This day in history...

On January 11, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt designates the Grand Canyon in Arizona a national monument. In 1540, Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado became the first Westerner to see the massive canyon, but it was not until 1869 that the first real exploration of the canyon took place, when geologist John Wesley Powell led a 10-man expedition down the Colorado River through the canyon's 277 mile length. A champion of environmental conservation, Roosevelt visited the canyon shortly after his 1901 inauguration. Congress immediately began debating national park status for the canyon; Roosevelt shortcircuited procedure by giving it national monument status, which offered the same government protections. Roosevelt protected a number of natural landmarks throughout the western U.S. in this manner during his presidency. (photo taken during the Powell expedition)


On January 11, 1935, Amelia Earhart takes off from Wheeler Field, Honolulu. She would land in Oakland 18 hours and 2,400 miles later, becoming the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California. Commercial interests in Hawaii had offered a $10,000 prize to the first person to complete the flight. Earhart flew the same Lockheed Vega she used in several of her more notable solo flights; the airplane is now in the Smithsonian.


On January 11, 1973, Major League baseball owners announce the American League will adopt a "designated pinch-hitter" rule for the upcoming season. This "designated hitter" would be part of the batting order from the game's start in place of the pitcher, who would be allowed to remain in the game. The rule had been suggested twice before earlier in the century and rejected; this time, Oakland Athletics owner Charles Finley (below) was able to gain support for the rule, but only in the American League. National League owners rejected the change, marking the '73 season as the first in which the two leagues would use a different rule. The Yankees officially became the first team to use a designated hitter; on opening day, DH Ron Blomberg drew a walk from Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant. Originally accepted as a 3-year experiment, the DH rule was later made permanent, and eventually adopted at most levels of both professional and amateur baseball. Baseball purists continue to denounce the rule, saying it makes pitchers less of a player by denying them the responsibility of hitting, and that it lessens the need for strategic in-game lineup changes by coaches.

 

On January 12, 1943, Soviet troops breach the German lines encircling the city of Leningrad at Lake Lagonda. The residents of the beseiged city are resupplied for the first time in 18 months. More than 10% of the Soviet Union's industrial might was centered in Leningrad, making it a prime target of the German invasion (Hitler planned to eventually leave the defeated city in the hands of Finland). Failing to take the city in its initial attack, the Germans went into siege mode on September 8, 1941....


On January 12, 1969, Joe Namath makes good on his guarantee. Three days earlier, the 4th year quarterback of the New York Jets, made a drunken promise to the Miami Touchdown Club, in its final meeting before the Jets took on the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III: "We're gonna win. I guarantee it." The Jets, champions of the upstart American Football League, were an 18-point underdog to the Colts, and one NFL coach pronounced "Namath will be playing his first professional football game" in the Super Bowl. Pretty good debut: Namath completed 17 of 28 passes for 206 yards and was named the game's MVP. It was the first win in the Super Bowl for the AFL, which would merge with the older NFL two years later.


On January 12, 1966, the ABC television network premiers a new prime time series, Batman. Starring Adam West as the Caped Crusader, Burt Ward as "his youthful ward, Dick Grayson" and dozens of Hollywood A-listers as "guest villains", the series is a far cry from the dark DC Comics serial; Batman is loaded with campy humor, bad puns and simplistic lessons in morality. Executive Producer William Dozier described it at the time as "the only sitcom on TV without a laugh track." Audiences received it well for awhile, but interest began to fade by the 3rd season (despite the addition of a well-stacked Yvonne Craig as Batgirl), and Batman did not see a fourth season.

 

Unitas was hurt and didn't get into the game until the second half. Namath gets all the glory for that game because of his mouth but the Jets won it with defense.

 

on January 13, 1893, U.S. Marines and sailors from the USS Boston take up defensive positions at key points of American interest in Honolulu, Hawaii. Their main role was to discourage loyalists of Queen Liliuokalani from moving against her opponents, mostly American nationalists. Liliuokalani had risen to the throne two years earlier on the death of her brother. In 1887, King Kalākaua had been coerced to sign a Constitution for the Hawaiian Kingdom that stripped the monarchy of much of its power; Liliuokalani would dub it the Bayonet Constitution. Trouble began brewing when she began advocating for a new Constitution. Without firing a shot, the U.S. naval presence cooled the talk, and Liliuokalani was ousted by the Americans and anti-monarchists among the Hawaiian people before the end of the month.


On January 13, 1942, a new innovation in military aircraft safety gets its first practical test. German test pilot Helmut Schenk was at the controls of a jet fighter prototype when the control surfaces iced up. Schenk pushed a button, and a compressed air system blew the canopy off the aircraft and launched the pilot, in his seat, clear of the aircraft. Germany incorporated the "ejector seat" into its first production jet fighters in 1944. After the war, as piston-driven propeller aircraft were replaced by jet planes, the ejector seat was adopted around the world. (German ejector seat test)


On January 13, 2020, the Louisiana State University Tigers complete arguably the greatest football season of all time, defeating the defending national champion Clemson Tigers 42-25. The victory gave the LSU Tigers a 15-0 record and their first national championship since 2011. The Tigers were sparked by a record-setting offense directed by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Joe Burrow, who set a single-season collegiate record for most TD passes (60) and the highest one-year quarterback rating ever at 202.0. During the course of the season, LSU defeated 7 opponents who were ranked in the nation's top ten at the time the games were played.

 

On January 14, 1967, about 25,000 hippies gather at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park for the "Human Be-In." The occasion was called to protest a new California law banning LSD. The elite of America's counterculture were there, including locally-based rock bands Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, and author Timothy Leary, who set the tone of the day when he dropped the phrase "Turn on, tune in, drop out." Grateful Dead sound engineer and "underground chemist" Owsley Stanley showed up with a large quantity of his own special brand of LSD, which was distributed to the crowd. The scope of the event stunned national media, established SF's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood as the headquarters of the 60's counter-culture movement and started a craze of every gathering being referred to as some kind of "-in" (like a love-in or a fly-in)


On January 14, 1973, the Miami Dolphins complete the only perfect season in modern NFL history, beating the Washington Redskins 14-7 in Super Bowl VII in Los Angeles. The Dolphins went 14-0 in the regular season and then swept through the postseason despite the loss of starting quarterback Bob Griese in the 5th game with a fractured leg and dislocated ankle. Earl Morrall completed the season at quarterback and led the team to the Super Bowl, as he had when he backed up the Colts' John Unitas in the 1969 season (Morrall's head coach in both Super Bowls was Don Shula). The game was the lowest scoring in Super Bowl history until Super Bowl LIII and remains the only Super Bowl in which the eventual winner was shut out in the 2nd half. Safety Jake Scott intercepted two passes and became the second defensive player to win the game's MVP award.