TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, JAN. 30, the 30th day of 2017. There are 335 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. (Godse and a co-conspirator were later executed.)
In 1649, England’s King Charles I was executed for treason.
In 1815, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in agreeing to purchase the personal book collection of former President Thomas Jefferson to replace volumes lost when the British burned the U.S. Capitol and its congressional library during the War of 1812.
In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, New York.
In 1911, James White, an intellectually disabled black man who’d been convicted of rape for having sex with a 14-year-old white girl when he was 16, was hanged in Bell County, Kentucky.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. The first episode of the “Lone Ranger” radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.
In 1945, during World War II, more than 500 Allied captives held at the Japanese prison camp in Cabanatuan in the Philippines were liberated by U.S. Army Rangers, Alamo Scouts and Filipino guerrilla fighters.
In 1962, two members of “The Flying Wallendas” high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance at the State Fair Coliseum in Detroit.
In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.
In 1969, The Beatles staged an impromptu concert atop Apple headquarters in London; it was the group’s last public performance.
In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
In 1981, an estimated 2 million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the freed American hostages from Iran.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie director Michael Anderson (Film: “Around the World in 80 Days”) is 97. Actress Dorothy Malone is 92. Producer-director Harold Prince is 89. Actor Gene Hackman is 87. Actress Vanessa Redgrave, chess grandmaster Boris Spassky and country singer Jeanne Pruett are 80. Country singer Norma Jean is 79. Former Vice President Dick Cheney is 76. Rock singer Marty Balin is 75. Rhythmand-blues musician William King (The Commodores) is 68. Singer Phil Collins and actor Charles S. Dutton are 66. World Golf Hall of Famer Curtis Strange is 62. Actress-comedian Brett Butler is 59. Singer Jody Watley is 58. Actorfilmmaker Dexter Scott King is 56. The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, is 55. Actor Norbert Leo Butz is 50. The King of Spain, Felipe VI, is 49. Country singer Tammy Cochran is 45. Actor Christian Bale, rock musician Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) and actress Olivia Colman are 43. Actress-singer Lena Hall, pop-country singer-songwriter Josh Kelley and actor Wilmer Valderrama are 37. Actress Mary Hollis Imboden (TV: “The Real O’Neals”) is 31. Actress Kylie Bunbury (TV: “Pitch”) is 28. Actor Jake Thomas is 27. Actress Danielle Campbell is 22.