TODAY IN HISTORY

On Jan. 11, 1927, the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was proposed at a dinner of Hollywood luminaries in Los Angeles.

In 1935, aviator Amelia

Earhart began an 18-hour trip from Honolulu to Oakland, California, that made her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry concluded that “cigarette smoking contributes substantially to mortality from certain specific diseases and to the overall death rate.”

In 1978, two Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule linked up with the Salyut 6 orbiting space station.

In 2003, calling the death penalty process “arbitrary and capricious, and therefore immoral,” Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 condemned inmates, clearing his state’s death row before leaving office.