January 31st

On this day - January 31st 1961 - Ham the Chimpanzee was launched into space 

Ham was launched into space as a part of the american space program. He was an 5 year old chimpanzee at the time, but he was born in Cameroon. His name, Ham, was an acronym for Holloman Aerospace Medical Center where the chimpanzee was prepared for his space travel. He was bought by the American Airforce and sent to Holloman in 1959 as one of 40 potential candidates. The chimpanzee selection was reduced to 18 after evaluation, then to 6, before Cameroon-born Ham, then known only as number 65, was selected. For the next two years, Ham was trained to do simple tasks which he was to do also during the launch of the rocket. It is his active participation which sets the launch of Ham from other animals, such as Laika, who had traveled into space up till that point. Ham's launch was very successful and he survived his 16 minute long trip to space and lived out the rest of his years in the National Zoo in Washington DC.

January 30th

On this day - January 30th 1948 - Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated 

Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the Indian Independence movement in India during the British rule. He is known for his employment of non-violent civil obedience and he has inspired freedom-movements around the whole world. He is often described as the father of India by Indians.
Gandhi was assassinated by the militant hindu nationalist, Mathuram Godse, in New Dehli. Ghandi was shot three times in close range and died shortly after. This was the fifth attempt at assassination of Ghandi, the first one occurred already in 1934. Godse was arrested shortly after and sentenced to death in February 1949.

If I am to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling. There must be no anger within me. God must be in my heart and on my lips - Ghandi January 28th 1948

 

January 29th

On this day - January 29th 2002 - George W. Bush held his Axis of Evil speech 

The american president, George W. Bush talked about "The Axis of Evil" for the first time in his State of the Union address, and the concept was mentioned several times later during his presidency. The Axis of evil was countries Bush accused of helping terrorism and / or countries which tried to acquire weapons of mass destruction. The three main countries in his Axis of Evil was Iran, Irak and North Korea. Bush's speech was criticized for bringing three very different regimes under the same umbrella. It also hardened the attitude in Iran towards cooperation with the USA.

January 28th

On this day - January 28 1958 - Patent of the first Lego brick

The Lego group started in Denmark in 1949 but it was not until 1958 they patentet what we consider Legos today. The interlocking plastic parts creates enormous possibilities for expressing creativity and Legos has had a big success. Legos comes in many different themes and some of the themes like robotics have spun their own lines. The success can be quantified by the over 600 billion(July 2015) lego pieces that has been created. The success has led the Lego group to branch out and create more than toy products. There are Lego video games, board games, films , books and clothing. One of the most enjoyed parts of the Lego are the six Legoland amusement parks. We really like Legos since we grew up with them and the Lego movie is one of our favorites 

January 27th

On this day - 27th January 1967 - The Outer Space Treaty opened for signatures

The treaty opened for signatures on this day in 1967 and the treaty entered into force on October 10th the same year. The treaty consists of a framework for basic space law's which all signature countries have to adhere to. The agreements includes a ban on nuclear weapons in orbit around earth, on the moon or otherwise in space in general. The use of the moon is limited to peacefully activities, specifically  banning the testing of weapons on the moon and the building of military stations. The development of the treaty had is background in the cold war conflict and the rapidly technological advancements related to war and space at the time. Both the Soviet Union and the US created a draft treaty in 1966, and in 1967 was an agreement reached between the two draft treaties and their creators through United Nations. Several countries signed the treaty on the 27th of January. Those countries includes UK, USA and The Soviet Union. The treat still exists today and over 100 countries have signed it.

January 26th

On this day - 26th January 1905 - The worlds biggest diamond was discovered

The worlds biggest diamond, the Cullinan, was found in South Africa in 1905. It weight over 600 gram and was named after Sir. Thomas Cullinan, the owner of the mine where it was found. The diamond was cut into nine smaler stones, and the largest one is today known as The Great Star of Africa and weights 106 grams. This diamond is mounted on the British Sovreign's Sceptre with cross, which is a part of the British Crown Jewels. Most of the diamonds cut from Cullinan belongs to the British Crown Jewels, although the Queen owns a few of them herself. The reason the British Royals came in possession of this diamond was because the diamond was gifted to the British king at the time, King Edward VII. The diamond was shipped by mail to England in an plain paper box, as to allude the potential thief's wanting to steal it.

