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…
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A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on January 19th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On January 19, 1913, the Holly Hotel in Holly, Michigan burned for the first time! On January 19, 1983, a space traveling chimpanzee named Ham died at the age of 25 at the North Carolina Zoo. On January 19, 1995, a Bristow Helicopters Eurocopter AS332L Super Puma suffered a terrifying lightning strike while transporting 16 oil workers and a crew of two from Aberdeen, Scotland to…
A Brief History On January 19, 2007, 3 intrepid Britons and their equally intrepid Canadian comrade made an incredible journey across Antarctica, using only leg power driving skis and the assistance of kites, to reach a point known as the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility. Digging Deeper The team, called “Team N2i,” trekked almost 1100 miles over the frozen terrain to the place called POI, for short, a spot on the globe previously visited by explorers using motorized tracked vehicles and aircraft back in 1965. So, what is this “POI?” It is defined as the point in Antarctica that is furthest…
A Brief History This article presents a chronological list of notable events that happened on January 18th. For each date below, please click on the date to be taken to an article covering that date’s event. Digging Deeper On January 18, 1671, Welsh privateer and later the namesake of Captain Morgan Rum, Henry Morgan, began his expedition to Panama, also known historically as “The Sack of Panama.” On January 18, 1884, Welsh physician Dr. William Price attempted to cremate the remains of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, who had died of natural causes at the age of 5 months. On January…
A Brief History On January 18, 2023, Americans celebrate another National Thesaurus Day, a day to be thankful for that reference book that helps us find other ways to say the same thing. Oddly enough, there is no other word for “thesaurus!” Digging Deeper Why do we choose to celebrate National Thesaurus Day on January 18th? Because that is the day of birth for Peter Mark Roget, back in 1779, the man that gave us Roget’s Thesaurus, a staple in every student’s desk. At the age of 61, Roget retired from his career as a physician, and embarked on his…