TODAY IN SPORTS - JANUARY 15TH

1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.

1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.

1870 – Pierre S. du Pont, American businessman and philanthropist (d. 1954) is born.

1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

1876 – Eliza McCardle Johnson, American wife of Andrew Johnson, 18th First Lady of the United States (b. 1810) dies.

1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

1910 – Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 325 ft (99 m).

1929 – Martin Luther King, Jr., American minister and activist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968) is born.

1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio.

1943 – The world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1947 – The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short (The "Black Dahlia") is found in Los Angeles' Leimert Park.

1948 – Ronnie Van Zant, American singer-songwriter (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (d. 1977) is born.

1955 – Khalid Islambouli, Egyptian army officer and assassin of Egypt's president Anwar Sadat (d. 1982) is born.

1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.

1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

1976 – Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

1987 – Ray Bolger, American actor, The Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz, singer, and dancer (b. 1904) dies.

1981 – Pitbull, American rapper, producer, and actor is born.

2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

2002 – Michael Anthony Bilandic, American soldier and politician, 49th Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923) dies.

2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York. All passengers and crew members survive.