TODAY IN HISTORY
On Jan. 4, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his State of the Union address in which he outlined the goals of his “Great Society.”
Also on this date
In 1904,
the U.S. Supreme Court, in Gonzalez v. Williams, ruled that Puerto Ricans were not aliens and could enter the United States freely; however, the court stopped short of declaring them citizens. (Puerto Ricans received U.S. citizenship in March 1917.)
In 1935,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, called for legislation to provide assistance for the jobless, elderly, impoverished children and the handicapped.
In 1944,
Ralph Bunche became the first Black officer at the State Department as he was appointed to a post in the Near East and African Section.
In 1964,
Pope Paul VI began a visit to the Holy Land, the first papal pilgrimage of its kind.
In 1974,
President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
In 1999,
Europe’s new currency, the euro, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets.
In 2002,
Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, was killed by smallarms fire during an ambush in eastern Afghanistan; he was the first American military death from enemy fire in the war against terrorism.
In 2007,
Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House as Democrats took control of Congress.
In 2010,
Dubai opened the world’s tallest skyscraper, and renamed the 2,717-foot gleaming glass-andmetal tower Burj Khalifa in a nod to the leader of neighboring Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich sheikdom that had come to its financial rescue.
Ten years ago:
President Barack Obama signed a $1.4 billion overhaul of the nation’s food safety system.
Five years ago:
The Justice Department sued Volkswagen over emissions-cheating software found in nearly 600,000 vehicles sold in the United States.
One year ago:
Thousands marched across Iraq’s capital in a funeral procession for Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike. President Donald Trump threatened to hit dozens of targets in Iran “very fast and very hard,” including sites “important to Iran & the Iranian culture,” if Iran retaliated.