On this day...

1535 Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church
1582 Russia cedes Livonia & Estonia to Poland, loses access to the Baltic
1680 French explorer Sieur de la Salle builds Ft Cravecoeur
1777 People of New Connecticut (Vermont) declare independence from England
1861 Steam elevator patented by Elisha Otis
1863 First US newspaper printed on wood-pulp paper, Boston Morning Journal
1865 Fort Fisher, NC falls to Union troops
1870 Donkey first used as symbol of Democratic Party, in Harper's Weekly
1877 US Assay Office in Helena, Montana opens
1882 First US ski club formed, Berlin, NH
1886 Weekly Herald, first Vancouver, BC newspaper, publishes first issue
1892 Basketball rules published in Triangle Magazine, Massachusetts
1895 Tchaikovsky's ballet "Swan Lake" premiers, St Petersburg (1/27 NS)
1907 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr. Lee de Forest
1907 Gold dental inlays first described by Williamm Taggart (inventor)
1919 2 million gallons of molasses "Tidal Wave" Boston MA, drowning 21
1919 Pianist & statesman Ignace Paderewski becomes first premier of Poland
1922 Irish Free State forms
1923 Lithuania seizes & annexes the country of Memel
1936 Non-profit Ford Foundation incorporates
1942 FDR asks commissioner to continue baseball during WW II
1943 Japanese driven off Guadalcanal
1943 World's largest office building, Pentagon, completed
1950 4,000 attend National Emergency Civil Rights Conference in Washington DC
1951 "Cloud of Death" rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 5,000
1953 16 car Federal Express train loses brakes & crashes in Washington DC station
1964 Teamsters negotiated the first national labor contract
1965 Rock group Who releases first album "I Can't Explain"
1967 Green Bay Packers beat Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in Super Bowl I (NBC & CBS)
1973 4 Watergate burglars plead guilty in federal court
1973 Gene Shalit joins the Today Show panel
1973 President Nixon suspends all US offensive action in North Vietnam
1974 "Happy Days" premiers on ABC
1974 Expert panel reports 18 minute gap in Watergate tape, 5 separate erasures
1975 Space Mountain opens (Disneyland)
1976 Sara Jane Moore sentenced to life for attempting to shoot President Ford
1976 US-German Helios B solar probe launched into solar orbit
1978 Super Bowl XII-Dallas Cowboys-27, Denver Broncos-10
1978 Ted Bundy kills Florida State University coeds Lisa Levy & Margaret Bowman
1981 "Hill Street Blues" premiers on NBC-TV
1984 Hana Mandlikova ends Martina Navratilova's 54-match winning streak
1985 Tancredo Neves becomes first elected president of Brazil in 21 years
1986 Living Seas opens at World Showcase in EPCOT, Walt Disney World
1990 42 year old George Foreman KO's George Cooney in 2 rounds
1992 EC recognizes Slovenian and Croatian independence

Birthdays which occurred on January 15th:

1791 Franz Gillparzer, Austrian tragic dramatist (Golden Fleece)
1798 Thomas Croker, Irish antiquary, collector of songs & legends
1813 James Marion Sims, SC, surgeon/gynecologist (vesicovaginal operation)
1845 Ella Flagg Young, first woman president of the National Educational Association
1866 Nathan Soderblom, Lutheran archbishop (Nobel '30)
1877 Lewis Terman, Indiana, psychologist (developed Stanford-Binet IQ test)
1891 Osip Mandelstam, Warsaw, Russian poet (Noise of Time)
1899 Goodman Ace, radio/TV writer/actor/columnist/humorist
1906 Aristotle Onassis, Greece, shipping magnate
1908 Edward Teller, Budapest Hungary, fathered H-bomb (Manhattan Project)
1909 Gene Krupa, Benny Goodman, drummer (Sing Sing Sing)
1911 Cy Feuer, New York NY, Broadway producer (Feuer & Martin-Chorus Line)
1913 Lloyd Bridges, San Leandro CA, actor (Sea Hunt, Roots, Airplane)
1918 Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of Egypt (1954-1971?)
1920 John J. "Cardinal" O'Connor, Philadelphia PA, Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York
1926 Maria Schell, Vienna Austria, actress (Space 1999)
1929 Rev Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Atlanta, (Nobel 1964)
1931 Thomas Hoving, New York NY, news correspondent (20/20)
1932 Dean Smith, US actor/relay runner (Olympic-gold-1952)
1935 Malcolm Frager, St Louis, Missouri, pianist
1937 Margaret O'Brien, San Diego, actress (Jane Eyre, Meet Me in St. Louis)
1941 Captain Beefheart [Don Van Vilet], rocker (Bongo Fury, Shiny Beast)
1947 Pete Waterman, rocker (Stock Aitken & Waterman-Road Block)
1948 Dini Petty, Canadian talk show host (CITY-TV)
1948 Tommy Nolan, Montreal Canada, actor (Jody-Buckskin)
1951 Charo, Murcia Spain, actress/singer (Chico & the Man, Love Boat)
1951 Martha Davis, rock vocalist (Motels-Shame)
1953 Randy White, NFL Hall of Fame (Dallas Cowboys)
1967 Lisa Lisa (Velez), rock vocalist (Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam)
1968 Chad Lowe, Dayton OH, actor (Spencer, Apprentice to Murder)

Deaths which occurred on January 15th:

69 Galba, Roman emperor, killed by Praetorian guard in the Forum, Rome
1978 Margaret Bowman & Janet Levy, Chi Omega, FSU, killed by Ten Bundy
1982 Red Smith, sportscaster (Fight Talk), dies at 76
1983 Meyer Lansky, reputed mobster, dies in Miami Beach FL, at 81
1983 Shepperd Strudwick, actor, dies of cancer at 75
1987 Dolores Hawkins, singer (Guy Mitchell Show), dies at 58
1987 Ray Bolger, actor/dancer (Wizard of Oz), dies at 82
1988 Sean MacBride, Ireland, commander of Irish Republican Army, dies at 83