Today’s highlight in history
On Jan. 10, 1946, the first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.
On this date
In 1863, the London Underground had its beginnings as the Metropolitan, the world’s first underground passenger railway, opened to the public with service between Paddington and Farringdon St.
In 1870, John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.
In 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.
In 1946, the first man-made contact with the moon was made as radar signals transmitted by the U.S. Army Signal Corps were bounced off the lunar surface.
In 1967, Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black person elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat.
In 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.
In 2000, America Online announced it was buying Time Warner for $162 billion (the merger, which proved disastrous, ended in December 2009).
Ten years ago: The United States lodged a formal diplomatic protest with Iran over an incident in which Iranian speedboats harassed U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf.
Five years ago: Major League Baseball announced it would test for human growth hormone throughout the regular season and increase efforts to detect abnormal levels of testosterone.
One year ago: Dylann Roof was sentenced to death in Charleston, S.C., for fatally shooting nine black church members during a Bible study session, becoming the first person ordered executed for a federal hate crime.