Today’s highlight in history
On Jan. 20, 1942, Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Europe’s Jews.
On this date
In 1265, England’s first representative Parliament met for the first time.
In 1887, the U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.
In 1936, Britain’s King George V died after his physician injected the mortally ill monarch with morphine and cocaine to hasten his death; the king was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne 11 months later to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.
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 1992, an Air Inter Airbus A-320 crashed near Strasbourg, France, killing 87 of the 96 people on board.
Ten years ago: Twenty-five U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, including 12 in a helicopter crash in Baghdad and five in a sophisticated sneak attack in Karbala.
Five years ago: France threatened to withdraw early from Afghanistan after an Afghan soldier killed four French troops and wounded 15 in a setback for the U.S.-led coalition’s efforts to build a national army and allow foreign troops to go home.
One year ago: The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and NASA announced that 2015 was by far the hottest year in 136 years of record keeping.