Today in History - History - January 1st

1976After 45 years of coaching, Paul Brown announces his retirement from the National Football League

1907Pres Theodore Roosevelt shakes a record 8,513 hands in 1 day

1776Gen George Washington hoists Continental Union Flag

1995Last "Far Side" by cartoonist Gary Larson (started 1980)

1919Edsel Ford succeeds his father, Henry Ford, as president of the Ford Motor Company.

1950Ho Chi Minh begins offensive against French troops in Indo China

1965American actor George Murphy begins his term as Senator of California

1960Johnny Cash plays first of many free concerts behind bars

1651Charles II Stuart crowned king of Scotland

1818Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus" is published anonymously by the small London publishing house of Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones

1892Manuel Roxas y Acuna, 1st president Philippines

1895J. Edgar Hoover, Washington, D.C., first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (1924-72)

1735Paul Revere, silversmith/US patriot (British are coming)

1752Betsy Ross [Elizabeth Griscom], seamstress widely credited with making the first American flag

1911Hank Greenberg, Hall-of-Fame 1st baseman (Detroit Tiger)

1927Vernon L. Smith, American economist (Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences)

1811Writer James Fenimore Cooper (21) weds Susan Augusta de Lancey in Mamaroneck, New York

1936Actor Paul Henreid (27) weds Elizabeth Camilla Julia Gluck

2011Singer-songwriter Shania Twain (46) weds Swiss business executive Frederic Thiebaud in Rincon, Puerto Rico

1979Film director John Carpenter (30) weds actress Adrienne Barbeau (33)

1994Microsoft CEO Bill Gates (38) marries Melinda French (29)

1824US President James Knox Polk (28) weds Sarah Childress (20) in Murfreesboro

1772US founding father Thomas Jefferson (30) marries Martha Wayles Skelton (23)

18961st Filipino President Emilio Aguinaldo (26) weds first wife Hilaria del Rosario

1972Politician Aung San Suu Kyi (26) weds author Michael Aris (25)

1989Actor Leonard Nimoy (57) weds actress Susan Bay

1998Helen Wills Moody, American tennis player (31 Grand Slams), dies at 92

1953Hank Williams, country singer (Cold Cold Heart), dies at 29

2013Patti Page [Clara Ann Fowler], American pop singer, dies at 85

2005Shirley Chisholm, 1st American black congresswoman/pres candidate (b. 1924)

1994Cesar Romero, US actor (Joker-Batman), dies at 86

1557Jacques Cartier, French explorer (Canada), dies at 65