of the United States. He was the only one to win a fourth term, November 7, 1944. Harry S. Truman was elected Vice-President. The electoral vote was Roosevelt, 432; Governor Thomas E. Dewey, Republican, 99. The popular vote was Roosevelt, 25,602,504, Dewey, 22,006,285. In congressional elections the Democrats lost two Senate seats, but held a 56-38 majority. In the House, they gained 24 seats for a 242-190 lead, with two seats held by minor parties.  There had been serious doubt about his health well before the war ended and it was a much debated issue regarding his ability to govern in a fourth term, that would not complete as he died in Warm Springs, GA on April 12, 1945 of a cerebral hemorrhage.
    1948 - Top Hits
“Ballerina” - Vaughn Monroe
“How Soon” - Jack Owens
“Golden Earrings” - Peggy Lee
“I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)” - Eddy Arnold
    1949 – Point Four Program, a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by President Harry Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as President.
    1953 - For the first time, a television show from the United States was transmitted to Canada. The historic show was the CBS Television production of "Studio One", transmitted to CBLT-TV in Canada.
    1953 – For the first time in history, the Presidential Inaugural Address, of President Eisenhower, was broadcast live coast-to-coast. 
    1954 - Radio's National Negro Network was formed, with nearly 40 radio stations taking charter membership positions. Its most notable program was "The Story of Ruby Valentine", a continuation of the CBS soap "We Love and Learn". The program starred Juanita Hall (fresh from her success as Bloody Mary in "South Pacific") and was apparently sponsored by Wrigley's Gum. The network flourished in the mid-50s and may have had a number of major national sponsors.
    1954 - The temperature at Rogers Pass, MT, plunged to 70 degrees below zero to establish a new record for the continental U.S
    1956 - Top Hits
“Memories are Made of This” - Dean Martin
“Band of Gold” - Don Cherry
“Rock and Roll Waltz” - Kay Starr
“Sixteen Tons” - Tennessee Ernie Ford
    1956 – Caustic television talk show host and former comedian Bill Maher was born in NYC.
    1957 - Ricky Nelson's album “Ricky” hits #1
    1958 - The early rock 'n' roll classic, "Get a Job" by the Silhouettes was released.  “…sha na na na, sha na na na na, ba-doom…”
http://www.feelingnostalgic.com/getajob.html
    1958 - Elvis Presley was ordered by the draft board in Memphis, Tennessee to report for duty. He was allowed a 60-day deferment to finish the film "King Creole".
    1958 - Radio station KWK in St. Louis, MO finishes its "Record Breaking Week" of weeding out rock and roll and rhythm and blues records from its playlist. Records were spun once, then broken on air.
    1961 - John F. Kennedy was inaugurated President of the United States, the nation’s only President of the Roman Catholic faith. A Democrat and the 35th president, Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963. “And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country…My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. “  Poet Robert Frost recited "Gift Outright".
(lower half of: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan20.html)
    1964 - The Beatles second album, “Meet the Beatles”, was released in the United States. It was the British group's U.S. debut LP. It rose to Number 1 on the LP pop chart, and remained in the top spot for 11 weeks.
    1964 - Top Hits
“There! I've Said It Again” - Bobby Vinton
“Forget Him” - Bobby Rydell
“Surfin' Bird” - The Trashmen
“Love's Gonna Live Here” - Buck Owens
    1965 - The first disk jockey to program black music for white audiences, Alan Freed, the ‘Father of Rock 'n' Roll', died of uremia in a hospital in Palm Springs, California. He was only 42 and a borderline alcoholic - a broken man because of his involvement in the payola scandals. In the 1950s, Freed, ‘Moon Doggy', at WJW Radio in Cleveland, coined the phrase, "rock 'n' roll,”" before moving, in 1954, to New York's WINS (1010 AM). The station eventually became an around-the-clock Top 40 rock-and-roll radio station. After departing from WINS, Freed was employed in New York by WABC (770 AM) around 1958.  Freed was fired by WABC on November 21, 1959 during a dispute where he refused to sign a statement certifying that he had never accepted payola, being paid to play records by artists and record companies.  He also was fired from his television show. The congressional investigation from 1959 to 1960 into payola made Freed the scapegoat for a widespread but legal practice. In 1960, payola was made illegal. In 1962, Freed pleaded guilty to two charges of commercial bribery for which he was fined $300 and received a suspended sentence.  Freed died almost penniless after the scandal was exposed. Alan Freed was said to have coined the term rock 'n' roll from the words to Bill Haley's 1952 recording of "Rock A'Beatin' Boogie."  
