On This Day:
Thursday January 26, 2012
This is the 26th day of the year, with 340 days remaining
in 2012.
Fact of the Day: Stonehenge
Stonehenge is made of bluestones and sarsen stones.
Bluestone is igneous rock of diabase, rhyolite, and volcanic
ash. Sarsen stone is a type of sandstone found on the chalk
downs of Wiltshire, southern England, the remnants of a once
much larger deposit from the Tertiary period.
Holidays
Australia:
Australia
Day.
India:
Basant Pancami or Republic Day.
Feast day of St. Timothy, St. Margaret of Hungary, St.
Alberic, St. Paula, St. Conan of Man, St. Titus, St.
Eystein, and St. Thordgith or Theorigitha of Barking.
Dominican
Republic: National Holiday (celebrating birth of Juan
Pablo Duarte, one of the fathers of the republic).
Events
1654
- Approximately 150 Jewish families of Portuguese background
fled the city of Recife,
Brazil.
By September, a number of these refugees had established the
first community of Jews in the future United
States. They were known as Sephardim
(Jews of Spanish-Portuguese extraction).
1736
- Stanislaus
I formally abdicated as King of Poland.
1788
- The first European settlers in Australia,
led by Captain Arthur
Phillip, landed in present-day Sydney.
1802
- Congress
passed an act calling for a library to be established within
the U.S. Capitol.
1827
- Peru
seceded from Colombia
in protest against Simón
Bolívar's alleged tyranny.
1837
- Michigan
became the 26th state.
1838
- The first Prohibition law in the United
States was passed in Tennessee,
making it a misdemeanor to sell alcoholic beverages in
taverns and stores.
1841
- Hong
Kong was proclaimed a British sovereign territory.
1861
- Louisiana
seceded from the Union.
1870
- Virginia
rejoined the Union.
1875
- A patent was granted to George
F. Green of Kalamazoo,
Michigan
for the electric dentist's drill.
1905
- The world's largest diamond, 3106 carats, was discovered
at the Premier mine in Pretoria,
South
Africa. It weighed 114 pounds.
1924
- Petrograd
is renamed Leningrad.
Petrograd (1914-24) became Leningrad from 1924-1991, and was
then renamed St.
Petersburg.
1939
- During the Spanish
Civil War, Barcelona,
the Republican capital of Spain,
fell to the Nationalist forces of General Francisco
Franco, who was aided by Italy.
1950
- India
officially proclaimed itself a republic, as its constitution
went into effect. Mohandas
Gandhi struggled through decades of passive resistance
before Britain finally accepted Indian independence.
1965
- Hindi
was made the official language of India.
1983
- The spreadsheet software Lotus
1-2-3 was released.
1988
- Andrew
Lloyd Webber's musical "Phantom
of the Opera" opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater.
1993
- Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav
Havel was elected president of the new Czech
Republic.
2001
- A 7.7 earthquake in the state of Gujarat
in India
left more than 20,000 dead and severely damaged India's
largest port, Kandla.
2004
- President Hamid
Karzai signed the new constitution of Afghanistan.
2005
- Condoleezza
Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary
of State, becoming the first African American woman to
hold the post.
2006
- A large fire breaks out on Table
Mountain in Cape
Town, South
Africa.
2006
- Western
Union discontinues use of its telegram
service.
Births
1880
- Douglas
MacArthur, U.S. Army General and Commander of Allied
Forces, World
War II.
1925
- Paul
Newman, American Academy
Award-winning actor, food entrepreneur.
1928
- Roger
Vadim, French film director.
1935
- Bob
Uecker, a former Major
League Baseball player.
1955
- Eddie
Van Halen, a Dutch guitarist and a founding member of
the rock band Van
Halen.
1958
- Ellen
DeGeneres, American actress, comedian, and talk show
host.
1961
- Wayne
Gretzky, Canadian-born hockey star.
Deaths
1973
- Edward
G. Robinson, an American stage and film actor of
Romanian origin.
1979
- Nelson
Rockefeller, American statesman and 41st Vice
President of the United
States of America.
1984
- Paul
William Bryant (nicknamed "bear"), coach of American
football.
1992
- José
Ferrer (born José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón),
an actor and film director, born in the Santurce
district of San
Juan, Puerto
Rico.
|
