TODAY IN HISTORY

OnJan.10,1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet “Common Sense,” which argued for American independence.

In 1860, the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts, collapsed and caught fire, killing up to 145 people, mostly female workers from Scotland and Ireland.

In 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union.

In 1863, the London Underground had its beginnings as the Metropolitan opened to the public with service between

Paddington and Farringdon Street.

In 1901, the Spindletop oil field in Beaumont, Texas, produced the Lucas Gusher, heralding the start of the Texas oil boom .

In 1917, legendary Western frontiersman and showman William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody died at his sister’s home in Denver at age 70.

In 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.

In 1948, future country music star Loretta Lynn (nee Webb) married Oliver “Mooney” Lynn; she was 15 at the time, he was 21 (the marriage lasted until Oliver Lynn’s death in 1996).

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, asked Congress to impose a surcharge on both corporate and individual income taxes to help pay for his “Great Society” programs as well as the war in Vietnam. Also: That same day,Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first Black person elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat.

In 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations.

In 2002, Marines began flying hundreds of al-Qaida prisoners in Afghanistan to a U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 2007, the Democratic-controlled House voted 315-116 to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.

In 2016, David Bowie, the audacious, chameleon-like star who transformed the sound and look of rock, died in NewYork.