This Day in World History-January 15

Jan 15, 2023 News

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The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated

Kaieteur News – The Coca-Cola Company is an American multinational beverage corporation founded in 1892, best known as the producer of Coca-Cola. The Coca-Cola Company also

manufactures, sells, and markets other non-alcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups, and alcoholic beverages. The soft drink was developed in 1886 by pharmacist John Stith Pemberton. At the time, it was introduced, the product contained cocaine from coca leaves and caffeine from kola nuts which together acted as a stimulant. The coca and the kola are the source of the product name, and led to Coca-Cola’s promotion as a “healthy tonic”. Pemberton had been severely wounded in the American Civil War, and had become addicted to the pain medication morphine. He developed the beverage as a patent medicine in an effort to control his addiction. In 1889, the formula and brand were sold for $2,300 (roughly $71,000 in 2022) to Asa Griggs Candler, who incorporated the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta in 1892. (Wikipedia)

James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball

Dr. James Naismith, undisputedly credited as the inventor of the game of basketball, was born in Ontario, Canada on November 6, 1861. As an orphaned youth living with his uncle and grandparents, he was an avid athlete, participating in various unorganized outdoor activities.

Later at McGill University, he participated in the organized sports of lacrosse, rugby, football, gymnastics, and soccer.

After a physical education undergraduate degree in 1898, Dr. Naismith moved to the US. He received his graduate degree and settled in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he put academic qualifications to use as the physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School. It was at the YMCA International Training School that Naismith, sensing unrest in his class of young adult males who had to repeatedly endure calisthenics and children’s games in the tough Massachusetts’ winter of 1891, set out to devise a new game. Using the equipment available at his disposal and drawing from his childhood experience in a game called ‘duck on a rock,’ Naismith fashioned a game with a peach basket and soccer ball in which the goal of the players was to, through teamwork and finesse, lob the ball into the basket. A legend was born. Naismith’s nascent game of basketball soon caught fire, spreading from town to town through YMCA’s, colleges, and word-of-mouth. In 1925, Naismith accepted American citizenship. In 1936, three years before his death, he had the opportunity to see his sport in action at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, the first-time men’s basketball was officially recognized as an Olympic Sport, having been a demonstration sport in 1904. In 1939, Dr. James Naismith, succumbed to a brain haemorrhage. He was 78 years old. (Basketball.org.)

Molasses Flood kills 21 and injures over 150

The Great Molasses Flood, also known as the Boston Molasses Disaster, was a disaster that occurred on January 15, 1919, in the North End neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts.

A large storage tank filled with 2.3 million US gal (8,700 m3) of molasses, weighing approximately 13,000 short tons (12,000 t), burst, and the resultant wave of molasses rushed through the streets at an estimated 35 mph (56 km/h), killing 21 and injuring 150. The event entered local folklore and residents claimed for decades afterwards that the area still smelled of molasses on hot summer days. It was reported that temperatures had risen above 40 °F (4 °C), climbing rapidly from the frigid temperatures of the preceding days, and the previous day, a ship had delivered a fresh load of molasses, which had been warmed to reduce its viscosity for transfer. Possibly due to the thermal expansion of the older, colder molasses already inside the tank, the tank burst open and collapsed at approximately 12:30 p.m. Witnesses reported that they felt the ground shake and heard a roar as it collapsed, a long rumble similar to the passing of an elevated train; others reported a tremendous crashing, a deep growling, “a thunderclap-like bang!”, and a sound like a machine gun as the rivets shot out of the tank. (Wikipedia)

Massive earthquake kills thousands in Nepal-India

The 1934 Nepal–India earthquake or 1934 Bihar–Nepal earthquake was one of the worst earthquakes in India’s history. The towns of Munger and Muzaffarpur were completely destroyed. This 8.0 magnitude earthquake occurred on 15 January 1934 at around 2:13 pm IST (08:43 UTC) and caused widespread damage in northern Bihar and in Nepal. The epicentre was located in eastern Nepal about 9.5 km (5.9 mi) south of Mount Everest. The areas where the most damage to life and property occurred extended from Purnea in the east to Champaran in the west (a distance of nearly 320 km or 200 mi), and from Kathmandu in the north to Munger in the south (a distance of nearly 465 km or 289 mi). The impact was reported to be felt in Lhasa to Bombay, and from Assam to Punjab. The earthquake was so severe that in Kolkata, around 650 km (404 mi) from the epicentre, many buildings were damaged and the tower of St. Paul’s Cathedral collapsed. The three major towns of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal—Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan—were severely affected and almost all the buildings collapsed. Large cracks appeared in the ground and several roads were damaged in Kathmandu; however, the temple of Pashupatinath, the guardian deity of Nepal, escaped any damage. The 1618-meter-long Kosi Rail Bridge on the Metre Gauge Railway line connecting Darbhanga Raj with Forbesganj was washed away and the River Kosi changed it path eastward. In Sitamarhi, not a single house was left standing. In Bhagalpur district many buildings collapsed. In Patna, many buildings in the bazaar were destroyed and damage was particularly severe along the river. In Rajnagar, near Madhubani, all the Kutcha buildings collapsed. The buildings of Darbhanga Raj, including the famous Navlakha Palace, were severely damaged. In Jharia the earthquake led to further spread of underground fire.  The town of Birgunj was destroyed, along with its telephone line to Kathmandu. The number of deaths was 10,700–12,000. (Wikipedia)

Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopaedia, goes online

Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopaedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system.

Wikipedia is the largest and most-read reference work in history. It is consistently one of the 10 most popular websites ranked by Similarweb and formerly Alexa; as of 2022, Wikipedia was ranked the 5th most popular site in the world. It is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, an American non-profit organization funded mainly through donations.

Wikipedia was launched by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger on January 15, 2001. Sanger coined its name as a blend of wiki and encyclopedia. Wales was influenced by the “spontaneous order” ideas associated with Friedrich Hayek and the Austrian School of economics after being exposed to these ideas by the libertarian economist Mark Thornton. Initially available only in English, versions in other languages were quickly developed. Its combined editions comprise more than 60 million articles, attracting around 2 billion unique device visits per month and more than 17 million edits per month (1.9 edits per second) as of November 2020. In 2006, Time magazine stated that the policy of allowing anyone to edit had made Wikipedia the “biggest (and perhaps best) encyclopedia in the world”.

6.2-magnitude earthquake kills over 100, injures thousands in Indonesia

An earthquake struck Majene Regency in the province of West Sulawesi, on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on 15 January 2021, at 02:28 WITA (18:28 UTC), with a moment magnitude of 6.2. This earthquake was felt as far away as Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi, and Palu in Central Sulawesi. Strong shaking was reported in Majene and the provincial capital Mamuju for at least 5–7 seconds. It was preceded by a foreshock measuring 5.7 magnitude a few hours earlier.

Widespread damage was reported throughout 4 out of 5 regencies in the province. More than 6,000 structures were damaged or destroyed in the region. Officials estimated that the earthquake caused damages amounting to Rp829.1 billion rupiah. At least 105 people were confirmed dead and more than 3,300 were injured, while thousands of residents were displaced. An aftershock struck on 3 February 2021, killing a man and causing further damage.

 

 

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• An image of the earthquake devastation, basketball game inventor, Coca-Cola, Dr. James Naismith, Some of the damage caused by the 2021 event, The aftermath of the spilled molasses

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