TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, JAN. 10, the 10th day of 2018. There are 355 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, “Common Sense,” which argued for American independence from British rule. In 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union.
In 1863, the London Underground had its beginnings as the Metropolitan, the world’s first underground passenger railway, opened to the public with service between Paddington and Farringdon Street. In 1870, John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.
In 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect. In 1946, the first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London. The first manmade contact with the moon was made as radar signals transmitted by the U.S. Army Signal Corps were bounced off the lunar surface.
In 1957, Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Britain following the resignation of Anthony Eden.
In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, asked Congress to impose a surcharge on both corporate and individual income taxes to help pay for his “Great Society” programs, as well as the war in Vietnam. That same day, Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black person elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat. In 1978, the Soviet Union launched
two cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule for a rendezvous with the Salyut 6 space laboratory.
In 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.
In 1994, President Bill Clinton, attending a NATO summit meeting in Brussels, Belgium, announced completion of an agreement to remove all long-range nuclear missiles from the former Soviet republic of Ukraine.
In 2000, America Online announced it was buying Time Warner for $162 billion (the merger, which proved disastrous, ended in December 2009).
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Opera singer Sherrill Milnes, blues artist Eddy Clearwater and rock singer-musician Ronnie Hawkins are 83. Baseball Hallof-Famer Willie McCovey is 80. Movie director Walter Hill is 78. Actor William Sanderson is 74. Singer Rod Stewart is 73. Rock singer-musician Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) is 70. Boxing Hall-of-Famer and entrepreneur George Foreman is 69. Roots rock singer Alejandro Escovedo is 67. Rock musician Scott Thurston (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) is 66. Singer Pat Benatar, and Hall of Fame race car driver and team owner Bobby Rahal are 65. Rock musician Michael Schenker is 63. Singer Shawn Colvin is 62. Rock singer-musician Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) is 59. Actor Evan Handler is 57. Rock singer Brad Roberts (Crash Test Dummies) is 54. Actress Trini Alvarado is 51. Rock singer Brent Smith (Shinedown) is 40. Rapper Chris Smith (Kris Kross) is 39. Actress Sarah Shahi is 38. Presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner is 37.