On January 14, 1973, the Miami Dolphins achieve something
no NFL team has repeated: a perfect season. Despite a gaffe
by kicker Garo Yepremian that has earned its own place in
history, the Dolphins held on to beat Washington, 14-7,
in Super Bowl VII, capping a 17-0 season.

Head Coach Don Shula being interviewed after the game. 

 
MIKE GRACIA

Douglas Wilder, the first African American to be elected governor
of an American state, took office as Governor of Virginia on this
day in 1990. Wilder broke a number of color barriers in Virginia
politics and remains an enduring and controversial figure in the
state’s political scene.

Born in 1931 in Church Hill, a poor and segregated neighborhood
of Richmond, Wilder is the grandson of slaves and is named for Frederick Douglass. He grew up in the Jim Crow era, graduating
from Richmond’s Virginia Union University in 1951. Wilder fought
in the Korean War, earning the Bronze Star, before studying law
at Howard University and returning to Richmond to practice.

On January 12, 1926, the two-man comedy series “Sam ‘n’
Henry” debuted on Chicago  radio station WGN. Two years
later, after changing its name to “Amos ‘n’ Andy,” the show
became one of the most popular radio programs in American
history.

Though the creators and the stars of the new radio program,
Freeman Gosden and Charles Carrell, were both white, the
characters they played were two Black men from the Deep
South who moved to Chicago to seek their fortunes.

By that time, white actors performing in dark stage makeup—
or “blackface”—had been a significant tradition in American
theater for over 100 years.

Gosden and Carrell, both vaudeville performers, were doing
a Chicago comedy act in blackface when an employee at the
Chicago Tribune suggested they create a radio show.

All in the Family is an sitcom television series that aired 
on CBS for nine seasons from January 12, 1971, to April
8, 1979, with a total of 205 episodes.

All in the Family has been ranked as one of the best TV
series. The show became the most watched show in the
U.S.during the summer reruns of the first season, and
topped the yearly Nielsen ratings from 1971 to 1976, the
first television series to have held the position for five
consecutive years.

1971

Sally Anne Struthers (77) was born in Portland, Oregon.

In the first flight of its kind, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart
departed Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, on a solo flight
to North America. Hawaiian commercial interests offered a
$10,000 award to whoever accomplished the flight first.

The next day, after traveling 2,400 miles in 18 hours, she
safely landed at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.