On This Day: January 29

This is the 29th day of the year.

Fact of the Day: spiders

The 10 deadliest spiders, ranked according to their "lethal potential" are: banana spider, Sydney funnel web spider, wolf spider, black widow spider, violin spider/recluse spider, sac spider, and four species of tarantula. However, few spiders are capable of killing humans. Their venom yield is low compared to that of the most dangerous snakes. The term 'tarantula' is confusingly used for various members of the Theraphosidae family and Lycos tarantula, the spider once believed to cause the disease tarantism.

Holidays

Feast day of St. Sainian of Troyes, St. Sulpicius Severus, and St. Gildas the Wise.

Events

1845 - Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published; it appeared in the "New York Evening Mirror."

1850 - Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery which included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

1861 - Kansas became the 34th state of the Union (or the 28th state if the secession of eight Southern states over the previous six weeks is taken into account).

1886 - The first successful gasoline-driven motorcar, built by Karl Benz, was patented.

1891 - Queen Liliuokalani became the last monarch of the Hawaiian Islands.

1900 - The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.

1926 - Violette Neatley Anderson became the first African-American woman admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.

1936 - The first members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.

1950 - Riots broke out in Johannesburg, South Africa, over the policy of Apartheid.

1963 - The first members of the Football Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.

1979 - Deng Xiaoping, deputy premier of China, met President Jimmy Carter, and together they signed historic accords reversing decades of U.S. opposition to the People's Republic of China.

1979 - President Jimmy Carter commuted the sentence of Patty Hearst.

1995 - The San Francisco 49ers became the first team in NFL history to win five Super Bowl titles, beating the San Diego Chargers, 49-26.

1996 - President Jacques Chirac announces a "definitive end" to French nuclear testing.

Births

1737 - Thomas Paine, American revolutionary leader, political philosopher.

1843 - William McKinley, 25th President of the United States of America (1897-1901).

1874 - John Davison Rockefeller, Jr., American industrialist.

1880 - W.C. Fields, American comedian and actor.

1923 - Paddy Chayefsky, American playwright.

1927 - Edward Abbey, an American author and essayist noted for his advocacy of environmental issues and criticism of public land policies.

1954 - Oprah Winfrey, American talk show host, actress, media mogul.

1960 - Steve Sax, former Major League Baseball player.

Deaths

1820 - Britain's King George III, ending a reign involving both the American Revolution and French Revolution.

1956 - H. L. Mencken (born Henry Louis Mencken), a twentieth-century journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker,

1962 - Fritz Kreisler, Austrian (later American) violinist and composer, one of the most famous violinists of his day.

1963 - Robert Frost, American poet.

1977 - Freddie Prinze (born Frederick Karl Pruetzel), American actor and stand-up comedian.

1980 - Jimmy Durante, American singer, pianist, comedian, and actor.

2004 - Janet Frame, New Zealand novelist and short-story writer.

2004 - M. M. Kaye, British writer.