TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS TUESDAY, JAN. 16, the 16th day of 2018. There are 349 days left in the year. TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1978, NASA named 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including Sally K. Ride, America’s first woman in space, and Guion S. Bluford Jr., America’s first black man in space. In 27 B.C., Caesar Augustus was declared the first Emperor of the Roman Empire by the Senate. In 1547, Ivan IV of Russia (“Ivan the Terrible”) was crowned Czar.

In 1865, Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman decreed that 400,000 acres of land in the South would be divided into 40-acre lots and given to former slaves. (The order, revoked by President Andrew Johnson, is believed to have inspired the expression, “Forty acres and a mule.”) In 1920, Prohibition began as the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect. (It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.)

In 1935, fugitive gangster Fred Barker and his mother, Kate “Ma” Barker, were killed by the FBI at Lake Weir, Fla. In 1957, classical music conductor Arturo Toscanini died in New York at 89.

In 1991, the White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Author William Kennedy is 90. Author-editor Norman Podhoretz is 88. Opera singer Marilyn Horne is 84. Hall of Fame auto racer A.J. Foyt is 83. Singer Barbara Lynn is 76. Country singer Ronnie Milsap is 75. Talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger is 71. Movie director John Carpenter is 70. Actress-dancer-choreographer Debbie Allen is 68. Rhythm-and-blues singer Maxine Jones (En Vogue) and singer Sade are 59. Actor-writer-director Josh Evans and actor-comedian Jonathan Mangum are 47. Actor Richard T. Jones is 46. Actress Josie Davis is 45. Model Kate Moss is 44. Actor-playwright LinManuel Miranda is 38. NFL quarterback Joe Flacco is 33.