On January 5, 1531, Pope Clement VII forbids King Henry VIII to remarry, under penalty of excommunication. Henry wanted out of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, but was aware of the political ramnifications of violating Catholic doctrine and asked Clement to annul the marriage. Clement refused, both because of Catholic doctrine and political pressure of his own, from Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was Catherine's nephew. Henry ultimately ignored the order, divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn (and four more women over the years) and over the following years issued a series of edicts that would lead to the formation of the Church of England which, in general, followed the Protestant guidelines set down by Martin Luther in his Reformation. In his January 5, 1949 State of the Union address, President Harry Truman announces that every American should expect a "fair deal" from their government. Truman's plan expands on many of his predecessor Franklin D. Roosevelt's "New Deal' policies, calling for national health insurance, an increase in the minimum wage, public housing, civil rights legislation, farm subsidies and extended Social Security benefits. Congress grudgingly signs off on a few of the "fair deal" proposals, but foreign affairs, including the Korean War, will soon begin distracting Truman from his domestic agenda. On January 5, 1980, "Rapper's Delight" by the Sugarhill Gang becomes the first song of the "hip hop" genre to land on Billboard Magazine's Top 40 pop chart. Until Wonder Mike, Master G and Big Bank Hank went into the recording studio, hip hop - a blend of "MC's" rapping to DJ's mixing and "scratching" records - was strictly a performance medium experienced mostly in NYC clubs. Sylvia Robinson, a former singer and small record label owner, heard such a performance and wondered if it would sell in recordings. She set her son Joey on the task of finding a group to bring the hip hop sound into the studio and within three days, the Sugarhill Gang (Sylvia gave the threesome its group name) recorded the rap allegedly stolen from a popular Harlem DJ over a beat lifted from Chic's disco hit "Good Times."
On January 6, 1919, former President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt dies at his Sagamore Hill estate in New York. He was 60 years old. Roosevelt became our youngest president ever when he ascended to the office at age 43 with the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. He would win a full term of office in 1904. Historians consider the Roosevelt Administration to be the transition to the modern presidency, as Roosevelt would become the first president to travel outside the U.S. and also take a broader role in international relations than ever before, winning the 1906 Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the negotiations that led to the end of the Ruso-Japanese War. He built up the U.S. Navy, and domestically, started the national park program. On January 6, 2001, Congress certifies the election of George W. Bush as President, ending one of the most hotly contested campaigns in history. At the close of election night the previous November, Bush trailed Vice President Al Gore 266 electoral votes to 246, with Florida's ballot count too close to call. With Florida's 25 electoral votes hanging in the balance, the state would go through numerous manual recounts over the next five weeks (at no point during the proceedings did Gore hold a lead in the count), until the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and ordered the process halted, declaring Bush the winner. On January 6, 1975, NBC TV debuts a new game show, Wheel of Fortune. The show is based on the game hangman, as players work to reveal a name or phrase by guessing letters. Before each guess, players spin a large roulette-style wheel to designate a dollar value for each guess. The player who correctly solves the puzzle then gets to "spend" the money earned on an assortment of prizes. (This phase of the show was later eliminated, the winner instead getting to keep the money) The show was originally hosted by veteran game show host Chuck Woolery, with model Susan Stafford turning the letters on the puzzle as they are guessed. In 1981, show producer Merv Griffin replaced Woolery with LA TV weatherman Pat Sajak (for his "quirky" sense of humor) and in 1982, Stafford was replaced by an unknown actress named Vanna White. Today, Wheel of Fortune is the longest running syndicated game show in American TV history.
On January 7, 1979, Vietnamese forces seize the Cambodian capitol city of Phnom Penh and overthrow dictator Pol Pot. Leading a guerilla army known as Khmer Rouge, Pol had taken over Cambodia in 1975 and launched a campaign to remake the nation into a Communist, agrarian society. Cities were abandoned, schools and factories closed, and private property confiscated. Skilled workers and intellectuals were killed, and the possession of any technology, even something as benign as a pair of eyeglasses, was grounds for execution. Between '75 and '78 an estimated 2 million Cambodians were killed by Khmer Rouge. Pol escaped into the jungle when his government was ousted. He was captured in 1997 and died of natural causes while under house arrest a year later. On January 7, 1892, a massive explosion at the Osage coal mine near Krebs, Oklahoma, claims 100 lives, with another 150 injured in one of the worst mining disasters in U.S. history. The mine was on native American-owned land and not subject to government regulation, and Osage had a reputation of being lax in its safety precautions. It was determined that an inexperienced worker accidentally set off a cache' of explosives. On January 7, 2020, the music world loses perhaps the greatest rock drummer of all time, with the death of Neil Peart from glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 67 years old. Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Peart was managing the parts department of his father's tractor supply store in 1974 when he auditioned for an up-and-coming Toronto band called Rush. Peart felt the audition was a disaster, but band members Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson disagreed, and the trio performed live together for the first time a couple of weeks later. Peart quickly was designated the band's lyricist, drawing on his love of literature to write epic sci-fi and mythology-based songs that would earn Rush a reputation of being "too nerdy" to be considered cool. But Peart's skill was undeniable; the readers of Modern Drummer would vote him best rock drummer 7 years in a row in the 1980's and twice more in the 2000's. Drum! magazine would also name him drummer of the year 4 times in the 2000's By the band's retirement in 2015, the members of Rush had been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Order of Canada (knighthood). Peart also authored 11 books, 4 fiction and 7 non-fiction. 10 Times Neil Peart Was the Best Drummer on Earth - YouTube
On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act into law. The bipartisan act is a drastic reform of public primary and secondary education that measured every school's yearly progress, based on the results of standardized testing. Schools that failed to maintain "adequate" progress were subject to punitive measures up to and including takeover by state authorities. NCLB today is generally considered a failure; it was partially replaced in 2015 by the Every Student Succeeds Act, which retained parts of NCLB. On January 8, 1982, AT&T Corporation agrees to give up control of 22 subsidiary telephone companies across America and Canada. The "breakup of Ma Bell" had been 8 years in the making, the government having filed an anti-trust suit in 1974, claiming AT&T had a monopoly on telecommunications. The suit asked that AT&T give up control of only one subsidiary, but it was the one that allowed the monopoly; Western Electric, which built most of the telecommunications equipment in the nation at the time. AT&T proposed the consent decree that was eventually implemented; it would retain Western Electric, but give up control of 22 regional service providers across the continent. The breakup led to a surge in competition for America's long-distance phone needs. On January 8, 1946, an 11-year old boy in Tupelo, Mississippi is torn between two birthday wishes; he wants either a bike or a rifle. His "overly protective" mother disapproves of both wishes, and takes him to the Tupelo Hardware Store, buying him a $6.95 guitar. Elvis Presley would get over his disappointment.
The AT&T breakup is one of the most consequential in history. Our current phone systems, internet and options of communication all stem from the competition unleashed by this. There had been little change in telecommunications for almost 100 years all suppressed by the Bell monopoly. It should be a lesson to everyone but it seems to be forgotten every time. The largest monopoly or more correct cartel is in the health care system. Government, big insurance, big hospitals and pharma conspire to control the system. As a result we pay more and get less. Only a well regulated free market provides the best outcome for the people.
