Well, we’re almost through the first month of the new year and past the date we can officially ditch our resolutions for the year. Only one more month of (probably) crappy weather before we can start looking forward to spring.
But even though January is really one of my least favorite months, lots of important things have happened during the month of January over the years, such as….
The Catholic Church adopted January 1, instead of March 25, as the beginning of the New Year (1622)
During the American Revolution, George Washington unveiled the Grand Union Flag, the first national flag in America (1776)
China and the U.S. established diplomatic relations, 30 years after the founding of the People’s Republic (1979)
Alaska was admitted as the 49th state (1959)
President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address (1790)
Winston Churchill died (1965)
The Pontiac was introduced by General Motors (1926)
The March of Dimes Foundation was created (1938)
Nancy Pelosi was elected first female Speaker of the United States Congress (2007)
Work began on the Golden Gate Bridge across San Francisco Bay. (1933)
The Yankees brought Babe Ruth from the Boston Red Sox (1920)
The “Today” program began on NBC (1952)
Flight 1549 crashed in the Hudson River (2009)
The US launched the world’s first atomic submarine, the Nautilus (1954)
The Apple Macintosh computer was first displayed during the Super Bowl (1984)
First canned beer was sold (1935)
Honeymoon Bridge across Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada collapsed (1938)
The Space Shuttle Challenger exploded (1986)
Iceland became the first country to legalize abortion (1935)
The USS Pueblo was seized by North Koreans in the Sea of Japan (1968)
The first use of a donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party in America appeared in a cartoon in Harper’s Weekly, criticizing former secretary of war Edwin Stanton with the caption, “A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion.” (1870)
Even though some people would just like to remove January from the calendar and have and extra July instead, there’s still a lot of stuff happens during the month so we should probably keep it around even if January is the “Monday” of the months.
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