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“I could never divide myself from any man upon the difference of an opinion, or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that, from which perhaps within a few days I should dissent myself.”
~ Thomas Paine
Wikiquote (Thomas Paine (January 29, 1737 – June 8, 1809) was an English-American political writer, theorist, and activist who had a great influence on the thoughts and ideas which led to the American Revolution and the United States Declaration of Independence.)
January 21st, 763
Alid Revolt (762–763):
763 - Battle of Bakhamra; between Alids and Abbasids near Kufa ends in a decisive Abbasid victory.
Wikipedia Image: Middle East satellite image ● World satellite image.
January 21st, 1525
The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
Wikipedia Photo: Anabaptists are Protestant Christianity of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe.
January 21st, 1643
Dutch explorer Abel Tasman becomes the first European to discover the island Tonga.
Wikipedia Photo: Australian satellite (Tasmania, the 26th largest island in the world, and the surrounding 334 islands) and scenery.
Image: The Charlotte Jane and the Randolph bring the first of the Canterbury Pilgrims to Lyttelton, New Zealand, credit Canterbury Museum, Christchurch, New Zealand.
January 21st, 1789
The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
Wikipedia Image: The Power of Sympathy: or, The Triumph of Nature (1789) is an 18th-century American sentimental novel written in epistolary form by William Hill Brown, widely considered to be the first American novel.
January 21st, 1793
French Revolution: After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.
Wikipedia Painting: Eugène Dalacroix, "La Liberté Guidant le Peuple" (Liberty Leading the People)
January 21st, 1840
Antarctica:
1840 - Jules Dumont d'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
Wikipedia Photo: Antarctica (8/30/2012), credit National Geographic; Infrared satellite image of Antarctica, credit © Visual Photos.
January 21st, 1861
American Civil War:
1861 - Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
Wikipedia Image: ● Lincoln Memorial; an American national monument built to honor the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln - located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. across from the Washington Monument.
● The northern army led by George McClellan and the southern army led by Robert E. Lee met at Antietam Creek, Maryland in September, 1862. It was a bloody battle where 13,000 Confederates and 12,000 Union troops died in just one day. McClellan had hesitated to attack before the battle thus letting the southern troops regroup. Also, he had saved reserves and refused to use them at the end of the battle thinking that Lee was holding reserves for a counterattack, even though those reserves didn't exist. The Union victory stopped Lee's northward advance and was a turning point in the war.
● Battle of Antietam / Stone Bridge at Antietam Battlefield - Sharpsburg, Maryland
● Battle of Mobile Bay (1890) by Xanthus Russell Smith.
● Although photography was still in its infancy, war correspondents produced thousands of images, bringing the harsh realities of the frontlines to those on the home front in a new and visceral way. The Atlantic.
January 21st, 1864
Maori Wars: The Tauranga Campaign begins.
Wikipedia Image: Rewi Manga Maniapoto (died 1894) was a Waikato chief who led Maori forces during the British Invasion of Waikato during the New Zealand Wars; Satellite image of New Zealand, NASA's Visible Earth; Bay of Islands.
January 21st, 1887
465 millimetres (18.3 in) of rain falls in Brisbane, a record for any Australian capital city.
Wikipedia Image: Austrlian satellite; Whole Earth, satellite image, credit Science Photo Library.
January 21st, 1899
Opel manufactures its first automobile.
Wikipedia Photo: Opel Admiral convertible (1937–1939); Opel Eco Speedster.
January 21st, 1908
New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor..
Wikipedia Photo: The Sullivan Ordinance was a municipal law passed on January 21, 1908, in New York City by the board of aldermen, barring women from smoking in public. The ordinance was quickly enforced, with Katie Mulcahey arrested on January 22, but was vetoed by the Mayor, George Brinton McClellan, Jr., only two weeks later.
January 21st, 1911
The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.
Wikipedia Photo: Monte Carlo Rally; Jean-Marie Cuoq driving his Peugeot 307 WRC and Jari-Matti Latvala driving his Ford Focus RS WRC 07 on a road section during the 2008 Monte Carlo Rally. source Flickr
January 21st, 1915
Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit, Michigan.
