Moments in time - Dec. 31, 2009

The History Channel

• On Jan. 12, 1888, the so-called Schoolchildren’s Blizzard kills 235 people, many of them children on their way home from school, across the Northwest Plains region of the United States. The storm came with no warning, and the temperature fell nearly 100 degrees F. in just 24 hours.

• On Jan. 16, 1919, the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, prohibiting the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes,” is ratified and becomes law. Large-scale distribution of alcoholic beverages and organized crime flourished anyway.

• On Jan. 11, 1949, on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., the cornerstone is laid at the first mosque of note in the United States. The Islamic Center was complete with a 160-foot minaret from which prayers were to be announced.

• On Jan. 17, 1950, 11 men steal more than $2 million from the Brinks Armored Car depot in Boston. It was almost the perfect crime, as the culprits weren’t caught until January 1956, just days before the statute of limitations for the theft expired. Only a small part of the money was ever recovered; the rest is fabled to be hidden in the hills north of Grand Rapids, Minn.

• On Jan. 14, 1969, an explosion aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, the first-ever nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, kills 27 people in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A rocket accidentally detonated, destroying 15 planes and injuring more than 300 people.

• On Jan. 15, 1974, the first episode of “Happy Days” airs, portraying the comic antics of 1950s Milwaukee high-school student Richie Cunningham and his pal Potsie Webber. A minor character, super-cool biker Arthur “the Fonz” Fonzarelli, soon came to be the show’s central character.

• On Jan. 13, 1982, an Air Florida Boeing 727 plunges into the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., killing 78 people. The crash was caused by bad weather and the pilot’s failure to ask for de-icing after the plane sat on the runway for 45 minutes. Worse, he failed to turn on the plane’s own de-icing system.

(c) 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.