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This Day in History - January 15

January 15
588 BC – Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege on Jerusalem
1535 – Henry VIII declares himself head of the Church of England
1559 – Queen Mary I of England, Elizabeth Tudor, is formally crowned Queen Elizabeth I at Westminster Abbey in London
1622 – French comic dramatist, Moliere (Jean Baptiste Poquelin) is born
1624 – Riots break out in Mexico when it is announced that all churches are to be closed
1716 – Singer of the Declaration of Independence, Philip Livingston, is born
1759 – The British Museum opens
1777 – New Connecticut aka Vermont, declares independence from both Britain and New York
1811 – Congress plans to annex Spanish East Florida
1823 – Civil War photographer, Mathew Brady is born
1831 – Victor Hugo completes Notre Dame de Paris, better known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1865 – Union troops capture Fort Fisher, North Carolina
1870 – The first recorded use of the Democratic Party donkey appears in Harper’s Weekly
1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, which started off as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta, Georgia
1892 – Canadian James Naismith publishes the rules of Basketball, a game he invented for his gym class at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts
1895 – Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ballet “Swan Lake” premieres in St. Petersburg, Russia
1906 – Greek tycoon, Aristotle Onassis is born
1908 – US physicist born in Hungary known as the “Father of the H-bomb,” Edward Teller, is born
1913 – The first telephone line between Berlin and New York begins operation
1918 – 2nd President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser is born
1919 – Russian economist and philosopher, Rosa Luxemburg dies
1919 – Peasants in Central Russia rise up in revolt against the Bolsheviks
1919 – In Berlin, the Spartacists, a group of radicals’ efforts to launch a coup against the Social Democratic Party are suppressed, and their leaders, Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg are killed
1919 – Huge tanks of molasses burst at the US Industrial Alcohol Company, flooding the streets of Boston with burning goo and literally sweeping away freight cars and caving in buildings. 21 die and dozens more are injured, and more than 100 lawsuits will be filed against the company. Nearly $1 million was paid out in settlements as restitution for the molasses tanks not being built strong enough to contain the liquid
1920 – Selling liquor and beer becomes illegal as the Dry Law takes effect
1920 – The US approves a $150 million loan to Poland, Austria, and Armenia to aid in the war against the Russian Communists
1927 – The Dumbarton Bridge opens in San Francisco allowing the first auto traffic to cross the bay
1929 – The US ratifies the Kellogg-Briand anti-war pact
1929 – Nobel Peace Prize-winning civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. is born
1930 – Amelia Earhart sets an aviation record for women at 171 mph
1933 – The utopian Amana colonists of Iowa begin using US currency for the first time
1936 – In London, Japan quits all naval disarmament talks after being denied equality
1936 – The son of auto pioneer Henry Ford, Edsel Ford, forms the Ford Foundation
1941 – American singer and songwriter, Captain Beefheart is born
1943 – Construction on the world’s largest office building, the Pentagon, is completed
1944 – The US Fifth Army breaks the German Winter Line in Italy when it captures Mount Trocchio
1945 – Princess Michael of Kent is born
1947 – The body of American waitress Elizabeth Short, dubbed “the Black Dahlia,” is found nude, posed, scrubbed clean and drained of blood in a vacant lot near Leimert Park in Los Angeles. Her body was cut in half and mutilated severely, and her killer never found
1948 – Singer and songwriter, Ronnie Van Zant is born
1949 – Chinese Communists occupy Tientsin after a 27-hour battle with Nationalist forces
1950 – American General Henry H. Arnold dies
1951 – Ilse Koch, wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp known as the “Witch of Buchenwald,” is sentenced to life in prison for her extreme acts of sadism against the prisoners which involved whipping, forcing them to have sex with her and murdering tattooed prisoners to make book covers, gloves and lampshades out of their skin
1953 – John Foster Dulles testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, prior to taking office as the new Secretary of State, that US foreign policy must strive for the “liberation of captive peoples” living under Communist rule
1962 – At a news conference, President Kennedy was asked if US troops were fighting in Vietnam, to which he answered, “No,” even though US soldiers serving as combat advisers were being wounded and suffering casualties
1965 – Sir Winston Churchill has a severe stroke
1965 – Irish actor, James Nesbitt is born
1967 – 462 Yale faculty members call for an end to the bombing in North Vietnam
1967 – The Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in the first-ever world championship game of American football, taking place at Los Angeles Coliseum
1970 – The Republic of Biafra surrenders to Nigeria
1970 – Muammar al-Qaddafi becomes premier of Libya
1972 – Struggling folk singer Don McLean’s “American Pie” reached #1 on the Billboard charts
1973 – Four of six remaining Watergate defendants plead guilty
1973 – President Richard Nixon suspends military action in North Vietnam to allow the peace talks between Henry Kissinger and North Vietnamese leader Le Duc Tho a chance to succeed
1975 – The Alvor Agreement is signed, ending the Angolan War of Independence and granting the country independence from Portugal
1976 – Sara Jane Moore is sentenced to life in prison for her botched attempt to assassinate President Gerald Ford
1981 – Hill Street Blues debuts on NBC
1982 – Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia is born
1988 – Nobel Prize-winning Irish politician, Sean MacBride dies
1991 – UN deadline for Iraq to withdraw its forces from occupied Kuwait passes, setting the stage for Operation Desert Storm
1991 – Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II approves Australia instituting its own Victoria Cross honors system, and it’s the first country in the British Commonwealth allowed to do so
1992 – Slovenia and Croatia’s independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is recognized by the international community
1993 – Television soap Santa Barbara runs its final episode after eight years and numerous awards
1994 – American singer, songwriter, and musician, Harry Nilsson dies
2001 – Wikipedia goes online
2009 – Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III safely lands US Airways Flight 1549 in New York City’s Hudson River after both engines are lost due to a striking flock of geese. All 155 passengers and crew survived and due to the extraordinary amount of skill and composure demonstrated in the “Miracle on the Hudson,” Captain “Sully” received many honors

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.
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