On This Day:
Sunday January 29, 2012
This is the 29th day of the year, with 337 days remaining
in 2012.
Fact of the Day: Web and Net
The World Wide Web (WWW) is the multimedia aspect (part) of
the Internet. The WWW has capability to display pages,
graphics, sounds, and video animation through a variety of
browsers. Other parts of the Internet include newsgroups
(usenet), mailing lists, FTP (File Transfer Protocol),
gopher, and e-mail (electronic mail).
Holidays
Feast day of St. Sainian of Troyes, St. Sulpicius Severus,
and St. Gildas the Wise.
Events
1845
- Edgar
Allan Poe's poem "The
Raven" was first published; it appeared in the "New
York Evening Mirror."
1850
- Henry
Clay introduced in the Senate
a compromise bill on slavery which included the admission of
California
into the Union as a free state.
1861
- Kansas
became the 34th state of the Union (or the 28th state if the
secession of eight Southern states over the previous six
weeks is taken into account).
1886
- The first successful gasoline-driven motorcar, built by Karl
Benz, was patented.
1891
- Queen
Liliuokalani became the last monarch of the Hawaiian
Islands.
1900
- The American
League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was
organized in Philadelphia.
1926
- Violette
Neatley Anderson became the first African-American
woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme
Court.
1936
- The first members of the Baseball
Hall of Fame, including Ty
Cobb and Babe
Ruth, were named in Cooperstown,
New
York.
1950
- Riots broke out in Johannesburg,
South
Africa, over the policy of Apartheid.
1963
- The first members of the Football
Hall of Fame were named in Canton,
Ohio.
1979
- Deng
Xiaoping, deputy premier of China,
met President Jimmy
Carter, and together they signed historic accords
reversing decades of U.S. opposition to the People's
Republic of China.
1979
- President Jimmy
Carter commuted the sentence of Patty
Hearst.
1995
- The San
Francisco 49ers became the first team in NFL
history to win five Super
Bowl titles, beating the San
Diego Chargers, 49-26.
1996
- President
Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French
nuclear testing.
Births
1737
- Thomas
Paine, American revolutionary leader, political
philosopher.
1843
- William
McKinley, 25th President of the United
States of America (1897-1901).
1874
- John
Davison Rockefeller, Jr., American industrialist.
1880
- W.C.
Fields, American comedian and actor.
1923
- Paddy
Chayefsky, American playwright.
1927
- Edward
Abbey, an American author and essayist noted for his
advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public
land policies.
1954
- Oprah
Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, media
mogul.
1960
- Steve
Sax, former Major League Baseball player.
Deaths
1820
- Britain's King
George III, ending a reign involving both the American
Revolution and French
Revolution.
1956
- H.
L. Mencken (born Henry Louis Mencken), a
twentieth-century journalist, satirist, social critic,
cynic, and freethinker,
1962
- Fritz
Kreisler, Austrian (later American) violinist and
composer, one of the most famous violinists of his day.
1963
- Robert
Frost, American poet.
1977
- Freddie
Prinze (born Frederick Karl Pruetzel), American actor
and stand-up comedian.
1980
- Jimmy
Durante, American singer, pianist, comedian, and
actor.
2004
- Janet
Frame, New Zealand novelist and short-story writer.
2004
- M.
M. Kaye, British writer.
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