TODAY IN HISTORY
On Jan. 3, 1990, ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission.
Also on this date
In 1861, more than two weeks before Georgia seceded from the Union, the state militia seized Fort Pulaski. Meanwhile, the Delaware House and Senate voted to oppose secession from the Union.
In 1868, the Meiji Restoration reestablished the authority of Japan’s emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns.
In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state.
In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced the United States was formally terminating diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.
In 1977, Apple Computer was incorporated in Cupertino, California, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Mike Markkula Jr.
In 2002, a judge in Alabama ruled that former Ku Klux Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry was mentally competent to stand trial on murder charges in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four Black girls. (Cherry was convicted and served a life sentence until his death in November 2004.)
In 2020, the United States killed Iran’s top general in an airstrike at Baghdad’s airport; the Pentagon said Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force, had been “actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members” in Iraq and elsewhere. Iran warned of retaliation.
Ten years ago: The Iowa Republican Party held its caucuses; although Mitt Romney was originally considered the winner by an eightvote margin, officials later said that Rick Santorum had beaten Romney by 34 votes. In the Democratic caucuses, President Barack Obama ran unopposed.
Five years ago: Ford Motor Co. canceled plans to build a new $1.6 billion factory in Mexico, and said it would invest at least some of the savings in new electric and autonomous vehicles.
One year ago: An outpouring of current and former Republican officials warned that President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the election result was undermining Americans’ faith in democracy.