Today in History

Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023

Today is Sunday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2023. There are 357days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, declared an “unconditional war on poverty in America.”

On this date:

In 1815, the last major engagement of the War of 1812 came to an end as U.S. forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, not having received word of the signing of a peace treaty.

In 1867, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in overriding President Andrew Johnson’s veto of the District of Columbia Suffrage Bill, giving Black men in the nation’s capital the right to vote.

In 1912, the African National Congress was founded in Bloemfontein, South Africa. In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points for lasting peace after World War I. Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition. In 1923, actor-comedian Larry Storch was born. In 1935, rock-and-roll legend Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. In 1982, American Telephone and Telegraph settled the Justice Department’s antitrust lawsuit against it by agreeing to divest itself of the 22Bell System companies.

In 1994, Tonya Harding won the ladies’ U.S. Figure Skating Championship in Detroit, a day after Nancy Kerrigan dropped out because of the clubbing attack that had injured her right knee. (The U.S. Figure Skating Association later stripped Harding of the title.)

In 1998, Ramzi Yousef (RAHM’-ZEE Yoo’-sef), the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 2008, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton powered to victory in New Hampshire’s 2008 Democratic primary in a startling upset, defeating Sen. Barack Obama and resurrecting her bid for the White House; Sen. John Mccain defeated his Republican rivals to move back into contention for the GOP nomination.

In 2011, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-ariz., was shot and critically wounded when a gunman opened fire as the congresswoman met with constituents in Tucson; six people were killed, 12 others also injured. (Gunman Jared Lee Loughner (LAWF’-NUR) was sentenced in Nov. 2012 to seven consecutive life sentences, plus 140 years.) In 2016, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the world’s mostwanted drug lord, was captured for a third time in a daring raid by Mexican marines, six months after walking through a tunnel to freedom from a maximum security prison.

In 2020, Iran struck back at the United States for killing Iran’s top military commander, firing missiles at two Iraqi military bases housing American troops; more than 100U.S. service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after the attack. As Iran braced for a counterattack, the country’s Revolutionary Guard shot down a Ukrainian jetliner after apparently mistaking it for a missile; all 176 people on board were killed, including 82 Iranians and more than 50 Canadians.

Ten years ago: Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, launched a political action committee aimed at curbing gun violence as her Arizona hometown paused to mark the second anniversary of the deadly shooting rampage.

Five years ago: Alabama beat Georgia in overtime, 26-23, to claim the College Football Playoff national championship after freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa (tag-oh-vay-loh’-ah) came off the bench to spark a comeback. A judge in Las Vegas dismissed criminal charges against Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and his sons, who were accused of leading an armed uprising against federal authorities. One year ago: NASA’S new James Webb Space Telescope opened its huge, goldplated, flower-shaped mirror, the final step in the unfurling of the observatory, which had already traveled more than 660,000miles since its Christmas Day launch. Negotiations resumed in an effort to resolve a standoff between Chicago school officials and the city’s teachers union over COVID-19 precautions. (An agreement the following week would end the dispute after five days of canceled classes.)

Oscar-winning lyricist Marilyn Bergman, who teamed with her husband Alan on songs including “The Way We Were,” died at her Los Angeles home; she was 93. Today’s birthdays: Former CBS newsman Charles Osgood is 90. Singer Shirley Bassey is 86. Game show host Bob Eubanks is 85. Country-gospel singer Cristy Lane is 83. R&B singer Jerome Anthony Gourdine (Little Anthony and the Imperials) is 82. Singer Juanita Cowart Motley (The Marvelettes) is 79. Actor Kathleen Noone is 78. Rock musician Robby Krieger (The Doors) is 77. Movie director John Mctiernan is 72. Actor Harriet Sansom Harris is 68. Actor Ron Cephas Jones is

66. Former Education Secretary Betsy Devos is 65. Singer-songwriter Ron Sexsmith is 59. Actor Michelle Forbes is 58. Actor Maria Pitillo (pih-tihl’-loh) is 57. Singer R. Kelly is 56. Actor/ producer Ami Dolenz is 54. Reggae singer Sean Paul is 50. Actor Donnell Turner (“General Hospital”) is 50. Country singer Tift Merritt is

48. Actor-rock singer Jenny Lewis is 47. Actor Amber Benson is 46. Actor Scott Whyte is 45. Singer-songwriter Erin Mccarley is 44. Actor Sarah Polley is 44. Actor Gaby (GAB’-EE) Hoffman is 41. Rock musician Disashi Lumumba-kasongo (dihsah’-shee Luhm’-uhm-boh kuh-sahn’-goh) (Gym Class Heroes) is 40. Actor Cynthia Erivo is 36. Actor Freddie Stroma is 36.

Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

Today is Monday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2023. There are 356days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 9, 2015, French security forces shot and killed two al-qaida-linked brothers suspected of carrying out the rampage at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that had claimed 12 lives.

On this date:

In 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution. In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew from Philadelphia to Woodbury, New Jersey.

In 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, retreated because of artillery fire.

In 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, was born in Yorba Linda, California. In 1914, the County of Los Angeles opened the country’s first public defender’s office.

In 1916, the World War I Battle of Gallipoli ended after eight months with an Ottoman Empire victory as Allied forces withdrew. In 1945, during World War II, American forces began landing on the shores of Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines as the Battle of Luzon got underway, resulting in an Allied victory over Imperial Japanese forces.

In 1951, the United Nations headquarters in New York officially opened.

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address to Congress, warned of the threat of Communist imperialism.

In 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported autobiography of him, as told to writer Clifford Irving, was a fake.

In 1987, the White House released a January 1986 memorandum prepared for President Ronald Reagan by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North showing a link between U.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of American hostages in Lebanon.

In 2003, U.N. weapons inspectors said there was no “smoking gun” to prove Iraq had nuclear, chemical or biological weapons but they demanded that Baghdad provide private access to scientists and fresh evidence to back its claim that it had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction. In 2005, Mahmoud Abbas, the No. 2 man in the Palestinian hierarchy during Yasser Arafat’s rule, was elected president of the Palestinian Authority by a landslide.

In 2020, Chinese state media said a preliminary investigation into recent cases of viral pneumonia had identified the probable cause as a new type of coronavirus.

Ten years ago: Vice President Joe Biden heard personal stories of gun violence from representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations at the White House as he undertook to draft the Obama administration’s response to the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. The Seastreak Wall Street, a commuter ferry, made a hard landing into a Manhattan pier, injuring 85people. No one was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; for the second time in four decades. Five years ago: Downpours sent mud and boulders roaring down Southern California hillsides that had been stripped of vegetation by a gigantic wildfire; more than 20 people died and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed. Breitbart News Network announced that Steve Bannon was stepping down as chairman after his public break with President Donald Trump.

One year ago: Seventeen people, including eight children, died after a fire sparked by a malfunctioning space heater filled a highrise apartment building with smoke in the New York City borough of the Bronx; it was the city’s deadliest blaze in three decades. Comedian and actor Bob Saget, best known for his role on the sitcom “Full House,” was found dead in a hotel room in Orlando, Florida. (A medical examiner later determined that Saget died from an accidental blow to the head, likely from a backward fall.) Dwayne Hickman, an actor and TV executive remembered for his role as TV’S Dobie Gillis from 1959 to 1963, died of complications from Parkinson’s at his Los Angeles home; he was 87.

Today’s birthdays: Actor K Callan is 87. Folk singer Joan Baez is 82. Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 79. Actor John Doman is

78. Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is

73. Singer Crystal Gayle is

72. Actor J.K. Simmons is

68. Actor Imelda Staunton is 67. Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchú is

64. Rock musician Eric Erlandson is 60. Actor Joely Richardson is 58. Rock musician Carl Bell (Fuel) is 56. Actor David Costabile (“Breaking Bad” is 56. Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 56. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 56. Actor-director Joey Lauren Adams is 55. Comedian/actor Deon Cole is 52. Actor Angela Bettis is

50. Actor Omari Hardwick is

49. Roots singer-songwriter Hayes Carll is 47. Singer A.J. Mclean (Backstreet Boys) is 45. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is 41. Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (Onerepublic) is 39. Rock-soul singer Paolo Nutini is 36. Actor Nina Dobrev is 34. Actor Basil Eidenbenz is 30. Actor Kerris Dorsey is 25. Actor Tyree Brown is 19.