TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY IS SATURDAY, JAN. 30, the 30th day of 2021. There are 335 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN HISTORY: On this date in 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. (Godse and a co-conspirator were later executed.)
In 1649, England’s King Charles I was executed for high treason.
In 1862, the ironclad USS Monitor was launched from the Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, New York, during the Civil War.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
In 1945, during World War II, a Soviet submarine torpedoed the German ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic Sea with the loss of more than 9,000 lives, most of them war refugees; roughly 1,000 people survived. Adolf Hitler marked the 12th anniversary of his appointment as Germany’s chancellor with his last public speech in which he called on Germans to keep resisting until victory.
In 1948, aviation pioneer Orville Wright, 76, died in Dayton, Ohio.
In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese towns and cities; although the Communists were beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the U.S. and its allies.
In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
In 1974, President Richard Nixon delivered what would be his last State of the Union address; Nixon pledged to rein in rising prices without the “harsh medicine of recession” and establish a national health care plan that every American could afford.
In 1981, an estimated 2 million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the American hostages freed from Iran.
In 1993, Los Angeles inaugurated its Metro Red Line, the city’s first modern subway.
In 2005, Iraqis voted in their country’s first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success.
In 2006, Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at age 78.
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Actor Gene Hackman is 91. Actor Vanessa Redgrave, country singer Jeanne Pruett and chess grandmaster Boris Spassky are 84. Country singer Norma Jean is 83. Former Vice President Dick Cheney is 80. R&B musician William King (The Commodores) is 72. Singer Phil Collins and actor Charles S. Dutton are 70. World Golf Hall-of-Famer Curtis Strange is 66. Actor Ann Dowd is 65. Actorcomedian Brett Butler is 63. Singer Jody Watley is 62. Actor-filmmaker Dexter Scott King is 60. The King of Jordan, Abdullah II, is 59. Actor Wayne Wilderson (TV: “Veep”) is 55. Actor Norbert Leo Butz is 54. The King of Spain, Felipe VI, is 53. Country singer Tammy Cochran is 49. Actors Christian Bale and Olivia Colman, and rock musician Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) are 47. Actor-singer Lena Hall, pop-country singer-songwriter Josh Kelley and actor Wilmer Valderrama are 41. Actor Mary Hollis Inboden is 35. Actor Jake Thomas is 31. Actor Danielle Campbell is 26.