1595 - Sir Francis Drake, English navigator/pirate (Porto Bello West Indies), after discovering California, dies at about 50, of dysentery, off the coast of Panama.
http://www.mcn.org/2/oseeler/drake.htm
http://www.drakesbay.com/
    1772 - The "Washington and Jefferson" snowstorm occurred across the mid-Atlantic states. George Washington in Mount Vernon and Thomas Jefferson in Monticello were marooned by this storm. Snowfall was estimated at 3 feet on a level across Virginia and Maryland. Washington wrote, "...the deepest snow which I suppose the oldest living ever remembers to have seen in this country".
    1782 - Great Seal of the US: Congress resolved that the secretary of the Congress should “keep the public seal, and cause same to be affixed to every act, ordinance or paper, which Congress shall direct...” Although the Great Seal did not exist yet, the Congress recognized the need for it.
    1787 - The Free Africa Society organizes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3narr4.html
http://www.africana.com/Articles/tt_331.htm
http://www.gliah.uh.edu/historyonline/antislchron.cfm
    1791 - Plans for National Mint : Though the Constitution granted Congress the "power…to coin money," the dawn of the 1780s found America still a nation in need of a standard currency. Following the Revolutionary War, the U.S. seemed as though as it would adopt copper as its coin of choice. However, various efforts to produce and standardize copper proved futile. Congress pushed on and, in 1786, signed off on Thomas Jefferson's proposal for a dollar-driven currency. Of course, the nation also needed to develop the means for producing this currency and on this day in 1791, Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton stepped before the House to deliver a report on the establishment of a national mint. Hamilton's work helped pave the way for the authorization of the United States Mint on April 2, 1792.
    1828 - Confederate General Thomas Carmichael Hindman is born in Knoxville, Tennessee. Hindman was raised in Alabama and educated in New York and New Jersey. His family moved to a Mississippi plantation, and he returned from the North to study law. His studies were interrupted by service in the Mexican War, but he was admitted to the Mississippi Bar Association in 1851. He earned a reputation as an avid secessionist long before many southerners held that view. He moved to Arkansas and was elected to Congress in 1858. Hindman's law partner was Patrick Cleburne, who also became a Confederate General. When the war began, Hindman raised his own regiment and led it as a colonel. He was soon promoted to general and he raised an army of 18,000 from Arkansas. His tenure as commander in Arkansas was stormy. Hindman declared martial law, imposed price controls, and enforced conscription. After his force was stopped at Prairie Grove in December 1862, Hindman was reassigned to the Army of Tennessee. He fought at Chickamauga and Atlanta, and was wounded twice. After the surrender, Hindman fled to Mexico and joined a number of Confederates there. Hindman returned to Arkansas in 1868 and dove back into politics. He led a faction that challenged the Republican Party, and, in a pragmatic political maneuver, he began working on a biracial coalition. Hindman was shot as he sat in his living room, most likely by one of his political opponents. He died on September 28, 1868.
   1832 - Lydia Maria Child's first piece, "Stand From Under," written for William Lloyd Garrison's anti-slavery weekly “The Liberator”, is published.
http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/lydiamariachild.html
http://womenshistory.about.com/library/bio/blbio_child_lydia_maria.htm
    1851 – Northwestern University became the first chartered university in Illinois.
    1853 - Birthday of Jose Julian Marti, Cuban author and political activist, at Havana, Cuba. Marti was exiled to Spain, where he studied law before coming to the US in 1890. He was killed in battle at Dos Rios, Cuba, May 19, 1895. The popular song "Guantanamera" is based on a poem by Marti.  He worked on underground papers, was jailed and forced into exile (three columns & you're out?).  "No man has any special right because he belongs to any specific race; just by saying the word man, we have already said all the rights."
