January 2, 20151974 - States passed lay to limit highway speeds to 55 mph.

1965 - The New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000.

1900 - Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open Door Policy to prompt trade with China.

1788 - Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1492 - The leader of the last Arab stronghold in Spain surrendered to Spanish forces loyal to King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I.

1/51957 - Dodgers' Jackie Robinson retires rather than be traded to NY Giants

1959 - "Bozo the Clown" live children's show premieres on TV

1972 - President Nixon signs a bill for NASA to begin research on a manned space shuttle

1993 - Reggie Jackson elected to Hall of Fame

2005 - Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered

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1994 - Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg in an assault planned by the ex-husband of her rival, Tonya Harding.

1993 - Jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie died at age 75

1838 - Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrated his telegraph

1759 - George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married.

1822 - Heinrich Schliemann was born

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1999 - President Bill Clinton's impeachment trial began in the Senate.

1996 - A major blizzard paralyzed the eastern United States, claiming more than 100 lives.

2006 - Rep. Tom DeLay, facing corruption charges, stepped down as House majority leader.

1989 - Japanese Emperor Hirohito died at age 87.

1959 - The United States recognized Fidel Castro's new government in Cuba.1/8

1998 - Ramzi Yousef was sentenced in New York to life in prison.

1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty.

1642 - Astronomer Galileo Galilei died in Arcetri, Italy.

1918 - President Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points for peace after World War I.

2011 - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot and critically wounded

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2007 - Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.

2006 - "The Phantom of the Opera" became the longest-running show in Broadway history

2001 - Apple Computer Inc. introduced its iTunes

1968 - The Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon. It was the last of America's unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.

1861 - Mississippi seceded from the Union.

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1776 - Thomas Paine published the pamphlet "Common Sense."

1920 - The League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.

1971 - "Masterpiece Theatre" premiered on PBS.

2003 - North Korea withdrew from a global treaty barring it from making nuclear weapons.

1964 - The Beatles' first album in the United States, "Introducing the Beatles," was released.

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1967 - Dr. James Bedford becomes the first person to be cryonically preserved 1773 - 1st US public museum established (Charlestown SC)

1906 - Football rules committee legalizes forward pass

1921 - Kenesaw Mountain Landis becomes 1st commissioner of baseball

1966 - "Batman", starring Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, and Cesar Romero as The Joker, debuts on ABC

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1968 - Johnny Cash recorded a live concert at Folsom Prison in California.

1794 – The U.S. adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the union.

2000 - Microsoft chairman Bill Gates stepped aside as chief executive.

1893 - Britain's Independent Labor Party first met.

1957 – The Wham-O Company produces the 1st Frisbee

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1966 –David Bowie releases his 1st record (Can't Help Thinking About Me)

1963 - George C Wallace sworn in as governor of Alabama, his address states "segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!"

1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.

1952 - "Today Show" premieres

1914 - Henry Ford introduces an assembly line for Model T Fords

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2001 - Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

1973 – Pres. Nixon suspends all US offensive action in N Vietnam

1989 – The WWF holds its first Royal Rumble with Big John Studd emerging as the winner

1975 - Space Mountain opens (Disneyland)

1974 – The TV show “Happy Days” premiered

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1547 - Ivan the Terrible was crowned Czar of Russia.

1920 - Prohibition went into effect in the U.S.

1991 - The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm.

1982 - Britain and the Vatican resumed full diplomatic relations after a break of over 400 years.

1896 - The first five-player college basketball game was played in Iowa City, IA

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1706 - Benjamin Franklin was born

1964 - Michelle Obama was born

1899 - Al Capone was born

1931 - James Earl Jones was born

1942 - Muhammad Ali was born

1806 - Thomas Jefferson's daughter, Martha, gave birth to James Madison Randolph, the first child born in the White House.

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1942 - Nazi officials hold notorious Wannsee conference in Berlin to organize the "final solution"

1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt sworn-in for an unprecedented 4th term as US President

1887 - US Senate approves naval base lease of Pearl Harbor

1989 - Reagan becomes 1st president elected in a "0" year, since 1840, to leave office alive

1986 - The U.S. observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

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1793 - Louis XVI of France was executed

2008 - Black Monday in worldwide stock markets.

1924 - The Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.

1905 - Christian Dior , French fashion designer, was born

1954 - The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched

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1989 - painter Salvador Dali died

2005 - Former "Tonight Show" host Johnny Carson died

1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree

1789 - Georgetown University was established

1932 - New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for president

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1965 - Winston Churchill died

1908 - The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England

1993 - Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died

1924 - The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.

2006 – Walt Disney Corp. bought Pixar for 7.4 Billion

1848 – Gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill

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1784 - Benjamin Franklin expresses unhappiness over eagle as America's symbol

1875 - Electric dental drill is patented by George F Green

1905 - World's largest diamond, the 3,106-carat Cullinan, is found in South Africa

1934 - Nazi Germany & Poland sign 10-year non-aggression treaty

1979 - "Dukes of Hazzard" premieres on CBS

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2010 - Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad

1973 - The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris

1944 - The Soviet Union announced the end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad

1832 - Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" under the pen name Lewis Carroll

1967 - Astronauts die in launch pad fire

1/291995 - The 49ers became the first team to win five Super Bowl titles

1963 - Poet Robert Frost died

1936 - The first five members of baseball's Hall of Fame were chosen

1900 - The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.

1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published

1/302007 - Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system went on sale.

1969 - The Beatles performed in public for the last time`.

1968 - The Tet offensive began

1948 - Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered

1882 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, was born

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1865 - The House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.

1865 - Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of the Confederate armies.

1990 - McDonald's Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.

1949 - The first TV daytime soap opera, "These Are My Children," was broadcast by the NBC station in Chicago.

1945 - Private Eddie Slovik became the only U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.