History for January 15

History for January 15 - On-This-Day.com
Jean Baptiste Moliere 1622 - Playwright, Pierre S. DuPont 1870 - Industrialist, Edward Teller 1908 Physicist, Father of the hydrogen bomb 


Lloyd Bridges 1913 Actor: ("Airplane!," "Airplane 2"), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929 - Pastor, leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement, Charo (Maria Martinez) 1951 Actress ("Chico and the Man," "Airport 79"), singer 


1559 - England's Queen Elizabeth I (Elizabeth Tudor) was crowned in Westminster Abbey. 


1844 - The University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana. 


1870 - A cartoon by Thomas Nast titled "A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" appeared in "Harper's Weekly." The cartoon used the donkey to symbolize the Democratic Party for the first time. 


1892 - "Triangle" magazine in Springfield, MA, published the rules for a brand new game. The original rules involved attaching a peach baskets to a suspended board. It is now known as basketball. 


1967 - The first National Football League Super Bowl was played. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League. The final score was 35-10. 


1973 - U.S. President Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam. He cited progress in peace negotiations as the reason. 


1974 - "Happy Days" premiered on ABC-TV. 


1986 - President Reagan signed legislation making Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a national holiday to be celebrated on the third Monday of January.