GOOD MORNING – TODAY IS SATURDAY, January 09, the 9th day of 2015 with 357 to follow. Sunrise in the Boston area is @ 7:13 and sunset is @ 4:28. The New Noon is exact @ 8:32 PM EST. The morning stars are stars are Jupiter & Saturn. The evening stars are Mars, Neptune, Mercury, Uranus & Venus.

ON THIS DAY IN: 1793 – Jean-Pierre Blanchard made the first successful balloon flight in the U.S. 

1799 – British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax, at two shillings (10p) in the pound, to raise funds for the Napoleonic Wars. 

1848 – The first commercial bank was established in San Francisco, CA. 

1861 – The state of Mississippi seceded from the United States. 

1894 – The New England Telephone and Telegraph Company put the first battery-operated switchboard into operation in Lexington, MA.

1902 – New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public. 

1905 – In Russia, the civil disturbances known as the Revolution of 1905 forced Czar Nicholas II to grant some civil rights. 

1929 – The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, TN. The company’s purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind. 

1936 – The United States Army adopted the semi-automatic rifle. 

1937 – The first issue of “Look” went on sale. Within a month, “Look” became a biweekly magazine. 

1940 – Television was used for the first time to present a sales meeting to convention delegates in New York City. 

1951 – The United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City. 

1961 – The play, “Rhinoceros,” opened on Broadway. 

1969 – The supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight, at Bristol. 

1972 – The ocean liner Queen Elizabeth was destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbor. 

1972 – British miners went on strike for the first time since 1926. 

1981 – Hockey Hall of Famer, Phil Esposito, announced that he would retire as a hockey player after the New York Rangers-Buffalo Sabres hockey game. The game ended in a tie. (NHL) 

1984 – Clara Peller was first seen by TV viewers in the “Where’s the Beef?” commercial campaign for Wendy’s. 

1986 – Kodak got out of the instant camera business after 10 years due to a loss in a court battle that claimed that Kodak copied Polaroid patents. 

1991 – U.S. secretary of state Baker and Iraqi foreign minister Aziz met for 61/2 hours in Geneva, but failed to reach any agreement that would forestall war in the Persian Gulf. 

1995 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Poliakov, 51, completed his 366th day in outer space aboard the Mir space station, breaking the record for the longest continuous time spent in outer space. 

1997 – Tamil rebels attacked a military base in Sri Lanka. 200 soldiers and 140 rebels were killed. 

2000 – ABC-TV began airing “The Mole.” 

2002 – The U.S. Justice Department announced that it was pursuing a criminal investigation of Enron Corp. The company had filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. 

2003 – Archaeologists announced that they had found five more chambers in the tomb of Qin Shihuang, China’s first emperor. The rooms were believed to cover about 750,000 square feet. 

2006 – Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane received stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in a dual ceremony. 

2007 – Steve Jobs, Apple Inc.’s CEO, announced the first generation iPhone.