Identical copy of the original stone 

January 25th

On this day - 25th January 1996 - The last person was hanged in the USA 

Billy Bailey was convicted for murder and hanged in Delevare 20 years ago. He is the last person to be executed by this method in the USA. Bailey was convicted of killing 80 year old Gilbert Lambertson and his 75 wife, Clara. After the murder he arranged the bodies in two chairs and fled from the murder scene. He was spotted leaving the scene and arrested. He was found guilty in 1980 and sentenced to be hanged. Bailey was later given the option to be executed with a deathly injection, but chose to stick to the original hanging. He was quoted saying he was not going to let them put him to sleep. For his last meal he requested a well done steak with backed potato and sour cream and on the 25th of January was he executed. Only the states of Washington and New Hampshire in the US still offers hanging as a method of execution.

January 24

On this day - January 24th 1990 - Hiten lunar probe launched 

The Hiten spacecraft was built by the Japanese Institute of Space and Astronautical Science(ISAS). It was the first lunar probe built by any other state than USA or Russia. On its first swing-by Hiten released a smaller orbiter called Hagoromo into orbit. The orbiter failed to transmit home but it was visually confirmed to be in orbit from Earth. After the eight swing-by Hiten successfully used the aerobraking technique. It was the first deep space probe to do such a maneuver. Aerobraking is a spaceflight maneuver that reduces the high point of an elliptical orbit (apoapsis) by flying the vehicle through the atmosphere at the low point of the orbit(periapsis). The resulting drag slows the spacecraft. When the main mission was over Hiten was placed in lunar orbit and then deliberately crashed into the moon on April 10th 1993. 

January 23d

On this day - 23 January 1570 - First assassination with a firearm

James Sturt, 1st earl of Morray, was an illegitimate son of James V and the regent of Scotland was the first person to be assassinated by a firearm. The assassin was a follower of Mary, Queen of Scots and James Stuart was assassinated after trying to organize a response to the Marys followers. James Stuart was assassinated in Linlithgow, Scotland, by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh and Woodhouselee. James Hamilton fired at James Stuart from behind a window with a carbine, in a well planed assassination, and mortally wounded him. James Stuart of Morray was buried in February 1570.

January 22nd

On this day - January 22nd 1984 - The release of the Macintosh

Building on some of the lessons learned from the Apple Lisa was the first Macintosh released on this day un 1984. The Macintosh popularised the use of computer mouse and the graphical user interface. The project was introduced by a commercial, produced by Ridley Scott, called "1984". The "1984" commercial is considered a huge success some even calling the commercial more successful than the Macintosh itself. The Macintosh 128 was a success it sold 70,000 units by May and almost 250,000 units by the end of the year. Until this day computers released by Apple are branded Macintosh computers or more popular just Macs.

The initial price was 1995$ but was raised to 2495$ after a commercial campaign where buyers had the options to return the computer within 24 hours. The retailers disliked this campaign because many of the returned units was so badly used they were virtually unsellable. The first Macintosh became popular, but its price compared to other systems such as the Commodore 64 made it so it did not dominate the marked. The success of the Macintosh made Apple the second largest computer manufacturer for the next decade.

The Macintosh Plus from the Design Museum in Gothenburg Sweden 

January 21st

On this day - January 21st 1793- Louis XVI of France was guillotined 

Louis XVI was king of France between 1774 and 1793 and ruled together with his wife, Marie Antoinette (Who was only 14 years old when she married Louis XVI). France at the time was an aristocrat-ruled society and the king had absolute monarchy. The middle class in France was not happy about the situation, and decided to take matters in their own hands. The storming of the Bastille in 1789 marked the beginning of the french revolution, a revolution which eventually ment the end of Louis XVI's life. He was arrested in August 1792 and found guilty for high treason with a vote of 693 against 0. He was sentenced to the guillotine with a close vote and executed on January 21st, 1793. With his death, a thousand years old monarchy came to its end. Marie Antoinette was executed on October 16th the same year, together with countless of other former aristocrats.

