On This Day - January 9th

On this day in the year 1839 of the common era (CE) Louis Daguerre demonstrates his daguerreotype photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences; one hundred and forty years later, after losing a court battle with Polaroid over its patents, Kodak is ordered to give up its instant camera business.

On this day in 2007 CE, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announces the iPhone.

Thirty years earlier, in 1977, the Oakland Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl XI. It is the Viking’s fourth straight Super Bowl loss and their last trip to the championship game.

On This Day - January 8th

On this day in the 1656 of the common era (CE), the oldest surviving commercial newspaper, "Weeckelycke Courante van Europa", now known as "Haarlems Dagblad" (still in print), begins publication in Haarlem, The Netherlands.

In 1790 CE the first United States President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address, two hundred and two years later the forty-first President of the United States, George H. W. Bush while attending a state dinner in Japan, vomits in the Japanese Prime Minister’s lap.

In the year 1835 CE, the United States national debt reaches $0 for the first and only time in history.

In the year 1902 CE, New York state assemblyman Francis G. ​Landon gets a bill passed to criminalize the behavior of men who turn around on a public street and "look at a woman in that way." Two years later Pope Pius X bans the wearing of low cut dresses by women in the presence of churchmen.

In 1968 CE Jacques Cousteau's first undersea special airs on a United States television network.

In 2016 CE David Bowie's 26th and final studio album "Blackstar" is released, it is Bowie’s 69th birthday; the album enters the charts at #1…David Bowie passed away two days later.