TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS MONDAY, JAN. 20, the 20th day of 2020. There are 346 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 2001, George Walker Bush became America’s 43rd president after one of the most turbulent elections in U.S. history.
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.
In 1942, Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Europe’s Jews.
In 1964, Capitol Records released the album “Meet the Beatles!”
In 1981, Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.
In 1986, the United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
In 1994, Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. Faulkner joined the cadet corps in Aug. 1995 under court order, but soon dropped out, citing isolation and stress from the legal battle.
In 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell, faced with stiff resistance and calls to go slow, bluntly told the Security Council that the U.N. “must not shrink” from its responsibility to disarm Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
In 2007, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., launched her first campaign for the White House, saying in a videotaped message on her website: “I’m in, and I’m
in to win.”
In 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s 44th, as well as first African American, president. Russian natural gas began flowing into Ukraine after a nearly two-week cutoff that had left large parts of Europe cold and dark.
In 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, pledging emphatically to empower America’s “forgotten men and women.” Protesters registered their rage against the new president in a chaotic confrontation with police just blocks from the inaugural parade.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin is 90. Olympic gold medal figure skater Carol Heiss is 80. Singer Eric Stewart is 75. Movie director David Lynch is 74. Country-rock musician George Grantham (Poco) is 73. Israeli activist Natan Sharansky is 72. Actor Daniel Benzali is 70. Rock musicians Paul Stanley (KISS) and Ian Hill (Judas Priest) are 68. Actor Lorenzo Lamas is 62. Actor James Denton is 57. Rock musician Greg K. (The Offspring), country singer John Michael Montgomery and Sophie, Countess of Wessex, are 55. Actor Rainn Wilson is 54. Presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway and actress Stacey Dash are 53. TV personality Melissa Rivers and singer Xavier are 52. Actor Reno Wilson is 51. Singer Edwin McCain and actor Skeet Ulrich are 50. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is 48. Rock musician Rob Bourdon (Linkin Park) is 41. Singer-songwriter Bonnie McKee is 36. Country singer Brantley Gilbert is 35. Rock singer Kevin Parker (Tame Impala) is 34. Actor Evan Peters is 33.