Ford Pays $5 a Day for Eight Hour Work Day

THUNDER BAY – HISTORY – January 5 2015, the day in history.

Today has many things of significant that happened. First, today is the day when the Ford Motor company announced the eight-hour work day, and that employees would be paid a “living wage” of $5 a day.

It is also the day that the German Workers Party which would later become the Nazi Party was founded in 1919.

On a musical note, today is the day, in 1972 when Bruce Springstein released his first album. Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. the album title received solid critical acclaim but had slow sales.

Noted Events on January 5

• 1066 – Edward the Confessor dies childless, sparking a succession crisis that will eventually lead to the Norman conquest of England.
• 1477 – Battle of Nancy: Charles the Bold is killed and Burgundy becomes part of France.
• 1500 – Duke Ludovico Sforza conquers Milan.
• 1527 – Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zurich, Switzerland, is executed by drowning.
• 1554 – A great fire occurs in Eindhoven, Netherlands.
• 1675 – Battle of Colmar: the French army beats Brandenburg.
• 1757 – Louis XV of France survives an assassination attempt by Robert-François Damiens, the last person to be executed in France by drawing and quartering, the traditional and gruesome form of capital punishment used for regicides.
• 1781 – American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold.
• 1846 – The United States House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the United Kingdom.
• 1895 – Dreyfus affair: French army officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil’s Island.
• 1896 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen has discovered a type of radiation later known as X-rays.
• 1900 – Irish leader John Redmond calls for a revolt against British rule.
• 1911 – Kappa Alpha Psi, the world’s second oldest and largest black fraternity, is founded at Indiana University.
• 1912 – The Prague Party Conference takes place.
• 1913 – First Balkan War: During the Battle of Lemnos, Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it did not venture for the rest of the war.
• 1914 – The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and that it would pay a “living wage” of at least $5 for a day’s labor.
• 1919 – The German Workers’ Party, which would become the Nazi Party, is founded.
• 1925 – Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first female governor in the United States.
• 1933 – Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay.
• 1944 – The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper.
• 1945 – The Soviet Union recognizes the new pro-Soviet government of Poland.
• 1949 – United States President Harry S. Truman unveils his Fair Deal program.
• 1957 – In a speech given to the United States Congress, United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine.
• 1968 – Alexander Dubček comes to power: “Prague Spring” begins in Czechoslovakia.
• 1969 – The Troubles: The Royal Ulster Constabulary raid the Bogside area of Derry, damaging property and beating residents. In response, residents erect barricades and establish Free Derry.
• 1972 – United States President Richard Nixon orders the development of a Space Shuttle program.
• 1974 – An earthquake in Lima, Peru, kills six people, and damages hundreds of houses.
• 1974 – Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59 °F (+15 °C) recorded at Vanda Station
• 1975 – The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania, Australia, is struck by the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing twelve people.
• 1976 – The Khmer Rouge proclaim the Constitution of Democratic Kampuchea.
• 1976 – The Troubles: In response to the killing of six Catholics the night before, gunmen shoot dead ten Protestant civilians after stopping their minibus at Kingsmill in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK.
• 1991 – Georgian forces enter Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, Georgia, opening the 1991–1992 South Ossetia War.
• 1993 – The oil tanker MV Braer runs aground on the coast of the Shetland Islands, spilling 84,700 tons of crude oil.
• 2005 – Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the Solar System, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.