DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Sunday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2022. There are 363 days left in the year.
On this date in:
1788: Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
1811: Sen. Timothy Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, became the first member of the U.S. Senate to be censured after he’d improperly revealed the contents of an executive document.
1900: U.S. Secretary of State John Hay announced the “Open Door Policy” to facilitate trade with China.
1929: The United States and Canada reached agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.
1942: The Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.
1960: Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts launched his successful bid for the presidency.
1967: Republican Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as the new governor of California in a ceremony that took place in Sacramento shortly just after midnight.
1971: 66 people were killed in a pileup of spectators leaving a soccer match at Ibrox (Eye’-brox) Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland.
1974: President Richard Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 miles an hour as a way of conserving gasoline in the face of an OPEC oil embargo. (The 55 mph limit was effectively phased out in 1987; federal speed limits were abolished in 1995.)
2007: The state funeral for former President Gerald R. Ford began with an elaborate service at Washington National Cathedral, then moved to Grand
Rapids, Michigan.
2015: California began issuing driver’s licenses to immigrants who were in the country illegally. Little Jimmy Dickens, a diminutive singer-songwriter who was the oldest cast member of the Grand Ole Opry, died at age 94.
2016: A heavily armed group led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy seized the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, beginning a 41-day standoff to protest the imprisonment of two ranchers convicted of setting fires on public land and to demand the federal government turn over public lands to local control.
2018: Sen. Al Franken formally resigned from the Senate a month after the Minnesota Democrat announced his plan to leave Congress amid a series of sexual misconduct allegations.
TV host Jack Hanna (“Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild”) is 74. Actor Wendy Phillips (“I Am Sam”) is 70. Actor Cynthia Sikes (“St. Elsewhere”) is 68. Actor Gabrielle Carteris (“Beverly Hills, 90210”) is 61. Actor Tia Carrere is 55. Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is 54. Model Christy Turlington is 53. Actor Renee Elise Goldsberry (Broadway’s “Hamilton”) is 51. Actor Taye Diggs (“The Best Man,” “How Stella Got Her Groove Back”) is 51. Singer Doug Robb of Hoobastank is 47. Actor Dax Shepard (“Parenthood”) is 47. Sax player-guitarist Jerry Depizzo Jr. of O.A.R. is 43. Singer Kelton Kessee of Immature and of IMX is 41. Musician Ryan Merchant of Capital Cities is 41. Actor Kate Bosworth is 39. Singer Bryson Tiller is 29.