This day in history
Today is Thursday, Jan. 12, the 12th day of 2023. There are 353 days left in the year.
Today’s birthdays: The Amazing Kreskin is 88. Country singer William Lee Golden (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 84. Actor Anthony Andrews is 75. Movie director Wayne Wang is 74. Legal affairs blogger Ann Althouse is
72. Writer Walter Mosley is 71. Country singer Ricky Van Shelton is 71. Radio-TV personality Howard Stern is 69. Writer-producer-director John Lasseter is
66. Broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour is 65. Actor Oliver Platt is 63. Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins is
63. Entrepreneur Jeff Bezos is
59. Rock singer Rob Zombie is
58. Wu Tang Clan rapper Raekwon is 53. Singer Melanie Chisholm (Spice Girls) is 49. Actor Cynthia Addai-Robinson is 43. R&B singer Amerie is 43. Actor Will Rothhaar is 36. Actor Andrew Lawrence is 35. Rock singer ZAYN is 30. Pop/soul singer Ella Henderson (TV: “The X Factor”) is 27.
▶ In 1828, the US and Mexico signed a Treaty of Limits defining the boundary between the two countries to be the same as the one established by an 1819 treaty between the US and Spain.
▶ In 1910, at a White House dinner hosted by President Taft, Baroness Rosen, wife of the Russian ambassador, caused a stir by requesting and smoking a cigarette. It was, apparently, the first time a woman had smoked openly during a public function in the executive mansion. (Some of the other women present who had brought their own cigarettes began lighting up in turn.)
▶ In 1912, the textile mills protest later known as the “Bread and Roses” strike began in Lawrence. Polish women were the first to shut down their looms and leave the mill, rallying against pay cuts. As they marched through the streets, workers from other ethnic groups joined them. Over two months, increasingly violent methods were used to suppress the protest and striking mothers sent their children to host families through the Northeast for safety and care. After congressional hearings exposed poor working conditions in the mills, the owners settled with the workers.
▶ In 1915, the House of Representatives rejected, 204-174, a proposed constitutional amendment to give women nationwide the right to vote.
▶ In 1932, Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the US Senate after initially being appointed to serve out the remainder of the term of her late husband, Thaddeus.
▶ In 1945, during World War II, Soviet forces began a major, successful offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe. Aircraft from US Task Force 38 sank about 40 Japanese ships off Indochina.
▶ In 1948, the US Supreme Court, in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma, unanimously ruled that state law schools could not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race.
▶ In 1969, the New York Jets of the American Football League upset the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League 16-7 in Super Bowl III, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami.
▶ In 1971, the groundbreaking situation comedy “All in the Family” premiered on CBS television.
▶ In 1991, five men were killed execution-style in a Boston Chinatown gambling den in the early morning hours. A sixth victim was seriously injured but survived. No motive has been officially established.
▶ In 2010, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7 earthquake; the Haitian government said 316,000 people were killed, while a report prepared for the US Agency for International Development suggested the death toll may have been between 46,000 and 85,000.
▶ In 2013, the NHL’s fourmonth lockout finally ended as the league and the players’ association completed signing a required memorandum of understanding.
▶ In 2016, Iran detained 10 American sailors and their two small Navy boats after the boats drifted into Iranian waters; the sailors and their vessels were released the following day.
▶ Last year, the House panel investigating the US Capitol insurrection requested an interview and records from House minority leader Kevin McCarthy as it continued to seek first-hand details from members of Congress on former president Trump’s actions on Jan. 6; McCarthy issued a statement saying he would refuse to cooperate, accusing the panel of an “abuse of power.” The government reported that inflation jumped in December at its fastest year-overyear pace in nearly four decades, surging 7 percent.
▶ Ronnie Spector, who sang 1960s hits including “Be My Baby” as leader of the girl group The Ronettes, died at 78 after a brief battle with cancer.