ajc.com 2008 Holiday Guide

Now's the time to both look back on the year past and ahead to 2008.

Here are only some memorable anniversaries and milestones that will be marked in the new year.

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Joel Chandler Harris

HOLIDAY GUIDE How not to be the jerk of the party  Northside's top stories in 2007  New Year's resolutions shrinking  A how-to for the perfect thank-you

— Compiled by Carolyn Warmbold and Alice Wertheim

100 years ago: 1908

April 23: Army Reserve traces its founding to the establishment of the Medical Reserve Corps. to this date.

May 10: First Mother's Day celebration takes place in Philadelphia. In 1914, a joint resolution of Congress established the celebration on the second Sunday in May.

June 30: Giant explosion in the sky in Siberia, possibly caused by asteroid fragment.

July 3: Death of Georgia's Joel Chandler Harris, author of the Uncle Remus stories, which began appearing in the Atlanta Constitution in 1876.

Sept. 17: First fatal plane crash occurs. Pilot Orville Wright was injured.

October: First Gideon Bible placed in a hotel room in Montana.

Nov. 3: William Howard Taft elected president over William Jennings Bryan, who was the first presidential candidate to appear in movie footage shown on July 12.

Dec. 5: First numerals sewn on players uniforms to distinguish players at University of Pittsburgh.

Dec. 16: First credit union founded in New Hampshire.

Dec. 26: Jack Johnson technically becomes first African-American heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

Dec. 28: Messina, Italy, earthquake kills tens of thousands.

Also noteworthy:

* Model T goes into production.

* Song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" written by Jack Norworth. (MLB plans celebrations during opening week in 2008.)

75 years ago: 1933

Jan. 30: Hitler named Chancellor of Germany. Dachau concentration camp is established that year.

Jan. 30: Though the date is disputed, "Lone Ranger" begins long run on radio.

Feb. 17: Blondie Boopadoop marries the disinherited Dagwood Bumstead in the comic strip Blondie.

March 4: Franklin D. Roosevelt inaugurated. He states: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." He initiates the New Deal that month.

July 28: First singing telegram sung by Western Union operator Lucille Lipps to the star vocalist Rudy Vallee on his birthday.

June 6: First drive-in theater opens in New Jersey.

July 6: First All Star Baseball Game played at Comiskey Park. The American League won. Babe Ruth's homer in the third inning was the first in an All Star Game.

Summer: First Negro National League All Star Game. West beats East at Comiskey Park.

Autumn: First issue of Esquire magazine features story by Georgia native Erskine Caldwell, author of "Tobacco Road."

Dec. 26: First FM radio patented by Edwin Howard Armstrong.

Also noteworthy:

* First chocolate chip cookies concocted by accident by proprietor of an inn named Toll House.

50 years ago: 1958

January: After three months in orbit, Russia's Sputnik 1 burns up on re-entry to the earth's atmosphere.

Jan. 31: Explorer I becomes first satellite placed in orbit by United States.

Oct. 1: NASA's first day of operations.

March 24: Elvis Presley becomes Army Pvt. Presley.

March: Nikita Khrushchev replaces Nicolai Bulganin as Soviet premier.

April 13: Van Cliburn wins first Tchaikovsky international piano competition in Moscow.

Aug. 1: First-class postage rises to 4 cents.

Autumn: TV quiz show scandal makes headlines.

Aug. 3: Crew of atomic submarine USS Nautilus makes history with first undersea voyage across North Pole.

Oct. 9: Pope Pius XII dies; Pope John XXIII elected pontiff on Oct. 28.

Also noteworthy:

* First Grammy awards made for musical recordings. Winning single was "Volare;" winning album was "The Music from Peter Gunn."

25 years ago: 1983

Jan. 1: Penn State beats University of Georgia in Sugar Bowl. On Tuesday, UGA plays University of Hawaii in the same bowl.

January: George C. Wallace begins fourth term as governor of Alabama.

Jan. 26: Longtime Alabama coach Bear Bryant dies about a month after coaching his last football game.

Feb. 28: Final TV episode of "M*A*S*H" airs.

April: Georgia-born Alice Walker wins Pulitzer Prize for "The Color Purple."

April 21: John Glenn becomes the first former astronaut to run as a candidate for president.

May 25: "Return of the Jedi" in "Star Wars" series released.

June 18: Sally Ride becomes first American woman to go into space. On Aug. 30, Air Force Lt. Col. Guion Bluford becomes first African-American astronaut to go into space.

Sept. 17: Vanessa Williams chosen first African-American Miss America.

Oct. 23: Beirut, Lebanon, barracks bombings kill hundreds of U.S. and French military personnel.

Oct.25: U.S. invades Grenada after execution of the island nation's prime minister.

Nov. 2: President Reagan signs bill establishing Martin L. King Jr. federal holiday. (April 4, 2008, will mark the 40th anniversary of King's death.)

Dec. 7: First execution by lethal injection takes place in Huntsville, Texas.