DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Friday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of 2021. There are 343 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1907: The Richard Strauss opera “Salome” made its American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; its racy content sparked outrage and forced cancellation of additional performances.
1944: During World War II, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.
1970: The first regularly scheduled commercial flight of the Boeing 747 began in New York and ended in London some 6 1⁄2 hours later.
1973: The U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, declared a nationwide constitutional right to abortion. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson died at his Texas ranch at age 64.
1973: George Foreman upset reigning heavyweight champion Joe Frazier with a second round TKO in their match in Kingston, Jamaica.
1987: Pennsylvania treasurer R. Budd Dwyer, convicted of defrauding the state, proclaimed his innocence at a news conference before pulling out a gun, placing the barrel in his mouth and shooting himself to death in front of horrified onlookers.
1995: Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 104.
1997: The Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the nation’s first female secretary of state.
1998: Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, California, to being the Unabomber responsible for three deaths and 29 injuries in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.
2006: Kobe Bryant scored 81 points, the second-highest in NBA history, in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
2007: A double car bombing of a predominantly Shiite commercial area in Baghdad killed 88 people. Iran announced it had barred 38 nuclear inspectors on a United Nations list from entering the country in apparent retaliation for U.N. sanctions imposed the previous month.
2009: President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within a year. (The facility remained in operation as lawmakers blocked efforts to transfer terror suspects to the United States; President Donald Trump later issued an order to keep the jail open and allow the Pentagon to bring new prisoners there.)
Actor Piper Laurie is 89. Singer
Steve Perry of Journey is 72. Bassist
Teddy Gentry of Alabama is 69. is 66. Actor Linda Blair is 62. Actor Diane Lane is 56. Country singer Regina Nicks of Regina Regina is 56. Rapper-actor DJ Jazzy Jeff is 56. Celebrity chef Guy Fieri is 53. Actor Olivia D’abo (“The Wonder Years”) is 52. Actor Balthazar Getty is 46. Actor Christopher Kennedy Masterson (“Malcolm in the Middle”) is 41. Jazz singer Lizz Wright is 41. Singer Willa Ford is 40. Actor Beverley Mitchell (“Seventh Heaven”) is 40. Guitarist Ben Moody of The Fallen and Evanescence is 40. Actor-singer Phoebe Strole (“Glee”) is 38. Rapper Logic is 31. Actor Sami Gayle (“Blue Bloods”) is 25.