January 12th
1519
Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.
1773
The first public museum in America was established in Charleston, South Carolina.
1862
George W. Ribble died on this date during the Civil War.
1864
John Brandt died on this date of wounds suffered at Chattanooga, Tennessee during the Civil War.
1910
At a White House dinner hosted by President William Howard Taft, Baroness Rosen, the wife of the Russian Ambassador, caused a stir by requesting and smoking a cigarette. It was apparently the first time a woman had smoked openly during a public function in the executive mansion. Some of the other women present who had brought their own cigarettes began lighting up also.
1915
The U. S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote.
1932
Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U. S. Senate.
1942
President Roosevelt created the National War Labor Board.
1945
During World War Two, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.
1948
The Supreme Court ruled that states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race.
1959
Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records in Detroit, Michigan.
1964
Leftist rebels in Zanzibar began their successful revolt against the government.
1966
President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the United States should stay in South Vietnam until
Communist aggression there was ended.
1971
The groundbreaking situation comedy "All in the Family" premiered on CBS television.
1976
Mystery writer Agatha Christie died in Wallingford, England at the age of 85 years.
1986
The space shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.