TODAY IN HISTORY

Monday, Jan. 2, 2023 1967

Republican Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as the new governor of California in a ceremony that took place in Sacramento shortly just after midnight.

1971

Sixty-six people were killed in a pileup of spectators leaving a soccer match at Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland.

1974

President Richard Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55miles an hour as a way of conserving gasoline in the face of an OPEC oil embargo.

2007

The state funeral for former President Gerald R. Ford began with an elaborate service at Washington National Cathedral, then moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan.

2015

California began issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants who were in the country illegally. Little Jimmy Dickens, a diminutive singer-songwriter who was the oldest cast member of the Grand Ole Opry, died at age 94.

2016

A heavily armed group led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, beginning a 41-day standoff to protest the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires on public land and to demand the federal government turn over public lands to local control.

2018

Sen. Al Franken formally resigned from the Senate a month after the Minnesota Democrat announced his plan to leave Congress amid a series of sexual misconduct allegations. NBC News announced that Hoda Kotb would be the co-anchor of the first two hours of the “Today” show, replacing Matt Lauer following his firing due to sexual misconduct allegations.

2013

The United Nations gave a grim new count of the human cost of Syria’s civil war, saying the death toll had exceeded 60,000 in 21 months. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton left a New York hospital, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head. No. 22 Louisville toppled No. 4 Florida, 33-23, in the Sugar Bowl.

2018

Fifty-two passengers trapped for more than a week on an icebound Russian research ship in the Antarctic were rescued when a Chinese helicopter swooped in and plucked them from the ice a dozen at a time. In the Sugar Bowl, No. 11 Oklahoma took down third-ranked Alabama 4531.