January 27 ...

In 1756 composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria. In 1823 President James Monroe appointed the US's first ambassadors to South America. In 1832 mathematician and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was born in Daresbury, England. In 1880 Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp. In 1888 the National Geographic Society was founded in Washington, DC. In 1900 Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was born in Makow, Russia. His family moved to the US when he was six. In 1901 opera composer Giuseppe Verdi died in Milan, Italy, at age 87. In 1921 actress Donna Reed was born in Denison, IA, proving again that there is a God. In 1924 the body of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was placed in a mausoleum in Red Square, Moscow. In 1927 United Independent Broadcasters Inc. started a radio network of 16 stations. The company later became Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). In 1943 some 50 bombers struck Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany during World War II. In 1944 Leningrad was liberated from Germany after 880 days and 600,000 killed. In 1945 the Soviet Army liberated the concentration camp at Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland. In 1959 NASA selected 110 candidates for the first US space flight. In 1967 America's first manned Apollo spacecraft (Apollo 1) ended in tragedy when astronauts Roger Chaffee, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, and Edward White were killed when a flash fire during a test swept through the Command Module; White was the first US astronaut to walk in space. In 1968 Otis Redding released his hit Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay. In 1973 the Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris. In 1978 the Illinois State Supreme Court ruled that Nazis could display the Swastika in a march in Skokie, IL; this fueled the desire of those who wished to throw bottles and rocks at the marchers' empty heads. In 1981 President Reagan greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran. In 2004 John Kerry won the New Hampshire Democratic primary with 39% of the vote. Howard Dean had 26%, Wesley Clark had 12%, John Edwards had 12%, and Joe Lieberman had 9%. In 2009 writer John Updike died at age 76 in Danvers, MA.