January 18 Birthday
On January 18, 1778, Captain James Cook became the first European to lay eyes on the Hawaiian Islands. He named them the Sandwich Islands, after the Earl of Sandwich, the same man who supposedly invented the sandwich so he could eat without leaving the gambling table. Cook's arrival was an accident — he was looking for the Northwest Passage. The Hawaiians initially treated Cook as an incarnation of the god Lono, and the relationship was peaceful. When Cook returned a year later, after a damaged mast forced him back, the season had changed and the locals were hostile. Cook was killed on the beach at Kealakekua Bay. The British response was to take the islands less seriously, which allowed American missionaries and planters to fill the vacuum. On this day in 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt sent a radio message from a Marconi station in South Wellfleet, Massachusetts, to King Edward VII in England. It was the first transatlantic radio message sent by a head of state. Marconi had transmitted the letter "S" across the Atlantic the previous year — three dots, barely perceptible through the static. Roosevelt's message was a formal greeting. The station at Wellfleet would operate until 1907, when it was destroyed in a fire. The site is now part of the Cape Cod National Seashore. In 1977, scientists at the CDC identified the bacterium that caused Legionnaires' disease. The outbreak had occurred six months earlier, at an American Legion convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia. 221 people fell ill, 34 died. The bacterium, Legionella pneumophila, thrives in warm water — cooling towers, hot tubs, plumbing systems. It was not a new disease but an old one that had never been identified. Retrospective analysis of unexplained pneumonia outbreaks going back decades found Legionella in stored tissue samples. The discovery was a triumph of epidemiological detective work, but it also revealed how much we do not know about the diseases around us. Cary Grant, born Archibald Leach in Bristol, England, on this day in 1904, ran away from home at thirteen to join an acrobatic troupe. He created "Cary Grant" from scratch — the name, the accent, the wardrobe, the walk. Hitchcock called him "the only actor I ever loved." Grant took LSD more than a hundred times under medical supervision, and said it transformed his understanding of himself. He never won a competitive Oscar. People born on January 18 fall under the zodiac sign of Capricorn. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 18 include 1778: Captain James Cook becomes first European to reach Hawaiian Islands, 1903: President Roosevelt sends first transatlantic radio message to King Edward VII, 1977: Scientists identify bacterium responsible for Legionnaires' disease. Famous people born on January 18 include Cary Grant (1904), Danny Kaye (1913), Kevin Costner (1955).