This Day…

1978 – First postage stamp to honor a black woman, Harriet Tubman, is issued in Washington, DC.

1890 – Journalist Nellie Bly beats the fictitious journey of Jules Verne‘s Phileas Fogg around the world by 8 days (72 days)

On January 23, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell graduated from Geneva Medical College. She was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States.

1921 – British crime writer Agatha Christie publishes her first novel “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” introducing the character Hercule Poirot

1884 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Iesu Grist (Welsh for Jesus Christ) Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom

1831 – 1st US railroad honeymoon trip, Mr & Mrs Pierson, Charleston, South Carolina

1861 – A Union merchant ship, the Star of the West, is fired upon as it tries to deliver supplies to Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

1953 – US President Harry Truman announces American development of the hydrogen bomb

1949 – US President Harry Truman labels his administration the “Fair Deal”

1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government