— Jose Marti
http://members.aol.com/enriques/index.html
http://www.patriagrande.net/cuba/jose.marti/
    1854 - Thirty miners attack a peaceful Indian village on the Coquille River near Randolph, Oregon, killing 16. During this period the US Army engaged Indians, signing treaties for rights to land, and Indians who did not want to negotiate for land fought back, killing settlers and it was quite a turbulent time. The Indians lost as they had no “modern” weapons or horses and many tribes at the time were “farmers” and “hunters with primitive bow and arrow.” http://fs.jorge.com/archives/Heritage_Program/
FurTradeEraInWesternOregon.htm
    1855 - The Panama Railway, which carried thousands of unruly miners to California via the dense jungles of Central America, dispatches its first train across the Isthmus of Panama. Before 1855, sea travelers not wishing to endure the long and treacherous passage around the tip of South America would disembark on the East Coast of Nicaragua. They would then proceed by light boat up the San Juan River to Lake Nicaragua, cross the lake in larger steamers, and complete the final overland leg of the journey via carriages. They traveled on a modern road that deposited them on the West Coast, where they boarded a steamer for San Francisco. In 1847, a group of New York financiers organized the Panama Railroad Company to do just that, and in 1850, workers began laying track through Panamanian jungle roughly along the route followed by the present canal. Completed in early 1855, the first train departed from the Atlantic side for the Pacific on January 28. A ship voyage punctuated by a brief train ride across the isthmus now became the fastest and most comfortable means of traveling to California, and tens of thousands of gold-hungry emigrants were soon racing through Panama every year. The traffic of freight and human beings moving both ways across the isthmus kept the Panama Railway busy until 1869, when the first transcontinental railroad was completed in the United States. However, the railway continued to carry a great deal of commercial freight destined for Europe or Asia until the Panama Canal was completed in 1914.
    1855 - Birthday of William Burroughs, who invented the first commercially successful adding machine and founded the American Arithmomter Company of St. Louis, in Rochester, NY. The company later became Burroughs Adding Machine Company. His earliest version of the machine, like other adding machines of the time, was accurate but impractical. However, in 1892 he patented a practical adding machine that would become a commercial success. Burroughs, who died in 1898, did not live to see the profits of his invention or the thriving success of his company.
    1856 - The Geisel Massacre, Indians go on a rampage. The Geisel Monument, 5 miles North of Gold Beach, located off Highway 101, in a state park, contains a monument to one of the white families that was attacked by Oregon Indians in 1856 during this attack.
http://www.harborside.com/~wchope/geisel.htm
    1858 - John Brown formalizes his strategy for a raid on the Arsenal at Harper's Ferry. Here is a background that gives quite a bit of understanding of the times and his motivation.
http://www.wvculture.org/history/jb11.html
    1864 – Charles William Nash, founder of Nash Motors, was born in Cortland, IL.  He worked for Will Durant’s carriage company and upon driving an electric automobile in New York, became very interested in its commercial potential.  Nash co-founded Buick and in 1908, became Buick's president and general manager. In 1910, he was hired as general manager of General Motors.   He took over a debt-ridden company suffering losses and increased profits to $ 800,000 as early as 1911 to over $12 million by 1914, while he secured the firm’s financial footing.  However, his reluctance to pay dividends to shareholders resulted in Nash being voted out of his position in 1915.  Nash, who took control of GM in 1910 from Durant, was now fired by him when Durant regained control in 1916.  Nash then resolved never again to work for someone else. He bought out the Jeffery Motor Co and renamed it as Nash Motors. The new company was successful, with sales totaling 31,008 trucks and cars by 1919.  Nash died in 1948.
    1878 - New Haven, Connecticut, opened the first commercial phone exchange, providing eight lines for twenty-one telephones.  Concurrently, “The Yale Daily News” became the first college newspaper in the US.
     1884 - For “Star Trek” fans, Gene Roddenberry named the famous Captain Picard after Jean Piccard, scientist, engineer, explorer, who was born at Basel, Switzerland and is noted for cosmic-ray research and record-setting balloon ascensions into stratosphere. Reached 57,589 feet in sealed gondola piloted by his wife, Jeannette, in 1934. Twin brother of Auguste Piccard. Died at Minneapolis, MN, Jan 28, 1963. To learn about Captain Jean Picard: http://mario.lapam.mo.it/tng/picard.htm
    http://www.leasingnews.org/Classified/Hwanted/Hwanted.htm
http://www.thejukejoint.com/amcd-007.html
    1887 - Arthur Rubinstein, the most popular classical pianist of the 20th century, was born in Lodz, Poland. He made his debut with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra in 1898, at the age of 11, and first performed in the US in 1906. Rubinstein became well known in North America, beginning in 1937. He was renowned for his interpretations of Chopin, as well as the works of Spanish composers. Arthur Rubinstein died in 1982 at the age of 95.
    1890 – “The Birdman of Alcatraz”, Robert Stroud, was born in Seattle.  Once one of the United States' most notorious criminals, during his time at Leavenworth, he reared and sold birds and became a respected ornithologist.  Despite his nickname, he was not permitted to keep his birds at Alcatraz, where he was incarcerated from 1942.  Stroud died in 1963 while in prison.
