January 18 ...

In 1644 perplexed pilgrims in Boston reported America's first UFO sighting. In 1777 San Jose, CA, was founded. In 1778 Captain James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which he dubbed the "Sandwich Islands." In 1782 lawyer and statesman Daniel Webster was born in Salisbury, NH. In 1788 the first English settlers arrived in Australia's Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. In 1836 Jim Bowie arrived at the Alamo to assist its Texas defenders. In 1861 Georgia seceded from the US. In 1862 the 10th president of the United States, John Tyler, died in Richmond, VA, at age 71. In 1871 Wilhelm, King of Prussia from 1861, was proclaimed the first German Emperor. In 1882 A. A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh, was born in London, England. In 1904 actor Cary Grant was born in Bristol, England. In 1911 pilot Eugene B. Ely flew onto the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco harbor, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship. In 1919 the World War I Peace Congress opened in Versailles, France. In 1936 Rudyard Kipling died in Burwash, England at age 70. In 1939 Louis Armstrong and his orchestra recorded Jeepers Creepers. In 1943 the Soviets announced it had broken the Nazi siege of Leningrad, which began in September of 1941. In 1952 Curly Howard (Jerome Lester Horwitz), best known as one of the Three Stooges, died in San Gabriel, CA. In 1969 University of Arizona astronomers first identified pulsars. In 1991 Eastern Airlines shut down after 64 years in business. In 1995 a network of caves were discovered near the town of Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southern France. The caves contained paintings and engravings that were 17,000 to 20,000 years old.