TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS FRIDAY, JAN. 29, the 29th day of 2021. There are 336 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1979, President Jimmy Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.
In 1820, King George III died at Windsor Castle at age 81; he was succeeded by his son, who became King George IV.
In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe’s famous narrative poem “The Raven” (“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary … ”) was first published in the New York Evening Mirror.
In 1919, the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which launched Prohibition, was certified by Acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk. In 1936, the first inductees of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.
In 1963, the first charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio (they were enshrined when the Hall opened in September 1963). Poet Robert Frost died in Boston at age 88.
In 1975, a bomb exploded inside the U.S. State Department in Washington, causing considerable damage, but injuring no one; the radical group Weather Underground claimed responsibility.
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced in a nationally broadcast message that he and Vice President George H.W. Bush would seek reelection in the fall.
In 1998, a bomb rocked an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing security guard Robert Sanderson and critically injuring nurse Emily Lyons. (The bomber, Eric Rudolph, was captured in May 2003 and is serving a life sentence.)
In 2002, in his first State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said terrorists were still threatening America — and he warned of “an axis of evil” consisting of North Korea, Iran and Iraq.
In 2006, ABC “World News Tonight” co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Feminist author Germaine Greer is 82. Actor Katharine Ross is 81. Feminist author Robin Morgan is 80. Actor Tom Selleck is 76. Actor Ann Jillian is 71. Rock musician Louie Perez (Los Lobos) and R&B singer Charlie Wilson are 68. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey and actor Terry Kinney are 67. Actor Judy Norton (TV: “The Waltons”) is 63. Olympic goldmedal diver Greg Louganis is 61. Rock musicians David Baynton-Power (James) and Eddie Jackson (Queensryche) are 60. Actor Nicholas Turturro is 59. . Actor Sam Trammell is 52. Actor Heather Graham and former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., are 51. Actors Sharif Atkins, Sara Gilbert and Kelly Packard are 46. Actors Justin Hartley and Sam Jaeger are 44. Writer and TV personality Jedediah Bila and actor Andrew Keegan are 42. Actor Jason James Richter is 41. Pop-rock singer Adam Lambert (TV: “American Idol”) is 39. Country singer Eric Paslay is 38.