**Events - January 17 1795 - The Duddingston Curling Society, the oldest club of its kind, was organized in Edinburgh, Scotland. 1806 - James Madison Randolph, grandson of President Thomas Jefferson, was the first child born in the White House. The blessed event took place on this day in Washington, DC. 1876 - The saxophone was played by Etta Morgan at New York City’s Olympic Theatre. The instrument was little known at the time in the United States. 1905 - Punchboards were patented by Charles A. Brewer & C.G. Scannell of Chicago, Illinois. 1916 - The Professional Golfers’ Association was formed in New York City. The first PGA Champion was Jim Barnes. 1928 - The fully automatic, film-developing machine was patented by Anatol M. Josepho. 1938 - Francis X. Bushman was the star of the program, Stepmother, which debuted on CBS radio. The show continued on the air for the next four years. 1941 - Gene Krupa and his band recorded the standard, Drum Boogie, on Okeh Records. The lady singing with the boys in the band during the song’s chorus was Irene Daye. 1945 - The American record holder for the indoor one mile run, Gilbert Dodds, announced his retirement from competition to devote his time to running for a higher source. Dodds became a gospel preacher. He came out of retirement briefly, in hopes of competing in the 1948 Olympics. While training for the Olympics, he broke his own record by winning the Wanamaker Mile in 4:05.3. How’d Gilbert do in the Olympics? He didn’t. The mumps caught up to him before the trials and he permanently retired from running. 1949 - The Goldbergs came to CBS-TV this night. The program had been a radio standard for years, dating back to 1931. The TV version lasted for four years. Molly: “Close the window, Jake. It’s cold outside.” Jake: “Okay. The window’s closed. Now it’s warm outside?” Molly Goldberg was played by Gertrude Berg, who won an Emmy for her performance in 1950. 1969 - Lady Samantha, one of the very first recordings by Reginald Kenneth Dwight (aka Elton John), was released in England on Philips Records. The song floundered, then bombed. The rock group, Three Dog Night, however, thought Elton’s tune was nifty and recorded it for an album. 1971 - Super Bowl V (at Miami): Baltimore Colts 16, Dallas Cowboys 13. Kicker Jim O’Brien’s 32-yard field goal, with 59 seconds to go, won the game for the Colts. MVP: Cowboys’ LB Chuck Howley. Tickets: $15.00. 1991 - Operation Desert Storm began. The U.S. and its United Nations allies went to war to drive Saddam Hussein’s army out of Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf gave the go-ahead for bombing raids on Baghdad, followed a few weeks later by assaults with ground troops on Iraqi troops in southern Iraq and Kuwait. During the following six weeks Iraq fired its Scud missles at U.S. bases in Saudi Arabia and at the general population in Israel, but was routed soundly. Iraqi troops left Kuwait, retreating all the way to Baghdad and, in many cases, surrendering in the field. 1994 - Actors Donny Osmond and Danny Bonaduce slugged it out in a three-round charity boxing match in Chicago, Illinois. The winner: Bonaduce, who bloodied Osmond’s nose in the two-to-one decision. The match was set up after Osmond taunted Bonaduce at the gym where both men were working out. 1995 - A 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit Kobe, Japan. The ‘Great Hanshin Earthquake’ happened at 5:46 a.m., killing at least 6,000 people and injured more than 26,000. The quake damaged or destroyed more than 56,000 buildings. 1995 - The Golf Channel began on some U.S. cable systems. Four years later, the world’s first 24-hour golf network was seen in over 30,000,000 homes. 1997 - These films opened in the U.S.: Albino Alligator (the directorial debut of Kevin Spacey), starring Matt Dillon, Gary Sinise, William Fichtner and Faye Dunaway; Beverly Hills Ninja (a baby is raised as one of their own by a clan of Ninja warriors), with Chris Farley, Nicollette Sheridan, Robin Shou, Nathaniel Parker, Soon-Tek Oh and Chris Rock; and Metro (a hostage negotiator catches a murderous bank robber after a blown heist.), starring Eddie Murphy, Michael Rapaport, Michael Wincott and Carmen Ejogo. 1998 - Savage Garden’s Truly, Madly, Deeply was the number-one single in the U.S. for the first of two weeks. “I want to stand with you on a mountain; I want to bathe with you in the sea; I want to lay like this forever; Until the sky falls down on me.” 2000 - British pharmaceutical firms Glaxo Wellcome PLC and SmithKline Beecham PLC announced a merger to form the world’s largest drug maker (combined sales of £15.0 billion/$24.9 billion). Now, that’s a lot of pills...
Posted on: Sat, 17 Jan 2015 13:30:23 +0000
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