Today in History....January 12

On this day in …

1773, the first public museum in America was established, in Charleston, S.C.
1900, the Detroit Automobile Company finished its first commercial vehicle, a delivery wagon. The wagon was designed by a young engineer named Henry Ford, who had produced his own first motorcar, the quadricycle, before joining the company

1915, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a proposal to give women the right to vote

1932, Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate


1942, President Roosevelt re-established the National War Labor Board

1945, during World War II, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe

1966, President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the U.S. should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there was ended

1984, an international panel overseeing the restoration of the Great Pyramids in Egypt overcomes years of frustration when it abandons modern construction techniques in favor of the method employed by the ancient Egyptians

1986, the shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz

1987, Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite arrived in Lebanon on his latest mission to win the release of four Western hostages being held by practitioners of that "religion of peace"; however, Waite ended up being taken captive himself

1997, the shuttle Atlantis blasted off on a mission to pick up American astronaut John Blaha from the Russian space station Mir

2002, the United States intensified its anti-terror campaign in eastern Afghanistan, dropping bombs on suspected al-Qaida and Taliban hideouts

2006, Mehmet Ali Agca, a practitioner of that "religion of peace" who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from an Istanbul prison after serving more than 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the plot against the pontiff and the slaying of a Turkish journalist