    1900 - Birthday of Alice Neel in Merion, PA.  American portrait painter best known for her studies in Spanish Harlem where she lived for many years. Her portraits were individual in style which was somewhat impressionistic
    1902 - Carnegie Institution established. Andrew Carnegie spent a good chunk of his life building a chokehold over the steel industry. However, after years at the lead of the second Industrial Revolution, he decided to cash in his chips in 1901 and sold his stake in the mighty Carnegie Steel concern—then worth roughly $40 million—to the United States Steel Corporation for $250 million. Rather than retire and play with his riches, Carnegie followed his belief that a "man who dies rich dies disgraced" and set to doling out his fortune to various philanthropic causes. All told, Carnegie donated $350 million, $10 million of which he handed over on this day to establish the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. According to Carnegie, the Institution was designed "to encourage, in the broadest and most liberal manner, investigation, research, and discovery, and the application of knowledge to the improvement of mankind." Carnegie's lofty mission translated into an organization dedicated to research and education in "biology, astronomy, and the earth sciences."
    1904 - Enrico Caruso signed his first contract with Victor Records. He debuted at the Metropolitan Opera two months before.
    1904 – The first college sports letters given to seniors who played on University of Chicago's football team are awarded blankets with letter "C" on them.
    1908 - Julie Ward Howe, author and activist famous for her composition, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic," became the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/jan28.html
    1909 – US troops left Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Naval Base after being there since the Spanish-American War.
    1912 – Birthday of American artist Jackson Pollock in Cody, Wyoming. He was instrumental in the development of the distinctly American abstract expressionist movement in the United States. He became notorious for his drip painting methods and his huge canvases layered with paint and embedded objects. Pollock, known for his emotional volatility and heavy drinking, seen as a phony by some, and a hero by others, used his innovative, individualistic and uninhibited style to birth a new artistic genre in post-World War II America.   A movie about his life starred Ed Harris and was very factual. Died Long Island, NY, 1956
http://sheldon.unl.edu/HTML/ARTIST/Pollock_J/PC.html
http://www.hilson.org/writings/POLLOCK-the-movie.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/pollock/
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/P/pollock.html
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june99/
pollock_1-11.html
http://www.beatmuseum.org/pollock/jacksonpollock.html
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671495933/
ref=ase_inktomi-bkasin-20/002-1241397-9042458
    1913 – For those of you who remember “You’ll Never Get Rich”, later “The Phil Silvers Show”, starring Phil Silvers as Sgt. Ernie Bilko, you’ll remember Pvt. Duane Doberman, played by Maurice Gosfield.  He was born in NYC on this day and died in 1964.
    1915 - Congress passed legislation creating the United States Coast Guard, combining the Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service.
    1915 - President Wilson refuses to prohibit immigration of illiterates
    1915 – The first US ship lost in World War I, ‘William P Frye’, was carrying wheat to the UK
    1916 - First Jewish Supreme Court justice, Louis Brandeis, was appointed to the US Supreme Court by President Woodrow Wilson. The nomination was confirmed by the Senate on June 1, 1916. He served until 1929.
http://library.brandeis.edu/SpecialCollections/SpecialEvents/Brandeis/
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAbrandeis.htm
    1917 – The world-famous cable cars first took to the streets of San Francisco.
    1922 - The National Football League franchise in Decatur, Illinois, moved to Chicago, Illinois to become the Chicago Bears.
    1922 - The "Knickerbocker" storm immobilized the city of Washington D.C. The storm produced 28 inches of snow in 32 hours, and the heavy snow caused the roof of the Knickerbocker movie theatre to collapse killing 96 persons.
    1925 - -46ºF (-43ºC), Pittsburgh NH (state record)
    1927 - Birthday of sax player Ronnie Scott, London, England
http://www.ronniescotts.co.uk/
    1927 – American composer Aaron Copland's First Piano is first performed: “Concerto for Piano and Orchestra”.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/achtml/actime.html
    1927 - Jean Goldkette and His Dancing Orchestra, "I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover"
    1928 - Birthday of James Edward “Pete” Runnels, baseball player, at Lufkin, TX. Runnels won the American League batting title in 1960 and 1961 playing for the Boston Red Sox. Died at Pasadena, TX, May 20, 1993.
    1929 – Clarinetist Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk was born in England.  Bilk's 1962 instrumental tune "Stranger on the Shore" became the UK's biggest selling single of 1962.  It was in the UK charts for more than 50 weeks, peaked at number two, and was the first #1 single in the US by a British artist in the era of the modern Billboard Hot 100 pop chart.  He died Nov 2, 2014.
