Daily Calendar for Thursday, January 2, 2025

Events

• Georgia ratified the U.S. Constitution, becoming the fourth U.S. state – 1788
• Alice Sanger became the first female staffer for the White House– 1890
• Elara, a Moon of Jupiter, discovered– 1905
• Willis H. Carrier patented an air conditioner– 1906
• Japanese invaded and occupied Manila and the Philipines after a successful attack on Pearl Harbor– 1942
• USSR’s Luna I was launched, becoming the first spacecraft to leave Earth’s gravity. Later, it became the first to reach the Moon’s vicinity and the first to orbit the Sun.– 1959
• Fidel Castro and his followers captured Santiago, Cuba; Fulgencio Batista went into exile– 1959
• The U.S. Federal Trade Commision charged seven record companies and eight distribution firms with paying disc-jockeys to play certain songs (Payola Incident)– 1960
• General Lyman L. Lemnitzer became the supreme commander of NATO– 1963
• The NY Jets signed quarterback Joe Namath for $427,000. At the time he was the highest paid player in pro football– 1965
• Robert Clark was seated as the first African American legislator in Mississippi in 74 years– 1968
• Kenneth Brugger and Cathy Aguado discovered first winter refuge of monarch butterflies, in Mexico– 1975
• President Ronald Reagan and Prime Minister Brian Mulroney signed the final version of the U.S.-Canadian trade accord. The pact provided for the elimination of tariffs on most goods within 10 years and created a series of binational groups to regulate the agreement– 1988
• Explosion in a West Virginia coal mine that led to the death of 12 of 13 miners—Sago Mine disaster– 2006
• On this date a numerically rare event occurred: 01-02-2010 expressed backwards as a date is precisely 01-02-2010– 2010
• 28-lb. 13-oz. tautog caught, Ocean City, Md. – 2015