Monthly Archives: January 2010

This Day in Politics – January 30, 1835 – First attempt at killing a US President

On January 30, 1985, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen. This is quite the story: Lawrence worked as a painter and there is speculation that exposure to the chemicals in his paints may have contributed to his derangements. By the early 1830s [...]

This Day in History – January 29, 1967 – the Outer Space Treaty

No this isn’t something on Star Trek. This is a real treaty that was signed on January 29, 1967. The Outer Space Treaty represents the basic legal framework of international space law. Among its principles, it bars States Parties to the Treaty from placing nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit [...]

This day in Politics : January 26, 1998 : The Lewinsky Scandal

At the time, this was big news… The Lewinsky Scandal was a political sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between United States President Bill Clinton and a 22-year-old White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. The news of this extra-marital affair and the resulting investigation eventually led to the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998 by [...]

This Day in Politics: 1919 – League of Nations founded

The League was an organization that was founded after the Treaty of Versailles was signed in 1919–1920. It later became the United Nations. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members. The League’s primary goals as stated in its Covenant included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, [...]

This Day in Politics: 2008: Black Monday

January 2008 was an especially volatile month in world stock markets, with a surge in implied volatility measurements of the US-based S&P 500 index, and a sharp decrease in non-U.S. stock market prices on Monday, January 21, 2008 (continuing to a lesser extent in some markets on January 22). Some headline writers and a general [...]

This Day in History: Inauguration Day

Since 1933, Inauguration Day has occurred on January 20 thanks to the 1933 ratification of the Twentieth Amendment which changed the date. The inauguration of the President of the United States occurs upon the commencement of a new term of a President of the United States. The only inauguration element mandated by the United States [...]

This Day in Politics: January 19: The Finnish Civil War

I’m going to focus on specific events from now on rather than going on about a bunch of different political events so today I’ll discuss the first major battle of the Finnish Civil War which took place on January 19, 1918. In the March of 1917 there weren’t really any army forces or police to [...]