Moments in Time: First drive-through McDonald's
The History Channel
On Jan. 13, 1995, America3 ("America Cubed"), an all-female sailing team, won the first race of the America's Cup defender trials in little more than a minute. The team was the sport's first all-women crew to compete in the Cup's 144-year history.
On Jan. 14, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Presidential Proclamation No. 2537, requiring non-U.S. citizens from World War II-enemy countries (Italy, Germany and Japan) to register with the United States Department of Justice, after which they were given a Certificate of Identification for Aliens of Enemy Nationality. The Proclamation facilitated the beginning of full-scale Japanese American internment the following month.
On Jan. 15, 1951, Ilse Koch, known as the "Witch of Buchenwald" for the extraordinary sadism she displayed toward that camp's prisoners, was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity by a West German court. The sentence was reduced to four years and Koch was released, then imprisoned again with a second life term. She escaped that fate by hanging herself with a bedsheet in 1967.
On Jan. 16, 1973, the final episode of "Bonanza," written and directed by Michael Landon, aired on NBC, completing a 14-season run centering on thrice-widowed patriarch Ben Cartwright, his sons, and their adventures on the thousand-square-mile Ponderosa Ranch in Nevada.
On Jan. 17, 2013, Sergei Filin, the artistic director of the Bolshoi Ballet, was attacked outside his Moscow home with acid by a masked man later revealed to have been hired by company dancer Pavel Dmitrichenko.
On Jan. 18, 1862, America's 10th president, described in his New York Times obituary as "the most unpopular public man that had ever held any office in the United States," John Tyler died at age 71 in Richmond, Virginia.
On Jan. 19, 2007, Beijing, China got its first drive-through McDonald's restaurant, a two-story building next to a gas station that celebrated its christening in a ceremony complete with traditional Chinese lion dancers and, of course, a Chinese Ronald McDonald.
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