KILLERS, WAR!, TERRORISM, DISASTERS, BEHEADING, SEWERS, NANNY STATE, INSANE, NUDITY, PATENTS, CENSUS, MAINSTREAM MEDIA, SUBWAYS, SOCIETIES, CLINTON, CIVIL RIGHTS, GOLD, SILVER, FINANCE, DEPORTED, CLIMATE, PARDONS, SPIES, JEWS, STRONGMEN, SUBS, VACCINES, POPES, PROGRESS, SPORTS, BORN, BIRTHDAYS, DEATH
KILLERS
On Jan. 21, 1958, Charles Starkweather, 19, killed the mother, stepfather and half-sister of his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, at her family's home in Lincoln, Neb. (Starkweather, who had also killed a gas station attendant the previous November, and Fugate went on a road trip which resulted in seven more slayings. Starkweather was executed in 1959; Fugate, who maintained she had been Starkweather's hostage, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life; she was paroled in 1976.)
WAR!
1941 Australia & Britain attack Tobruk Libya.
1942 Japanese air raid on Rabaul New Britain.
1942 Tito's partisans occupy Foca.
1943 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad.
1943 Soviet forces reconquer Worosjilowsk.
1944 447 German bombers attack London.
1944 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg.
1945 British troops land on Ramree, near coast of Burma.
1968, the Battle of Khe Sahn began during the Vietnam War as North Vietnamese forces attacked a U.S. Marine base; the Americans were able to hold their position until the siege was lifted 2 1/2 months later.
DISASTERS
1821 Paramaribo Suriname catches fire, 4 die.
1960 Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook South Africa, 417 die of methane poisoning.
2003 A powerful earthquake shook west-central Mexico, killing 28 people and leaving 10,000 homeless.
1968, an American B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs crashed in Greenland, killing one crew member and scattering radioactive material.
TERRORISM
1985 Bomb attack on Borobudur temple in Java.
2003 A gunman ambushed two U.S. defense workers in Kuwait, killing one and wounding another.
2003 Colombian rebels kidnapped an American photographer and a British reporter, the first time foreign journalists were abducted in Colombia's four-decade-long civil war. (Scott Dalton and Ruth Morris were freed after 11 days in captivity.)
BEHEADED
1793 Louis XVI French king (1774-93), condemned for treason, beheaded by revolutionaries at 38.
SEWERS
1880 1st US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains, Memphis TN
NANNY STATE
1908, New York City's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance prohibiting women from smoking in public. (However, the measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. two weeks later).
NUDITY
1986 100 participate in Nude Olympics race in 38ºF (3ºC), Indiana.
INSANE
1994 Lorena Bobbitt found temporarily insane for chopping off spouse's penis.
PATENTS
1853 Envelope-folding machine patented by Russell Hawes, Worcester MA
CENSUS
2003 The Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America's largest minority group.
MAINSTREAM MEDIA
1949 1st inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman).
1971 "Alias Smith & Jones" premieres on ABC TV.
1973 Leslie Nielsen appears on M*A*S*H in "Ringbanger".
SUBWAY
1981 Bernhard Goetz is assaulted for 1st time on a New York subway train.
SOCIETIES
1915, the first Kiwanis Club was founded, in Detroit.
1935 The Wilderness Society is founded.
CLINTONS
1998 President Bill Clinton angrily denied reports he had had an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and then tried to get her to lie about it.
CIVIL RIGHTS
1827 Freedom Journal, 1st Black paper, begins publishing.
GOLD
1974 Gold hits record $161.31 an ounce in London.
1979 Price of gold increases to record $875 troy ounce.
1980 Gold hits record $850 an ounce.
SILVER
1974 Silver hits record $3.97 an ounce in London.
DEPORTED
1830 Portsmouth (Ohio) blacks forcibly deported.
CLIMATE
1962 Snow falls in San Francisco.
PARDONS
1977 President Jimmy Carter pardons almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.
SPIES
1950, former State Department official Alger Hiss, accused of being part of a Communist spy ring, was found guilty in New York of lying to a grand jury. (Hiss, who always proclaimed his innocence, served less than four years in prison.)
JEWS
1941 1st anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria.
STRONGMEN
2007 Venzuelan President Hugo Chavez told U.S. officials to "Go to hell, gringos!" and called Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "missy" on his weekly radio and TV show, lashing out at Washington for what he called unacceptable meddling in his country's affairs.
FINANCE
1994 Dow Jones passes 3900 (record 3,914.20).
SUBS
1954, the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn. (However, the Nautilus did not make its first nuclear-powered run until nearly a year later).
VACCINES
1799 Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced.
POPES
1998 Pope John Paul II began a historic pilgrimage to Cuba.
PROGRESS
1976, the supersonic Concorde jet was put into service by Britain and France.
SPORTS
1979 Super Bowl XIII Pittsburgh Steelers beat Dallas Cowboys, 35-31 in Miami; Super Bowl MVP Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh, Quarterback.
1990 John McEnroe becomes the 1st ever expelled from the Australian Open for throwing a tantrum & swearing at an official.
2007 Lovie Smith became the first black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship, beating the New Orleans Saints 39-14; Tony Dungy became the second when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title over the New England Patriots, 38-34.
BORN
1924 Benny Hill Southampton England, comedian (Benny Hill Show)
1933 William Wrigley III chewing gum mogul (Wrigleys)
1939 Wolfman Jack [Bob Smith], Brooklyn NY, DJ (Midnight Special)
BIRTHDAY
Actor Paul Scofield is 86. Actress Ann Wedgeworth is 73. Blues singer-musician Snooks Eaglin is 72. Golfer Jack Nicklaus is 68. Opera singer Placido Domingo is 67. Singer Richie Havens is 67. Singer Mac Davis is 66. Actress Jill Eikenberry is 61. Country musician Jim Ibbotson (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is 61. Singer-songwriter Billy Ocean is 58. Actor Robby Benson is 52. Actress Geena Davis is 52. Basketball player Hakeem Olajuwon is 45. Actress Charlotte Ross is 40. Actor John Ducey is 39. Actress Karina Lombard is 39. Rapper Levirt (B-Rock and the Bizz) is 38. Rock musician Mark Trojanowski (Sister Hazel) is 38. Rock DJ Chris Kilmore (Incubus) is 35. Singer Emma Bunton (Spice Girls) is 32. Rhythm-and-blues singer Nokio (Dru Hill) is 29. Actress Izabella Miko is 27.
DEATH
1924, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.
1950 George Orwell [Eric Arthur Blair] author (Animal Farm, 1984), dies from tuberculosis in London at 46.
1991 Howard "Red" Grange football's galloping ghost, dies at 87
1997 Colonel Tom Parker manager (Elvis Presley), dies at 87
1998 Actor Jack Lord of "Hawaii Five-O" fame died in Honolulu at age 77.
January 21, the 21st day of 2008. There are 345 days left in the year. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
< style="font-weight: bold;">compiled by Mondoreb
[image: biographychannel;
pacpubserver]
Sources:
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Today in History*
Today in History
Death by 1000 Papercuts Front Page.
