history at a glance

TODAY is Sunday January 19 the 19th day of the year. There are 347 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date: 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.

1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo

to try Japanese war criminals.

1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty

1974 – China gains control over all the Paracel Islands after a military engagement between the naval forces

of the People’s Republic of China and Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam)

1975 – An earthquake strikes Himachal Pradesh, India

1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino (a.k.a. “Tokyo Rose”).

1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American

hostages after 14 months of captivity.

1986 – The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter piracy of the software they had written.

1991 – Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.

1995 – After being struck by lightning the crew are forced to ditch Bristow Flight 56C. All 18 aboard are

later rescued.

1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover

of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

2006 – The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.

2007 – Turkish Journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper’s office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast.