Images in History

On January 9, 1942 U.S. Army pilots Lt. George S. Welch (1918-1954) (left) and Lt. Kenneth M. Taylor (1919-2006) (right) received The Distinguished Service Cross for their courageous actions during the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor the previous December 7, 1941. Both managed to get their P-40 fighter planes off the ground during the attack. Welch shot down 4 Japanese planes and Taylor downed 2 (with another 2 probable) such as the Japanese bomber at right flying above the smoking ships at Ford Island during the attack. Their brave exploits were profiled in the film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and served as the role models for the leading protagonists in Pearl Harbor (2001).

Bill Clinton (William Jefferson Clinton, August 19, 1946-), Democratic politician, becomes Governor of Arkansas on January 9, 1979. Clinton went on win the 1992 election to become the forty-second President of the U.S., and in 1996 became the first member of the Democratic Party since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be re-elected to a second full term.

Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, swinging away at right, is recalled to active duty on January 9, 1952 as a Marine pilot for the Korean War. Williams played professional baseball from 1939-1960, and amassed career totals of a .344 lifetime batting average (BA), 521 home runs (HR) and 1,839 runs batted in (RBI). He was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 1966.

The television western "Rawhide," starring Clint Eastwood, left, premieres on CBS TV on January 9, 1959. The program was phenomenally successful, with a total of 217 episodes running for 8 seasons from 1959 to 1966. Although initially cast in other western films (such as The Good, the Bad and the Ugly in 1966), Eastwood would go on to become a versatile and long-lasting superstar in films as both actor and director, winning Oscars as Best Director and Best Producer of the Best Picture for Unforgiven (1992).

Muir Woods (left) is established as a National Monument in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Mill Valley, California, on January 9, 1908. The woods harbor some of the tallest trees in America, such as the giant redwoods seen at right.

Richard M. Nixon
Born January 9, 1913
Died April 22, 1994
37th President (Republican)
of the U.S. (1969-1974).

Actress Anita Louise
Born January 9, 1905
Died April 25, 1970
Shown center in
A Midsummer
Night's Dream (1935).

Actor John Gilbert
Born July 10, 1897
Died January 9, 1936
With Greta Garbo in
Flesh and the Devil (1926).

Actor-comedian Arthur Lake
Born April 17, 1905
Died January 9, 1987
Here as Dagwood with Penny
Singleton in "Blondie"

The Beatles "65" album goes to Number One on January 9, 1965 and stays in that position for nine weeks. The Beatles, shown top left in London England in 1962, are, left to right: George Harrison (1943-2001), Ringo Starr (1940- ), John Lennon (1940-1980), and Paul McCartney (1942- ).

Formed in Liverpool, England in 1960, the Beatles became one of the most commercially successful bands in the history of popular music, their records selling in the hundreds of millions. Songs on the "65" album continue to sell heavily to this day.

In addition to many albums and live performances, the Beatles appeared in several films, including The Beatles Come to Town, a 1963 short at the ABC Cinema, Lancashire, England on November 20, 1963, top right, the 1965 film Help, bottom left, and Yellow Submarine (1968), bottom right.