January 21: What Happened on This Day in History (Elementary Level)?

(Page last edited 10/12/2017)

1. 1789 - The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
2. 1948 - The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Quebec Flag Day.
3. 1960 - Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.
4. 1977 - President of the United States Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.
5. 2004 - NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
6. Famous Birthdays: Stonewall Jackson (American general), Pavel Florensky (Russian theologian and mathematician), Cristóbal Balenciaga (Spanish fashion designer, founded Balenciaga), Christian Dior (French fashion designer, founded Christian Dior S.A.), Konrad Emil Bloch (German-American biochemist, Nobel Prize laureate)

For famous birthdays and other daily events in history, visit our Daily Dose Activities.

Click Here for Yesterday in History: January 20

Click Here for Tomorrow in History: January 22

For more history resources on Internet 4 Classrooms, visit our Social Studies and History index. For Pre K-8th Grade Level History and Social Studies Resources, visit our Grade Level Index.