January 9
It’s Play God Day
ON THIS DAY…
1349 The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague, are rounded up and incinerated
1431 Judges’ investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc begins
1643 Giovanni Riccioli first reported the phenomenon known as the Ashen Light of Venus
1768 Philip Astley stages the first modern circus
1788 Connecticut ratified the Constitution, becoming the fifth state in the Union
1793 Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the United States
1799 British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon
1816 Sir Humphry Davy’s safety lamp was first used in a coal mine
1839 The daguerreotype photo process was announced at the French Academy of Science
1839 Thomas Henderson first measures the distance to a star (Alpha Centauri) other than the Sun
1861 Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the Civil War
1863 The first section of the London Underground Railway opens – between Paddington and Farringdon Street
1901 The first application for a patent for the toy Meccano was submitted
1924 Virginia Woolf moves with her husband Leonard Woolf to 52 Tavistock Place in Bloomsbury Square
1929 The Seeing Eye was incorporated; their purpose was to train guide dogs for the blind
1931 Little Caesar starring Edgar G. Robinson is released in the US
1942 The U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff is created
1951 The United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City
1965 The Beatles “Beatles 65” was the number-one album in the U.S. for the first of nine straight weeks
1965 Goldfinger is released in the US
1966 Dracula: Prince of Darkness is released in the UK
1968 The Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, the fifth and final spacecraft of the Surveyor series to do so
1969The supersonic Concorde jetliner made its first test flight at Bristol, England
1972 Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking to reporters by telephone from the Bahamas, said a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake
1977 Super Bowl XI: Oakland Raiders 32, Minnesota Vikings 14
1979 Steve Martin’s comedy album “Let’s Get Small” was pulled from K-Mart shelves for being in “bad taste”
1984 Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the famous and successful commercial campaign for Wendys – “Where’s the beef?”
1998 Two teams of international collaborations of scientists announced the discovery that galaxies are accelerating, flying apart at ever faster speeds, by observing distant, ancient exploding stars
2007 Apple Computer unveils the iPhone
BORN:
1823 Friedrich von Esmarch, surgeon who was the first to introduce a first-aid kit and triage on the battlefield
1870 Joseph B. Strauss, civil engineer who was chief engineer for the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge
1890 Karel Capek, playwrite (R.U.R., The Insect Play)
1898 Vilma Bánky, actress (The Son of the Sheik, The Eagle)
1898 Gracie Fields, Music Hall performer / comedian
1901 Murat Bernard “Chic” Young, cartoonist / creator and original artist of the comic strip Blondie / introduced the Dagwood Sandwich to America
1908 Simone de Beauvoir, writer (All Men Are Mortal)
1911 Dick Haynes, actor (Support Your Local Sheriff!, The Phantom Planet)
1913 Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (1969-1974)
1915 Fernando Lamas, actor (Dangerous When Wet, Rose Marie)
1922 Vic Mizzy, composer / musician (The Addams Family, Green Acres)
1925 Lee Van Cleef, actor (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, For a Few Dollars More)
1928 Judith Krantz, author (Princess Daisy, Scruples)
1931 Algis Budrys, writer (Rogue Moon, Some Will Not Die)
1933 Wilbur Smith, writer (The Dark of the Sun, Shout at the Devil)
1934 Bart Starr, Pro Football Hall of Fame NFL Quarterback (Green Bay Packers)
1935 Bob Denver, actor (Gilligan’s Island, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis)
1935 Dick Enberg, sportscaster
1938 Stuart Woods, writer (Grass Roots, Chiefs)
1941 Joan Baez, musician / peace activist (“We Shall Overcome”)
1941 Susannah York, actress (Tom Jones, A Man for All Seasons)
1944 Jimmy Page, musician (Led Zeppelin)
1950 David Johansen, musician / actor (Freejack, Car 54, Where Are You?)
1950 Sir Alec Jefferys, geneticist who discovered the technique of DNA fingerprinting, used for unique identification of humans, animals and other organisms from their DNA material
1951 Crystal Gayle, singer (“Don’t It Make My Brown Eyes Blue”)
1954 Philippa Gregory, author (The Other Boleyn Girl, A Respectable Trade)
1955 J.K. Simmons, actor (Oz, The Closer, Spider-Man)
1956 Imelda Staunton, actress (Harry Potter, Nanny McPhee, Vera Drake)
1959 Mark Martin, NASCAR driver
1964 Carl Bell, animator (Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Who Framed Roger Rabbit)
1965 Joely Richardson, actress (Nip/Tuck, The Patriot)
1967 Dave Matthews, musician (The Dave Matthews Band)
DIED:
1799 Maria Gaetana Agnesi, mathematician and philosopher who was the first woman in the Western world considered to be a mathematician, dies at 80
1843 William Hedley, coal-mine manager who was a pioneer in the building and design of steam locomotives successfully using a simple friction adhesion between wheels and rails instead of geared track, dies at 63
1858 Anson Jones, the fifth and last President of Texas, commits suicide at 59
1873 Charles Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, holds the distinction of being both the first titular president and the last monarch of France, dies at 64
1936 John Gilbert, actor (The Big Parade, Flesh and the Devil), dies at 38
1958 Willis Rodney Whitney, chemist and research director who founded the General Electric Company’s research laboratory and directed pioneering work there, dies at 89
1995 Peter Cook, writer / actor (Bedazzled, The Bed Sitting Room, Supergirl), dies at 57
1997 Jesse White, actor (Bless the Beasts & Children, Bedtime for Bonzo, Maytag Repair Man), dies at 80