Today is Friday January 09, 2015 09 day of 2015, 356 remaining Sunrise: 7:25am Sunset: 5:09 pm 9 hours and 44 minutes of daylight today Moonrise: 9:42 p.m. Moonset: 9:50 a.m. Special Celebrations today: Today is : Apricot Day on this day in.... 1793 - Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the U.S. 1799 - British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax, at two shillings (10p) in the pound, to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars. 1848 - The first commercial bank was established in San Francisco, CA. 1861 - The state of Mississippi seceded from the United States. 1894 - The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company put the first battery-operated switchboard into operation in Lexington, MA. 1902 - New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public. 1905 - In Russia, the civil disturbances known as the Revolution of 1905 forced Czar Nicholas II to grant some civil rights. 1929 - The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, TN. The company's purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind. 1936 - The United States Army adopted the semi-automatic rifle. 1937 - The first issue of "Look" went on sale. Within a month, "Look" became a biweekly magazine. 1940 - Television was used for the first time to present a sales meeting to convention delegates in New York City. 1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City. 1961 - The play, "Rhinoceros," opened on Broadway. 1969 - The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol. 1972 - The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor. 1972 - British miners went on strike for the first time since 1926. 1981 - Hockey Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito, announced that he would retire as a hockey player after the New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres hockey game. The game ended in a tie. (NHL) 1984 - Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the "Where's the Beef?" commercial campaign for Wendy's. 1986 - Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years due to a loss in a court battle that claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents. 1991 - U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf. 1995 - Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, 51, completed his 366th day in outer space aboard the Mir space station, breaking the record for the longest continuous time spent in outer space. 1997 - Tamil rebels attacked a military base in Sri Lanka. 200 soldiers and 140 rebels were killed. 2000 - ABC-TV began airing "The Mole." 2002 - Yasmine Bleeth was sentenced to two years of probation, regular drug tests, 100 hours of community service and pay the court costs in connection to a cocaine-possession charge. 2002 - The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. 2003 - Archaeologists announced that they had found five more chambers in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China's first emperor. The rooms were believed to cover about 750,000 square feet. 2006 - Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a dual ceremony If today is your birthday you share it with: Richard Nixon Bart Starr Bob Denver Joan Baez Jimmy Page Crystal Gayle Tags: Daily Almanac/tides
January 09, 2015
