Today In History
Today is Tuesday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2018. There are 356 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
› 1793: Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew from Philadelphia to Woodbury, New Jersey.
ON THIS DATE
› 1788: Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
› 1861: Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, retreated because of artillery fire.
› 1931: Bobbi Trout and Edna May Cooper broke an endurance record for female aviators as they returned to Mines Field in Los Angeles after flying a Curtiss Robin monoplane continuously for 122 hours and 50 minutes.
› 1968: The Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.
› 1972: Reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported autobiography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Author Judith Krantz is 90. Football Hall of Famer Bart Starr is 84. Actress K. Callan is 82. Folk singer Joan Baez is
77. Rockabilly singer Roy Head is 77. Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 74. Actor John Doman is 73. Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 68. Singer Crystal Gayle is 67. Actor J.K. Simmons is 63. Actress Imelda Staunton is 62. Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberto Menchu is
59. Rock musician Eric Erlandson is 55. Actress Joely Richardson is 53. Rock musician Carl Bell (Fuel) is 51. Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 51. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 51. Actress-director Joey Lauren Adams is
50. Actress Angela Bettis is 45. Roots singer-songwriter Hayes Carll is 42. Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 40. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is 36. Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (OneRepublic) is 34. Rock-soul singer Paolo Nutini is 31. Actress Nina Dobrev is 29. Actor Basil Eidenbenz is 25. Actress Kerris Dorsey is 20. Actor Tyree Brown is 14.