On this date

In 1801, Secretary of State John Marshall was nominated by President John Adams to be chief justice of the United States. (He was sworn in on Feb. 4, 1801.)

In 1937,

President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.

In 1942,

Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Europe’s Jews.

In 1964,

Capitol Records released the album “Meet the Beatles!” It was the second Beatles album released in the United States.

In 1986,

The United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1994,

Shannon Faulkner became the first woman to attend classes at The Citadel in South Carolina. (Faulkner joined the cadet corps in August 1995 under court order but soon dropped out, citing isolation and stress from the legal battle.)

In 2003,

Secretary of State Colin Powell, faced with stiff resistance and calls to go slow, bluntly told the Security Council that the U.N. “must not shrink” from its responsibility to disarm Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

Ten years ago:

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair conceded missteps in the government’s handling of the Christmas Day 2009 airline bombing attempt in testimony before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Five years ago:

The Islamic State group threatened to kill two Japanese hostages unless its ransom demands were met. (Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa were both slain by their captors.)

One year ago:

The year’s only total lunar eclipse was visible throughout North and South America; it took place during the year’s first supermoon, when a full moon appears a little bigger and brighter thanks to its slightly closer position.

AP President Franklin D. Roosevelt takes the oath of office on Jan. 20, 1937. Before then, inauguration day was March 4.