History Today :1st person to ride bicycle longest strike everything and more

• 274 St Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
• 871 Battle at Reading: Ethelred of Wessex defeated by Danish invasion army
• 1357 Flemish earl Louis & Luxembourg Duke Wenceslaus sign peace treaty
• 1490 Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of lese-majesty.
• 1519 -6] 1st Altenburger sermon (Luther & Karl von Miltitz)
• 1570 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
• 1754 Columbia University founded, as Kings College (NYC)
• 1762 Seven Years' War: Great Britain declares war on Spain & Naples
• 1780 Snowstorm hit Washington's army at Morristown, NJ
• 1781 Andre Méchain discovers M80 (globular cluster in Scorpio)
• 1832 Insurrection of Trinidad negroes
• 1843 Gaetano Donizetti's opera "Don Pasquale" premieres in Paris
• 1843 Royal Academy (Technical Hague court) Delft opens
• 1863 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
• 1863 The New Apostolic Church is established in Germany
• 1865 The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.
• 1868 Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone" is first serialized in "All the Year Round" owned by Charles Dickins
• 1878 Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule.
• 1881 Johannes Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" premieres in Breslau
• 1883 Ontario Rugby Football Union (forerunner of CFL) forms
• 1884 Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
• 1884 The Fabian Society is founded in London.
• 1885 Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs 1st appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22)
• 1887 Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (SF-SF)
• 1893 US President Cleveland grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
• 1894 France ratifies Duple Alliance with Russia
• 1896 AFL charters Actors' National Protective Union, NYC
• 1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
• 1898 1st installment of William Dean Howell's "Life & Letters" appears
• 1902 Hugh Trumble takes a hat-trick v England at the MCG
• 1902 The French Panama Canal Company offers to sell its right to build a canal to the US for 40 million; this will tip the balance away from those favoring a canal through Nicaraugua
• 1912 Smallest earth-moon distance this century, 356,375 km center-to-ctr
• 1912 The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter.
• 1915 1st elected Jewish governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho
• 1915 Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
• 1920 1st Black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League, organizes
• 1920 Amsterdam actors decide to strike for retirement benefits
• 1921 Eugene O'Neill's "Diff'rent" premieres in NYC
• 1923 1st broadcast of "Barn Dance Show" (WBAP - Fort Worth Texas)
• 1944 Operation Carpetbagger begins (aerial dropping of supplies and weapons to resistance fighters in Europe)
• 1945 Germans execute resistance fighters in Amsterdam
• 1945 US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after Japanese kamikaze attack
• 1947 "Park Avenue" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 72 performances
• 1947 "Show Boat" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 417 performances
• 1959 Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes 1st craft to leave Earth's gravity
• 1960 European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
• 1961 Longest recorded strike ends-33 yrs-Danish barbers' assistants
• 1962 1st automated (unmanned) subway train in New York City
• 1963 Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon
• 1966 Doug Walters scores second Test century in his second Test
• 1966 WFLD TV channel 32 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
• 1966 Military coup in Upper Volta leads to a new national constitution
• 1967 Donald Campbell is killed while driving a Bluebird K7, a jet-powered boat, on Coniston Water; Campbell was trying to beat his own speed record
• 1968 Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
• 1968 Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million to CBS
• 1969 "Fig Leaves Are Falling" closes at Broadhurst NYC after 4 performances
• 1969 France begins arms embargo against Israel
• 1969 A People's Democracy march between Belfast and Derry is repeatedly attacked by loyalists and off-duty police officers
• 1970 Beatles last recording session at EMI studios
• 1970 NYC transit fare rises from 20 cents to 30 cents, new larger tokens used
• 1970 More than 15,000 people are killed in Tonghai County, China after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake
• 1971 Dr Melvin H Evans inaugurated as 1st elected governor of Virgin Is
• 1971 Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
• 1971 Philadelphia's Veteran's Stadium dedicated
• 1972 Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.
