This Week In History
Jan 13, 2011
South Korea confirmed that over US$1bil worth of livestock, including 12 percent of all pigs, had been lost due to an outbreak of foot and mouth disease
1964: The Beatles’ first release in the US, I Wanna Hold Your Hand ,soldone million copies in three weeks
1999: Brazil devalued their currency, the real, triggering global stock market falls
2010: Venezuela imposed rolling four-hour blackouts every alternate day to combat a major energy crisis
2012: The Italian cruise ship Costa
Concordia capsized off the coast of Tuscany with the loss of 32 lives
Jan 14, 1814
The last Frost Fair was held on London’s River Thames. The river was wider and slower, and the winter more severe at that time, allowing the river to freeze over
1794: Elizabeth Hog Bennett became the first woman in the United States to successfully give birth by Caesarean section
1814: Under the Treaty of Kiel, Denmark ceded Norway to Sweden
2004: Libya ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban treaty after agreeing to dismantle its nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programme
2004: US President George W. Bush advocated establishing a US colony on the moon
Jan 15, 2009
A US Airways A320 with 155 people on board ditched into the Hudson River after striking a flock of birds shortly after take-off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport
69: Servius Sulpicius Galba, who became Emperor of Rome at age 70, was assassinated after seven months
1962: French fashion designer Yves St Laurent opened his own couture house in Paris
1969: The Soviet three-man Soyuz 5 spacecraft was launched on a mission to dock with Soyuz 4
2016: Scientists confirmed the discovery of the brightest superluminous supernova ever seen
Jan 16, 1979
The Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was forced into exile in a revolution that ushered in an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Khomeini
1872: The Orient Express steamed into Istanbul, becoming the first train to link Turkey with Europe
1969: Czech student Jan Palach burned himself to death over the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia
2001: The Ecuadorian oil tanker Jessica ran aground off the Galapagos Islands, threatening the unique wildlife
2016: Crippling economic sanctions on Iran were lifted after the 2015 nuclear deal
Jan 17, 1929
The cartoon character Popeye, drawn by artist Elzie Segar, first appeared as a minor character in a newspaper strip. His popularity soon earned him a larger role
1934: A 500-carat diamond discovered near Pretoria, South Africa, was thought to be the stolen half of the Cullinan diamond found in 1905
1997: The first divorce in Ireland’s history was granted
2007: The Doomsday clock moved two minutes forward due to fears of climate change and nuclear threat
2014: US President Barack Obama announced reforms to the NSA surveillance programme
Jan 18, 1654
Ukrainian Cossack leader Bohdan Khmelnytsky accepted the Muscovite Tsar as overlord, thus uniting the newly created state of Ukraine with Russia
1919: The peace conference after World War One opened at Versailles
1944: The World War II siege of Leningrad, during which almost one million civilians died, was broken
1997: Norwegian Borge Ousland completed a 2,696km trek to make the first solo crossing of Antarctica
2016: For the second year in a row, no African-American actors were nominated for acting Oscars, sparking calls to boycott the event
Jan 19, 1915
French physicist Georges Claude was granted a patent for the neon sign. It swiftly became a revolutionary tool within the advertising industry
1994: Solar panels with new thin film photovoltaic technology was reported to give substantially increased efficiency
2009: Russia devalued the rouble for the sixth time in 2009 to reflect the sharp decrease in the price of oil
2012: The photographic film pioneer Eastman Kodak filed for bankruptcy protection after 130 years
2015: Argentina’s federal prosecutor was found dead after making allegations relating to a 1994 car bombing