TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022.
Today’s highlight in history
On Jan. 4, 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House.
On this date
In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, called for legislation to provide assistance for the jobless, elderly, impoverished children and the disabled.
In 1948, Burma (now called
Myanmar) became independent of British rule.
In 1964, Pope Paul VI began a visit to the Holy Land, the first papal pilgrimage of its kind.
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his State of the Union address in which he outlined the goals of his “Great Society.”
In 1974, President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
In 1987, 16 people were killed when an Amtrak train bound from Washington, D.C., to Boston collided with Conrail locomotives that had crossed into its path from a side track
in Chase, Md.
In 1999, Europe’s new currency, the euro, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets.
In 2002, Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, was killed by small-arms fire during an ambush in eastern Afghanistan; he was the first U.S. military death from enemy fire in the war against terrorism.
In 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a significant stroke; his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert. (Sharon remained in a coma until his death in 2014.)
Today’s birthdays
Actor Barbara Rush is 95. Opera singer Grace Bumbry is 85. Actor Dyan Cannon is 83. Author-historian Doris Kearns Goodwin is 79. Singer Kathy Forester is 67. Actor Ann Magnuson is 66. Singer-musician Bernard Sumner (New Order, Joy Division) is 66. Singer Patty Loveless is 65. Actor Julian Sands is 64. Singer Michael Stipe is 62. Actor Dave Foley is 59. Actor Dot Jones is 58. Actor Julia Ormond is 57. Tennis player Guy Forget is 57. Singer Deana Carter is 56. Actor D’Arcy Carden is 42. Actor Charlyne Yi is 36. MLB All-Star Kris Bryant is 30. Actor-singer Coco Jones is 24.