TODAY IN HISTORY

WEDNESDAY JAN 4, 2023

2007

Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House as Democrats took control of Congress.

1821

The first native-born American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, died in Emmitsburg, Maryland.

1935

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, called for legislation to provide assistance for the jobless, elderly, impoverished children and the disabled.

1948

Burma became independent of British rule.

1964

Pope Paul VI began a visit to the Holy Land, the first papal pilgrimage of its kind

1965

President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his State of the Union address in which he outlined the goals of his “Great Society.”

1974

President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.

1987

16people were killed when an Amtrak train bound from Washington, D.C., to Boston collided with Conrail locomotives that had crossed into its path from a side track in Chase, Maryland.

1990

Charles Stuart, who’d claimed that he’d been wounded and his pregnant wife fatally shot by a robber, leapt to his death off a Boston bridge after he himself became a suspect.

1999

Europe’s new currency, the euro, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets. Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura took the oath of office as Minnesota’s governor.

2002

Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Ross Chapman, a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier, was killed by small-arms fire during an ambush in eastern Afghanistan; he was the first American military death from enemy fire in the war against terrorism.

2006

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a significant stroke; his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert.

2015

Pope Francis named 156new cardinals, selecting them from 14 countries, including far-flung corners of the world, to reflect the diversity of the Roman Catholic church and its growth in places like Asia and Africa.