It was the ultimate All-American romance: the tall, handsome hero
of the country’s national pastime captures the heart of the beautiful, glamorous Hollywood star. But the brief, volatile marriage of Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio–the couple wed on January 14, 1954–
barely got past the honeymoon before cracks began to show in
its brilliant veneer.

In 1952, the New York Yankees slugger DiMaggio asked an
acquaintance to arrange a dinner date with Monroe, a buxom
blonde model-turned-actress whose star was on the rise after
supporting roles in films such as Monkey Business (1952) and
a leading role in the B-movie thriller Don’t Bother to Knock (1952).

The press immediately picked up on the relationship and began to
cover it exhaustively, though Monroe and DiMaggio preferred to
keep a low profile, spending evenings at home or in a back corner
of DiMaggio’s restaurant. On January 14, 1954, they were married
at San Francisco City Hall, where they were mobbed by reporters
and fans. Monroe had apparently mentioned the wedding plans to someone at her film studio, who leaked it to the press.

Johnny Cash, backed by an all-star ensemble of talent, stepped
on stage at California State Prison in Folsom on this day in
history, Jan. 13, 1968. 

The concert and the subsequent live album launched him back
into the charts and re-defined his career.

The Man in Black recorded a landmark album that included
a song written by inmate Glen Sherley (right).

On January 13, 1982, an Air Florida Boeing 737-222 plunged into
the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing 78 people. The
crash, caused by bad weather, took place only two miles from
the White House.

The Air Florida flight took off from Washington National Airport
in Arlington, Virginia, with 74 passengers and 5 crew members
on board. The plane had flown into Washington from Miami in
the early afternoon and was supposed to return to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, after a short stop.

However, snow in Washington temporarily closed the airport and
when it reopened, the plane was de-iced with chemical anti-freeze,
but the plane still had difficulty moving away from the gate due to
the ice. When it eventually made it to the airport’s only usable
runway, it was forced to wait 45 minutes for clearance to take
off.

Not wanting to further delay the flight, the pilot, Larry Wheaton,
did not return for more de-icing, and worse, failed to turn on the
plane’s own de-icing system.

Henry Ford, standing, and Barney Oldfield in 1902, with the
“999” racing automobile.

On January 12, 1904, Henry Ford set a land-speed record of 91.37
mph on the frozen surface of Michigan’s Lake St. Clair. He was
driving a four-wheel vehicle, dubbed the “999,” with a wooden
chassis but no body or hood. Ford’s record was broken within
a month at Ormond Beach, Florida, by a driver named William K. Vanderbilt; even so, the publicity surrounding Ford’s achievement
was valuable to the auto pioneer, who in June of the previous year
had incorporated the Ford Motor Company, which would eventually
go on to become one of America’s Big Three automakers.

 
Henry Ford (1863-1947)    Berna Eli "Barney" Oldfield |
                                            (1878-1946)

The 999 today at The Henry Ford Museum.

From left: British Prime Minister Lloyd George, Italian
Council President Vittorio Orlando, French Council
President Georges Clemenceau and President
Woodrow Wilson attending the opening day of
the Conference for Peace in Paris.

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 more than
100 meetings.

Clemenceau (left) and President Wilson (center).