January's Historical Events

As with every month, there are events of historical significance that occurred almost every day in January over the last few centuries. Some of these we celebrate today, others are merely noted in passing.

Here is a partial listing of some of those January events.

January 1   Paul Revere was born (1735)

January 1   Emma M. Nutt became the first woman telephone operator (1878)

January 1   The New Year's ball was first dropped at Times Square in New York City (1908)

January 3   Construction began on the Brooklyn Bridge (1870)

January 6   Samuel Morse demonstrated the telegraph (1838)

January 7   Astronomer Galileo discovered four of Jupiter's moons (1610)

January 9   The United Nations opened its headquarters in New York City

January 10 World's first underground passenger railway system opened in London, England (1863)

January 11 American League baseball adopted the designated hitter rule (1973)

January 12 The campy Batman television series debuted as a midseason replacement (1966)

January 14 The United States of America ratified a treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War (1784)

January 14 The Miami Dolphins football team defeated the Washington Redskins in Superbowl VII, becoming the first undefeated team in National Football League history (1973)

January 14 The animated television series The Simpsons debuted as a midseason replacement (1990)

January 15 The Pentagon opened (1943)

January 15 The television series Happy Days debuted as a midseason replacement (1974)

January 16 Operation Desert Storm began to oust Saddam Hussein's Iraqi forces from Kuwait (1991)

January 17 The United States Supreme Court ruled that taping on home VCRs did not violate copyright laws (1984)

January 20 Ronald Reagan became the oldest person sworn in as President of the United States at 69 years 349 days of age.

January 21 Edward Jenner introduced the smallpox vaccine (1799)

January 21 Science fiction writer George Orwell died (1950)

January 23 The deadliest earthquake in history struck Shansi, China, killing 830,000 people (1556)

January 24 Beer was first sold in cans (1935)

January 25 The first Winter Olympic games began in Chamonix, France (1924)

January 25 The first Emmy awards were given out (1949)

January 26 The dental drill was patented (1875)

January 28 U.S. space shuttle Challenger exploded 72 seconds after liftoff, killing the 7 crew members including school teacher Christa McAuliffe (1986)

January 31 The Confederacy appointed Robert E. Lee as their Commander-In-Chief for the Civil War.

This certainly isn't a complete list, but a cross-section of January events from history.