This is hopefully a compromise solution for those who enjoy the “Daily History Lessons” and those who prefer the “Entertainment History” columns.

If looking back at news events that shaped our world is what interests you, you’ll find that in the first section. Rock and Roll History comes next, followed by TV/Film History, and finally, Sports History.

In other words, pick the one(s) that interest you without having to skip over information that doesn’t.

I have made the mistake in the past of trying to dig deep for just about everything that happened on a certain date, then compounding that error by adding factoids to each event that weren’t absolutely necessary.

I prefer to think of this new approach as me delivering history in a cliff notes style. If any event piques your curiosity, you can always dig deeper.

One other thing you won’t find will be photos connected to every event. It is incredibly time-consuming to come up with the perfect photo only to discover it is copyrighted. I will do what I can but I am not going to spend hours (and I have) looking for a photo.

U.S./WORLD HISTORY


1859 – After a week-long trial and 45 minutes of deliberation, abolitionist John Brown was found guilty of murder, inciting slaves to rebel, and treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The charges were all part of his raid on the United States federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry a month earlier.
He was sentenced to hang.


1880 – Ohio Congressman James Garfield defeated Civil War General Winfield Scott Hancock to become the 20th President of the United States.
Voters showed their interest in the election by turning out in record numbers; 78 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot.
Garfield won the election by less than 2,000 popular votes although the Electoral College results provided a much wider edge.


1920 – Ohio Senator Warren G. Harding easily defeated Ohio Governor James Cox to become the 29th President of the United States.
The election was notable because it was the first in which American women had the legal right to vote in all 48 states.


1947 – Howard Hughes piloted his huge wooden airplane, the Spruce Goose, on its only flight.
With Hughes at the controls, the flying boat lifted 33 feet off the surface of Los Angeles Harbor and flew one mile in less than a minute at a top speed of 80 miles per hour before making a perfect landing.


1948 – President Harry Truman won reelection in one of the greatest election upsets in American political history.
New York Governor Thomas Dewey was heavily favored to win but his campaign was lackluster while Truman ran a coast-to-coast train campaign, covering 22,000 miles and gave ten speeches a day.
On election night, most of America went to sleep believing that Dewey had won the election.
They were wrong.


1976 – Former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford to become the 39th President of the United States.
Ford actually won more states, but the electoral totals of those 27 states was less than Carter won for carrying 23 states and D.C.


1983 – President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing a federal holiday on the third Monday of January in honor of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina led opposition to the holiday and questioned whether King was important enough to receive such an honor. He submitted a 300-page document to the Senate alleging that King had associations with communists.
Democratic New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan declared the document a “packet of filth,” threw it on the Senate floor and stomped on it.


1993 – Rudy Giuliani, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, won the New York City mayoral election, defeating incumbent David Dinkins to become the first Republican elected mayor since John Lindsay in 1965.


1999 – The worst mass murder in the history of Hawaii occurred in Honolulu.
Bryan K. Uyesugi, 40, an employee at Xerox Engineering Systems, arrived at work, went to the second floor and shot fellow employees, killing seven of them and wounding one other.
Uyesugi was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.


2004 – President George W. Bush was elected to a second term by defeating Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.
Bush won by a slim margin, taking 50.7% of the popular vote and 286 electoral votes.

ROCK & ROLL HISTORY

1963 – Dion walked off the Ready, Steady, Go TV show in Britain, complaining that the go-go dancers were too distracting and that “the audience can’t see me with all of these dancers in the way.”

1963 – Reviewing a Beatles concert the night before in Cheltenham, England, the British paper Daily Mirror used the headline “Beatlemania!”, effectively inserting the phrase into the popular consciousness for the first time.


1973 – Ringo Starr released the Ringo album in the U.S.
The album, noted for the participation of all three of his former bandmates, peaked at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and included the #1 singles Photograph (co-written with George Harrison) and You’re Sixteen.


1984 – Marvin Gay Sr., the father of singer Marvin Gaye, pleaded no contest to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of his son.
Charges of first-degree murder were dropped when doctors discovered the then 69-year-old was suffering from a brain tumor. Gay was given a six-year suspended sentence and five years of probation for the shooting.
He died in 1988.


1987 – George Harrison released Cloud Nine, a commercial comeback that included the #1 hit Got My Mind Set On You and the #25 hit, When We Was Fab.
It was the last solo album he released in his lifetime.

1988 – Def Leppard released Armageddon It, their sixth single from the monumental album Hysteria.
The single peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.

2015 – Singer Johnny Mathis returned home from an Ohio concert to find his iconic Hollywood Hills mansion, built by billionaire Howard Hughes in 1946, engulfed in flames. The fire consumed nearly all of the singer’s possessions.

MOVIE/TV HISTORY


1959 – Charles Van Doren admitted to a U.S. House subcommittee that he had the questions and answers in advance of his appearances on the TV game show Twenty-One.
In January 1957, Van Doren started a winning streak that ultimately earned him $129,000, the equivalent of $1.4 million today.
When allegations of cheating were first raised, Van Doren denied any wrongdoing, but on this date he finally admitted to the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight that he had been given questions and answers in advance of the show.

1991 – Irwin Allen died from a heart attack at the age of 75.
The producer/director is best known for producing The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, and for producing the popular 1960s science fiction television series Voyage to The Bottom Of The Sea, Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land Of The Giants.

SPORTS HISTORY


1960 – New York Yankees outfielder Roger Maris beat teammate Mickey Mantle for American League MVP Award, 225-222.
Maris hit 61 home runs that season, breaking Babe Ruth’s long standing record of 60, while Mantle hit 54.

1969 – Quarterbacks Billy Kilmer (New Orleans Saints) and Charlie Johnson (St. Louis Cardinals) each passed for 6 touchdowns to set the combined NFL record of 12 passing TDs in a game.
The Saints beat the Cardinals, 51-42.


2016 – The Chicago Cubs defeated the Cleveland Indians 8–7 in 10 innings of Game 7 to win the World Series, ending the longest Major League Baseball championship drought (108 years!) in history.

Compiled by Ray Lemire ©2005-2020 RayLemire.com / Streamingoldies.com. All Rights Reserved.