Scores On This Historic Day

February 1, 1920:  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are formed. It is the result of a merger between the Dominion Police,  which was responsible for federal law enforcement, intelligence, and parliamentary security; and the Royal North-West Mounted Police,  which had been responsible for colonial policing in the  Canadian West. The new police service inherited the paramilitary,  frontline policing-oriented culture that had governed the RNWMP, which had been modelled after the Royal Irish Constabulary,  but much of the RCMP's local policing role had been superseded by provincial and municipal  police services. The RNWMP, founded in 1873, just 6 years after Confederation, were the original "Mounties," and had the red jackets and the familiar campaign hats, the Stetson "Boss of the Plains." But they never used the motto "The Mountie always gets his man," made famous in the movies. They were honored in popular culture through characters that were usu...

Fernando Torres January 31, 2011: European soccer has two "transfer windows," in which players can be purchased from other teams. The Summer window, at the start of the season, usually closes on the afternoon of September 1. The January window, in mid-season, usually closes on the afternoon of February 1. On this "Deadline Day," Liverpool Football Club sell their best player, forward Fernando Torres, to West London team Chelsea Football Club for £50 million. Then they buy Newcastle United forward Andy Carroll for £35 million. Both sums are, at the time, considered huge. At first, it looks like a bad deal for both teams: Carroll was given the Number 9 shirt worn by Liverpool legends Torres, Robbie Fowler, Ian Rush, Steve Heighway and Ian St. John. But he turned out to be a bust, with first a ponytail (along with his pony face), then a "man-bun." In only 3 seasons, he is hurt more than he plays, and scores just 11 goals. Liverpool did reach the Finals of bo...

January 31, 1993: The Dallas Cowboys beat the Buffalo Bills, 52-17 at the Rose Bowl in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California. It is the 3rd straight Super Bowl loss for the Bills, and the 1st Super Bowl win for the Cowboys in 15 years, the 1st since their rebuild following their 1989 purchase by Jerry Jones. But it is more than that: By being the winning coach, Jimmy Johnson becomes the 1st head coach ever to win both a college football National Championship and a Super Bowl. Paul Brown had previously been the only head coach ever to win both a college football National Championship and an NFL Championship: 1942 Ohio State; 1950, 1954 and 1955 Cleveland Browns. Johnson, then 49 years old and from Port Arthur, Texas, had played as a defensive lineman on the University of Arkansas' 1964 team that won a share of the National Championship. He later served as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech, Wichita State, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Arkansas and the University of Pittsburgh. H...

January 31, 1988: After broadcasting Super Bowl XXII, ABC premieres its heavily-hyped The Wonder Years , which remains set 20 years in the past for its entire run: 1968 to 1973. The opening theme is Joe Cocker's version of The Beatles' song "With a Little Help From My Friends." Kevin Arnold (played as a boy by Fred Savage, with Daniel Stern as adult Kevin narrating) is 12 years old when the show begins. He is the youngest of 3 children: The oldest, his sister, Karen, was a Hippie (Olivia d'Abo); and the middle child, his brother, Wayne (Jason Hervey), is the opposite, a bully. Their parents are Jack, a furniture salesman (Dan Lauria), and Norma, a housewife (Alley Mills). It's not clear where the story is set: Kevin has a New York Jets jacket, and a Jets pennant on the wall of his room; but the only hint as to a location is a 1992/1972 mention of "Tri-County Citizens for McGovern." Since Long Island, where I initially suspected the show was set, has...

January 31, 1988: Super Bowl XXII is played at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. The Denver Broncos, AFC Champions, are in their 3rd Super Bowl, their 2nd straight, still looking for their 1st win. The Washington Redskins, NFC Champions, are in their 3rd Super Bowl of the decade, having split the 1st 2. The Broncos are favored by 3 points. The Broncos' John Elway was then considered one of the top quarterbacks in the game, despite having failed in the previous year's Super Bowl. The Redskins' Doug Williams was not considered to be as good. He had gotten the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the 1979 NFC Championship Game, but had been exiled to the USFL, where he played for the Oklahoma Outlaws. The Redskins signed him, and he wasn't expected to be the starter this season. But when starter Jay Schroeder was injured, Williams stepped in, and was as good as ever. He was about to become the 1st black man to start at quarterback in the Super Bowl. Very few black quarterbacks had pla...

January 31, 1968: The Viet Cong launch the Tet Offensive, an attack on American and South Vietnamese installations in South Vietnam, on  Tết Nguyên Đán , the Vietnamese lunar new year. More than 80,000 troops hit more than 100 towns, including 36 out of the country's 44 provincial capitals, including the national capital of Saigon. The idea was to trigger a popular uprising that would lead to the collapse of the South Vietnamese government, and its replacement by one more favorable to the North Vietnamese government, thus uniting the country under Communism, and forcing the American troops out. The Viet Cong didn't get that. At least, not in the short term. But they got the next best thing, which gave them their goal in the long term. Over 4,000 U.S. personnel were killed, and another 5,000 South Vietnamese. But the Viet Cong lost 45,000 men, about as many as America lost in the war from its beginning until 1971 or so. And they were fought back, capturing very little territory...