January 20th

On this day - 20th January 1841 - United Kingdom occupied Hong Kong 

In the 1830s exported China massive amounts of tea to England which lead to a trade deficiency between the two countries. Englands solution to make up for the trade deficiency was to sell opium in China. This was for obvious reasons not seen as a popular trade policy by the Chinese who destroyed parts of the opium. It was a response to this destruction which started the first Opium war, and it was this war that lead to the occupation of Hong Kong in 1841. On the 26th of January was Hong Kong claimed as a British colony. The island area continued to be British until it was transferred back to China in June 1997. This event marked the end of the period of British colonization, and it also marked the beginning of a new period for Hong Kong. The transfer agreement from 1997 stipulated that Hong Kong should keep its capitalist economic system and the freedom for the people for at least 50 years after the transfer. The period since the transfer have, however, been characterized by conflicts and disagreements between Hong Kong and mainland China on how the area should be ruled.

 Hong Kong then and now 

January 19th

On this day - January 19th 1983 - The Apple Lisa was released

The Apple Lisa was one of the first computers with an graphical user interface aimed at individual business owners. Steve Jobs was part of the development process that started 1978, however in 1982 he was forced out of the project.  The operating system taxed the processor (5 MHz) so heavily that it felt sluggish especially scrolling trough documents. NASA was the biggest customer and used it for project management. When Apple finally discontinued the Lisa in 1986, it caused NASA a lot of problems since they were using a no longer supported platform. In 1989 Apple disposed of 2,700 unsold units in a landfill to receive a tax write-off. The Lisa project was a commercial failure that ended up selling 100,000 units. The biggest disadvantage was the price point 9995$ (23,700$ 2016$). The competing computers from IBM dominated the sales numbers due to the lower price. 

A working Apple Lisa at the 1983 Apple Boston Convention Alan Light Flickr

January 18th

On this day - 18th January 1943 - The beginning of the Warsaw ghetto uprising

The Warsaw ghetto uprising was an uprising by the Jews in Poland against the nazi policy of removing the Jews from the ghetto to the extermination camps. It was one of the largest uprising of the Jews during the second wold war.  On January 18th started Germans their second transportation of the Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp. It was this event that led to the first armed conflict between the German nazi police and the Jews in the ghetto. Both sides took causalities in this first armed conflict, and the transportation of the Jews was halted for a few days. The resistance groups inside the ghetto built up their defense and on April 19th started a new armed conflict between the nazi police and the resistance groups inside the ghetto. The resistance lasted until 16th may 1943. 13.000 Jews died in the uprising, most of them in the burning of the ghetto which the German SS had ordered. A movie about the events were created in 2001.

January 17th

On this day - 17th January 1991 - Harald V became king of Norway upon the death of his father, Olav V. 

Harald V became king after his father, Olav V died of a heart attack on January 17th. This made King Harald the first Norwegian born king since the countrys independence. His father Olav V had arrived in Norway in 1905 when his father, Haakon VII, was elected as King of Norway. Olav V was a very popular king in Norway had he is also knwn as the "peoples-king". He died of a heart attack on the 17th of January which was much caused by the tense political situation in the world at the time.
Norways new king, Harald V is closely related to several of the other European royalties and the second cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.  The royal family in Norway works as a representative of the country, but they have no real political power. Kong Harald, and his wife Queen Sonja have two children, crown-prince Håkon and princess Märtha. Today mark the 25 year anniversary for His Majesty the King of Norway Harald V's reign.

