January 27
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.
January 28
First U.S. unemployment compensation law enacted, in Wisconsin. – 1932.
The space shuttle Challenger lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., and 73 seconds later the shuttle explodes. There were no survivors. An investigation determined that the explosion was caused by the failure of an “O-ring” seal in one of the two solid-fuel rockets. The elastic O-ring did not respond as expected because of the cold temperature at launch time, which began a chain of events that resulted in the explosion. – 1986.
January 29
Kansas is admitted to the Union as the 34th free state. – 1861
January 30
During a funeral service in the House chamber of the U.S. Capitol to honor the late U.S. representative Warren R. Davis of South Carolina, a man discharged two pistols in the direction of U.S. president Andrew Jackson. Both weapons misfired, and the shooter was promptly subdued and arrested. President Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, survived the first attempt against the life of a U.S. president. – 1835.
January 31
The U.S. House of Representatives passes the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, which abolishes slavery in America. The amendment read, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude…shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” – 1865.
Nearly 12,000 pecan shellers in San Antonio, Texas, mostly Latina women, walk off their jobs at 400 factories in what was to become a three-month strike against wage cuts. – 1938.
U.S. president Harry S Truman publicly announces his decision to support the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon theorized to be hundreds of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during World War II. – 1950.
February 1
The Collar Laundry Union forms in Troy, N.Y.; raises earnings for female laundry workers from $2 to $14 a week. – 1864.
The first portion of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published. Today, the OED is the definitive authority on the meaning, pronunciation, and history of more than half a million words, past and present. – 1884.
Japanese forces on Guadalcanal Island, defeated by U.S. Marines, start to withdraw after the Japanese emperor finally gives them permission. In total, the Japanese lost more than 25,000 men compared with a loss of 1,600 by the Americans. – 1943.
The federal minimum wage increases to $1.60 per hour. – 1968.
February 2
Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa.. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of Winter weather; no shadow means an early Spring. – 1887.
The last German troops in the Soviet city of Stalingrad surrender to the Red Army to end one of the pivotal battles of World War II. Soviet leader Joseph Stalin was determined to liberate the city named after him, and in November 1942 he ordered massive reinforcements to the area. General Zhukov November 19, 1942 launched a great Soviet counteroffensive out of the rubble of Stalingrad. German command underestimate the scale of the counterattack, and the 200,000-troop German Sixth Army was quickly overwhelmed by the offensive, which involved 500,000 Soviet troops, 900 tanks, and 1,400 aircraft. Within three days, the entire German force was encircled. Only 90,000 German soldiers were still alive by the time the Germans surrendered, and of these only 5,000 troops survived the Soviet prisoner-of-war camps. – 1943.
February 3
U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Wages and Hours, later Fair Labor Standards Act, which bans child labor and establishes the 40-hour work-week. – 1941.
Rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson are killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashes in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Moorehead, Minn. The tragedy was called “The Day That Music Died.” – 1959.