MONDAY IN HISTORY

Today is Monday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2017. There are 356 days left in the year.

Highlight in History:

On Jan. 9, 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

On this date:

In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hotair balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J.

In 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, S.C., retreated because of artillery fire.

In 1916, the World War I Battle of Gallipoli ended after eight months with an Ottoman Empire victory as Allied forces withdrew.

In 1931, Bobbi Trout and Edna May Cooper broke an endurance record for female aviators after flying a Curtiss Robin monoplane continuously for 122 hours and 50 minutes.

In 1945, during World War II, American forces began landing on the shores of Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines as the Battle of Luzon got underway, resulting in an Allied victory over Imperial Japanese forces.

In 1968, the Surveyor 7 space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.

In 1987, the White House released a Jan. 1986memorandum prepared for President Ronald Reagan by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North showing a link betweenU.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of American hostages in Lebanon.

Ten years ago: Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone.

Five years ago: Iranian state radio reported that a court had convicted former U.S. Marine Amir Mirzaei Hekmati of working for the CIA and sentenced him to death.

One year ago: French Jewishleadersandthenation’s prime minister, ManuelValls, held a memorial ceremony for four people killed in a kosher market a year earlier by an attacker claiming ties to the Islamic State group.

Today’s Birthdays: Author Judith Krantz is 89. Football Hall-of-Famer Bart Starr is 83. Sportscaster Dick Enberg is 82. Actress K. Callan is 81. Actor J.K. Simmons is 62. Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberto Menchu is 58. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 50. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is 35.

Thought for Today: “Defeat doesn’t finish a man, quit does. A man is not finished when he’s defeated. He’s finished when he quits.” — President Richard Nixon (1913-1994).