TODAY IN HISTORY

On Jan. 2, 1492, Spaniards seized the city of Granada from the Moors. It had been the last Arab stronghold in Spain.

In 1788 Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the Constitution.

In 1893 the post office issued the first commemorative stamps, depicting events in the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.

In 1899 Secretary of State John Hay announced the Open Door Policy to promote trade with China.

In 1905 Russian forces at Port Arthur in Manchuria surrendered to the Japanese, ending the last big military engagement of the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1921 religious services were broadcast for the first time when station KDKA in Pittsburgh transmitted the Sunday service from the city’s Calvary Episcopal Church.

In 1929 the U.S. and Canada agreed on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.

In 1935 Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (He would be found guilty and executed.)

In 1942 Manila was captured by the Japanese in World War II.

In 1943, after a campaign that began in early November, American and Allied forces seized the New Guinea island of Buna from the Japanese.

In 1960 Sen. John F. Kennedy, D-Mass., announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.

In 1965 the New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000.

In 1974 a crowd barrier collapsed at a soccer match in Glasgow, Scotland, and 66 people were trampled to death.

In 1983 the musical “Annie” closed after 2,377 Broadway performances.

In 1997 rain and melting snow swamped much of the West, trapping visitors in Yosemite National Park, closing casinos in Reno and forcing 50,000 Californians to flee their homes.

In 1999 a blizzard dumped 17 inches of snow on the Chicago area, the largest recorded snowfall for one day. (The next day, 4 more inches fell, making the storm the second most prolific in Chicago records; five deaths were blamed on the storm.)

In 2014 a helicopter from a Chinese icebreaker rescued 52 scientists and tourists who had been stranded aboard a Russian ship in Antarctic ice since Christmas Eve.