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Crazy Horse and his warriors, outnumbered, low on ammunition, and forced to use outdated weapons to defend themselves, fight their final losing battle against the U.S. Cavalry in Montana.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.
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.
January 10
In what is described as the worst industrial disaster in Massachusetts history, the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Mass., collapses and traps 900 workers, mostly Irish women. More than 100 die, scores more are injured in the collapse and ensuing fire. Too much machinery had been crammed into the building. – 1860.
A drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produces an enormous gusher of crude oil to coat the landscape for hundreds of feet to signal the advent of the American oil industry. The geyser was discovered at a depth of more than 1,000 feet, flowed at an initial rate of approximately 100,000 barrels a day and took nine days to cap. Following the discovery, petroleum had been used in the U.S. primarily as a lubricant and in kerosene for lamps. – 1901.
The League of Nations formally comes into being when the Covenant of the League of Nations, ratified by 42 nations in 1919, takes effect. – 1920.
An avalanche on the slopes of an extinct volcano kills more than 4,000 individuals in Peru. The edge of a giant glacier suddenly breaks apart and thunders down Mount Huascaran. The block of ice was the size of two skyscrapers and weighed approximately 6 Million tons. Nine towns and seven smaller villages were destroyed. – 1962.
January 11
U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument. – 1908.
The IWW-organized “Bread & Roses” textile strike of 32,000 women and children begins in Lawrence, Mass.. It lasts 10 weeks and ends in victory. – 1912.
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.
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.