TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SUNDAY, JAN. 1, the first day of 2017. There are 364 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1942, 26 countries, including the United States, signed the Declaration of the United Nations, pledging “not to make a separate armistice or peace” with members of the Axis.
In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel states shall be “forever free.”
In 1913, the U.S. Parcel Post system went into operation.
In 1935, The Associated Press inaugurated Wirephoto, the first successful service for transmitting photographs by wire to member newspapers.
In 1945, France was admitted to the United Nations.
In 1953, country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, was discovered dead in the back seat of his car during a stop in Oak Hill, W.Va., while he was being driven to a concert date in Canton, Ohio.
In 1959, Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries overthrew Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista, who fled to the Dominican Republic.
In 1979, the United States and China held celebrations in Washington and
Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
In 1984, the breakup of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement.
In 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement went into effect.
In 2014, the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops opened in Colorado at 8 a.m. Mountain time.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Former Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., is 95. Actor Frank Langella is 79. Rock singermusician Country Joe McDonald is
75. Actor Rick Hurst is 71. Country singer Steve Ripley (The Tractors) is
67. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., is
63. Rapper Grandmaster Flash and actress Ren Woods are 59. Actress Dedee Pfeiffer is 53. Actress Embeth Davidtz and country singer Brian Flynn (Flynnville Train) are 51. Actors Morris Chestnut and Verne Troyer are 48. Elin Nordegren, ex-wife of golfer Tiger Woods, is 37. Actor Jonas Armstrong and actress Eden Riegel are 36. Olympic gold medal ice dancer Meryl Davis is 30. Rock musician Noah Sierota (Echosmith) is 21.