Flooding in southeastern Africa
Unusually heavy rains hit Malawi and caused widespread flooding, leaving 200 people dead or missing and 120,000 forced from their homes. It caused US$ 450 million in damage or roughly 10% of the country's GDP.
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2015
2015
Hunga Tonga eruption
Hunga Tonga is a volcano located south-southeast of Fonuafoʻou, which is a part of the country Tonga. The volcano began sending ash plumes as high as 9 km into the sky. A new island had also been formed by the explosion.
2012
Ricky Gervais hosts Globes for the third consecutive year
The 69th Golden Globe Awards were broadcast live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on NBC. Multiple winners for the night included the silent film The Artist which won three awards and The Descendants winning two awards. The award for Best TV Series – Drama went to Homeland.
2011
Bolton Wanderers striker Nat Lofthouse dies
Lofthouse died aged 85, in a nursing home in Bolton. In Bolton Wanderers first home game since his death against Chelsea, a pre-match period of a minute's silence, thunderous applause, black-and-white footage of Lofthouse in action and the laying of floral tributes by Kevin Davies and John Terry took place before the start of the match.
2011
Katy Perry is at #1 on the US singles chart with 'Firework'
"Firework" is a song by American singer Katy Perry from her third studio album, Teenage Dream. Perry co-wrote the song with Ester Dean and its producers StarGate and Sandy Vee. It is a dance-pop self-empowerment anthem with inspirational lyrics, and Perry felt it was an important song for her on Teenage Dream.
2010
American biochemist Marshall W. Nirenberg dies
He was one of the three people who deciphered the genetic code. The other two were Har Gobind Khorana and Robert W. Holley. They were awarded by Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1968. Later Nirenberg researched the homogeneous, which work as a coordinate for developing an embryo. He was also interested in neuroscience.
2009
Miracle on the Hudson
US Airways Flight 1549 was an Airbus A320-214 which, in the climb out after takeoff from New York City's LaGuardia Airport on January 15, 2009, struck a flock of Canada geese just northeast of the George Washington Bridge and consequently lost all engine power. Unable to reach an airport, pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles glided the plane to ditch in the Hudson River off Midtown Manhattan. All 155 people aboard were rescued by nearby boats and there were few serious injuries.
2007
New category for the Golden Globes
The 64th Golden Globe Awards were broadcast live on NBC. For the first time in this award history, there was a category the Best Animated Feature Film. Dreamgirls won the most awards and Babel received the most nominations, with one winning for Best Motion Picture – Drama. The award for Best TV Series – Drama went to Grey's Anatomy.
2006
James Blunt is at #1 on the UK album chart
Back to Bedlam was released in late 2004, initially staying in the lower parts of the UK Albums Chart. After a few months, it became much more successful, after its third single You're Beautiful was a huge hit during summer next year. This event helped the album climb up the chart, all the way up to the No. 1.
2001
Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online
It was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger. The latter invented its name. It is a portmanteau of wiki and encyclopaedia. A wiki is a website on which users collaboratively modify content and structure directly from the web browser. Wikipedia is run by a content management system called the wiki software.
2000
'What a Girl Wants' starts a two week run at #1 on the US chart
"What a Girl Wants" is a song by American singer Christina Aguilera, taken from her debut album Christina Aguilera. A re-recorded version was released in 1999 by RCA Records as the album's second single, following the commercial success of the album's lead single "Genie in a Bottle".
1997
Chicago Bull Dennis Rodman kicks cameraman in the groin
Dennis Rodman was known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. He kicked cameraman Eugene Amos in the groin which he had to pay a $200,000 settlement for and the league suspended Rodman for 11 games without pay.
1983
Men At Work are at #1 in the US singles chart with 'Down Under'
Down Under debuted in the US on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 79 and it took the song a few more weeks till it reached No. 1. It managed to spend there four non-consecutive weeks, eventually selling over two million copies in the US alone. It was later ranked as No. 4 by Billboard for 1983.
1977
Leo Sayer is at #1 on the US singles chart
"You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" is a song by the British singer Leo Sayer, taken from his 1976 album Endless Flight. The song reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it his first number-one single in the United States, and reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart. Billboard ranked it as the No. 13 song of 1977.
1977
'Hotel California' reach #1 on the Billboard album
The album Hotel California entered US Billboard at number four, reaching number one on its fourth week. It non-consecutively topped the charts for eight weeks and was certified platinum during its release week. Billboard praised the songs on the album as - casually beautiful, quietly-intense and brilliantly original.