    1932 - The first unemployment insurance act passed by a state was enacted by Wisconsin. Every employer of 10 or more was required to put 2 percent of the payroll aside until a fund accrued equaling $75 per eligible worked. An employee who lost his or her job could draw on the fund at the rate of $10 a week for a maximum of 10 weeks.
    1934 - As a result of a compliment from Walter Winchell's newspaper column, a local disc jockey began getting offers from talent scouts and producers. The DJ became known as Redhead to those in Washington, DC and later, by millions across the United States on CBS radio and television. His trademark, strumming a ukulele and delivering down-home talk, endeared him to fans. His name was Arthur Godfrey.
http://www.ukulele.org/godfrey.html
http://timstvshowcase.com/
http://www.artistdirect.com/music/artist/card/0,,436345,00.html
    1934 - Robert Royce's ski lift was used for the first time in Woodstock, Vermont. Previously, snow skiers had no way to get to the top of the mountain conveniently. About 900 yards of manila rope 0.875 inches thick was spliced together, passed over pulleys and around a wheel attached to a tractor, and extended up the hill 300 yards.
    1936 – Alan Alda was born Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo in NYC.  An accomplished actor of film and on Broadway, he will always be remembered as Captain Hawkeye Pierce in the long-running “M*A*S*H”.  He was nominated for 21 Emmy Awards, and won five. He took part in writing 19 episodes, including the finale, and directed 32, including the finale. He was also the first person to win Emmy Awards for acting, writing, and directing for the same series.  The show's 1983 2½-hour series finale "Goodbye, Farewell and Amen” remains the single most-watched episode of any television series. Alda is the only series regular to appear in all 251 episodes.
    1937 - Trumpeter Roy Eldridge records “After You've Gone.”
    1944 - GIBSON, ERIC G., Medal of Honor.
Rank and organization. Technician Fifth Grade, U.S. Army, 3d Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Isola Bella, Italy, 28 January 1944. Entered service at: Chicago, Ill. Birth: Nysund, Sweden. G.O. No.: 74, 11 September 1944. Citation: For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty. On 28 January 1944, near Isola Bella, Italy, Tech. 5th Grade Gibson, company cook, led a squad of replacements through their initial baptism of fire, destroyed four enemy positions, killed 5 and captured 2 German soldiers, and secured the left flank of his company during an attack on a strongpoint. Placing himself 50 yards in front of his new men, Gibson advanced down the wide stream ditch known as the Fossa Femminamorta, keeping pace with the advance of his company. An enemy soldier allowed Tech. 5th Grade Gibson to come within 20 yards of his concealed position and then opened fire on him with a machine pistol. Despite the stream of automatic fire which barely missed him, Gibson charged the position, firing his submachine gun every few steps. Reaching the position, Gibson fired pointblank at his opponent, killing him. An artillery concentration fell in and around the ditch; the concussion from one shell knocked him flat. As he got to his feet Gibson was fired on by two soldiers armed with a machine pistol and a rifle from a position only 75 yards distant. Gibson immediately raced toward the foe. Halfway to the position a machinegun opened fire on him. Bullets came within inches of his body, yet Gibson never paused in his forward movement. He killed one and captured the other soldier. Shortly after, when he was fired upon by a heavy machinegun 200 yards down the ditch, Gibson crawled back to his squad and ordered it to lay down a base of fire while he flanked the emplacement. Despite all warning, Gibson crawled 125 yards through an artillery concentration and the cross fire of 2 machineguns which showered dirt over his body, threw 2 hand grenades into the emplacement and charged it with his submachine gun, killing 2 of the enemy and capturing a third. Before leading his men around a bend in the stream ditch, Gibson went forward alone to reconnoiter. Hearing an exchange of machine pistol and submachine gun fire, Gibson's squad went forward to find that its leader had run 35 yards toward an outpost, killed the machine pistol man, and had himself been killed while firing at the Germans.
    1945 - A convoy of United States trucks from India crossed the Burmese-Chinese border, opening the famous "Burma Road."
    1945 – Actress Karen Lynn Gorney, who played John Travolta’s dance partner in “Saturday Night Fever,” was born in Beverley Hills, CA.  She is the daughter of composer Jay Gorney, who wrote the music for what many consider the definitive song about America's Great Depression, “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?”   Has she done anything since? 
