Today in History
Jan 17, 2022, 10:00 PM | Updated: 10:15 pm
Today in History
Today is Tuesday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2022. There are 347 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 18, 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.
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 1957, a trio of B-52s completed the first non-stop, round-the-world flight by jet planes, landing at March Air Force Base in California after more than 45 hours aloft.
In 1975, the situation comedy “The Jeffersons,” a spin-off 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 52 child 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 50 states 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 2011, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington for a four-day state visit; President Barack Obama welcomed him with a private dinner in the White House residence. The first director of the Peace Corps, R. Sargent Shriver, died in Bethesda, Maryland, at age 95.
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.
In 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.”
Ten years ago: 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. Wikipedia and other websites went dark to protest two congressional proposals intended to thwart the online piracy of copyrighted movies and TV programs.
Five years ago: Twenty-nine people were killed when an avalanche buried the Hotel Rigopiano in central Italy (nine people were pulled out alive by rescuers). Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines and Ivan Rodriguez were elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. Opera singer Roberta Peters, 86, died in Rye, New York.
One year ago: California became the first state to record more than 3 million known coronavirus infections, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. Speakers at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration in Atlanta called for a renewed dedication to nonviolence following a turbulent year in which a deadly pandemic, protests over systemic racism and a divisive election capped by an attack on the U.S. Capitol strained Americans’ capacity for civility. Jimmie Rodgers, singer of the 1957 hits “Honeycomb” and “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine,” whose career in music and movies was disrupted by a severe head injury a decade later, died in California at age 87.
Today’s Birthdays: Movie director John Boorman is 89. Former Sen. Paul Kirk, D-Mass., is 84. Singer-songwriter Bobby Goldsboro is 81. Comedian-singer-musician Brett Hudson is 69. Actor-director Kevin Costner is 67. Country singer-actor Mark Collie is 66. Actor Mark Rylance is 62. Actor Alison Arngrim (TV: “Little House on the Prairie”) is 60. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley is 59. Actor Jane Horrocks is 58. Comedian Dave Attell (uh-TEHL’) is 57. Actor Jesse L. Martin is 53. Rapper DJ Quik is 52. Rock singer Jonathan Davis (Korn) is 51. Former NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous is 49. Singer Christian Burns (BBMak) is 48. Actor Derek Richardson is 46. Actor Jason Segel is 42. Actor Samantha Mumba is 39. Country singer Kristy Lee Cook (TV: “American Idol”) is 38. Actor Devin Kelley is 36. Actor Ashleigh Murray (TV: “Riverdale”) is 34. Actor Zeeko Zaki is 32. Tennis player Angelique Kerber is 34. Actor Mateus Ward is 23.
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