TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, JAN. 17,
the 17th day of 2018. There are 348 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY:
On this date in 1893, Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Lili’uokalani to abdicate. The 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, died in Fremont, Ohio, at age 70.
In 1781,
during the Revolutionary War, American forces defeated the British in the Battle of Cowpens, S.C.
In 1945,
Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II; Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappeared in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
In 1953,
a prototype of the Chevrolet Corvette was unveiled during the General Motors Motorama at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York.
In 1961,
President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address in which he warned against “the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”
In 1966,
a U.S. Air Force B-52 carrying four unarmed hydrogen bombs crashed on the Spanish coast. (Three of the bombs were quickly recovered, but the fourth wasn’t recovered until April.) The Simon & Garfunkel album “Sounds of Silence” was released by Columbia Records.
In 1977,
convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade.
In 1984,
the U.S. Supreme Court, in Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., ruled 5-4 that the use of home video cassette recorders to tape television programs for private viewing did not violate federal copyright laws.
In 1995,
more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.
In 1998,
the Drudge Report said Newsweek magazine had killed a story about an affair between President Bill Clinton and an unidentified White House intern, the same day Clinton gave a deposition in Paula Jones’ sexual harassment lawsuit against him in which he denied having had a sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS:
Actress Betty White is 96. Former FCC chairman Newton N. Minow is 92. Actor James Earl Jones is 87. Talk show host Maury Povich is 79. Pop singer Chris Montez is 76. Rhythm-andblues singer William Hart (The Delfonics) is 73. Actresses Joanna David and Jane Elliot are 71. Rock musician Mick Taylor is 70. Rhythm-and-blues singer Sheila Hutchinson (The Emotions) is 65. Singer Steve Earle is 63. Singer Paul Young is 62. Actor-comedian Steve Harvey is 61. Singer Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles) is 59. Movie director-screenwriter Brian Helgeland is 57. Actor-comedian Jim Carrey and actor Denis O’Hare are 56. Former first lady Michelle Obama is 54. Rapper Kid Rock is 47. Actor Freddy Rodriguez is 43. Actor-writer Leigh Whannel is 41. Actress-singer Zooey Deschanel and dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy (TV: “Dancing with the Stars”) are 38. Singer Ray J and actor Diogo Morgado are 37. Country singer Amanda Wilkinson and NBA player Dwyane Wade are 36. Actor Ryan Gage is 35. DJ-singer Calvin Harris is 34. Folkrock musician Jeremiah Fraites is 32. Actor Jonathan Keltz is 30. Actress Kelly Marie Tran (Film: “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) is 29. Actress Kathrine Herzer is 21.