Important Dates in January

 *mmddyyyy Birthdays

*-------- ------------------------------------------------------------

B01011735 Paul Revere

B01011919 J. D. Salinger, author of 'Catcher in the Rye'.

B01031840 Father Damien, helped the lepers in Hawaii.

B01031892 J.R.R. Tolkien, the REAL Lord of the Rings.

B01041809 Louis Braille, developed reading system for the blind.

B01041643 Sir Issac Newton

B01041838 Charles Stratton (alias General Tom Thumb, famous short person)

B01051779 Stephen Decatur, early American Naval hero

B01051855 King Camp Gillette, inventor of the safety razor

B0105     Sherlock Holmes

B01061811 Charles Sumner, leading Reconstruction Senator

B01061878 Carl Sandburg

B01061882 Samuel Rayburn, Speaker of the House (1940 - 1957)

B01071800 Millard Fillmore, 13th President (1850-1853)

B01081786 Nicholas Biddle, made 2nd Bank of US 1st effective central bank.

B01081862 Frank Nelson Doubleday, publisher & founder of Doubleday & Co.

B01081868 Sir Frank Dyson, proved Einstein right about light bent by gravity

B01081935 Elvis Presley, singer.

B01081946 Tod Brannan

B01091870 Joseph B. Strauss, civil engineer & builder of Golden Gate Bridge.

B01091901 Chic Young, creator of the "Blondie" comic strip.

B01091913 Richard M. Nixon, 37th President (1968-1974)

B01101738 Ethan Allen, Revolutionary War fighter (lead the Green Mtn Boys)

B01101877 Frederick Gardner Cottrell, invented the elecrostatic

B01101877Cprecipitator, used for polution control and air ionizers.

B01111755 Alexander Hamilton, the 1st Secretary of the US Treasury

B01111807 Ezra Cornell, founded Western Union Telegraph & Cornell University.

B01121588 John Winthrop, 1st governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

B01121737 John Hancock

B01131832 Horatio Alger, Jr.

B01141741 Benedict Arnold, fink

B0114     Albert Schweitzer, doctor, humanitarian, organist.

B01141892 Hal Roach, early film director and producer.

B01151908 Edward Teller, fathered the H-bomb.

B01151929 Martin Luther King, Jr., dreamer

B01171706 Benjamin Franklin

B01171771 Charles Brockden Brown, father of the American novel.

B01171880 Mack Sennett, created Keystone Kops

B01171942 Muhammed Ali, who floats like a butterfly, stings like a bee.

B01181779 Peter Roget, of Thesaurus fame, invented Slide Rule, pocket chessboard

B01181782 Daniel Webster, early American orator and politician.

B01181813 Joseph Farwell Glidden, invented 1st commercially useable barbed wire

B01181854 Thomas A. Watson, needed by Bell.

B01181892 Oliver Hardy, of the comedy team Laurel and Hardy.

B01191736 James Watt, made the steam engine workable.

B01191807 Robert E. Lee

B01191809 Edgar Allen Poe

B01191839 Paul Cezanne, painter

B01201896 Nathan Birnbaum (better known as George Burns)

B01211743 John Fitch, had a working steamboat years before Fulton.

B01211813 John C Fremont, mapmaker & explorer of Western US

B01211815 Horace Wells, dentist, pioneer in use of medical anethesia.

B01231756 Wolfgang A. Mozart, musical prodigy

B01251759 Robert Burns, the Scottish poet.

B01241888 Ernst Heinrich Heinkel, built 1st rocket-powered aircraft.

B01251874 Somerset Maugham, poet

B01251882 Virginia Woolf, author.

B01261880 Douglas MacArthur, he did return!

B01271832 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (you know him as Lewis Carroll)

B01271850 Samuel Gompers, 1st president of the American Federation of Labor

B01281855 William Seward Burroughs, invented recording adding machine.

