This day in history
Today is Friday, Jan. 19, the 19th day of 2024. There are 347 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Actor Tippi Hedren is 94. Former PBS newsman Robert MacNeil is 93. Movie director Richard Lester is 92. Actor-singer Michael Crawford is 82. Actor Shelley Fabares is 80. Retired Fidelity Investments money manager Peter Lynch is
80. Country singer Dolly Parton is 78. Former ABC newswoman Ann Compton is 77. TV chef Paula Deen is 77. Rock singer Martha Davis is 73. Actor Desi Arnaz Jr. is 71. Actor Katey Sagal is 70. Comedian Paul Rodriguez is 69. Conductor Simon Rattle is 69. Actor Paul McCrane is 63. Basketball coach and commentator Jeff Van Gundy is 62. Tennis Hall of Famer Stefan Edberg is 58. Singer Trey Lorenz is 55. Actor Shawn Wayans is 53. Actor Drea de Matteo is 52. Comedian-impressionist
Frank Caliendo is 50. Actor Jodie Sweetin is 42. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is 42. Movie director Damien Chazelle is 39. Actor Shaunette Renee Wilson is 34. Actor Logan Lerman is 32. Olympic gold medal gymnast Shawn Johnson is 32. Rapper Taylor Bennett is 28. Actor Lidya Jewett is 17.
► In 1809, poet Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston.
► In 1915, Germany carried out its first air raid on Britain during World War I as a pair of Zeppelins dropped bombs onto Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in England.
►In 1942, during World War II, Japanese forces captured the British protectorate of North Borneo. A German submarine sank the Canadian liner RMS Lady Hawkins off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, killing 251 people; 71 survived.
► In 1953, CBS-TV aired the widely watched episode of “I Love Lucy” in which Lucy Ricardo, played by Lucille Ball, gave birth to Little Ricky. (By coincidence, Ball gave birth the same day to her son, Desi Arnaz Jr.)
► In 1966, Indira Gandhi was chosen to be prime minister of India by the National Congress party.
► In 1987, Guy Hunt became Alabama’s first Republican governor since 1874 as he was sworn into office, succeeding George C. Wallace.
► In 2005, the American Cancer Society reported that cancer had passed heart disease as the top killer of Americans aged 85 and younger.
► In 2009, Russia and Ukraine signed a deal restoring natural gas shipments to Ukraine and paving the way for an end to the nearly two-week cutoff of most Russian gas to a freezing Europe.
► In 2012, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire apologized and agreed to cash payouts to 37 people who’d been harassed and phone-hacked by its tabloid press.
► In 2013, death claimed baseball Hall-of-Famers Stan Musial at age 92 and Earl Weaver at age 82.
► In 2018, Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman joined dozens of other women and girls in confronting her former doctor, Larry Nassar, at his sentencing hearing for multiple sexual assaults; she warned him that the testimony of the “powerful army” of survivors would haunt him in prison.
► Last year, the Supreme Court said an eight-month investigation failed to reveal who leaked a draft of the court’s opinion overturning abortion rights.