TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Saturday, Jan. 29.
Today’s highlight:
On Jan. 29, 1820, King George III died at Windsor Castle at age 81; he was succeeded by his son, who became King George IV.
On this date:
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 1929, The Seeing Eye, a New Jersey-based school which trains guide dogs to assist the blind, was incorporated by Dorothy Harrison Eustis and Morris Frank.
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 1964, Stanley Kubrick’s nuclear war satire “Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” premiered in New York, Toronto and London.
In 1979, President Jimmy Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.
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 2020, a charter flight evacuating 195 Americans, including diplomats and their families, left the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the new viral outbreak; they would undergo three days of testing and monitoring at a California military base. World health officials expressed concern that the virus was starting to spread between people outside China.
Ten years ago: Eleven people were killed when smoke and fog caused a series of fiery crashes on I-75 in Florida.
Five years ago: Six people were killed in a shooting at a Quebec City mosque during evening prayers. (Alexandre Bissonnette, who was arrested nearby, pleaded guilty to murder and attempted murder charges and was sentenced to life in prison.) The White House vigorously defended President Donald Trump’s immigration restrictions, as protests against the order banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries spread throughout the country.
One year ago: Raising the stakes in the slew of cases stemming from the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department said two New York men identified as members of the Proud Boys had been indicted on federal conspiracy and other charges. Johnson & Johnson said its vaccine appeared to protect against COVID-19 with just one shot.