Once Upon A Time – January 18 – 1983 – IOC Restores Jim Thorpe’s Olympic Medals 70 Years After They Were Taken

532 Nika uprising against Emperor Justinian I in Constantinople fails, 30,000 killed by troops loyal to the Emperor in the Hippodrome

1591 King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Minchit Sra of Burma in single combat, date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day

1788 First elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay to set up a penal colony

1817 José de San Martín leads a revolutionary army over the Andes to attack Spanish royalists in Chile

1871 Second German Empire proclaimed by Kaiser Wilhelm I and Otto von Bismarck

Two young girls help assemble Soviet submachine guns during the Siege of Leningrad

1943 Soviets announce they have broken the long Siege of Leningrad by Nazi Germany by opening a narrow land corridor, though the siege would not be fully lifted until a year later

Historical Events Today Events In 2022

Today In Film & TV

1974 “$6 Million Man” starring Lee Majors premieres on ABC TV

Today In Music

1980 Pink Floyd’s album “The Wall” hits #1

Today In Sport

1983 IOC restores Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals (Pentathlon & Decathlon victories) 70 years after they were taken from him for being paid $25 in semi-pro baseball

More Facts…

2016 World’s 62 richest people are now as wealthy as half the world’s population according to a report published by Oxfam

1644 Pilgrims in Boston reported America’s 1st UFO sighting

Famous Weddings

1486 King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV

1827 American religious leader Joseph Smith Jr (21) weds future church group movement leader Emma Hale (22) in South Bainbridge, New York, until his death in 1844

1893 British Poet and writer Rudyard Kipling (26) marries Carrie Balestier (29) in London