B01291843 William McKinley, 25th President (1897-1901)

B01291850 Lawrence Hargrave, invented the box kite

B01291860 Anton Chekhov, writer (The Cherry Orchard)

B01291880 Claude William Dukenfield (better known as W.C. Fields)

B01291901 Allen B DuMont, perfected 1st commercially practical cathode ray tube

B01301882 Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President (1933-1945)

B01311830 James G. Blaine, the 'Plumed Knight'.

B01311872 Zane Gray, American West novelist

B01311919 Jackie Robinson, 1st black major league baseball player

*mmddyyyy Events

*-------- ------------------------------------------------------------

S01011804 Haiti gains it's independence

S01011863 Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln.

S01011898 Lightship replaces whistling buoy at mouth of San Francisco Bay.

S01011902 1st Rose Bowl game held in Pasadena, California.

S01011912 1st running of SF's famed "Bay to Breakers" race (7.63 miles)

S01011934 Alcatraz officially becomes a Federal Prison.

S01011956 Sudan gains it's independence

S01011958 European Economic Community (EEC) starts operation.

S01011984 AT & T broken up into 8 companies.

S0101     The start of a new year... Enjoy the bowl games.

S0101     Independence Day, celebrated in Haiti and Sudan

S01021921 DeYoung Museum in Golden Gate Park opens.

S01021957 the San Francisco and Los Angeles stock exchanges merge.

S01031852 first Chinese arrive in Hawaii.

S01031888 1st drinking straw is patented.

S01031912 Southern Pacific RR offers to bring the Liberty Bell to the

S01031912CExposition without charge.

S01031959 Alaska becomes the 49th state.

S01031977 Apple Computer incorporated.

S01041982 Golden Gate Bridge closed for the 3rd time by fierce storm.

S0104     National Trivia Day.

S01051850 the California Exchange opens.

S01051911 San Francisco has it's 1st air meet.

S01051933 Work on Golden Gate Bridge begins, on Marin County side.

S01061914 Stock brokerage firm of Merrill Lynch founded.

S0106    SArizona becomes the 47th state.

S0106     Epiphany (Twelfth Night in England)

S01071610 Galileo discovers the 4 major moons of Jupiter.

S01071714 the typewriter is patented (it was built years later)

S01071785 1st balloon flight across the English Channel.

S01071822 first printing in Hawaii.

S01071929 "Tarzan", one of the first adventure comic strips appears.

S01071963 First Class postage raised from 4 cents to 5 cents.

S01071968 First Class postage raised from 5 cents to 6 cents.

S01081815 Battle of New Orleans, made a hero out of Andrew Jackson (the

S01081815CWar of 1812 had ended on 12/24/1814, but nobody knew that).

S01081880 the passing of Norton I, Emperor of the US, Protector of Mexico

S01081932 Ratification of present San Francisco City Charter.

S01091793 1st balloon flight in North America.

S01091799 1st income tax imposed, in England.

S01091839 the daguerrotype process announced at French Academy of Science

S01091847 1st San Francisco paper, 'California Star', published.

S01091848 1st commercial bank in San Francisco established.

S01091915 Exposition (now Civic) Auditorium dedicated.

S01091982 5.9 earthquake in New England/Canada; last one was in 1855.

S01101776 "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine is published.

S01101840 the Penny Post mail system is started.

S01101863 1st underground railway opens in London.

S01101945 Los Angeles Railway (with 5 streetcar lines) forced to close.

S01111813 first pineapples planted in Hawaii.

S01111892 Hawaii Historical Society founded.

S01111935 Amelia Earhart flies from Hawaii to California (non-stop, of course).

S01131854 Anthony Foss obtains patent for the Accordion.

S01131920 NY Times Editorial says rockets can never fly.

S01131971 Apollo 14 launched (what was that about rockets can't fly??)

S01141784 the Revolutionary War formally ends.

S01141914 Henry Ford introduces the Assembly Line for his cars.

