Also on this date
In 1927,
commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.
In 1953,
President Truman announced in his State of the Union message to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
In 1959,
the United States recognized the new government of Cuba, six days after Fidel Castro led the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1979,
Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.
In 1999,
for the second time in history, an impeached American president went on trial before the Senate. President Bill Clinton faced charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; he was acquitted.
In 2004,
President George W. Bush proposed legal status, at least temporarily, for millions of immigrants improperly working in the U.S.
In 2006,
U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, RTexas, facing corruption charges, stepped down as House majority leader. (DeLay was found guilty in Nov. 2010 of illegally funneling corporate money to Texas candidates; his conviction was eventually overturned.)
In 2015,
masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Mohammad, killing 12 people before escaping in a car. (Two suspects were killed two days later.)
In 2019,
Amazon eclipsed Microsoft as the most valuable publicly-traded company in the U.S.
Ten years ago:
A package addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited at a Washington postal facility, a day after packages sent to Maryland’s governor and state transportation secretary burned the fingers of workers who opened them.
Five years ago:
President Barack Obama tore into the National Rifle Association during a televised town hall meeting in Fairfax, Virginia, as he dismissed what he called a “conspiracy” alleging that the federal government — and Obama in particular — wanted to seize all firearms as a precursor to imposing martial law.
One year ago:
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake, the strongest to hit Puerto Rico in more than 100 years, killed one person, injured nine others and knocked out power across the U.S. territory.