TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 2020

The U.S. reported its first known case of the new virus circulating in China, saying a Washington state resident who had returned the previous week from the outbreak’s epicenter was hospitalized near Seattle; U.S. officials stressed that they believed the overall risk of the virus to the American public remained low.

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1793

During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, condemned for treason, was executed on the guillotine.

1915

The first Kiwanis Club, dedicated to community service, was founded in Detroit.

1924

Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.

1942

Pinball machines were banned in New York City after a court ruled they were gambling devices that relied on chance rather than skill (the ban was lifted in 1976).

1954

The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Connecticut (however, the Nautilus did not make its first nuclearpowered run until nearly a year later).

1976

British Airways and Air France inaugurated scheduled passenger service on the supersonic Concorde jet.

1977

On his first full day in office, President Jimmy Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

1997

Speaker Newt Gingrich was reprimanded and fined as the House voted for the first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.

2003

The Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America’s largest minority group.

2007

Lovie Smith became the first Black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship.

2010

A bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, vastly increased the power of big business and labor unions to influence government decisions by freeing them to spend their millions directly to sway elections for president and Congress. Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards finally admitted fathering a daughter during an affair before his second White House bid.

2019

First-term senator and former California attorney general Kamala Harris entered the Democratic presidential race. (Harris would withdraw from the race in December; she would be chosen the following August as the party’s vice presidential nominee.) A light aircraft carrying Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala to his new team in Wales went missing over the English Channel. (Sala’s body was recovered from the wreckage two weeks later.)