Today in History, January 15: 69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but rules for only three months before committing suicide. 1541 – King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the Holy Catholic faith. 1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England. 1759 – The British Museum opens. 1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence. 1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage. 1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates. 1865 – American Civil War: Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy. 1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey (A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion by Thomas Nast for Harpers Weekly). 1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta. 1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball. 1910 – Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 325 ft (99 m). 1919 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising. 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republican both withdraw after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road. 1943 – World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins. 1943 – The worlds largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia. 1947 – The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short (The Black Dahlia) is found in Los Angeles Leimert Park. 1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government. 1951 – Ilse Koch, The Witch of Buchenwald, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany. 1962 – The Derveni papyrus, Europes oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BCE, is found in northern Greece. 1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10. 1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5. 1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya. 1973 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. 1976 – Gerald Fords would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison. 1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm. 1992 – The international community recognizes the independence of Slovenia and Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. 1993 – Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as The Beast, is arrested in Sicily, Italy after three decades as a fugitive. 2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online. 2005 – ESAs SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon. 2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York. All passengers and crew members survive. 2013 – A train carrying Egyptian Army recruits derails near Giza, Greater Cairo, killing 19 and injuring 120 others.
Posted on: Thu, 15 Jan 2015 17:48:16 +0000
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