On January 12, 1777, American Brigadier General Hugh Mercer dies from the seven bayonet wounds he received during the Battle of Princeton. Mercer’s military service ranged over two continents and three armies. Born in Rosehearty, Scotland, Mercer studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen and first served as an assistant surgeon in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s […]

On January 12, 1888, the so-called “Schoolchildren’s Blizzard” kills 235 people, many of whom were children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning, and some accounts say that the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees in just 24 hours. It was a […]

The day after British Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s arrival in Paris, he meets with representatives from the other Big Four nations—Prime Ministers Georges Clemenceau of France and Vittorio Orlando of Italy and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States—at the French Foreign Ministry on the Quai d’Orsay, for the first of what will be […]

On January 12, 1926, the two-man comedy series “Sam ‘n’ Henry” debuts on Chicago’s WGN radio station. Two years later, after changing its name to “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the show becomes one of the most popular radio programs in American history. Though the creators and the stars of the new radio program, Freeman Gosden and […]

On January 12, 1943, Soviet troops create a breach in the German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for a year and a half. The Soviet forces punched a hole in the siege, which ruptured the German encirclement and allowed for more supplies to come in along Lake Ladoga. Upon invading the Soviet Union in […]

The oil tycoon Blake Carrington (John Forsythe) prepares to marry his former secretary, the beautiful and innocent Krystle (Linda Evans), in the three-hour television movie that kicks off the prime-time ABC soap opera Dynasty on January 12, 1981. Over the next eight years, the Carringtons, a rich Denver oil clan, and another wealthy family, the […]

On January 12,1986, astronaut and physicist Franklin Chang-Diaz becomes the first Hispanic American to fly in space on the Space Shuttle Columbia, which orbited Earth 96 times, deployed the SATCOM KU satellite used for broadcast television and conducted experiments in astrophysics. It was a high point in an aeronautical career with plenty of high points. […]

Haiti is devastated by a massive earthquake on January 12, 2010, Haiti. It drew an outpouring of support from around the globe but the small island nation has yet to fully recover.