Milestones: January 25, 2024

January 25, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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INAUGURAL WINTER OLYMPICS — THE WINTER OLYMPICS MARK THEIR CENTENNIAL ON JAN. 25. The first Winter Olympics were launched at Chamonix in the French Alps, on Jan. 25, 1924. A total of six sports were represented at what was called The “International Winter Sports Week.” Based on its tremendous success, the International Olympic Committee four years later officially designated the Winter Games, staged in St. Moritz, Switzerland, as the second Winter Olympics, held in 1928. A kind of predecessor to the inaugural Winter Olympics was the Nordic Games, which Sweden hosted and in which only Scandinavian countries took part.

Eventually, the Scandinavians agreed to work with the IOC to organize the IOC-sanctioned International Winter Sports Week. Immensely successful and popular about the 16 nations that participated, it led to the formal creation of the Winter Olympics in 2025.

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THAILAND SIDES WITH AXIS — THAILAND, WHICH SEVERAL WEEKS AFTER THE PEARL HARBOR ATTACK HAD BECOME A Japanese puppet state, declared war on the Allied forces on Jan. 25, 1942. The United States had wanted Thailand to join the Allies in 1939 after war broke out in Europe to prevent Japanese aggression in other parts of Asia, particularly China. However, Thailand first declared neutrality and then forged a friendship with Japan. It set its sights on Chinese territory to create a “Greater Thailand,” even to the point of indoctrinating youngsters via school textbooks. After France fell to the Nazis in 1940 and the Vichy puppet government was formed, Thailand saw this as a chance to redefine the borders of French Indochina (now Vietnam). However, the Vichy government, not wanting any encroachment onto its territory, fought the Thais, with Japan entering the conflict on Thailand’s side.

The day after Pearl Harbor, Japanese forces conducted an amphibious landing on Thailand’s coast, with collaboration from Lang Pipul, Thailand’s minister.

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FIRST TO TELEVISE LIVE PRESSERS — NEWLY-INAUGURATED PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY HELD THE NATION’S FIRST LIVE TELEVISED PRESS CONFERENCE ON JAN. 25, 1961. According to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, President Kennedy, who had taken the oath of office just five days earlier, began the press conference speaking about the scheduling of the Geneva negotiations for a nuclear test ban, the U.S. government’s decision to increase famine relief in the Congo, and Soviet Union’s release of US Air Force crew members. He then answered press questions on several topics, including nuclear disarmament, diplomatic relations with Cuba and talks with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.

Kennedy thus became the first U.S. president to use live TV for his press conference without feed delay or editing.

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NABBED FOR BRINGING WEED TO JAPAN — FORMER BEATLE AND WINGS BAND LEADER PAUL MCCARTNEY ARRIVED IN TOKYO ON Jan. 16, 1980, to give a concert tour, but instead spent most of his time in prison. Upon his arrival at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, he was caught carrying almost half a pound of marijuana, which he asserted was for “personal use.” However, the Japanese felt the amount of weed he was transporting was large enough for him to be charged with smuggling, and there was no guarantee he would escape trial. The Japanese quietly released and deported him on Jan. 25.

Had it occurred, the concert tour with Paul McCartney and Wings would have spanned 11 cities around Japan. This would be his first visit to Japan since his 1966 tour with the Beatles.

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BELOVED SCOTTISH POET — ROBERT BURNS, SCOTLAND’S ICONIC POET, WAS BORN ON JAN. 25, 1759. Born into an impoverished farming family, young Burns taught himself how to read and became a voracious reader. He fell in love with a woman he wouldn’t marry after giving her a child, but he eventually did. Burns in 1786 published his first anthology, titled, “Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect.” Edinburgh’s intellectual society was endeared to him. Burns died young, at 37. An enduring Scottish tradition is to celebrate the poet’s birthday with “Robert Burns Night” feasts, featuring haggis and other Scottish delicacies, as well as boisterous drinking, toasting and speechmaking.

Anyone who has sung “Auld Lang Syne,” on New Year’s Eve, or watched the closing scene of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” is singing Burns’ poetry. Written in 1788, “Auld Lang Syne” was set to the melody of an old Scottish song.

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EMMY AWARDS NAMED FOR A CAMERA TUBE — THE FIRST EMMY AWARDS CEREMONY WAS HELD ON JAN. 25, 1949, AT THE HOLLYWOOD ATHLETIC CLUB. The awards, which recognize excellence in what was at the time a pioneering medium, were a brainchild of Hollywood’s new Academy of Television Arts and Science. Sid Cassyd had founded the Academy three years earlier, recognizing that television would need an organization to help it grow productively. Edgar Bergen, a radio personality known for his ventriloquist puppets, became the academy’s first president. Initially opposed to award-granting, Cassyd also recognized that doing so would elevate the academy’s profile, making it more widely known among the 50,000 families with TV sets in their homes.

The awards were named “Emmy” because that word was a feminized version of “immy,” jargon for the image orthicon tube used in early TV cameras.

See previous milestones, here.