TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1863

President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring that slaves in rebel states shall be “forever free.”

ALSO ON THIS DATE 1892

The Ellis Island Immigrant Station in New York formally opened.

1942

The Rose Bowl was played in Durham, North Carolina, because of security concerns in the wake of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor; Oregon State defeated Duke, 20-16.

1953

Country singer Hank Williams Sr., 29, was discovered dead in the back seat of his car during a stop in Oak Hill, West Virginia, while he was being driven to a concert date in Canton, Ohio.

1954

NBC broadcast the first coast-to-coast color TV program as it presented live coverage of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California.

1959

Fidel Castro and his revolutionaries overthrew Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista, who fled to the Dominican Republic.

1975

A jury in Washington found Nixon administration officials John N. Mitchell, H.R. Haldeman, John D. Ehrlichman and Robert C. Mardian guilty of charges related to the Watergate cover-up (Mardian’s conviction for conspiracy was later overturned on appeal).

1979

The United States and China held celebrations in Washington and Beijing to mark the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

1984

The breakup of AT&T took place as the telecommunications giant was divested of its 22 Bell System companies under terms of an antitrust agreement.

1985

The music cable channel VH-1 made its debut with a video of Marvin Gaye performing “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

1993

Czechoslovakia peacefully split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

2006

President George W. Bush strongly defended his domestic spying program, calling it legal as well as vital to thwarting terrorist attacks. The Medicare prescription drug plan went into effect.

2014

The nation’s first legal recreational pot shops opened in Colorado at 8 a.m. Mountain time.

TEN YEARS AGO

A second NASA probe braked into orbit around the moon, a day after its twin probe executed the same maneuver; it was part of the latest mission to understand how Earth’s closest neighbor formed.

FIVE YEARS AGO

Antonio Guterres took the reins of the United Nations as its new secretary-general. A gunman killed 39 New Year’s revelers at a crowded nightclub in Istanbul, Turkey, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.