Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura Sworn

THUNDER BAY – January 4 – the day in history. On this day in history, former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura was sworn in as Governor of Minnesota.

Ventura first entered politics as Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, from 1991 to 1995. Four years after his mayoral term ended, Ventura was the Reform Party candidate in the Minnesota gubernatorial election of 1998, running a low-budget campaign centered on grassroots events and unusual ads that urged citizens not to “vote for politics as usual”. Ventura’s campaign was successful, with him narrowly and unexpectedly defeating both the Democratic and Republican candidates. The highest elected official to ever win an election on a Reform Party ticket, Ventura left the Reform Party a year after taking office amid internal fights for control over the party.

As governor, Ventura oversaw reforms of Minnesota’s property tax as well as the state’s first sales tax rebate. Other initiatives taken under Ventura included construction of the METRO Blue Line light rail in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, and cuts in income taxes.

Ventura left office in 2003, deciding not to run for re-election. After leaving office, Ventura became a visiting fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in 2004. He has since also hosted a number of television shows and has written several political books. Ventura remains politically active and currently hosts a show on Ora TV called Off the Grid. He has publicly contemplated a run for President of the United States in 2016.

• 46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina.
• 871 – Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.
• 1490 – Anne of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the King of France will be considered guilty of the crime of lèse-majesté.
• 1642 – King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England’s slide into civil war.
• 1649 – English Civil War: The Rump Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial.
• 1717 – The Netherlands, Great Britain, and France sign the Triple Alliance.
• 1762 – Great Britain declares war on Spain and Naples.
• 1798 – Constantine Hangerli arrives in Bucharest, Wallachia, as its new Prince, invested by the Ottoman Empire.
• 1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
• 1854 – The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
• 1863 – The New Apostolic Church, a Christian and chiliastic church, is established in Hamburg, Germany.
• 1865 – The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City.
• 1878 – Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule.
• 1884 – The Fabian Society is founded in London, England, United Kingdom.
• 1889 – The Oklahoma Land Run opens 2 million acres of unused Oklahoma Territory to first serve first come settlers on April 22.
• 1896 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
• 1903 – Topsy, an elephant, is electrocuted by the owners of Luna Park, Coney Island. Thomas Edison’s movie company shoots the film Electrocuting an Elephant of the execution.
• 1912 – The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal charter.
• 1944 – World War II: Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
• 1948 – Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.
• 1951 – Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul.
• 1955 – The Greek National Radical Union is formed by Konstantinos Karamanlis.
• 1958 – Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from orbit.
• 1959 – Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
• 1965 – United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his “Great Society” during his State of the Union address.
• 1966 – A military coup takes place in Upper Volta (later Burkina Faso), dissolving the National Parliament and leading to a new national constitution.
• 1970 – A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Tonghai County, China, killing at least 15,000 people.
• 1972 – Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England.
• 1974 – United States President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
• 1976 – The Troubles: The Ulster Volunteer Force shoots dead six Irish Catholic civilians in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The next day, gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians nearby in retaliation.
• 1987 – The 1987 Maryland train collision: An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, D.C., collides with Conrail engines in Chase, Maryland, killing 16 people.
• 1989 – Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan MiG-23 “Floggers” are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
• 1990 – In Pakistan’s deadliest train accident an overloaded passenger train collides with an empty freight train, resulting in 307 deaths and 700 injuries.
• 1998 – Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria: over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
• 1998 – A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
• 1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as governor of Minnesota.
• 2000 – Two trains on the Røros Line collide in Åsta, Norway, resulting in an explosive fire and 19 deaths.
• 2004 – Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
• 2004 – Mikheil Saakashvili is elected President of Georgia following the November 2003 Rose Revolution.
• 2006 – Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
• 2007 – The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
• 2010 – Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, is officially opened.
• 2013 – A gunman kills eight people in a house-to-house rampage in Kawit, the Philippines.