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 Bureau, an organization formed in 1917 to protect the Freedom of Speech, mainly by those Americans opposed to the US joining in World War I.
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.
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.
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.
On January 20, 1972, Pakistan started a nuclear weapons development program in a bid to become the first Islamic country to possess a nuclear bomb.
On January 20, 2011, the United States Justice Department issued 16 indictments against Northeast American Mafia families resulting in 127 charged defendants and more than 110 arrests.
On January 20, 2014, a headline in Israel screamed out the news that “revenge porn” had been outlawed there.
On January 20, 2020, we took 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.
Question for students (and subscribers): Which event that occurred on today’s date would you like to learn more about? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Andrews, John and Matt Baker. Timeline of World History. Thunder Bay Press, 2020.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.