Category: Today

On Jan. 21, 1928, Gene Sharp, one of the world’s leading experts on non-violent change, was born. Sharp’s extensive writings, including his 1973 book “The Politics of Nonviolent Action,” have influenced anti-government resistance movements around the world. During the Korean War, he was jailed for nine months after protesting the conscription of soldiers. Sharp is currently Professor Emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

On Jan. 21, 1950, Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell, died – just a year after his dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” was published. The English author and journalist was known for his awareness of social injustice, intense opposition to totalitarianism, and a passion for clarity in language. His two books, “Animal Farm” and “1984,” together sold more copies than any two books by any other twentieth-century author.

On Jan. 20, 1265, the first English parliament conducted its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster.

On Jan. 20, 1801, John Marshall was appointed by President John Adams to be the Chief Justice of the United States, serving in the position longer than anyone else in the country’s history, during all or part of the terms of six presidents – John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.

On Jan. 20, 1885, L.A. Thompson patented the roller coaster.

On Jan. 20, 1920, the American Civil Liberties Union was founded.

On Jan. 19, 1764, John Wilkes was expelled from Britain’s Parliament for his allegedly libelous, seditious and pornographic writings. Over the next 12 years, in both Britain and the American colonies, Wilkes’ name became synonymous with Parliamentary oppression.

Wilkes fled to France to avoid arrest, but returned to Britain in 1768 to simultaneously win re-election to Parliament, though Parliament refused to allow him to take his seat, and begin serving a prison term. Troops opened fire on protesters gathered in front of Wilkes’ prison, killing six of his supporters and wounding 15 in what came to be known as the St. George’s Fields Massacre.

On Jan. 18, 1776, the Council of Safety in Savannah, Georgia, placed the colony’s royal governor, James Wright, under house arrest. In February 1776, Wright escaped to the British man-of-war, HMS Scarborough. After failing to negotiate a settlement with the revolutionary congress, he sailed for London. On December 29, 1778, Wright returned with troops and was able to retake Savannah.

On Jan. 18, 1990, Mayor Marion Barry was arrested by FBI agents and District of Columbia police at the Vista International Hotel in downtown Washington and charged with drug possession and the use of crack cocaine. In September 1991, he was sentenced to six months in prison. After serving his sentence, Barry reentered D.C. politics, winning a seat on the city council and then being elected mayor in 1994 for an unprecedented fourth term. Apparently, voters wanted to give Barry another crack.

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.