On January 15, 2009, a potential disaster turned into a heroic
display of skill and composure when Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles safely land the
plane they were piloting on New York City’s Hudson River
after a bird strike caused its engines to fail. David Paterson,
governor of New York at the time, dubbed the incident the
“miracle on the Hudson.”  

Sullenberger, a former Air Force fighter pilot with decades of
flying experience, received a slew of honors for his actions,
including an invitation to Barack Obama’s presidential
inauguration and resolutions of praise from the U.S.
Congress.

Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III and co-pilot Jeffrey Skiles.

Chesley Burnett "Sully" Sullenberger III will
turn 73 on January 23rd. 

The incident was adapted into the feature film
Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood. It starred Tom        
Hanks as Sullenberger and Aaron Eckhart as      
Skiles. It was released by Warner Bros. on
September 9, 2016.

On January 5, 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate
Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet
of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.

On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened, Celebrations lasted for a week! Vehicles were not permitted to cross on the first
day, so 200,000 people made their way across the bridge on foot
or roller skaters. The day after it opened, President Roosevelt, who
was in Washington D.C., had pushed a button that allowed vehicles across the bridge.

 
With locked exits and boarded-up vents, the Iroquois Theater was a perfect death trap.

A fire in the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois, killed more than
600 people on December 30, 1903. It was the deadliest theater fire
in U.S. history. Blocked fire exits and the lack of a fire-safety plan
caused most of the deaths.

Shocking 1903 illustration of the infamous Chicago Iroquois Theater Fire. Originally published in France.

The Oriental Theater, which retained the façade of the ill-
fated Iroquois Theater.

December 28, 1978

United Airlines Flight 173 was a scheduled flight from John F.
Kennedy International Airport in New York City to Portland
International Airport in Portland, Oregon, with a scheduled
stop in Denver, Colorado.

On Thursday, December 28, 1978, the aircraft flying this route
ran out of fuel while troubleshooting a landing gear problem
and crashed in a suburban Portland neighborhood near NE
157th Avenue and East Burnside Street.

(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

The crash site as it looks today.

On December 28, 1981, the first American "test-tube baby,"
a child born as a result of in-vitro fertilization,was born in
Norfolk, Virginia. Considered a miracle at the time, births
like that of Elizabeth Jordan Carr are now common.

Elizabeth Jordan Carr is 42 years young today.

On August 5, 2010, Carr gave birth to her first child, Trevor
James Comeau (below). He was conceived without the
assistance of Artificial Reproductive Technology.