On Jan. 5, 1925, Nellie T. Ross became governor of Wyoming; she was the first female governor in U.S. history. (She succeeded Frank E. Lucas, who had served as acting governor following the death of Ross' husband, William B. Ross.)
In 1589, Catherine de Medici of France died at age 69.
In 1643, in the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony was granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke.
In 1781, a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Va.
In 1895, French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, was publicly stripped of his rank. (He was ultimately vindicated.)
In 1896, an Austrian newspaper (Wiener Presse) reported the discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen of a type of radiation that came to be known as "X-rays."
In 1914, Ford Motor Co. increased its daily wage from $2.34 for a nine-hour day to $5 for eight hours of work.
In 1919, the National Socialist (Nazi) Party was formed in Germany.
In 1933, the 30th president of the United States, Calvin Coolidge, died in Northampton, Mass., at age 60.
In 1943, educator and scientist George Washington Carver died in Tuskegee, Ala., at age 81.
In 1949, in his State of the Union address, President Harry S. Truman labeled his administration the Fair Deal.
In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed assistance to countries to help them resist Communist aggression; this became known as the Eisenhower Doctrine.
In 1964, Pope Paul VI and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem, the first meeting of a pope and a patriarch in more than five centuries.
In 1970, Joseph A. Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America, was found murdered with his wife and daughter at their Clarksville, Pa., home. (UMWA President Tony Boyle and seven others were convicted or entered guilty pleas in the killings.)
In 1972, President Richard Nixon ordered development of the space shuttle.
In 1981, police in England arrested Peter Sutcliffe, a truck driver later convicted of the "Yorkshire Ripper" murders of 13 women. [Stu's bro, y'know. — Ed.]
In 1993, the state of Washington executed multiple child killer Westley Allan Dodd by hanging in the nation's first gallows execution in 28 years.
In 1994, Thomas P. "Tip" O'Neill, former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, died in Boston at age 81.
In 1999, four U.S. Air Force and Navy jets fired on, and missed, four Iraqi MiGs testing the "no-fly" zone over southern Iraq in the first such air confrontation in more than six years.
In 2000, touching off angry protests by Cuban-Americans in Miami, the U.S. government decided to send 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez back to Cuba. (After a legal battle, and the seizure of Elian from the home of his U.S. relatives, the boy was returned to Cuba.) Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and Bill Bradley engaged in a feisty debate in Durham, N.H.
In 2004, foreigners arriving at U.S. airports were photographed and had their fingerprints scanned in the start of a government effort to keep terrorists out of the country. NASA released a 3-D, black-and-white panoramic picture of the bleak surface of Mars snapped by the newly landed rover Spirit. China confirmed its first SARS case since an outbreak was contained in July 2003. After 14 years of denials, Pete Rose publicly admitted that he'd bet on baseball while manager of the Cincinnati Reds. Baseball pitcher Tug McGraw died near Nashville, Tenn., at age 59.
In 2005, President George W. Bush opened a new drive for caps on medical malpractice awards, contending the limits would lower health care costs. The bodies of 18 young Iraqi Shiites taken off a bus and executed in December 2004 were found in a field near Mosul. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun, a Marine charged with desertion in Iraq after mysteriously disappearing from his post was again declared a deserter — this time for failing to report to his U.S. base. (He remains missing.) Also in 2005, Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, was discovered.
In 2008, Republican Mitt Romney won the Wyoming caucuses, picking up eight delegates; in a debate three days before the New Hampshire primary, Romney clashed with Mike Huckabee on foreign policy and John McCain on immigration. In a Democratic faceoff, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton accused campaign rival Barack Obama of changing his positions on health care and "a number of issues." A Piper Navajo Chieftain airplane crashed off Kodiak island in southern Alaska, killing six people. A canal breach in Fernley, Nev., flooded about 600 homes. New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady won The Associated Press 2007 NFL MVP award.
