TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, JAN. 22, the 22nd day of 2017. There are 343 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson, in an address to Congress, pleaded for an end to the war in Europe, calling for “peace without victory.” (By April, however, America also was at war.)
In 1498, during his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrived at the present-day Caribbean island of St. Vincent.
In 1901, Britain’s Queen Victoria died at age 81 after a reign of 63 years.
In 1922, Pope Benedict XV died; he was succeeded by Pius XI.
In 1947, America’s first commercially licensed television station west of the Mississippi, KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, made its official debut.
In 1957, George P. Metesky, suspected of being the “Mad Bomber” who injured 15 people over a 16-year period, was arrested in Waterbury, Conn. (Metesky was later found mentally ill and committed until 1973; he died in 1994.)
In 1968, “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” premiered on NBC-TV.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalized abortions using a trimester approach. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson died at his Texas ranch at age 64.
In 1987, Pennsylvania treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, convicted of defrauding the state, proclaimed his innocence at a news conference before pulling out a gun and shooting himself to death in front of horrified onlookers.
In 1997, the Senate unanimously confirmed Madeleine Albright as the nation’s first female secretary of state.
In 2008, actor Heath Ledger was found dead of an accidental prescription overdose in New York City; he was 28.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Sen. Birch Bayh, D-Ind., is 89. Actress Piper Laurie is 85. Actor Seymour Cassel is 82. Actor John Hurt is 77. Singer Steve Perry is 68. Movie director Jim Jarmusch is 64. Actor John Wesley Shipp is 62. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Mike Bossy is 60. Actress Linda Blair is 58. Actress Diane Lane, actor-rap DJ Jazzy Jeff and country singer Regina Nicks (Regina Regina) are 52. Celebrity chef Guy Fieri is 49. Actress Olivia d’Abo and rhythm-and-blues singer Marc Gay (Shai) are 48. Actor Gabriel Macht is 45. Actor Balthazar Getty is 42. Actor Christopher Kennedy Masterson and jazz singer Lizz Wright are 37. Pop singer Willa Ford is 36. Actress Beverley Mitchell and rock singermusician Ben Moody are 36. Actor Kevin Sheridan is 35. Actress Sami Gayle is 21.