1419 – Hundred Years’ War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England, completing his reconquest of Normandy.
1818 – French physicist Augustin Fresnel submits a “supplement” which establishes the current understanding of polarized light.
1861 – American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States.
1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.
1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
1953 – Almost 72% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino (a.k.a. “Tokyo Rose”).
1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW’s plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.
1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
1986 – The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter unauthorized copying of the software they had written.
Births
840 – Michael III, Byzantine emperor (d. 867)
1807 – Robert E. Lee, American general and academic (d. 1870)
1809 – Edgar Allan Poe, American short story witer, poet, and critic (d. 1849)
1839 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)
1907 – Briggs Cunningham, American race car driver, sailor, and businessman (d. 2003)
1908 – Ish Kabibble, American comedian and cornet player (d. 1994)
1930 – Tippi Hedren, American model, actress, and animal rights-welfare activist
1939 – Phil Everly, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Everly Brothers) (d. 2014)
1943 – Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (d. 1970)
1954 – Cindy Sherman, American photographer and director
Deaths
520 – John of Cappadocia, patriarch of Constantinople
1957 – József Dudás, Romanian-Hungarian activist and politician (b. 1912)
1975 – Thomas Hart Benton, American painter and educator (b. 1889)
1981 – Francesca Woodman, American photographer (b. 1958)
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To the editor:
Regarding ‘Today in History’ (BroadsheetDAILY January 18), I would dispute the characterization of Leo II as “Byzantine” emperor. He was Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire. Though his capital was Constantinople, formerly Byzantion, at this period (474) there was still an emperor in the West at Rome (actually sitting at Ravenna) (the last Western emperor was deposed in 476), and no historical event had happened to justify calling the Roman Empire anything else.
Constantinople was “New Rome” and (to judge by the Greeks) still is, as the Ecumenical Patriarch even today styles himself “Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome.”
When Justinian began the retaking of the province of Africa and of Italy from the “barbarian” kings beginning in 533_ the coins lauded him as “Salvation and Glory of the Romans.”
As Wikipedia says, “Both ‘Byzantine Empire’ and ‘Eastern Roman Empire’ are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire [until the fall to the Turks in 1453] as the Roman Empire and to themselves as ‘Romans.'” Even the Turks called them Romans.
Barrett S. DiPaolo
Editors reply: Wisi enim ad minim non sonant disciplinam