TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Jan. 12, 1959

Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records in Detroit.

ALSO ON THIS DATE

1828

The United States and Mexico signed a Treaty of Limits defining the boundary between the two countries to be the same as the one established by an 1819 treaty between the U.S. and Spain.

1915

The U.S. House of Representatives rejected, 204-174, a proposed constitutional amendment to give women nationwide the right to vote.

1932

Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate after initially being appointed to serve out the remainder of the term of her late husband, Thaddeus.

1945

During World War II, Soviet forces began a major offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe. Aircraft from U.S. Task Force 38 sank 40 Japanese ships off Indochina.

1948

The U.S. Supreme Court, in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma, unanimously ruled that state law schools could not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race.

1966

President Lyndon B. Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the U.S. military should stay in Vietnam until Communist aggression there was stopped. The TV series “Batman,” starring Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo, premiered on ABC, airing twice a week on consecutive nights.

1971

The groundbreaking situation comedy “All in the Family” premiered on CBS television.

1986

The shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. ChangDiaz.

1998

Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s office with taped conversations between herself and former intern Monica Lewinsky.