This Week in History

January 1

Peter Duffy was born.

Vivian Carter was born.

Lily Corcoran was born.

George Johnson was born.

Shannon Reilly was born.

Lynn Duffy was born.

1863 – Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

1959 – Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries took over Cuba and toppled Fulgencio Batista’s regime.

January 2

Carolyn Butler was born.

Lisa Gillespie was born.

1935 – The Bruno R. Hauptmann trial began for the kidnap and murder of the Lindbergh baby.

1994 – Rudolph Giuliani is inaugurated as New York City’s mayor.

January 3

Kathleen Byrne was born.

Janet Racy was born.

Dan Kirk was born.

1870 – Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began.

1959 – Alaska became the 49th state in the United States.

1962 – Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.

January 4

Katie McFadden was born.

Jen Linehan was born.

Robert Donohoe was born.

Megan LaCognata was born.

1965 – President Johnson outlined his “Great Society” in his State of the Union address.

1999 – Former wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Minnesota’s governor.

January 5

Mary Ellen Blum Olsen was born.

1914 – Henry Ford introduced the $5-a-day minimum wage.

1972 – President Nixon ordered the development of the space shuttle.

January 6

John Carrington was born.

Rebecca Carey was born.

1759 – George Washington married Martha Custis.

1994 – Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is clubbed on her leg by men including husband of rival skater Tonya Harding.

January 7

Dennis Cook was born.

Patrick Clark was born.

Sarah McGonigle was born.

Augusta Marino was born.

1927 – Transatlantic commercial telephone service began between New York and London.

1953 – Harry Truman announced that the U.S. had developed the hydrogen bomb.