This Week in History: January 24th – 30th

Welcome to this week’s edition of the staff blog’s ‘This Week in History!’ You will find historical facts, happenings, and associated books; #1 box office movies; and #1 NY Times best sellers from years gone by, all with book recommendations included based on each topic. This will be a weekly feature, so make sure to check out each week’s posting! NOTE: Click on any of the below book/movie titles to be taken to them in our online Café catalog!

 

NY Times Fiction Bestsellers

 

#1 Box Office Movies

 

This Week in History

  • January 24th
    • 1935- The first canned beer goes on sale. (United States)
    • 1956- Look magazine publishes the confessions of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, two white men from Mississippi who were acquitted in the 1955 kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till.
    • 1989- Serial killer Ted Bundy is executed at age 42 in Florida. (United States)
    • 2006- Disney announces $7.4 billion purchase of Pixar. (United States/World)
  • January 25th
    • 1924- The world’s first Winter Olympics begins in Chamonix, France. (World)
    • 1971- Charles Manson and three of his followers are convicted of a series of notorious murders, later detailed in the true crime book Helter Skelter. (United States)
    • 1995- Russia activates its nuclear command systems for the first time due to Norway scientific missile launch. (World)
  • January 26th
    • 1788- British settlement/colonization begins in Australia.
    • 1935- Bob Uecker is born. (Wisconsin)
    • 2020- NBA legend Kobe Bryant dies in a helicopter crash outside of Los Angeles. (United States)
  • January 27th
    • 1945- Auschwitz is liberated by Soviet troops. (World)
    • 1967- During a simulation of a launch, astronauts Virgil Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee perish in a fire aboard Apollo I at Cape Kennedy, Florida. (United States)
    • 1973- The Paris peace accord ending the Vietnam War (or, at least America’s explicit involvement in it) is signed.
  • January 28th
    • 1932- Governor Philip F. La Follette signs into law a groundbreaking unemployment insurance bill. Wisconsin is the first state to approve unemployment compensation, and the action becomes a model for other states developing similar legislation. (Wisconsin)
    • 1959- Vince Lombardi is named the Green Bay Packers head coach. (Wisconsin)
    • 1986- The space shuttle Challenger explodes after liftoff over Florida. (United States/World)
  • January 29th
    • 1845- Edgar Allan Poe’s famous poem ‘The Raven’ is published for the first time in the New York Evening Mirror. (United States)
    • 1936- The Baseball Hall of Fame opens for the first time and elects players in Cooperstown, New York. (United States)
    • 2002- US President George W. Bush gives his ‘Axis of Evil’ speech during his State of the Union. (United States)
  • January 30th
    • 1933- Adolf Hitler is named chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg. (World)
    • 1948- Mahatma Gandhi is assassinated in New Delhi, India. (World)
    • 1972- ‘Bloody Sunday’ occurs in Northern Ireland, when 13 unarmed civil rights demonstrators are shot dead by British Army paratroopers. The rise of IRA followed short. (World)

Recommended Reading Related to Movies/Historical Happenings: