January 03
1521
Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X.
1777
George Washington defeated Cornwallis’s forces at the Battle of Princeton.
1833
Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands.
1870
Construction of the Brooklyn Bridge began.
1920
The New York Yankees acquired Babe Ruth and so began the “curse of the Bambino” that haunted the Boston Red Sox until 2004.
1947
Congressional proceedings were televised for the first time.
1958
Sir Edmund Hillary reached the South Pole overland.
1959
Alaska became the 49th state in the United States.
1962
Pope John XXIII excommunicated Fidel Castro.
1967
Jack Ruby, the man who shot John Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, died.
1987
Aretha Franklin became the first woman to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
1990
Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces.
Birthdays
Lucretia Mott
1793–1880, American feminist.
Cicero
orator (106)
Anne Ayres
nun (1816)
Father Damien
missionary (1840)
J.R.R. Tolkien
author (1892)
ZaSu Pitts
actor (1894)
Victor Borge
pianist, comedian (1909)
Sergio Leone
filmmaker (1929)
Mel Gibson
actor, director, producer (1956)
Michael Schumacher
auto racer (1969)
Danica McKellar
actor (1975)