On this day: January 4
Billboard publishes its first music chart, Sputnik falls to Earth, The Beatles record together for the last time, and Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female speaker of the House, all on this day.
1809: Louis Braille, teacher of the blind and inventor of braille, is born in Coupvray, France.
1809: Louis Braille, teacher of the blind and inventor of braille, is born in Coupvray, France.
1821: The first native-born American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, dies in Emmitsburg, Md. Seton established the nation's first Catholic school in Emmitsburg, where she also founded the first American congregation of Religious Sisters, the Sisters of Charity. She would be canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1975.
1847: Samuel Colt sells an order of his pistols to the government for the first time, with Capt. Samuel Walker of the Texas Rangers order more than 1,000 of Colt's firearms. The large order allowed Colt to establish a new firearm business.
1865: The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.
1896: Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
1912: The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal charter.
1930: Football coach Don Shula, who won 347 games as a coach with the Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins to become the winningest coach in NFL history, is born in Grand River, Ohio. Shula also guided the Dolphins to two Super Bowl titles, including the team's perfect 17-0 run during the 1972 season.
1935: Boxer Floyd Patterson, who, at age 21 in 1956, became the youngest man to win the world heavyweight title, is born in Waco, N.C. Patterson, who won a gold medal as a middleweight at the 1952 Olympic Games, was also the first heavyweight boxer to regain the title and retired with a record of 55 wins, eight losses and one draw, with 40 wins by knockout.
1936: Billboard magazine publishes its first "Hit Parade," which ranks songs based on sales and airplay. The first No. 1: "Stop! Look! Listen!" by Joe Venuti & his Orchestra.
1937: Actress Dyan Cannon, best known for roles in movies such as "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice," "Such Good Friends," "Revenge of the Pink Panther," "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Heaven Can Wait," is born Samile Diane Friesen in Tacoma, Wash. She's also known for her brief marriage to Cary Grant in the mid-1960s.
1951: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time during the Korean War.
1958: Sputnik 1 falls to Earth after spending three months in orbit. When Russia launched the satellite on Oct. 4, 1957, it became the first manmade object to orbit the Earth, setting off the Cold War-era "Space Race" between America and the Soviets.
1959: The Russian probe Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, passing within 3,725 miles of the Moon's surface.
1960: French author Albert Camus dies in an automobile accident at age 46 in Villeblevin, France. Camus was one of the founders of the philosophy known as absurdism and the second-youngest recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature, after Rudyard Kipling.
1960: Singer-songwriter Michael Stipe, the lead singer of the alternative rock band R.E.M., is born in Decatur, Ga.
1963: Comedian and actor Dave Foley, best known as a member of the comedy troupe "The Kids in the Hall" and for starring in the TV sitcom "NewsRadio," is born in Etobicoke, Ontario, Canada.
1965: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address. The effort included legislation that upheld civil rights, public broadcasting, Medicare, Medicaid, environmental protection, aid to education and Johnson's "War on Poverty."
1965: Actress Julia Ormond, best known for roles in movies such as "Legends of the Fall," "Smilla's Sense of Snow," "Sabrina" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," is born in Epsom, Surrey, England. She also won an Emmy Award in 2010 for her supporting role in the HBO movie "Temple Grandin."
1965: Writer and poet T. S. Eliot, best known for such poems as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" and "The Waste Land" and who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948, dies of emphysema at the age of 76 in London, England.
1970: The Beatles, minus John Lennon, who was on holiday in Denmark and had essentially left the band by that time, complete their last joint recording session at EMI studios, recording overdubs on the title track to the "Let It Be" album.
1974: U.S. President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
1982: President Ronald Reagan signs the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
1984: The TV sitcom "Night Court," starring Harry Anderson, John Larroquette and Richard Moll, premieres. The show would go on to last nine seasons, winning seven Emmys over 31 nominations before ending on May 31, 1992.
1995: The 104th Congress, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era, convenes and Newt Gingrich is elected speaker of the House.
1999: Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
2004: Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars. The rover would perform geological analysis of Martian rocks and planetary surface features, logging nearly five miles on the planet's surface, before becoming stuck in late 2009. Its last communication with Earth was sent on March 22, 2010.
2007: The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as the first female speaker of the House in U.S. history.
2010: Casey Johnson, a socialite and heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, is found dead at the age of 30 in her West Hollywood, Calif., home. Her death is later ruled the result of diabetic ketoacidosis, stemming from a shortage of insulin.
2010: Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building at 2,722 feet, officially opens in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
