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Associated Press
Jan. 30 is the 30th day of 2021. There are 335 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. (Godse and a co-conspirator were later executed.)
On this date:
In 1862, the ironclad USS Monitor was launched from the Continental Iron Works in Greenpoint, N.Y., during the Civil War.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
In 1948, aviation pioneer Orville Wright, 76, died in Dayton.
In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese towns and cities; although the Communists were beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the U.S. and its allies.
In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
In 1974, President Richard Nixon delivered what would be his last State of the Union address; Nixon pledged to rein in rising prices without the "harsh medicine of recession" and establish a national health care plan that every American could afford.
In 1981, an estimated 2 million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the American hostages freed from Iran.
In 1993, Los Angeles inaugurated its Metro Red Line, the city's first modern subway.
In 2005, Iraqis voted in their country's first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success.
In 2006, Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at age 78.
Ten years ago: Egypt's most prominent democracy advocate, Mohamed ElBaradei, called for President Hosni Mubarak to resign during an address to thousands of protesters in Cairo who were defying a curfew for a third night.
Five years ago: A boat carrying Syrians attempting the short sea journey from Turkey to Greece capsized, causing at least 37 people to drown.
One year ago: Health officials reported the first known case in which the new coronavirus was spread from one person to another in the United States. The World Health Organization declared the virus outbreak, which had reached more than a dozen countries, to be a global emergency.
Today's Birthdays: Actor Gene Hackman is 91. Actor Vanessa Redgrave is 84. Country singer Jeanne Pruett is 84. Chess grandmaster Boris Spassky is 84. Former Vice President Dick Cheney is 80. R&B musician William King (The Commodores) is 72. Singer Phil Collins is 70. World Golf Hall of Famer Curtis Strange is 66. Actor Ann Dowd is 65. Actor-comedian Brett Butler is 63. Singer Jody Watley is 62. Actor-filmmaker Dexter Scott King is 60. Actor Wayne Wilderson (TV: "Veep") is 55. Actor Norbert Leo Butz is 54. Actor Christian Bale is 47. Rock musician Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket) is 47. Actor Olivia Colman is 47. Pop-country singer-songwriter Josh Kelley is 41. Actor Mary Hollis Inboden is 35. Actor Kylie Bunbury is 32. Actor Jake Thomas is 31. Actor Danielle Campbell is 26.
SUNDAY
Jan. 31 is the 31st day of 2021. There are 334 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 31, 1865, the U.S. House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution abolishing slavery, sending it to states for ratification. (The amendment was adopted in December 1865.)
On this date:
In 1863, during the Civil War, the First South Carolina Volunteers, an all-Black Union regiment composed of many escaped slaves, was mustered into federal service at Beaufort, S.C.
In 1919, baseball Hall-of-Famer Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, Ga.
In 1945, Pvt. Eddie Slovik, 24, became the first U.S. soldier since the Civil War to be executed for desertion as he was shot by an American firing squad in France.
In 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.
In 1956, the creator of "Winnie-the-Pooh," British author A.A. Milne, died at age 74.
In 1958, the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite, Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral.
In 1961, NASA launched Ham the Chimp aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral; Ham was recovered safely from the Atlantic Ocean following his 16 1/2-minute suborbital flight.
In 1971, astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off on Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
In 2000, an Alaska Airlines MD-83 jet crashed into the Pacific Ocean off Port Hueneme, Calif., killing all 88 people aboard.
In 2001, a Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan, acquitted a second, in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
In 2005, jury selection began in Santa Maria, Calif., for Michael Jackson's child molestation trial. (Jackson was later acquitted.) SBC Communications Inc. announced it was acquiring AT&T Corp. for $16 billion.
Ten years ago: A federal judge in Florida declared the Obama administration's health care overhaul unconstitutional, siding with 26 states that argued people cannot be required to buy health insurance. (In 2012 the Supreme Court would uphold most of the health care law, including the requirement that nearly every American have health insurance.)
Five years ago: A triple bombing killed at least 45 people in a predominantly Shiite Muslim suburb south of the Syrian capital. Israel's Cabinet voted to allow non-Orthodox Jewish prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, marking a historic show of support for liberal streams of Judaism.
One year ago: The United States declared a public health emergency over the new coronavirus, and President Donald Trump signed an order to temporarily bar entry to foreign nationals, other than immediate family of U.S. citizens, who had traveled in China within the past 14 days.
Today's Birthdays: Composer Philip Glass is 84. Former Interior Secretary James Watt is 83. Actor Stuart Margolin is 81. Actor Jessica Walter is 80. Former U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo., is 80. Blues singer-musician Charlie Musselwhite is 77. Baseball Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan is 74. Actor Jonathan Banks is 74. Singer-musician Harry Wayne Casey (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 70. Rock singer Johnny Rotten is 65. Actor Kelly Lynch is 62. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 62. Singer-musician Lloyd Cole is 60. Actor Paulette Braxton is 56. Actor Minnie Driver is 51. Actor Portia de Rossi is 48. Actor-comedian Bobby Moynihan is 44. Singer Justin Timberlake is 40. Actor Tyler Ritter is 36.