Today in History

Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 17, the 17th day of 2023. There are 348 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address in which he warned against “the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”

On this date:

In 1917, Denmark ceded the Virgin Islands to the United States for $25million. In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces launched the first of four battles for Monte Cassino in Italy; the Allies were ultimately successful. In 1950, the Great Brink’s Robbery took place as seven masked men held up a Brink’s garage in Boston, stealing $1.2million in cash and $1.5 million in checks and money orders. (Although the entire gang was caught, only part of the loot was recovered.)

In 1955, the submarine USS Nautilus made its first nuclear-powered test run from its berth in Groton (Grah’tuhn), Connecticut.

In 1966, the Simon & Garfunkel album “Sounds of Silence” was released by Columbia Records.

In 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade. In 1994, the 6.7 magnitude Northridge earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 60 people, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. In 1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2devastated the city of Kobe (koh-bay), Japan. In 2016, Iran released three Americans, former U.S. Marine Amir Hekmati, Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian and pastor Saeed Abedini, as part of a prisoner swap that also netted Tehran some $100 billion in sanctions relief.

In 2020, U.S. health officials announced that they would begin screening airline passengers from central China for the new coronavirus; people traveling from Wuhan, China, would have their temperature checked and be asked about symptoms.

Ten years ago: Algerian helicopters and special forces stormed a gas plant in the stony plains of the Sahara to wipe out Islamist militants and free hostages from at least 10countries. Nearly all the militants were killed; at least 40hostages died in the standoff. Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network broadcast the first of a two-part interview with Lance Armstrong, in which the disgraced cyclist told Winfrey he had started doping in the mid-1990s. Five years ago: Snow, ice and record-breaking cold closed runways, highways, schools and government offices across the South; at least 15people died. A broad rally propelled the Dow Jones industrial average to close above 26,000 points for the first time. The rival Koreas agreed to form their first unified Olympic team and have their athletes parade together for the first time in 11 years during the opening ceremony of the upcoming Winter Olympics in South Korea.

One year ago: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov angrily rejected U.S. allegations that Moscow was preparing a pretext to invade Ukraine, as Russian troops who were stationed near Ukraine’s border launched more drills. Organizers of the Winter Olympics in Beijing said they would offer event tickets only to “selected” spectators because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Today’s birthdays:

Former FCC chairman Newton N. Minow is 97. Actor James Earl Jones is 92. Talk show host Maury Povich is

84. Pop singer Chris Montez is 81. Actor Joanna David is 76. Actor Jane Elliot (“General Hospital”) is 76. Rock musician Mick Taylor is 75. Singer Steve Earle is

68. Singer Paul Young is 67. Actor-comedian Steve Harvey is 66. Singer Susanna Hoffs (The Bangles) is 64. Movie director-screenwriter Brian Helgeland is 62. Actorcomedian Jim Carrey is 61. Actor Denis O’hare is 61. Former first lady Michelle Obama is 59. Actor Joshua Malina is 57. Singer Shabba Ranks is 57. Actor Naveen Andrews is 54. Electronic music DJ Tiesto is 54. Rapper Kid Rock is 52. Actor Freddy Rodriguez is 48. Actor-writer Leigh Whannell is 46. Actor-singer Zooey Deschanel is 43. Dancer Maksim Chmerkovskiy (TV: “Dancing with the Stars”) is

43. Singer Ray J is 42. Actor Diogo Morgado is 42. Country singer Amanda Wilkinson is 41. Former NBA player Dwyane Wade is 41. Actor Ryan Gage is 40. Dj-singer Calvin Harris is 39. Folk-rock musician Jeremiah Fraites is 37. Actor Jonathan Keltz is 35. Actor Kelly Marie Tran (Film: “Star Wars: The Last Jedi”) is 34. Actor Kathrine Herzer is 26.

Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2023

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2023. There are 347 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 18, 2020, ahead of opening statements in the first Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, House prosecutors wrote that Trump had “used his official powers to pressure a foreign government to interfere in a United States election for his personal political gain,” while Trump’s legal team denounced what it called a “brazen and unlawful attempt to overturn the results of the 2016 election.”

On this date:

In 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook reached the present-day Hawaiian Islands, which he named the “Sandwich Islands.”

In 1911, the first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely brought his Curtiss biplane in for a safe landing on the deck of the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.

In 1913, entertainer Danny Kaye was born David Daniel Kaminsky in New York City. In 1943, during World War II, Jewish insurgents in the Warsaw Ghetto launched their initial armed resistance against Nazi troops, who eventually succeeded in crushing the rebellion. In 1975, the situation comedy “The Jeffersons,” a spinoff from “All in the Family,” premiered on CBS-TV. In 1990, a jury in Los Angeles acquitted former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy Mcmartin Buckey, of 52child molestation charges.

In 1991, financially strapped Eastern Airlines shut down after more than six decades in business.

In 1993, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was observed in all 50states for the first time.

In 2005, the world’s largest commercial jet, the Airbus A380 “superjumbo” capable of flying up to 800 passengers, was unveiled in Toulouse, France.

In 2012, President Barack Obama rejected the Keystone XL project, a Canadian company’s plan to build a 1,700-mile pipeline to carry oil across six U.S. states to Texas refineries.

In 2019, Jason Van Dyke, the white Chicago police officer who gunned down Black teenager Laquan Mcdonald in 2014, was sentenced to nearly seven years in prison. Ten years ago: Former Democratic New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was indicted on charges that he’d used his office for personal gain, accepting payoffs, free trips and gratuities from contractors while the city was struggling to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. (Nagin was later convicted and released from prison in 2020.)

Five years ago: At the end of a visit to Chile that was meant to heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal, Pope Francis accused victims of Chile’s most notorious pedophile of slandering another bishop; Francis said he would need to see proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev. Fernando Karadima. Texas executed by lethal injection Anthony Allen Shore, who became known as Houston’s “Tourniquet Killer” because of the murder technique used on four female victims. One year ago: AT&T and Verizon said they would delay launching new wireless service near key airports after the nation’s largest airlines said the 5G service would interfere with aircraft technology and cause widespread flight disruptions. (Some flights to and from the U.S. would still be canceled despite the scaled-back rollout.) The White House launched a website allowing Americans to request free at-home COVID-19 tests. Today’s birthdays: Movie director John Boorman is 90. Former Sen. Paul Kirk, D-mass., is 85. Singersongwriter Bobby Goldsboro is 82. Comedian-singermusician Brett Hudson is 70. Actor-director Kevin Costner is 68. Country singer-actor Mark Collie is 67. Actor Mark Rylance is 63. Actor Alison Arngrim (TV: “Little House on the Prairie”) is 61. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’malley is 60. Actor Jane Horrocks is 59. Comedian Dave Attell (UH-TEHL’) is

58. Actor Jesse L. Martin is

54. Rapper DJ Quik is 53. Rock singer Jonathan Davis (Korn) is 52. Former NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous is 50. Singer Christian Burns (BBMAK) is

49. Actor Derek Richardson is 47. Actor Jason Segel is

43. Actor Samantha Mumba is 40. Country singer Kristy Lee Cook (TV: “American Idol”) is 39. Actor Devin Kelley is 37. Actor Ashleigh Murray (TV: “Riverdale”) is

35. Tennis player Angelique Kerber is 35. Actor Mateus Ward is 24.