TODAY IN HISTORY - JANUARY 19TH

1809 – Edgar Allan Poe, American short story writer, critic, and poet (d. 1849) is born.

1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1918 – John H. Johnson, American publisher, founded the Johnson Publishing Company (d. 2005) is born.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in seven hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1942 – Thom Mayne, American architect, designed the San Francisco Federal Building and Phare Tower is born.

1943 – Janis Joplin, American singer-songwriter (Big Brother and the Holding Company) (d. 1970) is born.

1953 – Desi Arnaz, Jr., American actor and singer is born.

1953 – Almost 72% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

1969 – Junior Seau, American football player, San Diego Chargers, (d. 2012) is born.

1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest.

1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

1977 – Snow falls in Miami. This is the only time in the history of the city that snow has fallen. It also fell in The Bahamas.

1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

1986 – The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.

1999 – British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

2006 – The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.

2007 – Bam Bam Bigelow, American wrestler, mixed martial artist, and actor (b. 1961) dies.

2007 – Denny Doherty, Canadian singer-songwriter (The Mamas & the Papas and The Halifax III) (b. 1940) dies.

2013 – Stan Musial, American baseball player, St. Louis Cardinals, and manager (b. 1920) dies.