    1965 - The Rolling Stones and the Kinks make their first appearance on ABC-TV's "Shindig!" Also appearing are the Dave Clark Five, Petula Clark, Bobby Vee, Bobby Sherman and Gerry & the Pacemakers.
    1965 – The Byrds record "Mr Tambourine Man"
    1966 - Promoter Bill Graham holds a three-day "Trips Festival" at Longshoremen's Hall in San Francisco, CA, featuring Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, the Grateful Dead, and Big Brother and the Holding Company.
    1968 - Bob Dylan and the Band horrified folk music purists by playing electric instruments at a Tribute to Woody Guthrie concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. The concert, one of a series organized by Pete Seeger, also featured Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary. Guthrie, a folk music pioneer, had died the previous October.
    1968 - The “Game of the Century” in college basketball took place in the Houston Astrodome pitting the #1 ranked UCLA Bruins (riding a 47-game winning streak) and the #2 Houston Cougars, with the latter team pulling off a 71-69 upset. The hype and promotion surrounding the game, and the nationwide broadcast by the ad hoc TVS Network (the first nationwide broadcast of a college basketball game) combine to heighten interest in college hoops, and the game is credited as the turning point when a sport of primarily regional interest began to become a national obsession.
    1971 - Diana Ross married Elberon, NJ’s Bob Silberstein. I played Little League and high school baseball against him, an excellent catcher and power hitter.  He went into the promotion business as Bobby Ellis, as he was known when they wed.
     1972 - Top Hits
“American Pie” - Don McLean
“Let's Stay Together” - Al Green
“Sunshine” - Jonathan Edwards
“Carolyn” - Merle Haggard
    1973 - Richard M. Nixon was sworn in as President for a second term but he would not complete it.  On Nov. 7, he was reelected in the greatest Republican landslide in history. Owing to crimes revealed during the Watergate scandal, he became the first President to resign from office, on August 8, 1974. Spiro T. Agnew was reelected Vice-President but he would resign after being found guilty of tax evasion while Governor of Maryland.  The electoral vote was Nixon, 521; Sen. George S. McGovern, Democrat, 17. The popular vote was Nixon, 45,767,218; McGovern 28,257,668. The Democrats picked up two Senate seats for a 57-43 majority. The Republicans gained 13 seats in the House, but the Democrats still led 255-179, with one seat going to an independent.
    1973 - Jerry Lee Lewis makes his debut at the Grand Ole Opry. Opry officials allowed him to perform only if he agreed to keep his music to country and abstain from using obscenities. Things start well but by the end of the half-hour set, Lewis has played "Great Balls of Fire," "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and Good Golly Miss Molly." He also proclaimed, "I am the rock & rollin', country & western, rhythm & blues singin' motherf***er."
    1974 - Johnny Miller won the Tucson Open Golf Tournament, becoming the first pro golfer to win four major tournaments consecutively.
    1974 – Birthday of football player-turned-killer, Rae Carruth, in Sacramento.  In January 2001, a jury acquitted Carruth, wideout for the Carolina Panthers, of first-degree murder but found him guilty of conspiracy to murder, shooting into an occupied vehicle and attempting to kill an unborn child.  Carruth’s girlfriend, pregnant at the time, died after giving birth to their son after suffering multiple gunshot wounds.  Carruth’s accomplices confessed and implicated him when the charges became murder after her death.  He is currently serving a minimum prison sentence of 18 years and 11 months.
