...for as long as it takes
January 1, 1976 - The Liberty Bell was moved to its new home behind Independence
Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
January 2, 1976 - 1776: George Washington designed the first U.S. flag with thirteen
red and white stripes and a Union Jack in the corner.
January 6, 1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his "Four Freedoms"
speech outlining four goals: freedom of speech and expression; the
freedom of every person to worship God in his own way; freedom from
want; and freedom from fear.
January 7, 1904 - The distress signal, "CQD", was established this day. It didn't last long. Two years later, "SOS" became the radio distress signal because it was more convenient -- meaning quicker -- to send by wireless radio.
January 9, 1936 - The United States Army adopted the semiautomatic rifle this day.
January 9, 1951 - The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City.
January 10, 1943 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt sailed from Miami, FL to Trinidad to become the first American President to visit a
foreign country during wartime.
January 10, 1943 - The quiz show, "The Better Half", was first heard on Mutual Radio this day. The wartime radio program brought four
married couples to compete in stunts involving traditional concepts of, er, 'manhood' and 'womanhood'.
January 11, 1935 - Amelia Earhart Putnam became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. She had also been the first woman
to solo across the Atlantic three years earlier.
January 13, 1794 - President Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.
January 14, 1943 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to fly in an airplane while in office. He flew from
Miami, Florida to French Morocco. It is not known whether he received plastic wings or a tour of the cockpit. We do know
that there was no in-flight movie.
January 15, 1943 - The world's largest office building was completed, just outside of Washington, DC, in Arlington, VA. The massive
structure covers 34 acres of land and has 17 miles of corridors, plus, a whole lot of secret places that we'll never know about.
Why? Because it's the Pentagon, the headquarters of the United States defense effort.
January 15, 1953 - President Harry S Truman became the first U.S. President to use radio and television to say farewell as he left office.
January 29, 1949 - The ship, "The Newport News", was commissioned as the first, air-conditioned naval ship -- in Virginia.
January 31, 1958 - Explorer I, the first U.S. space satellite, was put into orbit around the earth by a Jupiter-C rocket. Radio signals from the transmitter aboard the 30.8 pound satellite were picked up in California within a few minutes after the launch. Explorer I orbited the earth every 114 minutes at a maximum height of 2,000 miles and a minimum altitude of 230 miles. This event marked the beginning of discussions, debates and decisions that would lead to the formation of NASA and eventually to the creation of
Saturn launch vehicles.
January 31, 1985 - The final Jeep, the workhorse vehicle that came home a hero from World War II, rolled off the assembly line at the AMC plant in Toledo, OH. Army chief, George Marshall, called the Jeep, "America's greatest contribution to warfare." Jeep is now a trademark of Chrysler Corporation's Jeep-Eagle Division.
