On This Day in History, January 21

January 21st is national hugging day and hug your puppy day. You can never get enough hugs. As you observe this, it would be great if you read a few significant events of January 21, that made it to history.

Here is a list!

  • 1846 – 1st edition of Charles Dickens’ “Daily News”.
  • 1911 – 1st Monte Carlo Rally took place.
  • 1915 – Kiwanis International was founded in Detroit, Michigan.
  • 1934 – Parisian baker and “student of medieval life” Henri Littière appeared in court, charged with forcing his adulterous wife Juliette to wear a chastity belt.
  • 1949 – 1st inaugural parade was televised under Harry Truman’s leadership.
  • 1958 – The American Secretary of State Dulles made a trip to Baghdad to reassure the Baghdad Pact Nations that they have American Support.
  • 1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh begun at their Air Base.
  • 1976 – The First Concorde’s with commercial passengers took off From London’s Heathrow Airport to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf and Paris Orly Airport to Rio de Janeiro.
  • 1977 – Italy legalized abortion.
  • 1978 – The soundtrack album to “Saturday Night Fever” hit at #1 and topped for 24 weeks.
  • 1984 – US male Figure Skating championship was won by Scott Hamilton.
  • 1984 – Yes single, Owner Of A Lonely Heart hit #1 in the US and stayed on top for 2 weeks.
  • 1990 – John McEnroe became the 1st ever player to be expelled from the Australian Open
  • 1991 – CBS News correspondent Bob Simon and four TV crew were captured and held hostage for 40 days by Iraqis in the Persian Gulf.
  • 1996 – An overloaded ferry sank in an unexpected storm in Indonesia, killing 340 people.
  • 1997 – Dutch/American talent manager Colonel Tom Parker died on this day.
  • 1998 – Pope John Paul II visited Cuba, being the first time any Pope visited the country.
  • 2008 – Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, with US markets recording huge losses. European and Asian stocks were also affected.
  • 2010 – Toyota started to recall about 2.3 million cars in the U.S.
  • 2011 – Actress Jaime Pressly (35) divorced entertainment lawyer Simran Singh (33) due to irreconcilable differences after more than 1 year of marriage.

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