January 31, 1958: The U.S. finally joins the space race, launching the satellite Explorer 1 , atop the Juno I booster from what was then called the Cape Canaveral Missile Test Center of the Atlantic Missile Range in Florida. Following the launch of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, Project Orbiter  was revived as the Explorer program to catch up with the Soviet Union. The 1st attempted launch came on December 6, at Cape Canaveral, but the Vanguard TV-3 rocket booster failed 2 seconds after liftoff, and the rocket fell and exploded, causing serious damage to the launch pad. The Vanguard 1A satellite aboard survived, but with enough damage that it could not be re-used. The New York Times called it a "Blow to US Prestige." Senator Lyndon Johnson of Texas, the Majority Leader and Chairman of the Committee handling U.S. spaceflight, called it "most humiliating." The public quickly named the Vanguard the "Flop-nik," and the "Stay-put-ni...

January 31, 1953: A heavy storm surge causes extensive flooding in the North Sea, overwhelming sea defenses in England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium. A combination of a high  Spring tide a nd a severe  European windstorm  caused the sea to flood land up to 18 feet above mean sea level. A death toll of 2,551 people was attributed to the flood, along with the destruction of over 10,000 buildings, the deaths of 187,000 animals, and the flooding of 9 percent of all Dutch farmland. Realizing that such infrequent events could reoccur, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom carried out large studies on strengthening of coastal defenses. The Netherlands developed the Delta Works,  an extensive system of dams and storm surge barriers.  The U.K. constructed storm surge barriers on the Thames Estuary,  and on the Hull  where it meets the Humber Estuary. The countries involved have been spared such a flood since. Still, bitter experience shows that it is...

January 31, 1945: Al Blozis is killed while fighting with the U.S. Army. He had just turned 26. He was 1 of 14 NFL players to die while serving in World War II. Albert Charles Blozis was born on January 5, 1919 in Garfield, Bergen County, New Jersey. He was an NCAA Champion in the shot put at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. But it would be as a two-way tackle in football that he would become a professional player. The New York Giants chose him in the 5th round of the 1942 NFL Draft, and he played in all 11 games with them in 1942, and in all 10 games in 1943. He was 6-foot-6 and 250 pounds, making him too big for most roles in the Army. But by late 1943, the Army was desperate for more men, and so his attempts to enlist finally succeeded. The Army was especially impressed with the former shot-putter's ability to throw a grenade 95 yards, almost the length of a football field. In the 1944 season, he played 3 games on furlough, including the NFL Championship Game, which th...

January 31, 1945:   Private Edward Slovik is executed for desertion. He remains the only American serviceman executed by his own country since the Civil War. Slovik was born on February 18, 1920 in Detroit. He was first arrested at age 12, for breaking and entering. He served a year in prison from 1937 to 1938, and 3 years from 1939 to 1942. After getting out, he got a job at a plumbing company, and got married. His criminal record originally made him classified as "morally unfit for duty." But as World War II dragged on, and the U.S. Army needed more men, he was reclassified as fit for duty in 1944, and drafted. He was sent to France, to a rifle platoon unit. He got scared, and  deserted on October 9. When he was caught, he made a complete confession, saying he didn't want to fight anymore.  He had been in jails before, and fully expected to be sent to prison, which he considered preferable to dying in combat. Instead, on November 11, in a court-martial lasting less than...

Left to right: Maxene, Patty, LaVerne January 31, 1941: Buck Privates premieres. It's a comedy, with America's entry into World War II still a matter of "if" instead of "when." The comedy duo Bud Abbott and Lou Costello play small-time big-city hucksters who accidentally enlist in the U.S. Army. The plot is not as important as the humor. In hindsight, this film could have been titled Abbott & Costello Meet the Andrews Sisters . No, they weren't playing monsters, like Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, or the Wolf Man. But, in this film, playing themselves, they sang a song that became a monster hit: "The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy." The Sisters were from Minneapolis. LaVerne, a contralto, was born on July 6, 1911. Maxene, a soprano, was born on January 3, 1916. And Patty, a mezzo-soprano, was born on February 16, 1918. (Another sister, Anglyn, was born in 1914, but died at 8 months old.) They had their 1st hit in 1937, and became superstars ...

Gordon Jones in the 1940 serial January 31, 1936:   The Green Hornet  debuts on Detroit radio station  WXYZ,  created by station owner George W. Trendle and writer Fran Striker. The Green Hornet was Britt Reid, the wealthy publisher of a newspaper, The Daily Sentinel , who saw a crime wave in his city, and decided that what was needed was "a modern-day Robin Hood," so he took on the masked persona and pretended to be a competing gangster, muscling in on bad guys' territory, and setting them up to be captured by the cops. He was assisted by Kato, an Asian mechanical genius, who designed and built the character's knockout-gas gun, and turned Britt's car into the souped-up "Black Beauty." Originally, Kato was said to be Japanese. But by the time of the 1st film serial in 1940, the Japanese were committing war crimes against China, so the character was rewritten as Korean. Although a capable fighter, his only use of martial arts, in either of the film serial...