    1946 - Jazz at the Philharmonic records “Lady Be Good” at Philharmonic Auditorium, LA.
    1947 - In New York City, a copy of the 1640 Bay Psalm Book was purchased at an auction at Parke-Bernet Galleries for $150,000, the highest price ever paid to date for a single volume. (The original title of the book was: "The Whole Book of Psalms Faithfully Translated into English Metre.")
    1948 - Birthday of drummer Bob Moses, New York City, NY
http://www.bobmoses.com/
    1948 - Top Hits
“Golden Earrings” - Peggy Lee
“How Soon” - Jack Owens
“Ballerina” - Vaughn Monroe
“I'll Hold You in My Heart (Till I Can Hold You in My Arms)” - Eddy Arnold
    1949 – The San Antonio Spurs’  5-time championship-winning head coach, Gregg Popovich was born in E. Chicago, IN.  He holds the record for most consecutive winning seasons in NBA history at 17. Popovich has won five NBA championships as the head coach of the Spurs. He is one of only five coaches in NBA history to win five or more NBA championships. A certain Hall of Famer…
    1955 - President Dwight D. Eisenhower received full authority from the Senate to use armed forces abroad to defend Formosa (Taiwan) against possible attacks by the Chinese Communists.
    1956 - Top Hits
Memories are Made of This - Dean Martin
The Great Pretender - The Platters
Moritat (A Theme from 'The Three Penny Opera') - Dick Hyman
Sixteen Tons - Tennessee Ernie Ford
    1956 - Elvis Presley made his first national television appearance on the Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey "Stage Show" on CBS. The big band of the Dorsey's backed the singer, one of the few times he played without his own band, and to a 28 piece orchestra. Although Elvis's name was on the marquee of the New York theatre where the show took place, his appearance attracted little attention. In fact, the promoter is said to have returned to the theatre at show time with dozens of tickets, unable even to give them away in Times Square. After the show, however, Elvis was a national star. Sales of his debut single for RCA Victor, "Heartbreak Hotel," snowballed
    1957 - "Tonight! America After Dark" premieres, with Jack Lescoulie and Al (Jazzbo) Collins on NBC (between Steve Allen & Jack Paar) It lasted only a few weeks.
http://www.classicthemes.com/50sTVThemes/themePages/
tonight_Jazzbo.html
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/T/htmlT/tonightshow/
tonightshow.htm
    1957 - The Brooklyn Dodgers announced they had hired circus clown Emmett Kelly to entertain fans at baseball games. The next year, the Dodgers moved to Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles, California
    1958 - One of my boyhood idols, Roy Campanella of the Los Angeles Dodgers, formerly the Brooklyn Dodgers, was severely injured in a car crash on an icy road on Long Island in the early morning hours, driving home from the Harlem liquor store he owned. Campanella was paralyzed from the waist down and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.   His cheery disposition served as an inspiration until his death in 1993.
    1958 - The Lego company patented the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.
    1959 - Vince Lombardi was named head coach of the Green Bay Packers.
    1960 – The NFL announced its expansion into Dallas (Cowboys) and Minnesota (Vikings).
    1963 – African-American student Harvey Gantt entered Clemson College in South Carolina, the last state to hold out against integration. He later became the first African-American to be elected mayor of Charlotte, NC. He later ran unsuccessfully against acknowledged racist Jesse Helms for the US Senate. Gantt remains politically active as a member of the North Carolina Democratic State Executive Council and the Democratic National Committee. He frequently lectures at colleges and universities and also takes a leadership role in numerous civic organizations.
http://www.charmeck.org/governing/elected+officials/mayor/
past+mayors/harvey+b.+gantt.asp
http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/case/caseweb/catalog/
abstracts/JesseHelmsv.Har.html
    1963 - -34ºF (-37ºC), Cynthiana KY (state record)
    1964 - Top Hits
“There! I've Said It Again” - Bobby Vinton
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” - The Beatles
“Surfin' Bird” - The Trashmen
“Love's Gonna Live Here” - Buck Owens
    1965 - General Motors reported the biggest profit in the history of any United States company. In 1964, earnings for the #1 of the Big Three automakers totaled $1.735 billion.
    1965 - Pete Townshend smashed his guitar and Keith Moon overturned his drums during The Who's first appearance on the British TV program "Ready, Steady, Go." Their performance propelled the band's first single, "I Can't Explain," into the British top 10.
