DAILY ALMANAC
Today is Thursday, Jan. 6, the sixth day of 2022. There are 359 days left in the year. On this date in:
1838: Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph in Morristown, New Jersey.
1912: New Mexico became the 47th state.
1974: Year-round daylight saving time began in the United States on a trial basis as a fuel-saving measure in response to the OPEC oil embargo.
1982: Truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of 10 of the “Freeway Killer” slayings of young men and boys. (Bonin was later convicted of four other killings; he was executed in 1996.)
1994: Figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution, but denied any advance knowledge about the assault.)
2001: With Vice President Al Gore presiding in his capacity as president of the Senate, Congress formally certified George W. Bush the winner of the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election.
2020: Throngs of Iranians attended the funeral of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who’d been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq; Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wept while praying over the casket. Former White House national security adviser John Bolton said he was “prepared to testify” if subpoenaed by the Senate in its impeachment trial of President Donald Trump. (The Senate voted against calling witnesses.)
2021: Supporters of President Donald Trump, fueled by his false claims of a stolen election, assaulted police and smashed their way into the Capitol to interrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, forcing lawmakers into hiding; most of the rioters had come from a nearby rally where Trump urged them to “fight like hell.” A Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a police officer as she tried to breach a barricaded doorway inside the Capitol. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, injured while confronting the rioters, suffered a stroke the next day and died from natural causes, the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office said. (In the weeks that followed, four of the officers who responded to the riot took their own lives.) Congress reconvened hours later to finish certifying the election result.
Accordionist Joey, the Cowpolka King, of Riders in the Sky is 73. Singer
Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds is 71. Country singer Jett Williams
is 69. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson
(“Mr. Bean”) is 67. Singer
Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge is 63. Chef Nigella Lawson is 62. Singer Eric Williams of Blackstreet is 62. Actor Norman Reedus (“The Walking Dead”) is 53. TV personality Julie Chen is 52. Actor Danny Pintauro (“Who’s The Boss”) is 46. Actor Rinko Kikuchi (“Babel”) is 41. Actor Eddie Redmayne (“Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them,” “The Theory of Everything”) is 40. Comedian
Kate Mckinnon (“Saturday Night Live”) is 38. Actor Diona Reasonover
(“NCIS”) is 38.