On This Day - January 24th

On this day in the year 41 of the common era Claudius succeeds his nephew Caligula to the curial throne, making him the fourth Roman Emperor after the latter's assassination by officers of the Praetorian Guard, and the first to be proclaimed emperor by the military rather than the senate. He governed for thirteen years until he was poisoned by his wife Agrippina.

Claudius expanded the empire into Britain, North Africa and the Middle East; he was the last known speaker and translator of the Etruscan language, he was an effective and scholarly administrator who improved the judicial system and infrastructure of the empire, its provinces and protectorates.

On this day in the year 1764 CE, a fire at Harvard University destroys governor Winthrop's Telescope; the Harvard library consisting of 5,000 books is mostly lost.

In the year 1890 CE the world's oldest wooden sculpture is discovered in a peat bog near Kaltay, Russia in the Ural mountains. The Shigir Idol was radiocarbon dated to 12,500 years old; twenty-three years later Franz Kafka stops working on Amerika…it will never be finished. Twenty-two years after that, sales of Krueger’s Cream Ale begin in Richmond, Virginia…the first canned beer.

In 1958 CE After warming to 100,000,000 degrees, two photons are bashed together to create a heavier atom, resulting in the first example of man-made nuclear fusion; fourteen years later Japanese Sergeant Shōichi Yokoi is found hiding in the jungles of Guam, where he had been observing his duty and keeping vigilant watch since the end of World War II, not knowing that it had ended. Twelve years after that Apple unveils the Macintosh personal computer in a Super Bowl commercial directed by Ridley Scott.

 

 

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On This Day - January 23rd

On this day in the year 1789 of the common era (CE), Georgetown in founded; it is the first Catholic college in the United States.

On this day in the year 1849 (CE), Elizabeth Blackwell becomes the first woman in the United States to earn a medical degree, graduating from Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York; forty years later, Daniel Hale Williams forms the Provident Hospital in Chicago, the first non-segregated hospital in the United States.

On this day in 1862 CE. Agoston Haraszthy imports 10,000 grapevine cuttings to Sonoma Valley, California, making him the region’s first vintner.  

In 1943 CE Duke Ellington plays at Carnegie Hall in New York City for the first time; thirty-four years later the television miniseries Roots, based on the biographical novel detailing the family origins of author, Alex Haley (played by James Earl Jones), premiers on ABC.

In 1973 CE, United States president Richard Nixon announces that an accord has been reached to end the Vietnam War…it would take two years to complete the withdraw.

In 1986 CE the inductees for the inaugural class of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame are named: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Robert Johnson, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmy Yancey, Alan Freed, John Hammond and Sam Phillips.

In 2025 CE, United States president Donald Trump issues pardons to twenty-three anti-abortion activists convicted of illegally blocking access to clinics; one year later his justice department applies the same law used to convict them to three protesters in Minneapolis, Minnesota who entered a church to protest one of its pastors, who happens to also work as the regional head of the ICE field office.

On this day in the year 3268 of the common era (CE) the second Julian Period begins.

 

 

On This Day - January 22nd

On this day in the year 1506 of the common era (CE), the first contingent of Swiss Guards, one hundred-fifty men-at-arms, arrives at the Vatican to begin their centuries long tradition of service as the private security of the pope, the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church; three hundred and thirty six years later, author Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine arrive in Boston, Massachusetts.

On this day in the year 1877 CE, Anglican clergyman Arthur Tooth is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist practices; thirty-one years later Katie Mulcahey is taken into custody for lighting a cigarette in violation of the one-day-old "Sullivan Ordinance" banning women from smoking in public. She says to tells the judge, “I’ve got as much right to smoke as you;” he fines her five dollars.

On this day in 1951 CE. Fidel Castro, suiting up with the Washington Senators, is ejected from a Winter League baseball game after intentionally hitting a batter, bringing his prospects as a major league baseball player to an end, allowing him to devote the rest of his life to the Cuban Revolution and politics; eight years later Buddy Holly makes his last recordings in his NYC apartment including "Peggy Sue" and "Crying, Waiting, Hoping", which were embellished, overdubbed, and released posthumously by Coral Records.

In 1973 CE, the United States Supreme Court legalizes most abortions through its opinion in the case Roe v. Wade. Writing for majority, Justice Harry Blackmun states that the criminalization of abortion does not have "roots in the English common law tradition."