Blog
This Day in History - January 3

January 3
106 BC – Roman author and statesman, Marcus Cicero is born
1496 – Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine
1521 – Martin Luther is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X
1621 – William Tucker, believed to be the first African-American born in the New World, is born
1777 – General George Washington defeats the British at the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey
1793 – Women’s rights advocate, Lucretia Coffin Mott is born
1833 – Britain seizes control of the Falkland Islands
1834 – Stephen Austin is imprisoned in Mexico City by Mexican President Santa Ana on suspicion of inciting rebellion
1841 – Herman Melville sets sail for the South Seas on the whaler Acushnet
1861 – Delaware rejects a proposal to join the South in seceding from the Union
1868 – Samurai and anti-shogunate nobles joined together to restore Emperor Meiji to power, who went on to dismantle feudalism and enact reforms that will set up Japan as the world power that it is today
1870 – Construction on the Brooklyn Bridge begins
1883 – Prime Minister of the UK, Clement Attlee is born
1892 – English author and philologist, J.R.R. Tolkien is born
1901 – South Vietnamese president who was assassinated by his own generals, Ngo Dinh Diem is born
1903 – The Treaty of Commerce is rejected by the Bulgarian government
1907 – Welsh Academy Award-winning actor and director, Ray Milland is born
1909 – Pianist, conductor, and comedian, Victor Borge is born
1910 – The Social Democratic Congress in Germany demands universal suffrage
1911 – Director John Sturges is born
1912 – Plans are announced for a new $150,000 Brooklyn stadium for the Trolley Dodgers baseball team
1916 – Three armored Japanese cruisers are sent to guard the Suez Canal
1917 – US Army lieutenant general, deputy director of Central Intelligence, diplomat, and member of Military Intelligence Hall of Fame, Vernon A. Walters is born
1920 – The last US troops depart France
1920 – The New York Yankees acquire Babe Ruth, thus beginning the “curse of the Bambino” for the Boston Red Sox
1921 – Italy halts issuing passports for people emigrating to the US
1923 – Owner of the Houston Oilers (Tennessee Titans) football team, Bud Adams is born
1924 – King Tutankhamen’s solid gold sarcophagus is uncovered near Luxor, Egypt
1925 – Benito Mussolini dissolves the Italian parliament and becomes a dictator
1929 – Italian director, Sergio Leone is born
1930 – The second conference on Germany’s war reparations begins at Hague in the Netherlands
1931 – After a neighbor visited H.C. Coney to vent that she was unable to feed her children during the Depression and after a major drought, Coney gathered a group of men, 300-500 (different records reflect different totals) to visit the town of England to demand food for the starving people in what is known as the England Food Riot. While no violence occurred, the merchants did offer food either out of fear of the large group of men or out of generosity
1933 – The Japanese take Shuangyashan, China, killing 500 Chinese
1938 – Polio victim Franklin Roosevelt founds the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis aka the March of Dimes Foundation
1945 – General Douglas MacArthur takes command of all US ground forces and Admiral Chester Nimitz takes command of all US naval forces as the US plans attacks against Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and the Japan mainland
1946 – President Harry Truman calls on Americans to spur Congress to act on the labor crisis
1946 – American-English politician and broadcaster, William Joyce dies
1947 – Congressional proceedings are televised for the first time
1952 – Dragnet debuts
1956 – Actor, director, producer, and screenwriter, Mel Gibson is born
1957 – The first electric watch goes on sale – The Hamilton Electric 500
1958 – The British create the West Indies Federation with Lord Hailes as governor general
1958 – Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole
1959 – Alaska becomes the 49th state
1959 – Fidel Castro takes over command of the Cuban army
1961 – The US cuts diplomatic ties with Cuba and closes the embassy in Havana
1962 – Fidel Castro is excommunicated by Pope John XXIII
1965 – Thousands of anti-government protestors in Saigon clash with police, the bulk of them Buddhists, who opposed premier Tran Van Huong, whom they saw as a puppet to America
1967 – Jack Ruby, who killed President JFK’s alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, dies before his second trial
1968 –Minnesota Senator Eugene McCarthy announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination
1969 – Future Formula One seven-time winner, Michael Schumacher is born
1977 – Apple Computers is incorporated
1978 – North Vietnamese troops reportedly occupy 400 square miles in Cambodia to prepare for attacks against allied forces
1985 – President Ronald Reagan condemns the arson attacks on abortion clinics
1985 – The government of Israel confirms the resettlement of 10,000 Ethiopian Jews
1987 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first woman, Aretha Franklin
1990 – Former leader of Panama, Manuel Noriega, surrenders to US forces after ten days hiding out at the Vatican embassy in Panama City to escape drug trafficking charges
1990 – Matthew Stuart tells prosecutors that his brother Charles was responsible for the murder of Charles’ wife, Carol Stuart, and her unborn child. Charles called authorities using his cell phone to declare that he and his wife had been shot while traveling through a black neighborhood. Under intense public scrutiny, the Boston PD began combing through housing projects and strip-searching black men on the streets without pretense. Charles, who was recovering from a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the stomach, began showing interest in a female co-worker, and police overlooked it. Willie Bennett was arrested after his nephew jokingly claimed he was responsible for the murders. Charles was shown mug shots of Bennett, along with photos of clean-cut Boston police officers and Matthew Stuart, and decided the charade had gone on long enough. He had assisted Charles under the impression that it was an insurance scam, not his brother’s way of getting rid of his wife so that he could be with another woman. Upon learning that Matthew was going to flip on him, Charles jumped to his death off of the Tobin Bridge over the Mystic River and Willie Bennett was released
1993 – George H.W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, aimed at reducing nuclear warheads by approximately 3,000
1993 – Backup quarterback Frank Reich leads the Buffalo Bills to a 41-38 overtime victory against the Houston Oilers in an AFC wild-card playoff game that will be immortalized as “The Comeback.” At halftime, Houston was leading 35-3 and many Bills fans had left the game. The 32 point comeback is the largest in NFL history
1994 – In South Africa, over 7 million receive citizenship after having been denied under Apartheid policies
1996 – The first flip phone goes on sale, sold by Motorola
1999 – Mars Polar Lander launched
1999 – Over 100 people die in a blizzard in the Great Lakes region
2000 – After the death of Charles Schultz and a 50-year run, the last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published
2003 – American football player, Sid Gillman dies
2005 – American illustrator, Will Eisner dies
2010 – American theologian and philosopher, Mary Daly dies

Written by Crystal McCann
Crystal is the Chief Operating Officer of Lanterns Media Network and the owner of Madisons Media. She lives in Texas with her husband and dogs and is the proud mother of two adult children.
0 Responses
leave a reply
login to reply to thread