January 15, 1943 – The Pentagon, is completed to house the U. S. military It has about 6.5 million square feet of floor space with 17.5 miles of corridors. About 23,000 military and civilian employees work in the building. For 80 years it was the world’s largest office building until replaced this past August by a diamond exchange building in Surat, India.
January 15, 1559 – Elizabeth Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, is crowned Queen of England
January 16, 1919 – The 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution authorizing the prohibition of alcohol is ratified by a majority of states. It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933, becoming the only constitutional amendment ever to be repealed.
January 17, 1950 – 11 men stole more than $2 million ($29 million today) from the Brink’s Armored Car Depot in Boston, Massachusetts (the largest robbery in U.S. history at that time). It was almost the perfect crime as the culprits weren’t caught until January 1956, just days before the statute of limitations for the theft expired. One of the gang’s members agreed to testify against his fellow robbers; eight were convicted and received life sentences, and two died before they could come to trial. Only a small part of the money was ever recovered.