    1966 - Film actress Hedy Lamarr was arrested for shoplifting in a May Company store. She was later found not guilty. The beautiful Lamarr was popular in movies during the '30s and '40s, appearing in “Boom Town”, “White Cargo”, and “Samson and Delilah”.
    1969 - The first oil spill with disastrous consequences occurred when Offshore Well A-21, owned by the Union Oil Company, burst and began leaking crude oil along a 200-mile stretch of coast centered on Santa Barbara, CA. The leak, which took 11 days to plug, fouled beaches and caused widespread loss of animal life.
    1970 - Arthur Ashe, first African-American male to win Wimbledon, is denied entry to compete on the US Team for the South African Open tennis championships due to Ashe's sentiments on South Africa's racial policies.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/tennis/features/1997/arthurashe/
    1972 - Top Hits
“American Pie” - Don McLean
“Let's Stay Together” - Al Green
“Day After Day” - Badfinger
“Carolyn” - Merle Haggard
    1973 - Viet Nam War cease-fire went into effect at 8 a.m., Saigon time (midnight on January 27, Greenwich Mean Time). When the cease-fire went into effect, Saigon controlled about 75 percent of South Vietnam's territory and 85 percent of the population. The South Vietnamese Army was well equipped via last-minute deliveries of U.S. weapons and continued to receive U.S. aid after the cease-fire. The CIA estimated North Vietnamese presence in the South at 145,000 men, about the same as the previous year. The cease-fire began on time, but both sides violated it. South Vietnamese forces continued to take back villages occupied by communists in the two days before the cease-fire deadline and the communists tried to capture additional territory. Each side held that military operations were justified by the other side's violations of the cease-fire. What resulted was an almost endless chain of retaliations. During the period between the initiation of the cease-fire and the end of 1973, there was an average of 2,980 combat incidents per month in South Vietnam. Most of these were low-intensity harassing attacks designed to wear down the South Vietnamese forces, but the North Vietnamese intensified their efforts in the Central Highlands in September when they attacked government positions with tanks west of Pleiku. As a result of these post-cease-fire actions, about 25,000 South Vietnamese were killed in battle in 1973, while communist losses in South Vietnam were estimated at 45,000.
    1973 - “Barnaby Jones” premiered on TV. A CBS drama about a mild-mannered, milk-drinking (but don't say milquetoast) private eye who comes out of retirement following his son's murder. Cast included Buddy Ebsen as Barnaby Jones; Lee Meriwether as Barnaby's widowed daughter-in-law, Betty Jones; John Carter as Lieutenant Biddle and Mark Shera as Jedediah Jones. Buddy Ebsen, playing the detective, started in movies back in the 1920s, and was chosen to play a part in "The Wizard of Oz", but bowed out. He also shot the first film used in Walt Disney's animation tests for a character named Mortimer Mouse, who would be known as Mickey Mouse. He is best known for portraying Jed Clampett in the CBS-TV series, "The Beverly Hillbillies".
http://timstvshowcase.com/barnaby.html
    1975 - President Gerald Ford asks Congress for an additional $522 million in military aid for South Vietnam and Cambodia. He revealed that North Vietnam now had 289,000 troops in South Vietnam, and tanks, heavy artillery, and antiaircraft weapons "by the hundreds." Ford succeeded Richard Nixon when the latter resigned the presidency in August, 1974. Despite his wishes to honor Nixon's promise to come to the aid of South Vietnam, he was faced with a hostile Congress who refused to appropriate military aid for South Vietnam and Cambodia; both countries fell to the communists later in the year.
    1976 - George Harrison announced that he would participate in a planned Beatles reunion concert. The other three members had already agreed, but nonetheless the concert did not materialize.
    1977 - The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith published an 18-page document ruling out the admission of women to the Roman Catholic priesthood because women lacked a "natural resemblance which must exist between Christ and his ministers."
    1977 - The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 which dumped 10 feet of snow in one-day in upstate New York, with Buffalo, Syracuse, and Watertown and surrounding areas most affected.
    1978 - The Manhattans' "Am I Losing You" enters the soul charts
    1978 - ”Fantasy Island” premiered on TV. You knew you were a bona fide "star" in the '70s when you received a casting call from "Fantasy Island." Young and old stayed home on Saturday night to watch Mr. Roarke introduce guest stars anxious to live out their fantasies in camp splendor. Ricardo Montalban starred as our prescient guide, Mr. Roarke; with Hervé Villechaize as Tattoo; Wendy Schaal as Mr. Roarke's goddaughter, Julie; and Christopher Hewett as Mr. Roarke's assistant, Lawrence. The show's run of 130 episodes, ending on Aug 18, 1984, was produced by Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg. Who can forget Tattoo's opening lines each week, "De plane, de plane!"
http://timstvshowcase.com/fantisle.html
    1979 – “CBS News Sunday Morning” debuted with its co-creator, Charles Kuralt as host.