King Harald V

Former king Olav V 

January 16th

On this day - 16th January 1939 - Irish Republican Army started their Sabotage campaign in England 

The "S-campaign" against civil, military and economic infrastructure in England lasted from 1939 to 1940 and consisted of bombings and sabotages. 7 people were killed in the attacks and another 96 people were injured. The sabotages had been planed since 1938 by the Irish Republican Army's Chief of Staff, Seamus O'Donovan. The first attack was on January 16th in 1939 when bombs went of in five different places in England. One bomb went of close to a power station in London, another one damaged an overhead cable. The other three bombs went of in Alnwick, north in England, but none of the first bombs caused any causalities.
In 1939 UK declared war on Germany which led to contact between Germany and IRA leaders. Germany was, however, not impressed with IRAs effort. The German intelligence wrote to IRA and requested:

 "The Pfalzgraf Section very urgently requests its Irish friends and IRA members to be so good as to make considerably better efforts to carry out the S-plan, which they received some time last summer, and to be more effectual against military as opposed to civilian objectives."

January 15th

On this day - 15th January 2001 - Wikipedia was launched

Wikipedia was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger, but the idea had been proposed already back in 1993. The name Wikipedia is constructed from the words Wiki which is a webpage that allows collaborative modifications and encyclopedia. Wikipedia grew out of another project, Nupedia, which was started in 1993. Nupedia had a more expert based approach than Wikipedia did, and wikipedia was originally ment as a supplement to Nupedia. Wikipedia, however, grew quickly and today it is on of the 7th most visited webpages in the whole world. I am sure we can all agree that wikipedia has helped us out more than once.

January 14th

On this day - 14th January 1953 - Tito was inaugurated as the first president of Jugoslavia

Tito started his political career as a chairman of the league of communists of Yugoslavia. He continued as the leader of the resistance group, Partisan, during the Second World War, before he became the president of Yugoslavia. His rule as president was an authoritarian rule, but he was known as a benevolent dictator due to his economic and diplomatic policies. Yugoslavia had only limited help from the Russian army in their liberation process which contributed to giving the country more political freedom than the other East European countries had at the time. Yugoslavia was officially an ally of the Soviet Union, but the relationship between Tito and Stalin was a problematic one. Stalin tried to get rid of Tito, but without success. Tito who got tired of it openly wrote back to Stalin and said:

"Stop sending people to kill me. We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle. (...) If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send one to Moscow, and I won't have to send a second."

January 13th

On this day - 13th January 1972 - Ignatius Kutu Acheampong's military coup in Ghana

Ignatius Kutu Acheampong took over as the head of state in Ghana after a bloodless coup in Ghana in 1972. He overthrew the democratically elected government in Ghana at the time. During his rule implemented Acheampong the metric system of measurement, he implemented right side driving and a program aimed at achieving self-sustainability in agriculture for Ghana. Corruption was also a common policy during his rule. He held the position as head of state until July 1978 when he deposed in a palace coup by his former Chief of Defense staff. In July 1979 was Acheampong executed by firing squad.

Former head of state in Ghana, Akufo-Addo, who Acheampong overthrew in 1972

January 12th

On this day - January 12th 2010 - The Haiti earthquake

In the afternoon this day a earthquake hit Haiti, the epicenter was around 25 kilometers from the capitol. This massive earthquake measured 7.0 on the richter scale. Twelve days later there had been 52 aftershocks measuring over 4.5 on the richter scale. The number of deaths is estimated from 100,000 to 160,000 people. The estimated numbers of residences that were destroyed is 250,000 and 30,000 commercial buildings. The earthquake even caused a tsunami but its damages was limited. Many countries pledged to help Haiti and did so, but some of the effort was lost in bad management. Nobody knew who was in charge and air traffic congestion combined with problems with prioritising of flights complicated the early relief work. On the 22nd of January the UN called that the emergency phase of the catastrophe was over and the following day the government sized the search for survivors. 

