TODAY IN HISTORY

On this day in 1981

U.S. President Jimmy Carter announced the signing of an agreement by the U.S. and Iran to free the 52 Americans held hostage in Iran in return for the U.S. unfreezing $8 billion in Iranian assets which Carter froze when the hostages were seized. The 444-day hostage-taking is believed to have cost Carter his reelection bid. The hostages returned the next day, Jan. 20, as president Ronald Reagan was inaugurated. Also on this day: In 1649, Canada’s first execution took place in Quebec. The prisoner was a 16-year-old girl accused of theft. Her executioner was a pardoned criminal.

In 1809, Edgar Allan Poe, the American poet and short-story writer, was born in Boston.

In 1840, American explorer Capt. Charles Wilkes discovered Antarctica.

In 1915, the first air raids on England were staged by German Zeppelins.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi was elected India’s first woman prime minister.

In 1977, Jean Jaebone of Winnipeg was revived by doctors after her heart had stopped beating for three hours and 32 minutes.

In 1 9 8 9, Canadian Airlines International announced it was purchasing Wardair, Canada’s third largest carrier, for about $248 million.

In 2012, pioneer Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke died in a Utah hospital from injuries she sustained in a superpipe training run on Jan. 10. She was 29. She suffered irreversible brain damage after tearing a vertebral artery, which led to severe bleeding on the brain, causing her to go into cardiac arrest at the scene.