January 20, 1909 (Wednesday)
- A fire at the 68th Street water crib, which supplied drinking water to Chicago from Lake Michigan, killed 70 construction workers. Most were burned to death, but some died after jumping into the icy lake waters.
- General Motors purchased a one-half interest in the Oakland Motor Company of Pontiac, Michigan, acquiring full control after the death a few months later of its founder, Edward Murphy. After the creation of the Pontiac division in 1926 as a companion to Oakland in 1926, GM would discontinue the Oakland Motor division in 1932.
- Born: William "Spike" Eckert, MLB Commissioner 1965-68; in Madison, Indiana (d. 1971); and Gogen Yamaguchi, Japanese karate teacher, in MiyakonojĊ; (d. 1989)
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Famous quotes containing the word january:
“Here lies interred in the eternity of the past, from whence there is no resurrection for the days—whatever there may be for the dust—the thirty-third year of an ill-spent life, which, after a lingering disease of many months sank into a lethargy, and expired, January 22d, 1821, A.D. leaving a successor inconsolable for the very loss which occasioned its existence.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)