Wikipedia Image: Kiwanis International logo.
January 21st, 1919
Irish War of Independence:
1919 - Meeting of the First Dáil Éireann in the Mansion House Dublin. Sinn Féin adopts Ireland's first constitution.
Wikipedia Photo: British troops in Dublin City 1920's during the Irish War of Independence; Not everyone was a separatist in Ireland in 1919. Here the Union Jack flies over Trinity College at the Victory Parade for the First World War in Dublin; It believe the story behind the headlinesin the photo was with the shooting by members of Michael Collins squad of a high-ranking official of the G. N. R. (The Great Northern Railway) on the Southside of Dublin.
January 21st, 1925
Albania declares itself a republic.
Wikipedia Photo: Albania (Republic of Albania), is a country in Southeastern Europe with coasts on the Adriatic Sea to the west, and on the Ionian Sea, three of the largest and deepest tectonic lakes, and the Albanian Alps cover the northern part of the country.
January 21st, 1941
World War II: Holocaust;
1941 - Sparked by the murder of a Nazi officer in Bucharest, Romania, the day before, members of the Iron Guard engage in a rebellion and pogrom.
Wikipedia Photo: World War II, The Holocaust. Sources: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USHMM, History 1900s, Internet Masters of Education Technology IMET, Techno Friends, Veterans Today, Concern.
January 21st, 1954
The first nuclear-powered submarine USS Nautilus is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.
Wikipedia Photo: USS Nautilus
January 21st, 1960
Project Mercury: Little Joe 1B a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.
Wikipedia Photo: Little Joe 1B launches from Wallops Flight Facility on January 21, 1960; Miss Sam the Rhesus monkey.
January 21st, 1968
Vietnam War:
1968 - Battle of Khe Sanh One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
1968 - A B-52 Stratofortress crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.
1977 - United States President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.
Wikipedia Photo: Vietnam_War; Side view of an HH-53 helicopter of the 40th Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron as seen from the gunner's position on an A-1 of the 21st Specialist Operations Squadron. (USAF Photo by Ken Hackman), Boston Globe;
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, credit Free Republic;
Vietnam War: The Big Picture / Boston Globe.
January 21st, 1971
Emley Moor transmitting station: the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts.
Wikipedia Image: Frequency modulation (A signal may be carried by an AM or FM radio wave).
January 21st, 1976
Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
Wikipedia Photo: Concorde, one of the wonders of the modern technical world, the first commercially successful airliner capable of speeds in excess of Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) credit Heritage Concorde
January 21st, 1985
The inauguration of United States President Ronald Reagan to a second term, already postponed a day because January 20 fell on a Sunday, becomes the second inauguration in history moved indoors because of freezing temperatures and high winds. The parade is cancelled altogether.
Wikipedia Photo: Official Portrait of President Reagan 1981
January 21st, 2003
Earthquake:
2003 - Colima earthquake(2003); A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 29 and leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless.
Wikipedia Image: Preliminary Determination of Epicenters / Aleppo Syria; Anchorage, Alaska - March 28, 1964 Prince William Sound USA earthquake and tsunami; 8.9 Mega Earthquake Strikes Japan; Tsunami Swirls Japan's Ibaraki Prefecture March 12 2011. credit NOAA / NGDC, NOAA National Geophysical Data Center, USGS, National Geographics.
January 21st, 2004
NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
Wikipedia Image: NASA Mars Rover, 2012.
January 21st, 2008
Great Recession (2008) - Black Monday: in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since September 11, 2001, and Asian stocks drop as much as 14%.
Wikipedia Image: Black Monday; World map showing real GDP growth rates for 2009. ● Political cartoons - Soon it will hatch into a beautiful baby Recession (MBJ, The Epoch Times) ● Stimulous Package (John Darkow).
January 21st, 2017
2017 Women's March; Over 400 cities across America and 160+ countries worldwide participate in a large-scale women's march, on Donald Trump's first full day as President of the United States.
Wikipedia Image: 2017 Women's March: Timothy Fadek, WIRED / Ruth Fremson, The New York Times / Irfan Khan, Los Angeles Times.