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This Week in History: January 31st – February 6th

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 31st
    • 1846- Carroll College is chartered in Waukesha by the territorial legislature. It is the oldest college in Wisconsin. (Wisconsin)
    • 1950- U.S. President Harry S. Truman announces the development of the hydrogen bomb, a weapon that, at the time, and later proved successfully, was at least a hundred times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan during WWII. (United States/World)
    • 2020- The United Kingdom formally leaves the European Union, more than three years after the country voted for ‘Brexit.’ (World)
  • February 1st
    • 1692- The Salem Witch Hunt begins as three women are charged with witchcraft in Salem Village in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. (United States)
    • 1960- Four African-American students begin a sit-in at a segregated lunch counter at Woolworth’s in Greensboro, North Carolina, launching the Greensboro Sit-In Movement. (United States)
    • 2003- The U.S. space shuttle Columbia experiences a catastrophic break-up in the atmosphere of Earth when returning from orbit, killing everyone on board. (United States)
  • February 2nd
    • 1848- Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo is signed, formally ending the Mexican-American War. (United States/World)
    • 1887- The first Groundhog Day is held in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. (United States)
    • 1971- Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda, becoming one of Africa’s most ruthless dictators ever. (World)
  • February 3rd
    • 1870- The 15 Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified. The amendment supposedly guaranteed the right to vote regardless of race and was intended to ensure the civil rights of former slaves, but it would be another one hundred years before much of the Jim Crow South was forced to abide by the laws and rights outlined in this amendment. (United States)
    • 1959- Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper die in a plane crash in Clear Lake, Iowa. (United States)
    • 1994- President Clinton ends trade embargo of Vietnam. (United States)
  • February 4th
    • 1789- George Washington is unanimously elected the first U.S. president. (United States)
    • 1945- The Yalta Conference, a meeting between the Allied leaders of WWII, begins. It was the last time FDR, Stalin, and Churchill would all be together. (World)
    • 2004- Facebook is launched and made live for online users for the first time. (United States/World)
  • February 5th
    • 146 BC- The Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage come to an end after nearly a century of fighting. (World)
    • 1849- The University of Wisconsin opens for the first time in Madison, with the first class of 20 students led by Professor John W. Sterling. (Wisconsin)
    • 1994- White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith is finally convicted of the murder of African American civil rights leader Medgar Evers, over 30 years after the crime was committed. (United States)
  • February 6th
    • 1778- Franco-American alliances signed during the American Revolution. The alliance formally recognized the United States as an independent nation, encouraged trade between the two nations, and provided military support by France for the Americans. (United States/World)
    • 1937- One of John Steinbeck’s masterpieces, Of Mice and Men, is published for the first time. (United States)
    • 2018- SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket has its first test flight. (United States)

Recommended Reading Related to Movies/Historical Happenings:

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:

This Week in History: January 17th – 23rd

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 17th
    • 1893- A group of American sugar planters overthrows the Hawaiian monarchy and establishes a new provincial government. (United States)
    • 1945- The Soviet Union liberates Warsaw, the capital of Poland, from Nazi rule. (World)
    • 1961- Outgoing US President Dwight D. Eisenhower warns the United States of the military-industrial complex and its growing influence on American democracy. (United States)
  • January 18th
    • 1803- US President Thomas Jefferson requests funding for the Lewis and Clark expedition from Congress. (United States)
    • 1958- The NHL is integrated for the first time. (United States)
    • 1986- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is first celebrated as a national holiday. (United States)
  • January 19th
    • 1089- Edgar Allan Poe is born. (United States)
    • 1955- US President Dwight D. Eisenhower holds the first-ever televised presidential press conference. (United States)
    • 1976- A federal judge rules that Milwaukee Public Schools are illegally segregated in violation of the 14th Amendment rights of students and orders that the Milwaukee Board of School Directors take immediate steps to desegregate the public schools. (Wisconsin)
  • January 20th
    • 1942- Nazi officials discuss the ‘Final Solution’ at the Wannsee Conference. (World)
    • 1981- Iran Hostage Crisis ends. (United States/World)
    • 2009- Barack Obama, the first black person to be elected President of the United States, is inaugurated. (United States)
  • January 21st
    • 1977- US President Jimmy Carter pardons Vietnam War draft dodgers. (United States)
    • 2017- Demonstrations, known collectively as the Women’s March, were held throughout the world to support gender equality, civil and reproductive rights, and other similar issues expected to come under fire from the new Trump Administration. In the US, it is widely believed to be the largest single-day demonstration in US history. (United States/World)
    • 2020- First confirmed case of COVID-19 found in the United States. (United States/World)
  • January 22nd
    • 1964- The world’s biggest block of cheese is produced in Wisconsin. The block of cheddar was produced from 170,000 quarts of milk by the Wisconsin Cheese Foundation specifically for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, and weighed 34,591 pounds. (Wisconsin)
    • 1968- The NBA awards a franchise to Milwaukee Professional Sports and Services, Inc. The team will become the Bucks. (Wisconsin/United States)
    • 1973- Roe v. Wade is decided by the United States Supreme Court. (United States)
    • 2008- Heath Ledger dies of accidental prescription drug overdose. (United States)
  • January 23rd
    • 1964- The 24th amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits federal and state governments from imposing poll taxes before a citizen can participate in a federal election, is ratified. (United States)
    • 1977- The TV miniseries Roots, an adaption of Alex Haley’s best-selling novel, debuts on American television. (United States)
    • 1997- Madeleine Albright becomes first female Secretary of State. (United States)

Recommended Reading Related to Movies/Historical Happenings:

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