On January 18, 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which he called the "Sandwich Islands..."

On Jan. 19, 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds..

Also on January 19, 1957, Philadelphia comedian, Ernie Kovacs, did a half-hour TV show without saying a single word of dialogue...

On Jan. 20, 1981, Iran released 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan

Also on January 20, 1942, Nazi officials held the Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their "final solution" that called for exterminating Europe's Jews...

On January 21, 1853, Dr. Russell L. Hawes patented the envelope folding machine...

Also on Jan. 21, 1924, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin died at age 54.

On January 22, 1889, the Columbia Phonograph Company was formed in Washington, DC...

Also on Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion.

On January 23, 1571, the Royal Exchange in London, founded by financier Thomas Gresham, was opened by Queen Elizabeth I...

Also on this day in 1957, machines at the Wham-O toy company roll out the first batch of their aerodynamic plastic discs--now known to millions of fans all over the world as Frisbees.

On January 24, 1848, James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California. The discovery led to the gold rush of '49...

Also on Jan. 24, 1965, Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.

On Jan. 25, 1915, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service. 20 years later, not sure what date, my grandfather had a phone installed in the family home.

Also on January 25, 1858, Mendelssohn’s "Wedding March" was presented for the first time, as the daughter of Queen Victoria married the Crown Prince of Prussia...

On Jan. 26, 1950, India proclaimed itself a republic.

Also on January 26, 1784, in a letter to his daughter, Benjamin Franklin expressed unhappiness over the eagle as the symbol of America. He wanted the symbol to be the turkey...

On Jan. 27, 1967, Astronauts Virgil I. ''Gus'' Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft at Cape Kennedy, Fla.

Also on January 27, 1880, Thomas Edison patented the electric incandescent lamp...

On Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members.

Also on January 28, 1521, the Diet of Worms began, at which Protestant reformer Luther was declared an outlaw by the Roman Catholic church...

On January 29, 1848, Greenwich Mean Time was adopted by Scotland...

Also on January 29th, 1845 Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

I know it was yesterday, but I just wanted to take a moment to remember these fine people, and the speech given by our then President Ronald Reagan.... in it's entirety;

"Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd planned to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the Union, but the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. Today is a day for mourning and remembering. Nancy and I are pained to the core by the tragedy of the shuttle Challenger. We know we share this pain with all of the people of our country. This is truly a national loss.

Nineteen years ago, almost to the day, we lost three astronauts in a terrible accident on the ground. But we've never lost an astronaut in flight. We've never had a tragedy like this.

And perhaps we've forgotten the courage it took for the crew of the shuttle. But they, the Challenger Seven, were aware of the dangers, but overcame them and did their jobs brilliantly. We mourn seven heroes: Michael Smith, Dick Scobee, Judith Resnik, Ronald McNair, Ellison Onizuka, Gregory Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe.

We mourn their loss as a nation together.

For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we're thinking about you so very much. Your loved ones were daring and brave, and they had that special grace, that special spirit that says, "Give me a challenge, and I'll meet it with joy." They had a hunger to explore the universe and discover its truths. They wished to serve, and they did. They served all of us.

We've grown used to wonders in this century. It's hard to dazzle us. But for twenty-five years the United States space program has been doing just that. We've grown used to the idea of space, and, perhaps we forget that we've only just begun. We're still pioneers. They, the members of the Challenger crew, were pioneers.

And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's take-off. I know it's hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them.

I've always had great faith in and respect for our space program. And what happened today does nothing to diminish it. We don't hide our space program. We don't keep secrets and cover things up. We do it all up front and in public. That's the way freedom is, and we wouldn't change it for a minute.

We'll continue our quest in space. There will be more shuttle flights and more shuttle crews and, yes, more volunteers, more civilians, more teachers in space. Nothing ends here; our hopes and our journeys continue.

I want to add that I wish I could talk to every man and woman who works for NASA, or who worked on this mission and tell them: "Your dedication and professionalism have moved and impressed us for decades. And we know of your anguish. We share it."

There's a coincidence today. On this day three hundred and ninety years ago, the great explorer Sir Francis Drake died aboard ship off the coast of Panama. In his lifetime the great frontiers were the oceans, and a historian later said, "He lived by the sea, died on it, and was buried in it." Well, today, we can say of the Challenger crew: Their dedication was, like Drake's, complete.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved goodbye and "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to "touch the face of God."

Thank you."

On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.

Also on January 30, 1847, the town of Yerba Buena was renamed San Francisco...

On Jan. 31, 1865, the House of Representatives passed a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery.

Also on January 31, 1606, Guy Fawkes was executed after being convicted for his role in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I..

On February 1st in 1884, the first portion, or fascicle, of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), considered the most comprehensive and accurate dictionary of the English language, is published.

Also on February 1, 1893, Thomas A. Edison completed work on the world's first motion picture studio in West Orange, NJ...

It's funny. You give a date about a revolutionary man but you don't speak about a big day from french revolution : jan 21 1793, the king Louis XVI is dead, killed by the people. Louis XVI was the king who help young America against english army

fev 02, 1635 : New York's foundation by Dutch (New Amsterdam)

On February 2, 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring.

Also, Tully, on February 2, 1848, the Mexican War was ended with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The treaty turned over portions of land to the U.S., including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, California and parts of Colorado and Wyoming. The U.S. gave Mexico $15,000,000 and assumed responsibility of all claims against Mexico by American citizens. Texas had already entered the U.S. on December 29, 1845...

On February 3, 1959 A plane crash in an Iowa farm field killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J.P. "the Big Bopper" Richardson and 21-year-old pilot Roger Peterson.

So today is the day the music died...

Also on February 3, 1913, the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. It authorized the power to impose and collect income tax...

fev 4, 1794 : first slavery abolition in France by the national convention but slaves are really free later (march 4, 1848)

Also on February 4, 2000- An Alaska Airlines jet plunged into the ocean off Southern California on a flight from Mexico to San Francisco, killing all 88 people on board.

Also on February 4, 1783, Britain declared a formal cessation of hostilities with its former colonies, the United States of America...

On February 5, 1958, Gamel Abdel Nasser was formally nominated to become the first president of the United Arab Republic...

Also on Feb. 5, 1937, President Roosevelt proposed increasing the number of Supreme Court justices; critics charged Roosevelt was attempting to "pack" the court.