Wednesday, January 19, 2011

TODAY IN HISTORY

JANUARY 19
1937:Millionaire aviator Howard Hughes sets a new transcontinental air speed record, flying from Los Angeles to New York in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds aboard a redesigned H-1 Racer. At an average speed of 322 miles per hour, Hughes breaks his own record by nearly two hours.

1898: Brown University defeats Harvard University in a 6-0 shutout at Franklin Field in Boston, winning the first intercollegiate ice hockey game and inaugurating the oldest college hockey rivalry in U.S. history.

1903: The French newspaper L'Auto announces the creation of the Tour de France, a race across France billed as "the greatest cycling trial in the entire world." The race was conceived by editor Henri Desgrange and sports journalist Géo Lefèvre as a way to boost the newspaper's circulation. Their idea will work — six months later, the special edition of L'Auto describing Maurice Garin's Tour de France victory will sell more than 130,000 copies.

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