Today in history

On Jan. 10, 1776, Thomas Paine published his influential pamphlet, “Common Sense.”

In 1861 Florida became the third state to secede from the Union.

In 1863 London’s Metropolitan, the world’s first underground passenger railway, opened to the public.

In 1946 the first manmade contact with the moon was made as radar signals were bounced off the lunar surface.

In 1978 the Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard a Soyuz capsule for a rendezvous with the Salyut 6 space laboratory.

In 1989 Cuba began withdrawing its troops from Angola, more than 13 years after its first contingents arrived.

In 2002 Marines began flying hundreds of al-Qaida prisoners in Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 2005 CBS issued a damning independent review of mistakes related to a “60 Minutes Wednesday” report on President George W. Bush’s National Guard service and fired three news executives and a producer for their “myopic zeal” in rushing it to air.

In 2006 Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs unveiled an iMac computer based on Intel chips.

In 2017 President Barack Obama bid farewell to the nation in an emotional speech at McCormick Place. Also in 2017 an unrepentant 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.