The Lucas Gusher at Spindletop, just south of Beaumont, Texas, blew a stream of oil over 100 feet high on January 10, 1901 until it was capped nine days later and flowed an estimated 100,000 barrels a day. The oil was found at a depth of 1,139 feet and it herald the beginning of the American Oil era. While some made fortunes, others lost everything. More
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What Happened in January?
Tragic deaths, ravaged cities, and great acts of heroism. Discover what happened this month in history and the defining moments that shaped the world. Dates for earlier events may be approximate.
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Edward VII is proclaimed King on January 22, 1901, immediately following the death of his mother, Queen Victoria; he was crowned on August 9, 1902 Edward died on May 6, 1910 of heart failure and was succeeded by his son George V.
The first American college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, is held in Pasadena, California.
The first large-scale bodybuilding competition in America is held at Madison Square Garden, New York City.
The Russian Revolution of 1905 begins as a peaceful protest by Russian workers in St. Petersburg turns violent.
The Cullinan Diamond, the largest diamond ever found is discovered near Pretoria in modern-day South Africa. It was named after the chairman of the mining company, Thomas Cullinan.
In its uncut state, it weighed 3,106 metric carats with a size of 10.1 x 6.35 x 5.9 cm. with extraordinary blue-white color and exceptional clarity. The rough stone was gifted to King Edward VII in 1907 and cut into nine major diamonds named Cullinan I through IX, ranked from largest to smallest. More
The coastal liner British SS Valencia caught in heavy fog and rain runs aground on Walla Walla Reef off Vancouver Island. resulting in over 136 deaths.
The catastrophe led to the development on Vancouver Island of the West Coast Trail and the construction of the Pachena Point Lighthouse.
U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt declares the Grand Canyon in Arizona a National Monument on January 11, 1908, after having previously established it as a Game Preserve by Proclamation in 1906. Theodore Roosevelt, protected approximately 230 million acres of public land during his presidency.
Theodore Roosevelt famously stated "You cannot improve on it. But what you can do is keep it for your children, your children's children, and all who come after you". More
New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, prohibiting women from smoking in public establishments. The law elicited significant protests and was vetoed by the Mayor shortly after its passage.
Ernest Shackleton's expedition reaches the magnetic South Pole.
The first live public radio broadcast a live performance from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, takes place on January 13, 1910 in the United States. The performance were Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci with tenor Enrico Caruso. The transmission, to a limited audience, was managed by inventor Lee de Forest from New York.
The first landing of an aircraft on a ship occurs on January 18, 1911, as Eugene Ely lands a Curtiss Pusher biplane on the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay.
New Mexico is admitted into the United States becoming the 47th State of the Union.
British explorer Robert Falcon Scott and four members of his expedition reached the South Pole on January 18, 1912, only to discover that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had reached the South Pole five weeks earlier, on December 14, 1911. Scott and his men died when trying to return to their base camp.
The first telephone line across the Atlantic Ocean is established between New York and London.
A Magnitude 6.7 earthquake in Avezzano, Italy, kills over 29,000 people on January 13, 1915. The earthquake struck through the Marsica area in the Province of L’Aquila, Abruzzo, with the epicenter beneath the town of Avezzano, which was reduced to rubble.
A German cruiser sinks first American merchant ship, the William P. Frye, off the coast of Brazil. More
The U.S. Congress creates the Coast Guard by combining the Revenue Cutter Service with the U.S. Life-Saving Service, and was officially renamed the Coast Guard. In 1939, the Lighthouse Service was folded in and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation was added to the USCG in 1946.
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President Woodrow Wilson delivers his famous "Peace Without Victory" address to the United States Senate on January 22, 1917. As Wilson attempted to position the nation as a mediator to end the conflict through diplomacy rather than total military conquest.
United States President Woodrow Wilson outlines his "Fourteen Points" for peace after World War I.