• 1974 Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee
• 1975 "Good News" closes at St James Theater NYC after 16 performances
• 1975 "Gypsy" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 120 performances
• 1975 "Over Here" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 341 performances
• 1975 Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)
• 1975 Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica
• 1975 Montreal Canadiens shutout Washington Capitals 10-0
• 1976 "Candide" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 740 performances
• 1976 "Home Sweet Homer" opens & closes at Palace Theater NYC
• 1976 The Ulster Volunteer Force shoot dead 6 Catholic civilians in 2 co-ordinated attacks in County Armagh, North Ireland
• 1976 64th Men's Australian Open: Mark Edmondson beats John Newcombe (6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-1)
• 1976 64th Women's Australian Open: Evonne Goolagong Cawley beats Renata Tomanova (6-2, 6-2)
• 1976 AFC Championship Game: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Oakland Raiders 16-10
• 1976 NFC Championship Game: Dallas Cowboys beat Los Angeles Rams 37-7
• 1977 Mary Shane hired by Chicago White Sox as 1st woman TV play-by-play
• 1981 "Frankenstein" opens & closes on Broadway
• 1981 "Peter Pan" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 578 performances
• 1981 British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
• 1981 "Red Right 88", trailing 14–12 Clevelands Browns attempt an end zone pass play (Red Right 88) and a game-winning field goal in the final minute, but pass intercepted by Raiders safety Mike Davis and Oakland wins
• 1981 69th Men's Australian Open: Brian Teacher beats Kim Warwick (7-5, 7-6, 6-3)
• 1990 307 dead and 700 injured after overloaded passenger train collides with empty freight train in Pakistan
• 1991 AT&T workers in Newark accidentally snap a cable
• 1991 Fu Mingxia, 12, of China wins World Swimming Championships gold medal
• 1991 Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th
• 1991 Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
• 1992 8th= largest wrestling crowd NJPW Starcade (60,000-Tokyo Dome)
• 1993 7th largest wrestling crowd (63,500-Tokyo Dome)
• 1994 10th largest wrestling crowd (58,000-Tokyo Dome)
• 1996 "Father" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 52 performances
• 1998 "Funny Thing Happened" closes at St James NYC after 715 perform
• 1998 "Ivanov" closes at Vivian Beaumont Theater NYC after 51 performances
• 1998 "Triumph of Love" closes at Royale Theater NYC
• 1998 Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria: over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
• 1998 A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
• 1999 Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
• 1999 Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.
• 1999 1st BCS National Championship: #1 Tennessee beats #2 Florida State, 23-16, at 28th Fiesta Bowl
• 2004 Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
• 2004 6th BCS National Championship: #2 LSU beats #1 Oklahoma, 21-14, at 70th Sugar Bowl
• 2004 Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia
• 2005 7th BCS National Championship: #1 Southern California beats #2 Oklahoma, 55-19, at 71st Orange Bowl (USC would later vacate Championship)
• 2006 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
• 2006 8th BCS National Championship: #2 Texas beats #1 Southern California, 41-38, at 92nd Rose Bowl
• 2007 The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
• 2010 The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed HIV infection from its list of communicable diseases of public health significance.
• 2010 39th Fiesta Bowl: #6 Boise State beats #3 TCU, 17-10
• 2010 The Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building at 829.8 m (2,722 ft), officially opens in Dubai
• 2011 77th Sugar Bowl: #6 Ohio State beats #8 Arkansas, 31-26
• 2012 78th Orange Bowl: #23 West Virginia beats #14 Clemson, 70-33
• 2013 9 people are killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria
• 2013 8 people are killed by a gunman in Kawit, the Philippines
• 2013 6 people are killed a 2 are seriously injured after a snowmobile veers off a ski slope on Mt Cermis, Italy
• 2013 3 people are killed after a Beechcraft BE35 crashes into a house in Florida
• 2014 14 people are killed after a three-story building construction site collapses in Goa, India
• 2015 Gary Anderson of Scotland wins the PDC World Darts Championship
• 2016 Colombo's Gemology Institute certifies world's largest ever blue star sapphire at 1404.49 carats, found in a Sri Lankan mine in August 2015
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