S01141936 L.M. "Mario" Giannini elected president of Bank of America.

S01141939 All commercial ferry service to the East Bay ends.

S01151861 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis, forming base for his

S01151861Celevator company.

S01151927 Dunbarton Bridge, 1st bridge in Bay Area, opens.

S01151939 Municipal Railway and Market Street Railroad begin service to

S01151939Cthe Transbay Transit (East Bay) Terminal.

S01151948 The Pentagon Building in Washington is completed.

S01161865 San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle started (now San Francisco Chronicle)

S01161887 Cliff House badly damaged when a cargo of powder on the

S01161887Cschooner "Parallel" explodes nearby.

S0116     National Nothing Day

S01171861 Flush toilet is patented by Mr. Thomas Crapper (Honest!!).

S01171871 1st Cable Car is patented by Andrew S. Hallidie.

S01171893 the Kingdom of Hawaii becomes a republic.

S01171943 It was Tin Can Drive Day.

S01171957 9-county commission recommends creation of BART.

S01181644 1st UFO sighting in America, by perplexed Pilgrims in Boston.

S01181778 Captain James Cook stumbles over the Hawaiian Islands.

S01181869 The elegant California Theatre opens in San Francisco.

S01181911 1st shipboard landing of a plane (from Tanforan Park to the

S01181911CUSS Pennsylvania).

S01191903 1st regular transatlantic radio broadcast between US & England.

S01201265 1st English Parliament called into session by the Earl of Leicester

S01201872 California Stock Exchange Board organized.

S0120     Reindeer Day

S01211813 the pineapple is introduced to Hawaii.

S01211954 The submarine Nautilus launched.

S01211979 Neptune becomes the outermost planet (Pluto moves closer).

S01221850 The Alta California becomes a daily paper, 1st such in Calif.

S01221939 Aquatic Park dedicated.

S01221949 Chinatown telephone exchange closed.

S0123     National Handwriting Day

S01241848 James Marshall finds gold in Sutter's Mill in Coloma.

S01241899 the rubber heel is patented by Humphrey O'Sullivan.

S01241935 1st beer in cans is sold.

S01241982 San Francisco 49'ers win their 1st Super Bowl, 26-21.

S01241986 Voyager II flies past Uranus.

S01251915 Alexander Bell in New York calls Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

S01251949 1st Emmy Awards are given out.

S01251959 1st transcontinental commercial jet flight (LA to NY for $301).

S0125     the start of the Chinese New Year.

S01261788 1st settlement established by the English in Australia.

S01261950 India becomes a republic.

S0126     Australia Day, celebrated in (where else?) Australia.

S01271894 Midwinter Fair opens in Golden Gate Park.

S01271926 1st public demonstration of television.

S01271948 1st Tape Recorder is sold.

S01271965 Groundbreaking for the 'Dragon Gateway' at Grant Avenue.

S01271971 Montgomery St. Station, last link in BART, 'holed thru'.

S01281807 London's Pall Mall is the 1st street lit by gaslight.

S01281878 George W. Coy hired as 1st full-time telephone operator.

S01281938 1st Ski Tow starts running (in Vermont).

S01291861 Kansas becomes a state.

S01291904 1st athletic letters given: to Univ of Chicago football team.

S01301847 Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco.

S01301862 US Navy's 1st ironclad warship, the "Monitor", launched.

S01301917 1st jazz record in United States is cut.

S01311851 San Francisco Orphan's Asylum, 1st in California, founded.

S01311871 Birds fly over the western part of San Francisco in such large

S01311871Cnumbers that they actually darken the sky.

S01311911 Congress passes resolution naming San Francisco as the site

S01311911Cof the celebration of the opening of the Panama Canal.

S01311958 1st U.S. satellite launched, Explorer I.

S01311961 Ham the chimp is 1st animal sent into space by the US.

S01311971 Apollo 14 launched, 1st landing in lunar highlands.