225 years ago, on Jan. 18, 1778: Captain James Cook "discovered" Hawaii, which he called the Sandwich Islands.
200 years ago, on Jan. 18, 1803: Thomas Jefferson, in a secret communication to Congress, requested $2,500 appropriation for a "Voyage of Discovery," which would lead to the Lewis and Clark expedition of the U.S. Northwest from 1803-1806. (The expedition would end up costing $38,000.)
150 years ago, Jan. 8, 1853: The first bronze equestrian statue was unveiled: Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Park, D.C.
125 years ago, on Jan. 14, 1878: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that race separation on trains was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled the opposite in Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896.
January 28: The first telephone switchboard was installed, in New Haven, Conn. On the same day, the Yale News was published for the first time, the first daily collegiate newspaper in the U.S.
100 years ago, on Jan. 9, 1903: Two New Yorkers, Frank Farrell and Bill Devery, purchased the American League’s Baltimore baseball franchise for $18,000 and relocated it to New York City (Yankees).
75 years ago, on Jan. 17, 1928: Inventor Anatol M. Josepho received the first U.S. patent for a fully automatic photographic film-developing machine. Josepho designed the first model of the Photomaton, which was an apparatus for developing filmstrips that he had constructed in a loft building on 125th Street, New York City.
50 years ago, on Jan. 19, 1953: Over two-thirds (68%) of all TV sets in the U.S. were tuned to CBS-TV, as Lucy Ricardo, of "I Love Lucy," gave simulated birth to a baby boy, just as she had in real life. The audience was greater than that watching the inauguration of President Eisenhower the following day. In fact, Lucy’s baby knocked Ike’s inaugural off the front page of many newspapers.
25 years ago, on Jan. 6, 1978: John D. MacArthur, U.S. insurance billionaire, died at 80.
