TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Jan. 15, 1929

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1559

England’s Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1862

The U.S. Senate confirmed President Abraham Lincoln’s choice of Edwin M. Stanton to be the new Secretary of War, replacing Simon Cameron.

1892

The original rules of basketball, devised by James Naismith, were published for the first time in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the game originated.

1919

In Boston, a tank containing an estimated 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst, sending the dark syrup coursing through the city’s North End, killing 21 people.

1943

Work was completed on the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of War.

1961

A U.S. Air Force radar tower off the New Jersey coast collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean during a severe storm, killing all 28 men aboard.

1967

The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.

1973

President Richard M. Nixon announced the suspension of all U.S. offensive action in North Vietnam, citing progress in peace negotiations.

1978

Two students at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, were slain in their sorority house.

1981

The police drama series “Hill Street Blues” premiered on NBC.