3rd January

[chenrezig]

1925 – Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
1956 – A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
1957 – The Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
1977 – Apple Computers is incorporated.
1994 – More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receive South African citizenship.
1996 – The Motorola StarTAC, the first flip phone and one of the first mobile phones to gain widespread consumer adoption, goes on sale.
1999 – The Mars Polar Lander is launched.
2000 – The last original weekday Peanuts comic strip is published.

Births
1892 – J. R. R. Tolkien, English philologist and author (d. 1973)
1907 – Ray Milland, Welsh-American actor and director (d. 1986)
1909 – Victor Borge, Danish-American pianist and comedian (d. 2000)
1922 – Bill Travers, English actor, screenwriter, and director (d. 1994)
1942 – John Thaw, English actor (d. 2002)
1969 – Michael Schumacher, German race car driver

Deaths
1946 – William Joyce, American-English politician (b. 1906) “Lord Haw Haw”
1970 – Gladys Aylward, English missionary (b. 1902)
1979 – Conrad Hilton, American businessman, founded the Hilton Hotels & Resorts (b. 1887)
1980 – Joy Adamson, Czech author (b. 1910) “Born Free”

[annie]

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