Today in history
On Jan. 3, 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1777 Gen. George Washington’s army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.
In 1793 Lucretia Mott, one of the founders of the American women’s rights movement, was born Lucretia Coffin in Nantucket, Mass.
In 1840 Joseph De Veuster, the Roman Catholic priest who became known as Father Damien during his missionary work among Hawaiian lepers, was born in Tremelo, Belgium.
In 1868 the Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan’s emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as “shoguns.”
In 1892 J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
In1909 Borge Rosenbaum, who would become comedian and pianist Victor Borge, was born in Copenhagen.
In 1938 the “March of Dimes” campaign to fight polio was organized.
In 1947 congressional proceedings were televised for the first time as viewers in Washington, Philadelphia and New York got to see some of the opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.
In 1959 President Dwight Eisenhower signed a proclamation admitting Alaska to the Union as the 49th state.
In 1961 the United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba.
In 1967 Jack Ruby, the man who shot accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital.
In 1980 conservationist Joy Adamson, author of “Born Free,” was killed in northern Kenya by a servant; she was 69.
In 1984 Navy Lt. Robert O. Goodman Jr., who was shot down during a U.S. raid against Syrian positions in Lebanon, was freed after a month’s captivity in Syria following an appeal by Jesse Jackson.
In 1990 ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission.
In 1993 President George H.W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a historic nuclear missile-reduction treaty in Moscow.
In 1995 the Postal Service raised the price of a firstclass stamp to 32 cents.
In 1997 Bryant Gumbel signed off for the last time as host of NBC’s “Today” show.
In 2000 the last new daily “Peanuts” strip by Charles Schulz ran in 2,600 newspapers.
In 2001Oklahoma defeated Florida State, 13-2, to win the Orange Bowl and capture college football’s Bowl Championship Series title game.
In 2005 President George W. Bush tapped his father, former President George H.W. Bush, and former President Bill Clinton to help raise tsunami relief funds. Also, Will Eisner, the artist who revolutionized comic books and helped pioneer the graphic novel, died at 87.