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 The first automobile ... On January 29, 1886, Carl Benz applied for a patent for his “vehicle powered by a gas engine.” [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] The patent – number 37435 – may be regarded as the birth certificate of the automobile. In July 1886 the newspapers reported on the first public outing of the three-wheeled Benz Patent Motor Car, model no. 1. |
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National Geographic Society founded ... On January 27, 1888, the National Geographic Society is founded in Washington, D.C., for “the increase and diffusion of geographical knowledge.” [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] The 33 men who originally met and formed the National Geographic Society were a diverse group of geographers, explorers, teachers, lawyers, cartographers, military officers and financiers. |
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World’s largest diamond found ... On January 25, 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered during a routine inspection by the mine’s superintendent. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the “Cullinan,” it was the largest diamond ever found. |
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 First canned beer goes on sale ... Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production. The purchase of cans, unlike bottles, did not require the consumer to pay a deposit. Cans were also easier to stack, more durable and took less time to chill. |
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" Bloody Sunday " in Russia ... Well on its way to losing a war against Japan in the Far East, czarist Russia is wracked with internal discontent that finally explodes into violence in St. Petersburg in what will become known as the Bloody Sunday Massacre. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] On January 22, 1905, a group of workers led by the radical priest Georgy Apollonovich Gapon marched to the czar’s Winter Palace in St. Petersburg to make their demands. Imperial forces opened fire on the demonstrators, killing and wounding hundreds. Strikes and riots broke out throughout the country in outraged response to the massacre. |
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 Captain James Cook becomes 1st to cross Antarctic Circle (66° 33' S) ... On this day, January 17, in 1773, Captain James Cook’s ship Resolution unwittingly became the first one to cross the Antarctic Circle, and the first ship to ever sail that far south. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Still not finding the rumored continent, Cook ordered further exploration of the area, sailing where the ice allowed passage and spending the icy winters in New Zealand. Finally encountering a solid wall of ice blocking his path, he concluded the continent as was envisioned did not exist, and turned back for England. [Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig] |
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 The "Dry law" in the US ... The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting 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. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] The movement for the prohibition of alcohol began in the early 19th century, when Americans concerned about the adverse effects of drinking began forming temperance societies. By the late 19th century, these groups had become a powerful political force, campaigning on the state level and calling for total national abstinence. |
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Happy birthday Wikipedia! Seventeen years ago today, on January 15th, 2001, Wikipedia was founded by two internet pioneers, Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, although neither had any idea how ambitious their online encyclopedia would become. Today Wikipedia is the tenth most popular website in the world, with versions available in some 280 languages containing around 35m articles. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Like the ancient library of Alexandria and Denis Diderot’s encyclopedia published during the Enlightenment, Wikipedia is an ever-evolving manifestation of its creators’ desire to preserve and compile knowledge. |
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Grand Canyon National Monument is created ... On January 11, 1908, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the massive Grand Canyon in northwestern Arizona a national monument. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Though Native Americans lived in the area as early as the 13th century, the first European sighting of the canyon wasn’t until 1540, by members of an expedition headed by the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado. “The ages had been at work on it, and man can only mar it,” - President Theodore Roosevelt |
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Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signaling the start of civil war ... It was January 10. 49 BC, Caesar was staying in the northern Italian city of Ravenna and he had a decision to make. Either he acquiesced to the Senate's command or he moved southward to confront Pompey and plunge the Roman Republic into a bloody civil war. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] An ancient Roman law forbade any general from crossing the Rubicon River and entering Italy proper with a standing army. To do so was treason. This tiny stream would reveal Caesar's intentions and mark the point of no return. Such a move would send a signal to Rome that he no longer felt bound to do what Rome told him. |
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Columbus mistakes manatees for mermaids ... On this day in 1493, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus, sailing near the Dominican Republic, sees three “mermaids”–in reality manatees–and describes them as “not half as beautiful as they are painted.” [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Six months earlier, Columbus (1451-1506) set off from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean with the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, hoping to find a western trade route to Asia. Instead, his voyage, the first of four he would make, led him to the Americas, or “New World.” |
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Morse demonstrates telegraph machine ... On 6th January 1838 Samuel Morse’s revolutionary telegraph system was demonstrated for the first time at the Speedwell Iron Works in Morristown, New Jersey. Within a few years of the initial demonstration a series of telegraph lines would be strung across the United States and the Atlantic, completely changing the nature of long distance communication. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Morse was not the lone inventor of the telegraph, the device was the culmination of the work of multiple scientists and engineers. Morse was crucial in refining the technology and securing the funding and support to get it widely distributed. |
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Alaska admitted into Union ... On January 3, 1959, President Eisenhower signs a special proclamation admitting the territory of Alaska into the Union as the 49th and largest state. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] The European discovery of Alaska came in 1741, when a Russian expedition led by Danish navigator Vitus Bering sighted the Alaskan mainland. Russian hunters were soon making incursions into Alaska, and the native Aleut population suffered greatly after being exposed to foreign diseases. In 1784, Grigory Shelikhov established the first permanent Russian colony in Alaska on Kodiak Island. In the early 19th century, Russian settlements spread down the west coast of North America, with the southernmost fort located near Bodega Bay in California. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Russian activity in the New World declined in the 1820s, and March 30, 1867, Secretary of State William H. Seward signed a treaty with Russia for the purchase of Alaska for $7.2 million. [Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig] |
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The death of Rasputin - December, 1916 ... On 30 December 1916, Grigori Rasputin, the Russian mystic who became a confidant of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife, was brutally killed. After supposedly being poisoned, shot and beaten, he was thrown into the freezing waters of St. Petersburg’s Neva River by aristocrats fearful of the influence he wielded over the Romanov court. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] Rasputin, a Siberian-born muzhik, or peasant, who underwent a religious conversion as a teenager and proclaimed himself a healer with the ability to predict the future, won the favor of Czar Nicholas II and Czarina Alexandra through his ability to stop the bleeding of their hemophiliac son, Alexei, in 1908. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] From then on, though he was widely criticized for his lechery and drunkenness, Rasputin exerted a powerful influence on the ruling family of Russia, infuriating nobles, church orthodoxy, and peasants alike. He particularly influenced the czarina, and was rumored to be her lover. When Nicholas departed to lead Russian forces in World War I, Rasputin effectively ruled the country through Alexandra, contributing to the already-existing corruption and disorder of Romanov Russia. [Versteckter Link - Registrierung notwendig] |
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Third and final " The Lord of the Rings " movie opens ... On This Day in 2003, " The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ", the final film in the trilogy based on the best-selling fantasy novels by J.R.R. Tolkien, opens in theaters. The film was a huge box-office success and won 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, for Peter Jackson. [Verstecktes Bild - Registrierung notwendig] The Lord of the Rings trilogy became one of the highest-grossing franchises in movie history, netting billions of dollars worldwide in box-office proceeds and related merchandise. |
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