January 3
In an event that heralds the birth of modern Japan, patriotic samurai from Japan’s outlying domains join with anti-shogunate nobles in restoring the emperor to power after 700 years. The young emperor, Meiji, and his ministers, move the royal court from Kyoto to Tokyo, dismantle feudalism, and enact widespread reforms along Western models. The newly-unified Japanese government set off on a path of rapid industrialization and militarization, and build Japan into a major world power by the early 20th Century. – 1867.
U.S. president Dwight Eisenhower signs a special proclamation to admit the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th and largest geographical state. – 1959.
January 4
Six years after Wilford Woodruff, president of the Mormon Church, issued his Manifesto reforming political, religious, and economic life in Utah, the territory is admitted into the Union as the 45th state. – 1896.
For the first time since Charlemagne’s reign in the 9th Century, Europe is united with a common currency when the “euro” makes its debut as a financial unit in corporate and investment markets. – 1999.
January 5
Ford Motor Company raises wages from $2.40 for a nine-hour day to $5. for an eight-hour day in effort to keep the unions out and give workers money to buy Ford products. – 1914.
U.S. president Richard Nixon signs a bill authorizing $5.5 Million in funding to develop a space shuttle. – 1972.
January 6
Samuel Morse’s telegraph system is demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, N.J.. The telegraph, a device which used electric impulses to transmit encoded messages over a wire, eventually would revolutionize long-distance communication, and reach the height of its popularity in the 1920s and 1930s. – 1838.
New Mexico is admitted into the United States as the 47th state. – 1912.
Some 8,000 workers strike at Youngstown Sheet & Tube. The following day the strikers’ wives and other family members join in the protest. Company guards use tear gas bombs and fire into the crowd; three strikers are killed, 25 wounded. – 1916.
Snow begins to fall in Washington, D.C., and up the Eastern seaboard to begin a blizzard that kills 154 persons and causes more than $1 Billion in damages before it ends. – 1996.
January 7
America’s first presidential election is held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who own property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office April 30, 1789. – 1789.
Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked and struck on the right knee just one day before the U.S. National Championships and one month before the Winter Olympics. Kerrigan recovered in time for the Olympics and won the Silver Medal. – 1994.
January 8
Crazy Horse and his warriors, outnumbered, low on ammunition, and forced to use outdated weapons to defend themselves, fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana. – 1877.
The AFL Iron and Steel Organizing Committee ends the “Great Steel Strike.” Some 350,000 to 400,000 steelworkers had been striking for more than three months to demand union recognition. The strike failed. – 1920.
January 9
Southern Tenant Farmers’ Union leads Missouri Highway sit-down of 1,700 families. They were evicted from their homes so landowners wouldn’t have to share government crop subsidy payments with them. – 1939.
Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone, a touchscreen mobile phone with an iPod, camera, and Web-browsing capabilities, among other features, at the Macworld convention in San Francisco. It went on sale in the United States six months later amidst huge hype. Thousands of customers lined up to purchase the device. – 2007.
Sources: History.com, Toil and Trouble, by Thomas R. Brooks; American Labor Struggles, by Samuel Yellen; IWW calendar, Solidarity Forever; Historical Encyclopedia of American Labor, edited by Robert E. Weir and James P. Hanlan; Southwest Labor History Archives/George Meany Center; Geov Parrish’s Radical History; workday Minnesota; Andy Richards and Adam Wright, AFL-CIO Washington DC Metro Council.