A Focus on History: January 21 through January 27

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January 21

Approximately 750,000 steelworkers walk out in 30 states, largest strike in U.S. history to that time. – 1946.

U.S. president Jimmy Carter grants an unconditional pardon to hundreds of thousands of men who evaded the draft during the Vietnam War. – 1977.

On the first full day of Donald Trump’s presidency, hundreds of thousands of individuals crowd into the U.S. capital for the Women’s March on Washington, a massive protest in the Nation’s capital aimed largely at the Donald Trump administration and the perceived threat it represented to reproductive, civil and human rights. More than three Million individuals in cities across the country held simultaneous protests. – 2017.

January 22

The U.S. Supreme Court decriminalizes abortion by handing down its decision in the case of Roe v. Wade. Despite opponents’ characterization of the decision, it was not the first time that abortion became a legal procedure in the United States. In fact, for most of the country’s first 100 years, abortion as we know it today was not a criminal offense. It was not considered immoral. – 1973.

January 23

An earthquake in Shaanxi, China, kills an estimated 830,000 persons. Counting casualties is often imprecise after large-scale disasters, especially prior to the 20th Century, but this disaster is still considered the deadliest of all time. – 1556.

Elizabeth Blackwell graduates with the highest grades in her class when she is granted a medical degree from Geneva College in New York state, to become the first female officially recognized as a physician in U.S. history. – 1849.

The U.S. intelligence-gathering ship Pueblo is seized by North Korean naval vessels and charged with spying and violating North Korean territorial waters. Negotiations to free the 83-man crew of the U.S. ship dragged on for nearly a year, to damage the credibility of and confidence in the foreign policy of president Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. – 1968.

January 24

An 8.3-magnitude earthquake centered in south central Chile leaves 50,000 persons dead and 60,000 injured. The disaster came just 33 years after another terrible quake in Chile killed tens of thousands. – 1939.

January 25

At the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered. It is the largest diamond ever found, to weigh in at 1.33 pounds and the estimated price in today’s market would be approximately $400 Million. – 1905.

The first Winter Olympics begins at Chamonix in the French Alps. – 1924.

January 26

Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the colony of New South Wales and effectively founds Australia. – 1788.

Soviet troops enter Auschwitz, Poland to free the survivors of the network of concentration camps, and finally reveal to the world the depth of the horrors perpetrated there. Soviet soldiers encountered 648 corpses and more than 7,000 starving camp survivors. – 1945.

The Indian constitution takes effect, which makes the Republic of India the most populous democracy in the world. – 1950.

January 27

Mine explosion in Mount Pleasant, Pa. leaves more than 100 dead. – 1891.

The 8th U.S. Air Force bombers, dispatched from England, fly the first American bombing raid against Germany and make its target the Wilhelmshaven port. – 1943.

Soviet forces permanently break the Leningrad siege line to end the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city, which cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives. – 1944.

A group of Detroit African-American auto workers known as the Eldon Avenue Axle Plant Revolutionary Union Movement leads a wildcat strike against racism and bad working conditions. They are critical of both automakers and the UAW and condemn the seniority system and grievance procedures as racist. – 1969.

Muhammad Siyad Barre, the dictator of the Somali Democratic Republic since 1969, flees Mogadishu when rebels overrun his palace and capture the Somali capital. – 1991.

Explosions at a military depot in Lagos, Nigeria, trigger a stampede of fleeing individuals, during which more than 1,000 are killed. – 2002.

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