    1977 - Here is some trivia as the first President to take oath of office using a nickname was Jimmy Carter, who was sworn into office in Washington, DC this day by Chief Justice Warren Burger. Instead of his formal name, James Earl Carter, Jr., he used his nickname, Jimmy. On November 2, 1976 he was elected President along with Walter F. Mondale as Vice-President. The electoral vote was Carter, 297; President Ford, 240. The popular vote was Carter, 40,828,929; Ford, 39,148,940. In congressional elections the Democrats kept a 2-1 Senate majority, 64-38, with one seat going to an independent, and a House majority of 292-143. In the first months of President Carter's administration, most Vietnam-era draft resisters were pardoned, the planned pullout of US forces from South Korea was announced, and while he had a full agenda, it was set back when Congress challenged the financial dealings of Bert Lance, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and opposed passage of Carter's energy conservation Program. Vernon Jordan of the National Urban League charged the administration with not doing enough to reduce unemployment among blacks.
    1978 - Fred Silverman quit his job as ABC-TV's head of programming to take a position as President of NBC. For ABC, Silverman developed shows like "Happy Days", "Laverne and Shirley", "Charlie's Angels" and "Three's Company", earning the network its highest ratings ever. His talents didn't work out as well at NBC where he backed the most expensive television bomb in history: "Super Train", starring Steve Lawrence. Grant Tinker shortly after replaced Silverman, taking the Peacock Network to number one in just a few years. Silverman would go on to become a top Hollywood independent producer.
    1978 - A paralyzing "Nor'easter" produced a record 21 inches of snow at Boston, 15 to 20 inches in Rhode Island, and one to two feet of snow in Pennsylvania. Winds along the coast of Connecticut gusted to 70 mph.
    1980 - Super Bowl XIV: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Los Angeles Rams, 31-19 in Pasadena; Super Bowl MVP Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, Quarterback
    1980 - Top Hits
“Rock with You” - Michael Jackson
“Do that to Me One More Time” - The Captain & Tennille
“Cruisin'” - Smokey Robinson
Coward of the County - Kenny Rogers
    1980 - President Jimmy Carter announced that the US Olympic Team would not compete in the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow as a protest against the Soviet Union's military intervention in Afghanistan in December, 1979.
    1981 - Ronald Reagan became President of the United States at the age of 69 and 349 days, the oldest President to take office. He carried 44 states in the November 4, 1980 election. The electoral vote was Reagan, 489; Pres. Jimmy Carter, 49. The popular vote was Reagan, 42,797,153; Carter, 34,434,100. John Anderson, independent candidate, 5,533,927. In congressional elections, the Republicans picked up 12 Senate seats for a 53-46 majority, with one independent seat. In the House, the Democrats lost 33 seats but kept a majority of 242-192, with one seat going to an independent.
    1981 - 52 American hostages seized in their embassy in Tehran were released after 444 days in captivity, only 20 minutes after President Regan’s inauguration.
    1982 - Singer Ozzy Osborne was taken to the hospital after biting the head off a dead bat during a concert in Des Moines, Iowa. Ozborne threw the remains of the bat into the audience. He had to endure a series of rabies shots and their effects caused him to collapse on stage the following week
    1982 - The Chicago Bears named former tight end Mike Ditka head coach. In 11 seasons, Ditka won the 106 regular-season games and led the Bears to victory in Super Bowl XX.
    1982 - Camcorder developed: Five companies (Hitachi, JVC, Phillips, Matsushita and Sony) agreed to cooperate on the construction of a camera with a built-in videocassette recorder.
    1985 - The most watched Super Bowl game in history was seen by an estimated 115.9 million people as Joe Montana and the underdog San Francisco 49'ers downed Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins 38-16 at Stanford, CA. The broadcast captured the second largest television audience ever. The only show to have a larger audience, the largest in history, aside from man landing on the moon, was the last episode of M*A*S*H in 1983. Super Bowl XIX was also historic in that is featured the first use of television commercials that sold for a million dollars a minute.  Super Bowl MVP: Joe Montana, San Francisco, Quarterback completed 24 of 35 passes for a Super Bowl-record 331 yards and three touchdowns. He also broke the Super Bowl record for most rushing yards gained by a quarterback with his 5 rushes for 59 yards and 1 rushing touchdown.  Both coaches, Bill Walsh of the Niners and Don Shula of the Dolphins, both QBs, and the Niners’ Ronnie Lott and Fred Dean, and the Dolphins’ Dwight Stephenson are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.  This was Marino’s second year in the NFL and it would be his only Super Bowl appearance.
