TODAY IN WORLD HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2017. There are 347 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History
On Jan. 18, 1967, Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the “Boston Strangler,” was convicted in Cambridge, Massachusetts, of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. (Sentenced to life, DeSalvo was killed in prison in 1973.)
On this date
• In 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook reached the present-day Hawaiian Islands, which he named the “Sandwich Islands.”
• In 1862, the tenth president of the United States, John Tyler, died in Richmond, Virginia, at age 71, shortly before he could take his seat as an elected member of the Confederate Congress.
• In 1892, comedian Oliver Hardy was born in Harlem, Georgia.
• In 1911, the first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely brought his Curtiss biplane in for a safe landing on the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.
• In 1919, the Paris Peace Conference, held to negotiate peace treaties ending the First World War, opened in Versailles (vehr-SY’), France.
• In 1936, Nobel Prize-winning author Rudyard Kipling, 70, died in London.
• In 1943, during World War II, Jewish insurgents in the Warsaw Ghetto launched their initial armed resistance against Nazi troops, who eventually succeeded in crushing the rebellion. A U.S. ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread — aimed at reducing bakeries’ demand for metal replacement parts — went into effect.
• In 1957, a trio of B-52’s completed the first non-stop, roundthe-world flight by jet planes, landing at March Air Force Base in California after more than 45 hours aloft.
• In 1970, David Oman McKay, the ninth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at the age of 96.
• In 1988, a China Southwest Airlines Ilyushin 18 crashed while on approach to Chongqing Airport, killing all 108 people on board.
• In 1993, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50 states for the first time.
• In 1997, former Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas, who rebounded from cancer to briefly become the Democratic frontrunner for president in 1992, died in Boston at age 55.
Ten years ago
Truck driver Tyrone Williams was spared the death penalty and sentenced by a federal court in Houston to life in prison for his role in the deaths of 19 immigrants crammed in a sweltering tractor-trailer. A heated controversy at the ABC show “Grey’s Anatomy” boiled over as the network rebuked co-star Isaiah Washington for making an antigay comment against fellow actor T.R. Knight and Washington issued a lengthy apology (Washington ended up being dropped from the cast).
Five years ago
President Barack Obama rejected the Keystone XL project, a Canadian company’s plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to carry oil across six U.S. states to Texas refineries. Wikipedia and other websites went dark to protest two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.
One year ago
For the first time in 17 years, civil rights leaders gathered at the South Carolina Statehouse to pay homage to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. without the Confederate flag present; it was one of many rallies throughout the country. Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, 67, died in New York.