    1980 - Top Hits
“Rock with You” - Michael Jackson
“Do that to Me One More Time” - The Captain & Tennille
“Coward of the County” - Kenny Rogers
“I'll Be Coming Back for More” - T.G. Sheppard
    1980 – Speaking of the Coast Guard, the cutter Blackthorn collided with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa and capsized, killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.
    1981 – President Reagan lifted the remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls, helping to end the 1979 energy crisis.
    1983 - The surreal “Videodrome”, starring James Woods and Debbie Harry of Blondie fame, opened in United States theaters.
    1984 - Mr. Glynn Wolfe marries for non-bigamous record 26th time, Las Vegas NV. He died in 1997 after being married 29 times.
http://www.anastasiabaptist.org/sermon_feb_09_2002.html
    1984 - Record 295,000 dominoes toppled at Fuerth, West Germany. This started a craze. The latest record occurred on December 31, 2000 in an event held jointly by Japan's Tokyo Broadcasting System and China's Beijing Television.  3,407,535 dominoes were toppled in 31 min, 2 sec at the Gymnasium of Yi Fang Yuan, Beijing, China.
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/
record.asp?recordid=48881
http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Dominoes.htm
    1985 - 45 of the top recording artists in the world were invited to an all-night recording session at Los Angeles, California's A&M studios. As each artist entered the studio door, they saw a hand-lettered sign, by Lionel Richie, saying, "Check your ego at the door." The session, conducted by producer Quincy Jones, started at 10 p.m., and by 8 a.m. the following morning, "USA for Africa", spearheaded by promoter Ken Kragen, was recorded and mixed. The resulting song, "We Are the World", featured Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Parton, Sting, Harry Belafonte, Diana Ross, Paul Simon and others. It became the top song in the United States. A year later, the song won Grammy Awards for song, record and video of the year. "We Are the World" also included contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and Bob Dylan.   USA For Africa, the organization responsible for administering the money, is said to have raised $61.8 million from sales of the single, album, video and other merchandise.  About 7.2 million singles and albums were sold.
    1986 - At 11:39 AM, EST, the Space Shuttle Challenger STS-51L exploded, 74 seconds into its flight and about 10 miles above the earth. Hundreds of millions around the world watched television replays of the horrifying event that killed seven people, destroyed the billion-dollar craft, suspended all shuttle flights and halted, at least temporarily, much of the US manned space flight program. Killed were teacher Christa McAuliffe (who was to have been the first ordinary citizen in space) and six crew members: Francis R. Scobee, Michael J. Smith, Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka, Ronald E. McNair and Gregory B. Jarvis.
    1987 - ABC-TV relocated reporter, Charles Gibson, to the co-anchor chair next to Joan Lunden for the start of another chapter of "Good Morning America" when its host of 11 years, David Hartman resigned.
    1987 - After 7 tempestuous years, Roger Mudd left NBC News. Previously, Mudd, an icon at CBS News, felt passed over when it was announced Dan Rather would replace Walter Cronkite as anchor of "The CBS Evening News". He went on to work at PBS, where he contributed to "The MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour".
    1988 - Top Hits
“The Way You Make Me Feel” - Michael Jackson
“Need You Tonight” - INXS
“Could've Been” - Tiffany
“Where Do the Nights Go” - Ronnie Milsap
    1988 – The Supreme Court of Canada struck down all anti-abortion laws, effectively allowing abortions in Canada in all 9 months of pregnancy.
    1989 - The Bachman-Turner Overdrive lineup of guitarists Randy Bachman and Blair Thornton, bassist Fred Turner and drummer Robbie Bachman played together for the first time in 11 years at a reunion concert in a Vancouver nightclub. BTO was joined on stage by Paul Dean of Loverboy and Bryan Adams for BTO's 1974 hit "Taking Care of Business" and a rock 'n' roll oldies medley.
    1989 - Nome, AK, reported an all-time record low reading of 54 degrees below zero, and the temperature at Fairwell, AK dipped to 69 degrees below zero. Deadhorse, AK reported a morning low of 49 degrees below zero, and with a wind chill reading of 114 degrees below zero. In the Lower Forty-eight States, a winter storm over Colorado produced up to 15 inches of snow around Denver.