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    1985 - Geri B. Larson took charge of the Tahoe National Forest in Nevada City, California, the first woman forest supervisor in the U.S. Forest Service history.
    1986 – Martin Luther King, Jr, Day, celebrating the birthday of the slain civil rights leader, is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
    1986 - Never used, and until then, unseen by the public, footage from the 1931 horror classic, Frankenstein, was found. The lost scenes showed the monster, played by Boris Karloff, tossing a girl into a lake and at one point having a hypodermic needle in the monster's arm. Considered too shocking for the 1930's audience, the scenes were cut. Since then, they have been put back into the film and re-released to the public.
    1987 - Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury's special envoy in Lebanon, was kidnapped. He was not released until November, 1991.
    1988 - The Beach Boys, the Beatles, the Drifters, Bob Dylan, Berry Gordy, Jr., Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Les Paul and the Supremes are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame during ceremonies at New York's Waldorf Astoria. During the Beach Boys acceptance speech, vocalist Mike Love insulted just about everybody in the music business, including Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen and Mick Jagger.
    1988 - Top Hits
“Got My Mind Set on You” - George Harrison
“The Way You Make Me Feel” - Michael Jackson
“Need You Tonight” - INXS
“One Friend” - Dan Seals
    1989 - The temperature in the Washington, D.C. area warmed into the lower 50s for the Presidential Inauguration during the late morning hours, before gusty northwest winds ushered in colder air that afternoon
    1990 - While heavy thunderstorms drenched the Central Gulf Coast States, with 4.23 inches reported at Centreville, AL in 24 hours, unseasonably warm weather continued across Florida. Five cities in Florida reported record high temperatures for the date. Tampa, FL equaled their record high for January of 85 degrees
    1991 - The Buffalo Bills won the first of their record four consecutive AFC titles by overwhelming the Los Angeles Raiders, 51-3. Buffalo went on to lose Super Bowl XXV to the New York Giants, 20-19, when Scott Norwood’s attempt at a 47-yard game-winning FG sailed wide right.  The Bills would go on to the next three Super Bowls, losing all of them and becoming the only NFL team in history to go to four consecutive Super Bowls.
    1991 – The New York Giants won the NFC Championship, denying the San Francisco 49ers a three-peat when Matt Bahr kicked the game-winning FG with no time left on the clock. This was a brutal game in which the Giants knocked out, literally, Niners QB Joe Montana with a vicious blindside hit by Leonard Marshall.  Still, the Niners held the lead when RB Roger Craig fumbled with 2:36 left in the game after which the Giants merely positioned for Bahr’s game-winner, his fifth of the game as the Niners defense held the winners without a TD.
    1993 - President Bill Clinton picked up his saxophone to jam with the likes of Ben E. King, Clarence Clemons, Herbie Hancock, Dionne Warwick and Chuck Berry at several of the dozen balls honoring his inauguration. Among other headliners at the balls were the original members of Fleetwood Mac, Linda Ronstadt and Paul Simon. Canadians among the entertainers included Celine Dion, who performed at a youth gala, Bruce Cockburn, Ronnie Hawkins and k.d. lang, who was a star attraction at an unofficial ball put on by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
    1994 - Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel. Faulkner joined the cadet corps in August, 1995 under court order but soon dropped out.
    1995 - Bonnie Raitt raised $80,000 at a New York City benefit for her project to provide guitar lessons for girls. Fender guitars later announced the launching of the Bonnie Raitt Signature Stratocaster, the first Fender named after a woman. Raitt donated all her royalties from the line to her project and Fender said it would provide free guitars.
    1996 - Madonna arrived in Buenos Aires to begin filming the movie version of "Evita," the musical about Eva Peron. Nationalist hardliners in the ruling Peronist Party were openly hostile to the idea of Madonna playing the former Argentine first lady. There were reports that security around the star had been beefed up.
    1997 - Comet Hale-Bopp crosses Mars' orbit
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    1998 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts The Mama and Papas and The Eagles.
    2009 - Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States, the first President of African-American descent.
    2013 – President Barack Obama was inaugurated for his second term.

Super Bowl Champions This Date

    1980 Pittsburgh Steelers
    1985 San Francisco 49ers