January 12
There were unseasonably-warm-weather days prior to January 12, but over the course of 24 hours the temperature plunged to 40 below zero, almost a 100 degree difference from the previous day, in much of North Dakota. The so-called “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” kills 235 persons, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains of the United States. – 1888.
Seattle mayor Ole Hanson orders police to raid an open-air mass meeting of shipyard workers in an attempt to prevent a general strike. Workers were brutally beaten. The strike began the following month, with 60,000 workers walking out in solidarity with some 25,000 metal tradesmen. – 1919.
The two-man comedy series “Sam ‘n’ Henry” makes its debut on Chicago’s WGN radio station. Two years later, after changing its name to “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the show became one of the most popular radio programs in American history. – 1926.
Ophelia Wyatt Caraway, a Democratic Party member from Arkansas, becomes the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. Caraway, born near Bakerville, Tenn., had been appointed to the Senate two months earlier to fill the vacancy left by her late husband, Thaddeus Horatio Caraway. – 1932.
U.S. president John F. Kennedy signs Executive Order 10988, which guarantees federal workers the right to join unions and bargain collectively. – 1962.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake devastates the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. The earthquake, which was the strongest to strike the region in more than 200 years, left more than 200,000 persons dead and 895,000 Haitians homeless. – 2010.
January 13
Pope Honorius II grants a papal sanction to the military order known as the Knights Templar, declaring it to be an army of God. – 1128.
January 14
The theologian, musician, philosopher, and Nobel Prize-winning physician Albert Schweitzer is born on this day in 1875 in Upper-Alsace, Germany, now Haut-Rhin, France. – 1875.
U.S. president Franklin D. Roosevelt issues Presidential Proclamation No. 2537, which requires aliens from World War II-enemy countries, Italy, Germany, and Japan, to register with the United States Department of Justice. The full-scale internment of Japanese Americans began the following month. – 1942.
Pennsylvania Superior Court rules bosses can fire workers for being gay. – 1995.
January 15
The Pentagon, to this day the largest office building in the world, is dedicated just 16 months after groundbreaking. At times of peak employment 13,000 workers labored on the project – 1943.
January 16
The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” is ratified on this day in 1919 and becomes the law of the land. – 1919.
On this day, Adolf Hitler takes to his underground bunker, where he remains for 105 days until he reportedly commits suicide. – 1945.
Faced with an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the leader of Iran since 1941, is forced to flee the country. Fourteen days later, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran. – 1979.
At midnight in Iraq, the United Nations deadline for the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait expires, and the Pentagon prepares to commence offensive operations to forcibly eject Iraq from its five-month occupation of its oil-rich neighbor. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire in television footage transmitted live by way of satellite from Baghdad and elsewhere. – 1991.
January 17
On the Hawaiian Islands, a group of American sugar planters under Sanford Ballard Dole overthrows Queen Liliuokalani, the Hawaiian monarch, and establishes a new provincial government with Dole as president. The coup occurred with the foreknowledge of John L. Stevens, the U.S. minister to Hawaii, and 300 U.S. Marines from the U.S. cruiser Boston were called to Hawaii, allegedly to protect American lives. – 1893.
In his farewell address to the Nation, U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower warns the American people to keep a careful eye on what he calls the military-industrial complex that has developed in the post-World War II years. – 1961.
An earthquake rocks Los Angeles, Calif. and kills 54 persons and causes $20 billion in damages. The Northridge quake, named after the San Fernando Valley community near the epicenter, was one of the most damaging in U.S. history. – 1994.
January 18
For the first time since joining the World Court in 1946, the United States walks out of a case. The case that caused the dramatic walkout concerned U.S. paramilitary activities against the Nicaraguan government. – 1985.