January 26
Today in America's Present Past
1784 | Benjamin Franklin pens a complaint against the “eagle” as the symbol of America.
1802 | Congress: Legislation passed establishing a Capitol Library.
1814 | Publisher, General, and politician Rufus King was born.
1826 | FLOTUS: Julia Dent Grant was born.
1831 | Author Mary Mapes Dodge was born.
1832 | SCOTUS: Justice George Shiras was born.
1837 | Statehood: Michigan granted statehood.
1838 | Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the U.S.
1858 | Inventor Cyrus McCormick weds Nancy Fowler.
1861 | Civil War: Louisiana secedes from the Union.
1863 | Civil War: The Secretary of War authorizes a state militia of African-descent soldiers to be formed (54th Massachusetts Regiment).
1870 | Congress: Virginia (deconstructed) is allowed to rejoin the Union.
1875 | Inventor George F. Green patents the electric dental drill.
1880 | General Douglas MacArthur was born.
1884 | Explorer and scientist Roy Chapman Andrews was born.
1890 | Publisher Charles Scribner III was born.
1891 | Mobster Frank Costello was born.
1892 | Aviator Bessie Coleman was born.
1892 | Actress Zara Cully was born.
1893 | General Abner Doubleday died.
1902 | Aviator Laurence Craigie was born.
1904 | Scientist Ancel Keys was born.
1905 | General John J. Pershing weds Helen Frances.
1907 | Congress: First legislation passed addressing “corrupt elections.”
1911 | Entrepreneur Glenn Curtiss piloted the first successful hydroplane flight in San Diego, California.
1915 | Actor William Hopper was born.
1917 | WWII: POW Louis Zamperini (Unbroken) was born.
1918 | WWI: Herbert Hoover (as Food Administrator) calls for “Wheatless” and “Meatless” meals by Americans to assist war efforts.
1924 | American skater Charles Jewtraw earns first-ever Winter Olympics Gold Medal at Chamonix, France.
1924 | Intelligence officer James McCord, Jr. was born.
1925 | Actress Joan Leslie was born.
1925 | Actor Paul Newman was born.
1930 | Sailor Buddy Melges was born.
1932 | Entrepreneur William Wrigley, Jr. died.
1933 | Suffrage activist Alva Belmont died.
1938 | Author Zitkala-Sa died.
1940 | POTUS: President Ronald Reagan weds Jane Wyman.
1941 | Biologist Joan Steitz was born.
1942 | WWII: First deployed U.S. forces arrive in European Theatre (Northern Ireland).
1943 | General Sherian Grace Cadoria was born.
1946 | Movie critic Gene Siskel was born.
1949 | Author Jonathan Carroll was born.
1955 | Musician Eddie Van Halen was born.
1957 | Wrestler “Hawk” Michael Hegstrand was born.
1958 | Musician Anitaa Baker was born.
1958 | Comedian Ellen DeGeneres was born.
1961 | Civil Rights: First female medical doctor assigned to a U.S. President - Janet G. Travell - treating John F. Kennedy.
1962 | Civil Rights: Buffalo, New York Bishop bans Chubby Checker’s “Twist” dance as morally impure.
1962 | Mobster Charles “Lucky” Luciano died.
1965 | Congress: Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy was born.
1968 | Poet Yvor Winters died.
1973 | Actor Edward G. Robinson died.
1979 | TV: CBS debut of “Dukes of Hazard.”
1979 | Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller died.
1990 | Urban planner Lewis Mumford died.
1992 | Actor Jose Ferrer died.
1996 | Olympic gold medalist Charles Jewtraw died.
1998 | POTUS: Democrat President Clinton publicly denies sexual relations with Lewinsky.
2003 | TV: ABC debates late-night show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”
2005 | Civil Rights: Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as the first female U.S. Secretary of State of African American descent.
2005 | Golfer Arnold Palmer weds Kathleen Gawthrop.
2006 | Western Union discontinues telegram service.
2020 | Basketball Pro Kobe Byrant died in a helicopter crash.