MOMENTS IN TIME - Dec. 24, 2009

The History Channel

• On Jan. 5, 1643, in the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston.

• On Jan. 10, 1901, a drilling derrick at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, Texas, produces an enormous gusher of crude oil, signaling the advent of the American oil industry. The geyser flowed at an initial rate of 100,000 barrels a day. Within a year, there were more than 285 active wells at Spindletop. Today, only a few oil wells still operate in the area.

• On Jan. 6, 1936, Porky Pig makes his world debut in a Warner Brothers cartoon, “Gold Diggers of ‘49.” When Mel Blanc joined Warner Brothers the following year, he became the famous voice behind Porky, as well as the Warner Brothers characters Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Sylvester and Tweety.

• On Jan. 7, 1959, six days after the fall of the Fulgencio Batista dictatorship, the United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro. The U.S. government believed it could work with Castro and protect American interests in Cuba, but less than two years later, the U.S. severed diplomatic ties and unleashed the Bay of Pigs invasion.

• On Jan. 8, 1966, rock-and-roll TV variety show “Shindig” on ABC airs its last episode. The show had debuted in September 1964, featuring acts including the Everly Brothers, the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys.

• On Jan. 9, 1972, in Hong Kong harbor, a fire breaks out aboard the lavish Queen Elizabeth, and by the next morning the famous vessel lies in a wreck on the bottom of the sea floor. Before her days as a passenger liner, the Queen Elizabeth steamed across the ocean as a transport vehicle during World War II.

• On Jan. 4, 1996, General Motors announces that it will release an electric car, the EV-1. While sales were quite modest by the standards of internal-combustion cars, the EV-1 was the best-selling electric consumer car of its time.