January 11th

On this day - 11th January 1917 - The Kingsland ammunition factory explosion

Kingsland factory was owned by the Canadian Car and Foundry factory and placed in New Jersey, USA. In 1931 started a fire at the factory, a fire which lasted for over four hours. The explosion was said to be magnificent, but the entire plant was destroyed. The factory produced ammunition which was provided to the allied countries, Russia and Britain, during the first world war. This led to speculations in the media about the explosion being a sabotage by Germany. The fire had started nearby Wozniak, one of the workers, station. The rumors about the sabotage claimed that he was a part of a German sabotage group in the US. It was also claimed that he behaved nervously on the day of the explosion. Wozniak, however, escaped the detectives and no evidence of sabotage was ever found. Germany never admitted to the sabotage, but did eventually pay $50m in reparation to the US.

January 10th

On this day - 10th January 1929 - Tintins first appearance

The adventures of Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin) was first published in the Belgian newspaper youth section Le Petit Vingtième. This paper was a supplement to the Le Vingtième Siècle where Tintins drawer, Georges Remi, worked as an illustrator. The comic was created by Remi under the name Hergè, which he is better known as today. The comic is about the reporter and adventurer Tintin and his fox terrier, Snowy. Other important characters includes Professor Calculus, Captain Haddock, Thompson and Bianca. Hergè died in 1983, but his legacy is still going strong. He is recognized as one of the leading cartoonists of the 20th century. Tintin has been translated to over 70 languages and adopted to radio, theater and movies. The last movie about Tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn premiered in 2011 and was directed by Steven Spielberg and produced by Peter Jacson. A second movie about Tintin has been discussed, but not decided on yet.

January 9th

On this day - January 9th 1885 - Henrik Ibsens play Vildanden premiered

Henrik Ibsens play Vildanden (The Wild  Duck) premiered in 1885 in Bergen, Norway. The play has been adapted to both silent and talking movies, the earliest in 1926 when a German silent film was made. The most known movie was made in 1983 and stared Jeremey Irons and Liv Ullmann. The theme of the play is will people get a better life if uncomfortable truths about their life came out. The different characters in the play have different opinions about this. The most famous is the doctor who consideres the "life lie" to be a medicine for man. Other important roles in the play are Håkon Werle, a rich city merchant, Hjalmar Ekdahl and his wife Gina, and Hedvig, their daughter.  The play has been translated to over 60 languages and are still being played around the world today.

The most famous quote from the play is the Relling saying
"If you take the life-lie away from a person you take his life"

January 8th

On this day - 8th January 1697 - Last execution for blasphemy in UK

Scottish medical student Thomas Aikenhead was only between 18 and 20 years old when he was executed for blasphemy. He was the last person in United Kingdom to be executed for this "crime". His indictment from December 1696 read "[...] the prisoner had repeatedly maintained in conversation, that theology was a rhapsody of ill-invented nonsense". He was found guilty on December 24th and sentenced to death to set an example for others who might express such views in the future. Aikenhead plead for mercy and took back all that he had said, but on January 8th was Aikenhead hanged in Edinburgh.


A research on Thomas Aikenhead and Blasphemy

January 7

On this day - 7th January 2015 - Charlie Habdo Shooting

Around 11:30 two brothers forced their way into the offices of the satirical newspaper Charlie Habdo. Shooting their assault rifles they injured 11 people and killed another 11. After leaving the offices they shot and killed a police officer. In further related attacks in France another 5 were killed and another 11 injured. France raised their terror alert and a massive manhunt led to the suspects on the 9th of January. The brothers were killed when they fired at the police when they left their hiding place. After the attack the phrase "Je suis Charlie" (I am Charlie) became the slogan for the massive support for the victims. The following issue of Charlie Habdo was printed in almost 8 million copies in six languages compared to the normal 60,000 only in French. 

Muhammed under the headline all is forgiven, the cover of the following Charlie Habdo

January 6th

On this day - 6th January 1994 - Figure Skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed in the knee

The attack on Nancy Kerrigan was a part of her ongoing conflict with rival Tonya Harding. On January 6th she was clubbed on her knee by a police baton after a figure skating practice in Detroit. The attack was planed by Tonya Harding's ex-husband to keep Kerrigan from participating in the Olympic Games. Nancy Kerrigan was not able to compete in the competition, but was still selected to participate in the Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer later the same year. The conflict between here and Hardinger made her rise to international fame and the ongoing conflict received much attention during the Olympic Games. Kerrigan won silver in the games, while Harding only got 8th place. Harding was later sentenced to three years probation for her involvement in the attack.