In 2009, President-elect Barack Obama met with congressional leaders, declaring the national economy was "bad and getting worse" and predicting lawmakers would approve a mammoth revitalization package within two weeks of his taking office. Israeli troops, in a massive air, land and sea assault, pushed deeper into Gaza, seizing control of rocket-launching areas surrounding the city of Gaza, even as Israel pledged to allow humanitarian aid into the strip. Steelers linebacker James Harrison was named winner of the Associated Press Defensive Player of Year award. Former Attorney General Griffin B. Bell died in Atlanta at age 90. Retired Lt. Gen. Harry W.O. Kinnard, a paratroop officer who suggested the famously defiant answer "Nuts!" to a German demand for surrender during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, died in Arlington, Va. at age 93.
Today's Birthdays: Former Vice President Walter F. Mondale is 82. Actor Robert Duvall is 79. Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Chuck Noll is 78. King Juan Carlos of Spain is 72. Talk show host Charlie Rose is 68. Actress-director Diane Keaton is 64. Actor Ted Lange is 62. Rhythm-and-blues musician George "Funky" Brown (Kool and the Gang) is 61. Rock musician Chris Stein (Blondie) is 60. Former CIA Director George Tenet is 57. Actress Pamela Sue Martin is 57. Actor Clancy Brown is 51. Singer Iris Dement is 49. Actor Ricky Paull Goldin is 45. Actor Vinnie Jones is 45. Rock musician Kate Schellenbach (Luscious Jackson) is 44. Dancer-choreographer Carrie Ann Inaba is 42. Actress Heather Paige Kent is 41. Rock singer Marilyn Manson is 41. Actor Bradley Cooper is 35. Actress January Jones is 32. Actress Brooklyn Sudano is 29.
Those born on this date include: Zebulon Pike, discoverer of Pike's Peak in Colorado, and Navy Capt. Stephen Decatur, (both in 1779); King Camp Gillette, inventor of the safety razor, (1855); U.S. baseball executive Ban Johnson (1864); German statesman Konrad Adenauer (1876); astrologer Jeane Dixon (1904).
Today In Entertainment History January 5
In 1948, the first color newsreel, filmed at the Tournament of Roses in Pasadena, Calif., was released on this date by Warner Brothers-Pathe.
In 1965, The Supremes recorded "Stop! In the Name Of Love."
In 1970, "All My Children" premiered on ABC.
In 1973, Bruce Springsteen's debut album, "Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.," was released. [Remember that guy? He was the New Dylan, wasn't he? — Ed.]
In 1975, "The Wiz," an all-black musical version of L. Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," opened on Broadway.
In 1978, the Sex Pistols began their first tour of the US Less than two weeks after the first show in Atlanta, the tour was over and the band had broken up.
In 1979, musician Charles Mingus died in Mexico of Lou Gehrig's disease.
In 1983, Everything But The Girl made their concert debut as a duo at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London.
In 1984, John Lennon's single "Nobody Told Me" was released.
In 1988, Madonna filed for divorce from actor Sean Penn.
In 1989, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor was kicked off a Delta Air Lines flight because she refused to keep her two dogs in their travel kennels. She was escorted from the plane in Atlanta during a stopover on her way to Palm Beach, Florida.
In 1990, the movie "Born On The Fourth Of July," starring Tom Cruise, opened nationwide.
In 1991, actress Barbara Eden married for the third time. The wedding was held in San Francisco, where she stayed for a brief honeymoon. [Good for her. Any idea who she married? — Ed.]
In 1998, Sonny Bono, the 1960's pop star-turned-politician, was killed when he slammed into a tree while skiing at the Heavenly Ski Resort near the Nevada-California state line; he was 62.
In 2004, Britney Spears' marriage to childhood friend Jason Alexander was annulled. They had been married 55 hours.
In 2009, former Universal Pictures and Paramount chairman Ned Tanen died in Santa Monica, Calif. at age 77.
Thought for Today: "Wisdom is divided into two parts: (a) having a great deal to say, and (b) not saying it." — Anonymous.
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