TODAY IN HISTORY

On Jan. 13, 1794, President George Washington approved a measure adding two stars and two stripes to the American flag, following the admission of Vermont and Kentucky to the Union. (The number of stripes was later reduced to the original 13.)

In 1941, a new law went into effect granting Puerto Ricans U.S. birthright citizenship.

In 1962, comedian Ernie Kovacs died in a car crash in west Los Angeles 10 days before his 43rd birthday.

In 1964, Roman Catholic Bishop Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, was appointed Archbishop of Krakow, Poland.

In 1982, an Air Florida 737 crashed into Washington, D.C.’s 14th Street Bridge and fell into the Potomac River while trying to take off during a snowstorm, killing a total of 78 people, including four motorists on the bridge; four passengers and a flight attendant survived.

In 1992, Japan apologized for forcing tens of thousands of Korean women to serve as sex slaves for its soldiers during in World War II, citing newly uncovered documents that showed the Japanese army had had a role in abducting the so-called “comfort women.”

In 2000, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates stepped aside as chief executive.

In 2005, Major League Baseball adopted a tougher steroid-testing program that would suspend firsttime offenders for 10 days and randomly test players year-round.

In 2018, a false alarm of a ballistic missile headed for Hawaii sent the islands into a panic, with people abandoning cars on a highway and preparing to flee their homes; officials said the alert was an accident during a shift change.