    1990 - Strong and gusty winds prevailed across the northwestern U.S., and heavy snow continued over the mountains of Washington State and Oregon. In Idaho, Mullan received seven inches of snow, and winds gusted to 65 mph southeast of Burley. Heavy rain soaked coastal sections of western Oregon. Rainfall totals of 1.20 inches at Portland and 1.57 inches at Eugene were records for the date. Winds in Oregon gusting to 60 mph downed power lines in Umatilla County knocking out power to more than 13,000 homes, just prior to the kick-off of the "Super Bowl" game.
    1990 - The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Denver Bronco, 55-10, to win Super Bowl XXIV, and it wasn’t that close! 49ers quarterback Joe Montana won the Super Bowl MVP award for the third time, the only player in NFL history to do so.  He completed 22 of 29 passes for 297 yards and five touchdowns, including three to wide receiver Jerry Rice. Tickets: $125.00.
    1993 - MTV said it would not air "Big Boys Bickering" as part of its special "Paul McCartney Up Close." The US music video channel was upset with the profanity in the song, which McCartney's publicist said was a protest against governments' refusal to act together against global pollution.
    1993 - A mix-up at a Dallas CD manufacturer resulted in about 30 copies of the Dead Kennedy's album "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables" being mislabeled as a religious radio program called "Powerline." The Southern Baptist Radio-TV Commission had to call more than 1200 stations to warn them of the error. The Kennedy's album contained such lines as "God told me to skin you alive."
    1994 - In Los Angeles, Superior Court Judge Stanley Weisberg declared a mistrial in the case of Lyle Menendez in the murder of his parents. Lyle, and his brother Erik, were both retried later and were found guilty. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole.
    1995 - TLC's "Creep" hit number one on the "Billboard Hot 100". The smash held down the top spot for four weeks : “So I creep yeah; Just keep it on the down low; Said nobody is supposed 2 know; So I creep yeah; 'Cause he doesn't know; What I do and no attention; Goes to show oh so I creep.”
    1996 - Diana Ross performs at the Super Bowl XXX halftime show in Tempe, AZ.
    1996 – The Dallas Cowboys became the first franchise to win three Super Bowls in four seasons by defeating Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX (at Tempe): Dallas Cowboys 27, Pittsburgh Steelers 17. It was the first loss in the Super Bowl for the Steelers after four wins, at the time the most in history.  Most Valuable Player of the game: Dallas cornerback Larry Brown. Who's Larry Brown, you ask? He's the one who intercepted the two Neil O'Donnell passes that (1) stopped two Pittsburgh drives and (2) set up two Dallas touchdowns. Tickets: $250.00.
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    1998 - Ford Motor Company announced the purchase of Sweden's Volvo AB for $6.45 billion.  Ford sold the Volvo Car Corporation in 2010 to Geely Automobile of China for $1.8 billion. 
    1999 - Pat Boone formed the Gold Records label, which will only sign artists 45 years old and up. The first performer signed was Jack Jones.
    1999 - Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, honoring a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II, spared a triple murderer from execution.
    2001 - Super Bowl XXXV (at Tampa): Baltimore Ravens 34, New York Giants 7. “We feel we're the best defense to ever play the game,” boasted Ravens' defensive tackle Tony Siragusa. Arguably, the 2000 Ravens' defense ranks up there with the 1960's Fearsome Foursome of the Los Angeles Rams, Miami's 1972-1973 No-Name Defense, the 1974-1979 Pittsburgh Steelers' Steel Curtain, Dallas' Doomsday defense of the 1970s, the 1973-1976 Purple People Eaters in Minnesota and the 1985-1986 Chicago Bears. MVP: Ravens' linebacker Ray Lewis, who led a defense that intercepted four of NY quarterback Kerry Collins' passes, allowed only a punt-return touchdown (by the Giants' Ron Dixon) and held New York to 152 yards of offense. Tickets: $325.00 to $400.
    2001 - Instead of performing the US national anthem at Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa Bay, FL, Ray Charles performs his version of "America The Beautiful." (The Backstreet Boys sing the actual anthem.)
    2010 - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke won Senate confirmation for a second term.

Super Bowl Champions This Date
    1990 - San Francisco 49ers (San Francisco 55, Denver 10)
    1996 - Dallas Cowboys (Dallas 27, Pittsburgh 17)
    2001 - Baltimore Ravens (Baltimore 34, New York Giants 7)