January 5th

On this day - January 5th 1933 - The construction of Golden Gate bridge began

On this day the construction of the Golden gate bridge began. At the time of its completion it was the longest suspension bridge with a main span of 1300m. The bridge is declared one of the Wonders of the Modern World by the American society of Civil Engineers. The bridge spans from San Francisco to Marin County. It is considered one of the most beautiful bridges in the world and is one of the most photographed ones. Construction began on this day 1933 and was completed in April in 1937, ahead of schedule and under budget. The dark side of the Golden Gate is that it is the second most used suicide bridge behind the Nanjing Yangtze river Bridge. The bridge is so recognizable that its featured in several tv-shows and movies and even in video games.

 

January 4th

On this day - 4th January 1853- Solomon Northup (12 years a slave) gained his freedom

Solomon Northup was an american violinist who was born as a free man in New York in 1808. In 1841, on a traveling musician's job, was he drugged and kidnapped from Washington D.C. He was thereafter shipped to New Orleans and sold as a slave to a plant owner. Northup was kept as a slave for the next 12 years, unable to contact his family and friends in the Northern parts of US. It wasn't until he gained help from a Canadian worker on the plant that he was able to contact his family and get help. His family enlisted the aid from the governor of New York and started the work of finding Solomon and getting the papers in order. Locating Solomon had been a complicated job, especially since Solomon was only known as Platt. It was also important that the process of releasing Solomon was kept secret, because it was expected that Solomon's slave owner would kill him if he knew anyone were looking for him. On January 4th Solomons family finally succeeded and he could once again become a free man. Solomon Northup's memoirs were published later the same year and it became a best seller. In 2014 won the film "12 years a slave", based on Solomons life, the academy award for best film.

 

January 3rd

On this day - 3rd January 2000 - The last original Peanuts comic strip

Written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, Peanuts started running on October 2nd 1950 and lasted until January 3rd 2000. In all,  17,896 strips were made, making it one of the longest stories told by one person. Peanuts is very popular and at its peak popularity it ran in 2,600 newspapers with a combined reader mass of 355 million people, in 75 countries, translated into 21 languages. The recipe has made a standard, a standard for an American comic strip in the papers is four panels. Peanuts focuses on a mini society of children where the main character Charlie Brown, is nervous and lacks self confidence. After almost fifty years the comic and the merchandise is estimated to have earned Schulz more than 1 billion USD. In foreign countries such as Norway, Charlie Brown is not that famous but Snoopy is, and thereby is our favorite Peanuts character. Who is your favorite Peanuts character ? 

The first Peanuts from 1950 

January 2nd

On this day - 2 January 1981 - The Yorkshire Ripper was arrested

Peter Sutcliffe was a British serial killer who murdered 13 females in the Yorkshire area in England. He also attempted to murder another seven females. His victims were prostitutes who he first started murdering after being ripped of by one in 1975. He was arrested on January second, after being interviewed by the police several times previously. He was stopped in his car with a prostitute, and several weapons was found in the car with him. He was convicted and sentenced to lifetime in prison where he still is today.

January 1st

On this day - 1st January 1772 - The first traveler's cheque issued 

The first traveler's cheque was issued by the London Credit Exchange Company and could be used in 90 European cities. The inventor of this circular note was Robert Harries and his bank Herries, Farquhar & Co (later taken over by Lloyds bank). Harries had gotten the idea while traveling around in Europe and needed money for art, sigar and alcohol. American Express, the largest issuer of travel checks, developed their system and issued the traveler's checks as we know them today, in 1891. Traveler's cheque quickly became popular, and by 1891 were American Express selling over $6 million annually. The use of the traveler's cheque has declined since the 1990s, but they are still in use by some companies, such as American Express.