Jan 27 - when Edison patented the lamp!

On this day in 1880, Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

Today is Wednesday, January 27, the twenty seventh day of 2005.
There are 338 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1340 - Edward III of England declares himself king of France, a claim that leads to the Hundred Years' War. They call themselves kings of France until 1801.

1695 - Mustafa II succeeds as Sultan of Turkey on death of Ahmad II.

1822 - Greek independence is formally proclaimed.
1865 - Treaty between Spain and Peru almost recognizes Peru's independence.
1880 - Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.
1888 - The National Geographic Society is incorporated in the United States.

1914 - Haiti's President Oreste abdicates during revolt, and U.S. Marines land to preserve order.
1943 - U.S. bombers stage first all-out U.S. air raid on Germany in World War II, a daylight attack on Wilhelmshaven; Germany begins civil conscription of women.
1944 - The German and Finnish siege of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, is lifted. At least 650,000 people died during the 872-day siege.
1945 - Soviet troops liberate the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.
1951 - An era of US atomic testing in the Nevada desert begins as an Air Force plane drops a one-kiloton bomb on Frenchman Flats.
1964 - France establishes diplomatic relations with China.
1967 - Three U.S. astronauts died in a flash fire aboard Apollo 1 during a simulated launch at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1973 - A ceasefire agreement signed in Paris ended the U.S. military role in Vietnam.
1991 - Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre fled after rebels overran his palace and captured the capital Mogadishu.
1996 - The military seized power in Niger, ousting its first democratically elected president, Mahamane Ousmane.

2002 - More than 1,000 people were killed and thousands made homeless after multiple explosions at a Nigerian munitions dump in Lagos triggered by an accidental fire caused mass panic.
2003 - Serbia's parliament adopted an accord to ditch the Yugoslav federation in favour of a loose union to be known as Serbia and Montenegro.

Today's birthdays:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, composer (1756-1791)
Lewis Carroll, author (1832-1898)
Sabu, actor (1924-1963)
Bridget Fonda, actress (1964--)
Chaminda Vaas, cricketer, Sri Lanka (1974--)

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