January 3 in Pop Culture History

1521 – The Roman Catholic Church excommunicated Martin Luther

1777 – Washington defeated the British at the Battle of Princeton, NJ

1847 – Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco

1871 – Oleomargarine was patented (#110626) by Henry Bradley in Binghamton, NY

1919 – Professor Ernest Rutherford succeeded in splitting the atom. He split nitrogen atoms into oxygen atoms.

1920 – New York Yankees purchased Babe Ruth from Red Sox for $125,000

1924 – British Egyptologist Howard Carter found the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen (King Tut)

1938 – March of Dimes was established

1951 – Dragnet premiered on NBC

1959 – Alaska was admitted as the 49th U.S. state

1970 – #1 Hit January 3, 1970 – January 30, 1970: B. J. Thomas – Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head

1970 – Jon Pertwee made his first appearance as the Third Doctor in the Doctor Who episode Spearhead from Space. It also marks the first time that the series was broadcast in color. (colour in the UK)

1973 – George Steinbrenner III bought the Yankees from CBS for $12 million

1976 – #1 Hit January 3, 1976 – January 9, 1976: Bay City Rollers – Saturday Night

1977 – Apple Computers incorporated

1977 – Holly Hallstrom joined Janice Pennington, and Dian Parkinson as a showcase model on The Price is Right.

1979 – The USA cable network was founded

1983 – Plinko was added as a Pricing Game for the series The Price Is Right

1987 – Unsolved Mysteries premiered (as a special) on NBC

1987 – Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted the 1st female artist, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin

1991 – First television sets to feature closed-caption displays were introduced in the U.S.

1993 – ABC and CBS simultaneously broadcast their own movies based on the Amy Fisher story, with ABC’s starring Drew Barrymore and CBS’s starring Alyssa Milano. NBC had already beaten the other networks airing their own version about six days prior.

1997 – Bryant Gumbel anchored his last episode of the Today Show.