Browsing: January 20

A Brief History On January 20, 1921, the crew of the Royal Navy submarine K5 found out the hard way just how dangerous being a submariner is, even in peacetime, when they suffered a fatal “Naval Oops Moment” and the sub was lost with all hands. Digging Deeper K5 had been part of naval maneuvers in the Bay of Biscay when she dived and never resurfaced.  Debris from the sub told the sad tale that the boat had been lost with all hands.  Why the sub sank is not entirely known, with speculation that perhaps she exceeded her designed maximum…

A Brief History On January 20, 1937, Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first US president to be sworn in on January 20th, a date changed from the previous inauguration day of March 4th by the 20th Amendment of 1933.  Some other interesting presidential firsts on January 20th include: Digging Deeper Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first 5-star general sworn in as president in 1953, and the first born in Texas. John F. Kennedy, the youngest elected president, inaugurated in 1961. Ronald Reagan, inaugurated in 1981 as the oldest president up to that time. Barack Obama became the first African American president…

A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on January 20th.  For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On January 20, 1885, LaMarcus A. Thompson patented his version of the modern roller coaster, the Switchback Railway, which became the first roller coaster at Coney Island in New York! On January 20, 1920, a new organization devoted to the freedoms guaranteed to all Americans by the Constitution of the United States (and its amendments) was formed from the National Civil Liberties…

A Brief History On January 20, 1947, only 3 months before Jackie Robinson broke the “color barrier” and became the first African American major league baseball player, the famous catcher and slugger from the Negro Leagues of baseball, Josh Gibson, died at the young age of 35 of a stroke brought on by a brain tumor. Digging Deeper Gibson is now recognized by Major League Baseball as having had the highest single season batting average of all time, .466 in 1943.  As of 2020, MLB recognizes Negro League statistics as belonging in “major league” category.  Gibson also slugged about 800…

A Brief History On January 20, 2020, we take a meandering mid-winter look at some of those things you seldom if ever encounter anymore, things that were once commonplace and even in their time examples of cutting edge technology.  We might even throw in a phrase or word that has become passé.  We are not saying these things have totally disappeared, just so greatly diminished that seeing or hearing one is an oddity. (See our previous articles on this subject, including:  “Things That Did Not Exist (Or Were Different) on July 1, 1957,” “May 16, 1960: 10 More Things That…