January 19, 2024
QUOTE
The believer is happy. The doubter is wise.
--Edgar Allan Poe
BIRTHDAYS
1736 – James Watt, Scottish chemist and engineer
1807 – Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general
1809 – Edgar Allan Poe, American short story writer, poet, and critic
1813 – Henry Bessemer, English engineer and businessman
1943 – Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter
1946 – Dolly Parton, American singer-songwriter and actress
IN MEMORY
1869 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher
1968 – Ray Harroun, American race car driver and engineer
1998 – Carl Perkins, American singer-songwriter and guitarist
2013 – Earl Weaver, American baseball player and manager
IN ON THIS DAY
1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.
1861 – Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States.
1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
1915 – German strategic bombing during World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
1941 – World War II: HMS Greyhound and other escorts of convoy AS-12 sink Italian submarine Neghelli with all hands 64 kilometres (40 mi) northeast of Falkonera.
1953 – Almost 72 percent of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW’s plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.
1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.