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. For most of the country’s first 100 years, abortion was not a criminal offense and not considered immoral. – 1973.
A plane returning Muslim pilgrims from Mecca crashes in Kano, Nigeria and kills 176 persons. It was the deadliest air disaster of its time. – 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.
Declaring he did not care whether or not it was the rebellious band of Indians he had been searching for, Colonel Eugene Baker orders his men to attack a sleeping camp of peaceful Blackfeet along the Marias River in northern Montana. By the time the brutal attack was over, Baker and his men had, by the best estimate, murdered 37 men, 90 women, and 50 children. – 1870.
At Toronto General Hospital, 14-year-old Canadian Leonard Thompson becomes the first person to receive an insulin injection as treatment for diabetes. – 1922.
Machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs, now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees. – 1957.
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
Canned beer makes its first sale on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivers 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale to stores in Richmond, Va.. – 1935.
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
Sojourner Truth addresses first Black Women’s Rights convention. – 1851.
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.
Approximately 16,000 textile workers strike in Passaic, N.J.. – 1926.
January 26
In what could be considered the first workers’ compensation agreement in America, pirate Henry Morgan pledges his underlings 600 pieces of eight or six slaves to compensate for a lost arm or leg. Part of the pirate’s code, reports Roger Newell: Shares of the booty were equal regardless of race or gender, and shipboard decisions were made collectively. – 1695.
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.
Explosions at a military depot in Lagos, Nigeria, trigger a stampede of fleeing individuals, during which more than 1,000 are killed. – 2002.
January 28
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.