January 24
It’s Beer Can Appreciation Day
ON THIS DAY…
1544 A solar eclipse was viewed at Louvain, which was later depicted in the first published book illustration of the camera obscura in use
1679 King Charles II of England disbands Parliament
1791 President George Washington issues the Federal District proclamation, which directs commissioners to create the 10-mile square District of Columbia
1848 James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California; the discovery led to the gold rush of ’49
1875 Camille Saint-Saëns symphonic poem Danse macabre (Dance of Death) was first performed in Paris
1888 The typewriter ribbon was patented by Jacob L. Wortman
1895 Hawaii’s monarchy ended as Queen Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate; Hawaii was then annexed by the US
1899 Humphrey OSullivan patented the rubber heel
1902 Denmark sells Virgin Islands to US
1907 Robert Baden-Powell founds the Boy Scout movement
1913 Franz Kafka abandons his novel Amerika and never publishes again
1916 Conscription was introduced in Britain
1916 The Supreme Court declares the federal income tax constitutional
1922 Christian K. Nelson patented the Eskimo Pie
1924 Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg, Russia, is renamed Leningrad
1927 Jack Benny married Mary Livingstone
1927 Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England
1935 Krueger Brewing Company placed the first canned beer on sale in Richmond, VA
1936 Benny Goodman and his orchestra recorded “Stompin’ at the Savoy”
1942 “Abies Irish Rose” was first broadcast on the NBC Radio Network
1943 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca
1948 IBM dedicated its “SSEC” in New York City; The Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator handled both data and instructions using electronic circuits made with 13,500 vacuum tubes and 21,000 relays
1950 The original microwave oven patent was issued to its inventor Percy LeBaron Spencer under the title “Method of Treating Foodstuffs”
1957 Elvis Presley recorded “Teddy Bear”
1961 Mel Blanc suffered heavy injuries and a three-week coma from a Los Angeles automobile wreck; after a lengthy recovery period, he returned to Warner Bros. as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and crew, and to Hanna-Barbara as Barney Rubble on The Flintstones
1962 Brian Epstein signed with The Beatles as their manager
1969 Jethro Tull played its first US concert in New York City as the opening act for Led Zeppelin
1972 Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II
1978 A nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated; the radioactive debris was scattered over parts of Canada’s Northwest Territory
1982 Super Bowl XVI: San Francisco 49ers 26, Cincinnati Bengals 21; MVP: Joe Montana
1984 The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale
1995 The prosecution gave its opening statement at the O.J. Simpson murder trial
2003 The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation
BORN:
1798 Karl George Christian von Staudt, mathematician who developed the first complete theory of imaginary points, lines, and planes in projective geometry
1800 Sir Edwin Chadwick, physician and social reformer who devoted his life to sanitary reform in Britain
1828 Ferdinand Cohn, naturalist and botanist who is considered one of the founders of bacteriology and known for his studies of algae, bacteria, and fungi, insect epidemics and plant diseases
1847 Joseph-Achille Le Bel, chemist who was the first to present a theory on the relationship between molecules and how they absorb or reflect light
1850 Hermann Ebbinghaus, psychologist who pioneered in the development of experimental methods for the measurement of rote learning and memory
1962 Edith Wharton, Pulitzer Prize-winning author (The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth, Ethan Frome)
1872 Morris William Travers, chemist who, while working with Sir Willam Ramsay in London, discovered the element krypton
1882 Harold Delos Babcock, astronomer who with his son, Horace, invented the solar magnetograph (1951), for detailed observation of the Sun’s magnetic field
1886 Henry King, director (Jesse James, Carousel, The Sun Also Rises)
1888 Ernst Heinrich Heinkel, aircraft engineer who built the first rocket-powered aircraft
1902 Oskar Morgenstern, economist-mathematician who created “game theory” which analyzes behaviour of man or animals in terms of win-loss strategies
1911 C.L. Moore [Catherine Lucille Moore], author (Judgment Night, Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith)
1917 Ernest Borgnine, Academy Award-winning actor (Marty, McHale’s Navy, Willard, Escape from New York)
1920 Jerry Maren, actor (The Wizard of Oz, Lidsville, Mayor McCheese)
1928 Desmond Morris, zoologist, ethologist, author, TV Presenter (The Naked Ape, Animalwatching)
1931 Lars V. Hörmander, mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1962 for his work on partial differential equations
1939 Ray Stevens, musician/songwriter (“Ahab the Arab”, “Everything Is Beautiful,” “Turn Your Radio On”, “The Streak”)
1941 Neil Diamond, musician/songwriter (“Sweet Caroline,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Cherry Cherry”)
1943 Sharon Tate, actress (The Fearless Vampire Killers or: Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck, Valley of the Dolls)
1944 David Gerrold, author/screenwriter (Star Trek – “The Trouble With Tribbles”, The Martian Child)
1944 Klaus Nomi, singer (“Total Eclipse,” “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”)
1946 Michael Ontkean, actor (Twin Peaks, The Rookies)
1948 Michael Des Barres, musician/songwriter/actor (Nightflyers, MacGyver, Waxwork II: Lost in Time)
1949 John Belushi, actor/comedian (The Blues Brothers, 1941, National Lampoon’s Animal House)
1951 Yakov Smirnoff, actor/comedian (The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, The Money Pit)
1956 Peter Woodward, actor (Crusade, National Treasure: Book of Secrets)
1957 Adrian Edmondson, actor/comedian/writer (The Young Ones, Holby City, The Comic Strip Presents…)
1958 Jools Holland, musician/TV personality (Squeeze, Later with Jools Holland)
1959 Vic Reeves [Jim Moir], comedian/actor (Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased), Vic Reeves Big Night Out)
1959 Nastassja Kinski, actress (Tess, Cat People)
1970 Matthew Lillard, actor (Hackers, Scooby-Doo, In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale)
1986 Mischa Barton, actress (The O.C., Once and Again)
DIED:
0041 Caligula is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards at 28
1914 Sir David Gill, astronomer known for his measurements of solar and stellar parallax, showing the distances of the Sun and other stars from Earth, and for his early use of photography in mapping the heavens, dies at 70
1965 Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1940-1945, 1951-55), Chancellor of the Exchequer (1924-1929), Home Secretary (1910-1911), dies at 90
1975 Larry Fine, Stooge (Three Little Beers, Men in Black, Gents Without Cents), dies at 72
1983 George Cukor, Academy Award-winning director (My Fair Lady, Born Yesterday, A Double Life, The Philadelphia Story), dies at 83
1986 L. Ron Hubbard, author and founder of the Church of Scientology (Battlefield Earth, Dianetics), dies at 74
1986 Gordon MacRae, actor (Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Gordon MacRae Show), dies at 64
1988 Charles Glen King, niochemist who discovered vitamin C, an aid in the prevention of scurvy and malnutrition, dies at 91
1989 Ted Bundy, confessed serial killer, was put to death in Florida’s electric chair at 39
2000 Jeffrey Boam, producer/writer (The Adventures of Brisco County Jr., Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Lost Boys), dies at 53
2006 Nicholas Shackleton, geologist and paleoclimatologist who helped identify carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas, dies at 68
2006 Chris Penn, actor (Short Cuts, Reservoir Dogs, Footloose), dies at 40