TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 29.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

On Jan. 29, 2002, in his first State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said terrorists were still threatening America — and he warned of“an axis of evil” consisting of North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

ON THIS DATE

In 1820, King George III died at Windsor Castle at age 81; he was succeeded by his son, who became King George IV.

In 1856, Britain’s Queen Victoria introduced the Victoria Cross to reward military acts of valor during the Crimean War.

In 1861, Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

In 1936, the first inductees of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.

In 1963, the first charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio (they were enshrined when the Hall opened in September 1963). Poet Robert Frost died in Boston at age 88.

In 1975, a bomb exploded inside the U.S. State Department in Washington, causing considerable damage, but injuring no one; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced in a nationally broadcast message that he and Vice President George H.W. Bush would seek re-election in the fall.

In 1995, the San Francisco 49ers became the first team in NFL history to win five Super Bowl titles, beating the San Diego Chargers, 49-26, in Super Bowl XXIX.

In 1998, a bomb rocked an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing security guard Robert Sanderson and critically injuring nurse Emily Lyons. (The bomber, Eric Rudolph, was captured in May 2003 and is serving a life sentence.)

In 2005, jetliners from China landed in rival Taiwan for the first time in 56 years. In 2006, ABC “World News Tonight” co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq. Ten years ago: In a faceto-face confrontation, President Barack Obama chastised Republican lawmakers during a GOP event in Baltimore for opposing him on taxes, health care and the economic stimulus, while they accused him in turn of brushing off their ideas and driving up the national debt. A jury in Wichita, Kansas, swiftly convicted abortion opponent Scott Roeder of murder in the shooting death of Dr. George Tiller, one of the only doctors to offer late-term abortions in the U.S. (Roeder was sentenced to life in prison.) Five years ago: Nine Democrats joined 53 Republicans in passing a Senate bill to construct the Keystone XL oil pipeline in defiance of a presidential veto threat. Rod McKuen, whose music, verse and spoken-word recordings made him one of the bestselling poets in history, died at 81.

One year ago: The largest utility in the U.S., Pacific Gas & Electric, filed for bankruptcy as it faced billions of dollars in potential damages from wildfires in California.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.” — Hesketh Pearson, British biographer (1887-1964).