Sunday, January 21, 2018

TODAY IN HISTORY ― JANUARY 21

January 21 is the 21st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. There are 344 days remaining until the end of the year (345 in leap years). This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Thursday or Saturday (58 in 400 years each) than on Tuesday or Wednesday (57), and slightly less likely to occur on a Friday or Sunday (56). 

SQUIRREL APPRECIATION DAY  


1793 – One day after being convicted of conspiracy with foreign powers and sentenced to death by the French National Convention, King Louis XVI is executed by guillotine in the Place de la Revolution in Paris. 


1861 – Senator Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and four other southern senators resign (prelude to the U.S. Civil War).

1863 – On this day in 1863, two Confederate ships drive away two Union ships as the Rebels recapture Sabine Pass, Texas, and open an important port for the Confederacy.

1919 – Irish militant nationalist party, Sinn Fein, creates its own parliament in Dublin and declares Ireland independent of Great Britain, sparking the Irish War of Independence.

1924 – Vladimir Lenin (Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov), the architect of the Bolshevik Revolution and the first leader of the Soviet Union, dies of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 54.

1944 – In WWII, 649 British bombers target airplane factories in Magdeburg, Germany.

1950 – In the conclusion to one of the most spectacular trials in U.S. history, former State Department official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury. He was convicted of having perjured himself in regards to testimony about his alleged involvement in a Soviet spy ring before and during World War II. Hiss served nearly four years in jail, but steadfastly protested his innocence during and after his incarceration.



1957 – Singer Patsy Cline, one of the most important figures in country music history, first gains national attention with her winning appearance on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts on January 21, 1957.


1959 – Carl Dean Switzer, the actor who as a child played "Alfalfa" in the Our Gang comedy film series, dies at age 31 in a fight, allegedly about money, in a Mission Hills, California, home. Alfalfa, the freckle-faced boy with a warbling singing voice and a cowlick protruding from the top of his head, was Switzer's best-known role.


1960 – Rock falls trap 437 at Coalbrook, South Africa; 417 die of methane poisoning.


1968 – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins at Khe Sanh, 14 miles below the DMZ and six miles from the Laotian border.

1974 – Gold ($161.31) and silver ($3.97) hit record high in London.


1976 – From London's Heathrow Airport and Orly Airport outside Paris, the first Concordes with commercial passengers simultaneously take flight on January 21, 1976. The London flight was headed to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and the Paris to Rio de Janeiro via Senegal in West Africa. At their cruising speeds, the innovative Concordes flew well over the sound barrier at 1,350 miles an hour, cutting air travel time by more than half.

1977 – On this day in 1977, President Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War.



1979 – Neptune becomes the outermost planet (Pluto moves inside it's orbit). Because Pluto has an orbit around the Sun which is very elliptical, there are times when it crosses Neptune's orbit and becomes closer to the Sun than Neptune. This occurs for a period of 20 years out of every 248 years. 


1992 – Flamboyant assistant coach Bill Cowher becomes the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, becoming only the second head coach of the team since 1969, preceded by Chuck Noll.

1996 – On this day in 1996, an overloaded ferry sinks in an unexpected storm off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, killing 340 people.

2002 – The Canadian dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).

2008 – Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.


2009 – After more than seven decades as the world's largest automaker, General Motors (GM) officially loses the title on January 21, 2009, when it announces worldwide sales of 8.36 million cars and trucks in 2008, compared with Toyota's 8.97 million vehicle sales that same year. However, the news wasn't all rosy for the Japanese auto giant, which later in 2009 posted its first-ever loss as a public company.



TODAY'S BIRTHS

1738 – Ethan Allen, American Revolutionary War general (d. 1789)

1804 – Eliza R. Snow, American poet and hymn-writer (d. 1887)

1813 – John C. Frémont, American general, explorer, and politician, 5th Territorial Governor of Arizona (d. 1890)

1824 – Thomas Johnathan "Stonewall" Jackson, American Civil War general (South) (d. 1863)

1884 – Roger Nash Baldwin, American author and activist, co-founded the American Civil Liberties Union (d. 1981)

Wikipedia and Google, ex as noted.

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