This Week in History: January 3rd – 9th

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
- 1946 (75 years ago): The Black Rose by Thomas B. Costain
- 1971 (50 years ago): Love Story by Erich Segal
- 1986 (35 years ago): The Mammoth Hunters by Jean M. Auel
- 1996 (25 years ago): The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans
- 2011(10 years ago): Dead or Alive by Tom Clancy and Grant Blackwood
- 2016 (5 years ago): Rogue Lawyer by John Grisham
#1 Box Office Movies
- 1971 (50 years ago): Love Story
- 1986 (35 years ago): Rocky IV
- 1996 (25 years ago): 12 Monkeys
- 2001 (20 years ago): Castaway
- 2011 (10 years ago): True Grit
- 2016 (5 years ago): Star Wars: The Force Awakens
This Week in History
- January 3rd
- 1959- Alaska becomes the 49th U.S. state. (United States)
- 1977- Apple is incorporated by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. (United States/World)
- 1994- State Senator Gary George proposes building a downtown retractable roof stadium for the Milwaukee Brewers, financed primarily with proceeds from a sports lottery. This stadium would eventually become Miller Park (and never will it be known as American Family [Insurance] Field, I don’t care what the Brewers and their corporate sponsors say!). (Wisconsin)
- January 4th
- 1965- U.S. President Lyndon Baines Johnson envisions a ‘Great Society’ in his State of the Union address. (United States)
- 1974- U.S. President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over tape recordings and documents that had been subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee. (United States)
- 2007- Nancy Pelosi becomes the first woman Speaker of the House in the U.S. House of Representatives. (United States)
- January 5th
- 1855- King Camp Gillette is born in Fond du Lac. Working first as a traveling salesman, he eventually developed a disposable steel blade and razor before founding the Gillette Safety Razor Company, known today simply as Gillette. (Wisconsin/United States/World)
- 1920- The New York Yankees acquire Babe Ruth from the Red Sox in exchange for $125,000. (United States)
- 1933- Construction on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay begins. (United States)
- January 6th
- 1975- Wheel of Fortune premieres on NBC. (United States)
- 1994- Nancy Kerrigan is attacked at a Detroit ice rink following a practice session two days before the Olympic trials. (United States)
- 2008- Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World becomes Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (United States)
- January 7th
- 1789- The first U.S. presidential election is held. (United States)
- 1953- U.S. President Harry Truman announces the U.S. has developed the hydrogen bomb. (United States/World)
- 1979- Pol Pot, the dictator and leader of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, is overthrown by Vietnamese forces. (World)
- January 8th
- 1790- U.S. President George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address to Congress. (United States)
- 1815- U.S. General (and future President) Andrew Jackson defeats Great Britain in the Battle of New Orleans, the final engagement in the War of 1812. (United States)
- 2011- U.S. representative Gabby Giffords is shot during an assassination attempt; she survives, but six others are killed. (United States)
- January 9th
- 1861- Mississippi becomes the second U.S. state to secede from the Union in the run-up to the American Civil War. (United States)
- 2001- Apple introduces iTunes, a digital media player application that, with the year’s later debut of the iPod, revolutionizes digital music and the music industry at large. (World)
- 2007- Steve Jobs debuts the iPhone for the very first time. (World)
Recommended Reading Related to Movies/Historical Happenings:
- Alaska’s History: The People, Land, and Events of the North Country by Harry Ritter
- Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson
- Baseball in Beertown: America’s Pastime in Milwaukee by Todd Mishler
- Building the Great Society: Inside Lyndon Johnson’s White House by Joshua Zeitz
- Watergate: A Novel by Thomas Mallon
- Nancy Pelosi: The Life, Times, and Rise of Madam Speaker, aka the OG by Brenda Jones and Krishan Trotman
- Babe Ruth’s Called Shot: The Myth and Mystery of Baseball’s Greatest Home Run by Ed Sherman
- Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America’s Greatest Bridge by Kevin Starr
- Artistry on Ice: Figure Skating Skills and Style by Nancy Kerrigan
- The Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World: Over 600 Secrets of the Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom by Susan Veness
- You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe
- The Day We Lost the H-Bomb: Cold War, Hot Nukes, and the Worst Nuclear Weapons Disaster in History by Barbara Moran
- How to Feed a Dictator: Saddam Hussein, Idi Amin, Enver Hoxha, Fidel Castro, and Pol Pot Through the Eyes of Their Cooks by Witold Szablowski
- Andrew Jackson and the Miracle of New Orleans: The Battle that Shaped America’s Destiny by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger
- Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope by Gabrielle Giffords and Mark Kelly
- 1861: A Novel by Robert Greenwalt
- The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone by Brian Merchant