On this day in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell made the first successful call with the telephone. He spoke the words "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.”
Alexander Graham Bell’s first telephone (above). This is the actual phone, not a reproduction, and it is kept securely at the Smithsonian institute in Washington, D.C.
Thomas Augustus Watson (January 18, 1854 – December 13, 1934)
Watson was an assistant to Alexander Graham Bell. He is best known because, as the recipient of the first telephone call from Bell.
On this day in 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured U.S. U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers (left) for the Soviet spy Rudolph Ivanovich Abel (right) being held by the United States.
Carol Elaine Channing (January 31, 1921 – January 15, 2019)
The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm on this day in 1991. The operation was designed to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf is shown above at ease with his tank troops in Saudi Arabia in January 12, 1991 before the U.S. executed the operation.
On the evening of January 16,1991, President George H. W. Bush addressed the nation to discuss the launch of Operation Desert Storm.
Coalition troops from Egypt, Syria, Oman, France and Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm.
The launch of Space Shuttle Columbia was planned to begin on January 11, 2001, but the mission was delayed 18 times and eventually launched on January 16, 2003 (above).
During the lift-off of Columbia’s 28th mission, a piece of foam insulation broke off from the Space Shuttle’s external tank and struck the left wing of the craft. An accident investigation board determined the damage to the wing allowed hot atmospheric gases to inter the heat shield, destroying the internal wing structure and caused the spacecraft to become unstable and break apart upon re-entering Earth’s atmosphere on February 1, killing all seven crew members.
On this day in 1960, U.S. Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for theDemocratic presidential nomination.
On this day in 1935, Bruno Richard Hauptmann went on trial for the kidnap-murder of Charles Lindberghs baby (below). Hauptmann was found guilt and executed.
Aviator Charles Augustus Lindbergh (February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)
On this day in 1998, President Bill Clinton, America’s chief executive, was impeached on two charges of perjury and obstruction of justice by the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the second president to be ordered to stand trial in the Senate since Andrew Johnson in 1868.
President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky pose for a photo in the Oval Office.
President Bill Clinton speaks about the Monica Lewinsky scandal at the White House on January 26, 1998 as First Lady Hillary Clinton looks on.
On this day in 1972, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.
The three astronauts (from left to right – Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt) get the red-carpet welcome back.
