This Week In History
Jan 6, 1884
Austrian monk Gregor Mendel died. He pioneered the study of biological heredity and laid the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics 1929: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was renamed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia 1969: French President Charles de Gaulle imposed a total ban on arms supplies to Israel
1989: The Soviet Union rehabilitated thousands of victims of Stalin’s purges 2014: A polar vortex shattered temperature records across the US and Canada, with some areas as low as -37°C, colder than Mars
Jan 7, 1989
Emperor Hirohito of Japan died after a 63-year reign. Head of state in WWII, he later became a symbol of the new post-war constitution and economic recovery
1610: Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei first sighted Jupiter’s four largest satellite moons 1789: George Washington was nominated as the first President of the United States
1904: The shipping distress call CQD (seek you, danger) was introduced. It was replaced two years later by SOS 1979: Vietnamese forces and Cambodian rebels captured Phnom Penh and ousted the Khmer Rouge
Jan 8, 1889
New York scientist Dr Herman Hollerith patented the first computer; the company formed to market his device evolved into the giant IBM 2004: Iconic blue jeans maker Levi Strauss closed its last two sewing plants in the United States 2007: Belarus halted Russian oil supplies to Poland, Germany and Ukraine after a gas price row 2007: Astronomers found the first triple quasar. Quasars are thought to be powered by supermassive black holes 2016: Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was recaptured six months after escaping from prison
Jan 9, 1324
Venetian explorer Marco Polo died. His epic 24-year travels through the Orient did much to introduce Europeans to Central Asia and China 1839: The daguerreotype photo process, that produced a positive image in seconds, was announced 1909: Polar explorer Ernest Shackleton was forced to turn back just 10 miles from the South Pole 2004: Libya agreed to pay US$170mil compensation for the 1989 bombing of a French aircraft over Niger 2009: The MV Sirius Star, the biggest supertanker ever hijacked, was released with all crew unharmed
Jan 10, 1901
The modern petroleum industry was born when oil was first discovered in Texas. The Lucas Gusher heralded the start of exploration on a grand scale 1929: Cartoon reporter Tintin and his dog Snowy first appeared in a Brussels newspaper 1994: Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan agreed to abolish trade tariffs and form a common market 1997: The West African nation of Benin declared Jan 10 a national voodoo holiday 2010: China took over the mantle of the world’s largest exporting nation, pushing Germany from the top spot
Jan 11, 2011
China successfully tested its new Chengdu J-20 Black Eagle stealth fighter jet, underscoring a growing military rivalry with the United States
1569: The draw for prizes in Britain’s first national lottery began under a royal proclamation issued by Elizabeth I 1994: The Irish government ended a 20-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Fein
2014: Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon died at the age of 85 after eight years in a coma following a stroke 2015: Over 3 million people marched for unity in France after the attack on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo
Jan 12, 1966
Batman, assisted by his epithet-prone sidekick Robin, winged his way from comic books to the small screen as the show premiered on US television 1875: Kwang-su, penultimate Emperor of China, came to the throne when he was only four years old 1964: One month after Zanzibar achieved independence, the government was overthrown in a coup
1967: Dr James Bedford became the first person to be cryopreserved after death, with the hope of resuscitation 2001: The birth of the first genetically-engineered primate was reported by Science magazine