HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Friday, January 13, the 13th day of 2017. There are 352 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1951 – First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yên begins, which will end in a major victory for France.

1958 – The Moroccan Army of Liberation ambushes a Spanish patrol in the Battle of Edchera.

1960 – The Gulag system of forced labor camps in the Soviet Union is officially abolished.

1964 – Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland.

1972 – Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

1974 – Seraphim is elected Archbishop of Athens and All Greece.

1982 – Shortly after takeoff, Air Florida Flight 90, a Boeing 737 jet crashes into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge and falls into the Potomac River, killing 78 including four motorists.

1985 – A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa.

1986 – A month-long violent struggle begins in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.

1988 – Lee Teng-hui becomes the first native Taiwanese President of the Republic of China.

1990 – a seven-day pogrom breaks out against the Armenian civilian population of Baku, Azerbaijan during which Armenians were beaten, tortured, murdered, and expelled from the city.

1991 – Soviet Union troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, killing 14 people and wounding 1000.

1993 – Space Shuttle program: Endeavour heads for space for the third time as STS-54 launches from the Kennedy Space Center.

2000 – Bill Gates resigns as CEO of Microsoft.

2001 – An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800.

2012 – The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 32 confirmed deaths amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.

2012 – The opening ceremony of the Winter Youth Olympics takes place in Innsbruck, Austria.