1974
The American television series 'Happy Days' premieres on ABC
Happy Days is an American television sitcom that aired first-run from 1974 to 1984 on ABC, with a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning eleven seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, the series presented one of the most successful series of the 1970s, an idealized vision of life in the mid-1950s to mid-1960s Midwestern United States.
1972
Heavyweight Joe Frazier KOs Terry Daniels
Joe Frazier was an American professional boxer. He was known for his sheer strength, durability, formidable punching power, and relentless pressure fighting style. His style was often compared to that of Henry Armstrong. He managed to beat Terry Daniels by knockout in the fourth round.
1972
American Pie starts a four week run at #1 in the US singles chart
American Pie is a song by Don McLean, recorded and released on the album of the same name. It was produced by Ed Freeman for The Rainbow Collection. The single became a number-one hit for four weeks on US singles chart. Besides that, it also topped the charts in Australia, New Zealand, and Canada.
Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya
Muammar Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He was initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism but later came to rule under his own Third International Theory. He introduced sharia as the basis for the legal system and promoted "Islamic socialism".
1970
Burnt House is uncovered in Jerusalem
The Burnt House is a museum presenting an excavated house from the Second Temple period situated 6 meters below the current street level in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The original Burnt House is believed to have been set on fire during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE.
1968
Masterton dies as a result of injuries suffered during a game
William John Masterton was a Canadian–American professional ice hockey center who played in the NHL for the Minnesota North Stars in 1967–68. He is the only player in NHL history to die as a direct result of injuries suffered during a game, the result of massive head injuries suffered following a hit during a contest against the Oakland Seals.
1967
The first Super Bowl
In the Super Bowl I, the NFL champion Green Bay Packers defeated the American Football League champion City Chiefs by the score of 35–10. It remains the only Super Bowl to have been simulcast in the United States by two networks: NBC and CBS.
1965
The Who release their first single 'I Can’t Explain' in the UK
A release of the single I Can't Explain by the rock band The Who in the UK was about a month later after it was initially issued as a single in the US. It didn't appear on the UK singles chart for over a month where it reached its highest position at No. 8 before leaving them in May after spending 13 weeks there.
1962
The Derveni papyrus is found
It is an ancient Greek papyrus. The text is a philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, a theogony concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras. It was composed near the end of the fifth century BC. The roll itself dates to around 340 BC.
The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense. The Pentagon was designed by American architect George Bergstrom and built by general contractor John McShain. It is one of the world's largest office buildings, with about 6,500,000 sq ft.
1919
Great Molasses Flood
The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster or the Great Boston Molasses Flood, and sometimes referred to locally as the Boston Molassacre, occurred on January 15, 1919 in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. A large storage tank burst, filled with 2,300,000 US gal (8,700 m3)(8,706,447 liters) of molasses, and a wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and residents claimed for decades afterwards that the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days.
1892
Basketball rules first are published in Triangle Magazine
James Naismith published his rules for the game of "Basket Ball" that he invented: The original game played under these rules was quite different from the one played today as there was no dribbling, dunking, three-pointers, or shot clock, and goaltending was legal.
1890
"The Sleeping Beauty" with music by Tchaikovsky premieres
The Sleeping Beauty is a ballet in a prologue and three acts, first performed in 1890. The music was composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The original scenario was conceived by Ivan Vsevolozhsky. The choreographer of the original production was Marius Petipa.
1872
Offenbach's "Le roi Carotte" premieres
Le Roi Carotte is a 4-act opéra-bouffe-féerie with music by Jacques Offenbach and libretto by Victorien Sardou, after E. T. A. Hoffmann. The libretto, written before the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, lampooned Bonapartists, monarchists and republicans.
The 1st use of a donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party
The Democrats chose the donkey logo because they liked its common-man implication. The donkey party logo gained huge popularity thanks, cartoons of Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly. Cartoonist used the donkey to represent the Democrats and the elephant to represent the Republicans.
1866
"The Brandenburgers in Bohemia" premieres in Prague
The Brandenburgers in Bohemia is a three-act opera, the first by Bedřich Smetana. The Czech libretto was written by Karel Sabina and is based on events from Czech history. Smetana and Sabina wrote the opera at a time of great Czech patriotism. The work was composed in the years 1862–1863.
1861
Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis
His main innovation was a safety system which prevented the fall of the cabin. The design is still in use today. Ottis demonstrated it at the New York exposition in the Crystal Palace in a dramatic, death-defying presentation. First such passenger elevator was installed at 488 Broadway in New York City.
1759
British Museum opens to the public
The British Museum, located in the Bloomsbury area of London, is a public institution dedicated to human history, art and culture. It was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the Irish physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. It first opened to the public in 1759, in Montagu House, on the site of the current building.
Anniversaries of the (in)famous