Important Historical Events for January

Here are some of the top historical events that occured in the month of January.  Share with your students and fellow educators!

• January 1st, 1863 – The Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves in the states rebelling against the Union.
• January 3rd, 1959 – Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. state with a land mass almost one-fifth the size of the lower 48 states together.
• January 4th, 1790 – President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address.
• January 5th, 1972 – President Richard Nixon signed a bill approving $5.5 billion over six years to build and test the NASA space shuttle.
• January 7th, 1800 – Millard Fillmore, the 13th U.S. President, was born in a log cabin in Cayuga County, New York. He was a Whig who became President upon the sudden death of Zachary Taylor in 1850 from cholera. Best remembered for signing five bills concerning slavery known as the Compromise of 1850, which temporarily prevented civil war in the U.S. He was not re-nominated by his party.
• January 9th, 1913 – Richard M. Nixon, the 37th U.S. President, was born in Yorba Linda, California. He served as Vice President under Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953-61, then made an unsuccessful run for the Presidency, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy. Nixon ran again in 1968 and won his Presidential campaign against Hubert Humphrey. He won reelection in 1972, but resigned two years later amid impeachment proceedings resulting from the Watergate scandal.
• January 10th, 1776 – Common Sense, a fifty page pamphlet by Thomas Paine, was published. It sold over 500,000 copies in America and Europe, influencing the authors of the Declaration of Independence.
• January 11th, 1755 – Alexander Hamilton was born in the British West Indies. He was a founder of the United States who favored a strong central government and co-authored the Federalist Papers, a series of essays in defense of the new Constitution. He was selected by George Washington to be the first Secretary of the Treasury. He died from a gunshot wound received during a duel with Aaron Burr.
• January 12th, 1737 – American statesman and patriot John Hancock was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. He was elected President of the Second Continental Congress in 1775, was the first signer of the Declaration of Independence, and went on to become the first elected Governor of Massachusetts.
• January 14th, 1741 – Benedict Arnold was born in Norwich, Connecticut. He was the American Revolutionary War hero who turned traitor, sending information to the British in exchange for money.
• January 15th, 1929 – Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia. As an African American civil rights leader, he spoke eloquently and stressed nonviolent methods to achieve equality. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. In 1983, the third Monday in January was designated a holiday in the U.S. to celebrate his birthday.
• January 16th, 1991 – The war against Iraq began as Allied aircraft conducted a major raid against Iraqi air defenses. The air raid on Baghdad was broadcast live to a global audience by CNN correspondents as operation Desert Shield became Desert Storm.
• January 17th, 1706 –  Benjamin Franklin was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Considered the Elder Statesman of the American Revolution, he showed multiple talents as a printer, author, publisher, philosopher, scientist, diplomat, and philanthropist. He signed both the Declaration of Independence and the new U.S. Constitution.
• January 19th, 1809 –  Edgar Allen Poe, poet and writer of mystery and suspense tales, was born in Boston, Massachusetts. His works include; The Fall of the House of Usher, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, The Murders in the Rue Morgue and his famous poem The Raven.
• January 20th, 1981 – Ronald Reagan became President of the United States at the age of 69, the oldest President to take office.
• January 22nd, 1973 – Abortion became legal in the U.S. as the Supreme Court announced its decision in the case of Roe vs. Wade, striking down local state laws restricting abortions in the first six months of pregnancy.
• January 26th, 1880 – Douglas MacArthur was born on a military base in Little Rock, Arkansas. He commanded Allied forces during World War II in the Pacific.
• January 27th, 1973 – U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War ended as North Vietnamese and American representatives signed an agreement in Paris. The U.S. agreed to remove all remaining troops within 60 days thus ending the longest war in American history. Over 58,000 Americans had been killed, 300,000 wounded, and 2,500 declared missing.
• January 28th, 1915 – The U.S. Coast Guard was created by an Act of Congress, combining the Life Saving Service and the Revenue Cutter Service.
• January 29th, 1919 – The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (Prohibition Amendment) was ratified. For nearly 14 years, until December 5, 1933, the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages were illegal in the United States.
• January 30th, 1882 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd U.S. President, was born in Hyde Park, New York. Despite crippling polio, he led America out of the Great Depression and through World War II.
• January 31st, 1919 –  Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Georgia. He was the first African American to play professional baseball. He played for the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1947 to 1956, and elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962.