
1873 – “Celluloid” registered as a trademark by its inventor John Wesley Hyatt.
1911 – Roald Amundsen’s South Pole expedition lands on the Ross Ice Shelf.
1919 – John McGrew, Charles A. Stoneman and Francis Xavier McQuade buy baseball’s New York Giants.
1936 – L.M. (Mario) Giannini elected President of Bank of America.
1940 – Major League Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis gives free agency to 91 Detroit Tigers minor league players.
1943 – World War II: Casablanca Conference begins between Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other Allied representatives in Morocco.
1946 – 1946 NFL Draft: Frank Dancewicz from the University of Notre Dame is the first pick by the Boston Yanks.
1952 – “Today Show” premieres with Dave Garroway and Jack Lescoulie on NBC-TV.
1956 – Little Richard releases single “Tutti Frutti.”
1960 – Army promotes Elvis Presley to Sergeant.
1963 – George Wallace sworn in as Governor of Alabama. His address states “segregation now; segregation tomorrow; segregation forever!”
1969 – 25 members of aircraft carrier Enterprise die during maneuvers.
1976 – Ted Turner becomes CEO of baseball’s Atlanta Braves.
1979 – President Jimmy Carter proposes Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday be a federal holiday.
1985 – Martina Navratilova is third player to win 100 tennis tournaments, joining Jimmy Conners and Chris Evert.
1987 – Jim “Catfish” Hunter and Billy Williams are elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1995 – Mexico pledges profits from state-owned Pemex’s $7 billion per year oil revenues in an effort to secure United States congressional approval of loan guarantees. President Bill Clinton approves a $20 billion U.S. aid package for Mexico.
2008 – MESSENGER spacecraft performs a Mercury flyby.
2016 – Sixth Republican presidential candidates debate hosted by Fox, held in Charleston, South Carolina.
2020 – Game show Jeopardy’s “greatest of all time” tournament won by Ken Jennings.
2021 – Secret Services takes control of Joe Biden’s inauguration as 20,000 troops are authorized to guard Washington, D.C., more than those stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Somalia.