Community Corner

Bethel Daily Briefings: Friday, January 20

How to dress, where to go, who did what, and when it happened.

 

Today is Friday, January 20, 2012.

 

Find out what's happening in Bethelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Weather from Ct Weather

Mostly Sunny

Find out what's happening in Bethelwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

High: 32°

Low: 21°

Garden Hints for January from the Old Farmer's Almanac

Start geranium, begonia, vinca, and viola seeds now for spring and summer bloom. Begonia and vinca seeds are among the hardest to germinate, so don't be discouraged if your success rate is low or irregular.

This Day In History from On This Day

 

1265 - The first English parliament met in Westminster Hall.

 1801 - John Marshall was appointed chief justice of the United States.

 1841 - The island of Hong Kong was ceded to Great Britain. It returned to Chinese control in July 1997.

 1885 - The roller coaster was patented by L.A. Thompson.

 1887 - The U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.

 1891 - James Hogg took office as the first native-born governor of Texas.

 1892 - The first official basketball game was played by students at the Springfield, MA, YMCA Training School.

 1929 - The movie "In Old Arizona" was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.

 1937 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt became the first U.S. President to be inaugurated on January 20th. The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution officially set the date for the swearing in of the President and Vice President.

 1942 - Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews.

 1944 - The British RAF dropped 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.

 1954 - The National Negro Network was formed on this date. Forty radio stations were charter members of the network.

 1961 - Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller were divorced. They were married on June 29, 1956.

 1972 - The number of unemployed in Britain exceeded 1 million.

 1981 - Iran released 52 Americans that had been held hostage for 444 days. The hostages were flown to Algeria and then to a U.S. base in Wiesbaden, West Germany. The release occurred minutes after the U.S. presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

 1985 - The most-watched Super Bowl game in history was seen by an estimated 115.9 million people. The San Francisco 49ers defeated the Miami Dolphins, 38-16. Super Bowl XIX marked the first time that TV commercials sold for a million dollars a minute.

 1986 - The U.S. observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

 1986 - Britain and France announced their plans to build the Channel Tunnel.

 1987 - Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite was kidnapped in Beirut, Lebanon. He was there attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages. He was not freed until November 1991.

 1994 - Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. Faulkner joined the cadet corps in August 1995 under court order but soon dropped out.

 1996 - Yasser Arafat was elected president of the Palestinian Authority and his supporters won two thirds of the 80 seats in the Legislative Council.

 1997 - Bill Clinton was inaugurated for his second term as president of the United States.

 1998 - American researchers announced that they had cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk.

 2002 - Michael Jordan (Washington Wizards) played his first game in Chicago as a visiting player. The Wizards beat the Bulls 77-69


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