Category: Today

On Jan. 17, 1961, in his farewell address to the nation, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned the American people to keep a careful eye on what he called the “military-​industrial complex” that has developed in the post-​World War II years. Eisenhower asked Americans to guard against the “danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-​technological elite,” which could weaken or destroy the very institutions and principles it was designed to protect.

On Jan. 17, 1781, Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and a mixed Patriot force of militiamen and Continental riflemen rout British Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton and a group of Redcoats and Loyalists at the Battle of Cowpens. The strategy of the battle was recreated in the movie “The Patriot.”

On Jan. 16, 1979, the Shah of Iran fled his country in the face of an army mutiny and violent demonstrations against his rule. Just fourteen days later, Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of the Islamic revolution, returned after 15 years of exile and took control of Iran.

The Shah had ruled Iran since 1941. In 1953, when the Shah was pushed out of power (for two days) after attempting to dismiss Mohammad Mosaddeq, the nation’s popular premier, American and British intelligence agents orchestrated a coup d’etat against Mosaddeq and retunred the Shah as the sole leader of Iran.

In October 1979, the Shah was permitted to enter the United States for medical treatment and Islamic militants responded by storming the U.S. embassy in Tehran and taking 52 Americans hostage. The militants, with support from Khomeini, demanded the U.S. return the Shah to face charges. The U.S. refused to negotiate and hostages were held for 444 days.

On Jan. 15, 1777, a convention of future Vermonters assembled and declared independence from the crown of Great Britain and the colony of New York. Later in 1777, Vermont’s constitution became the first to prohibit slavery and to give all adult males, not just property owners, the right to vote. Yet, Vermont wouldn’t be admitted as the 14th state until 1791.

On Jan. 15, 1929, Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia.

On Jan. 14, 1784, the Continental Congress ratified the Second Treaty of Paris, thus bringing the Revolutionary War to an official end. In the treaty, known as the Second Treaty of Paris because the Treaty of Paris was also the name of the agreement that had ended the Seven Years’ War in 1763, Britain officially agreed to recognize the independence of its 13 former colonies as the new United States of America.

On Jan. 13, 1733, James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrived in what is today Charleston, South Carolina. Oglethorpe was a British general, member of Parliament, philanthropist, and founded of the colony of Georgia. As a social reformer, Oglethorpe hoped to resettle Britain’s poor, especially those in debtors’ prisons, in the New World.

On Jan. 12, 1904, Henry Ford set a land-​speed record of 91.37 mph on the frozen surface of Lake St. Clair in Michigan, driving a four-​wheel vehicle, dubbed the “999,” with a wooden chassis but no body or hood. Ford’s record was broken within a month, but the publicity from Ford’s achievement was valuable to the auto pioneer, who had incorporated the Ford Motor Company the previous year.

On Jan. 11, 2010, Miep Gies, who helped to hide Anne Frank and her family from the Nazis during World War II, died in the Netherlands. She was 100 years old. In July 1942, the Frank family went into hiding in an attic apartment behind Otto Frank’s business. Gies, along with her husband Jan, a Dutch social worker, and several of Otto Frank’s other employees risked their lives to smuggle food and supplies to the Franks and several other Jews in hiding. After the Franks were discovered in 1944 and sent to concentration camps, Gies rescued the notebooks that Anne Frank left behind describing her two years in hiding. These writings were later published as “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” which became one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust.

On Jan. 10, 2003, then-​Illinois Governor George Ryan commuted the death sentences of 167 prisoners on Illinois’ death row in the aftermath of a scandal involving Chicago detective Jon Burge, who was accused of torturing suspects into making confessions and later found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice.

On Jan. 10, 1738, Ethan Allen was born. Allen was a Revolutionary War hero, who led the Green Mountain Boys to capture Fort Ticonderoga in May 1775. Allen is also known as one fo the founders of the State of Vermont.

On Jan. 9, 1776, Thomas Paine published the pamphlet “Common Sense,” expounding his argument for American independence from Britain, though the work’s original attribution was simply “Written by an Englishman.” Born in England in 1737, Paine had immigrated to Philadelphia in 1774, just two years before his 47-​page pamphlet sold some 500,000 copies, powerfully influencing American opinion.

On Jan. 8, 1815, American militiamen under the command of General Andrew Jackson won the biggest victory of the War of 1812 against an invading British force of nearly twice its size at the Battle of New Orleans. The British had close to 2,000 casualties, while only eight Americans were killed and 13 wounded. Ironically, due to the slow speed of communications at the time, the victory came two weeks after the war of 1812 officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Ghent.