Moments in Time – January 14, 2025

#MiddleburyCT

  • On Jan. 27, 1906, Norwegian speed skater Rudolf Gundersen set an impressive world record in a 500-meter speed skating event in Davos, Switzerland, completing the distance in just 44.8 seconds.
  • On Jan. 28, 1917, a maid named Carmelita Torres objected to the chemical delousing frequently given to Mexicans crossing into the U.S. by initially refusing to leave the trolley carrying her and other immigrant workers, then hurling whatever she and her fellow riders could find at American authorities in what became known as the Bath Riots, which lasted through the following day.
  • On Jan. 29, 1958, one of Hollywood’s most enduring marriages began in Las Vegas, Nevada, when actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward tied the knot. The union lasted until Newman’s death from lung cancer in 2008, at the age of 83.
  • On Jan. 30, 1835, Andrew Jackson experienced the dubious distinction of being the first American president to be the victim of an assassination attempt. He clubbed the attacker, Richard Lawrence, several times with his cane and escaped angry but unscathed, thanks to both of Lawrence’s guns misfiring, and Lawrence spent the rest of his days in a mental institution.
  • On Jan. 31, 1945, Private Eddie Slovik was shot and killed by a 12-man firing squad in eastern France, making him the first American soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion.
  • On Feb. 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke up while entering Earth’s atmosphere over Texas, killing all seven crew members. Strangely, worms used in a study by the crew, that were stored in a canister aboard the shuttle, did survive.
  • On Feb. 2, 1897, inventor and businessman Alfred Cralle, a porter at the Markell Brothers drugstore in Pittsburgh, patented the first ice cream scoop, which he called the “ice-cream mold and disher.” The Pittsburgh Press reported that the scoop could serve up “40 to 50 dishes of ice cream in a minute,” while avoiding “the soiling of the hands.” Cralle was the first Black man in Pittsburgh to receive his own patent.

© 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.

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