Friday, January 22, 2010

22 January: Bacon Born; Queen Vickie, Benedict XV, LBJ, Rose Kennedy, Telly Savalas, Rose Mary Woods Die; "Bloody Sunday" In St. Petersburg; Unabomber Cops Plea

Today is Friday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of 2010. There are 343 days left in the year. The UPI Almanac. Critical Analysis of the date in history.Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 22, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson pleaded for an end to war in Europe, calling for "peace without victory." (By April, however, America also was at war.)
On this date:
In 1498, during his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, explorer Christopher Columbus arrived at the present-day Caribbean island of St. Vincent.
In 1561, English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon was born in London.
In 1517, Ottoman troops take Cairo, Egypt.
In 1655, Oliver Cromwell dissolves Britain's Parliament.
In 1771, Spain ceded the Falkland Islands to Britain.
In 1808, King Joao VI and the Portuguese royal family flee from Napoleon's troops and move the court from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In 1811, France's Napoleon Bonaparte annexes Oldenburg and alienates Russia's Czar Alexander.
In 1879, King Cetewayo and 20,000 heavily armed Zulu warriors assault British troops and win the battle of Isandlwana in South Africa, where 139 soldiers repel attacks for almost 12 hours.
AP sez: In 1901, Britain's Queen Victoria died at age 81.
UPI sez: In 1901, Queen Victoria of Britain died at age 82 after a reign of 64 years. She was succeeded by her son, Edward VII.
Other AP sez: In 1901, Queen Victoria died at age 81 after 63 years on the British throne.
In 1905 (New Style calendar), thousands of demonstrating Russian workers were fired on by Imperial army troops in St. Petersburg on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
In 1917, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson pleads for an end to war in Europe, calling for "peace without victory".
In 1922, Pope Benedict XV died; he was succeeded by Pius XI.
In 1943, U.S. and Australian troops took New Guinea in the first land victory over the Japanese in World War II.
In 1944, U.S. troops invaded Italy, landing at Anzio beach in a move to outflank German defensive positions, but fail to exploit the surprise gained to take Rome, just 53 kilometres (33 miles) away.
In 1957, Israeli forces complete withdrawal from Sinai Peninsula, but remain in the Gaza Strip.
In 1959, 12 workers were killed in the Knox Mine Disaster in Pennsylvania when the mine became flooded with water from the Susquehanna River.
In 1968, U. S. B-52 bomber carrying four hydrogen bombs plunges into Greenland Bay. Washington says there is no danger of explosion because bombs were unarmed.
In 1970, the first regularly scheduled commercial flight of the Boeing 747 begins in New York City and ends in London some 6 1/2 hours later.
In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalized abortions using a trimester approach. Former President Lyndon B. Johnson died at age 64.
In 1984, the Los Angeles Raiders defeated the Washington Redskins 38-9 to win Super Bowl XVIII, played at Tampa Stadium in Florida. (The game broadcast on CBS-TV featured Apple Computer's famous "1984" ad introducing the Macintosh PC.)
In 1986, three Sikhs convicted of the 1984 assassination of India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi are sentenced to death.
In 1990, the Azerbaijani parliament threatened to secede from the Soviet Union.
In 1992, the acting leader of the Islamic Salvation Front, Abdelkadar Hachani, is arrested in Algeria and detained without trial until 1997.
In 1994, twenty-one firefighters die after they are trapped in a brush fire in southern Argentina.
In 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 104.
In 1996, the Galileo probe plunges into Jupiter's atmosphere and finds it windier and drier than expected, with less helium and less lightning.
In 1997, the Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the nation's first female secretary of state.
The Russian parliament voted, without legal force, to remove Boris Yeltsin as president because of his ill health.
In 1998, Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, Calif., to being the Unabomber in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.
In 1999, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., abruptly called for dismissal of charges against President Bill Clinton to "end this sad and sorry time for our country." Clinton called for spending $2.8 billion to protect the nation from cyber terrorism and chemical and germ warfare. [Yeah, that Clinton, he just let the terrorists run wild, didn't he? — Ed.] Pope John Paul II arrived in Mexico on his first visit in 20 years.
In 2000, Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers met privately with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno as they appealed for help in removing the boy from his Florida relatives and reuniting him with his father in Cuba. Meanwhile, in Cuba, an estimated 150,000 people echoed the demand for the boy's return. Food writer Craig Claiborne died at a New York hospital at age 79.
In 2001, President George W. Bush signed a memorandum reinstating full abortion restrictions on U.S. overseas aid.
In 2002, China moves 17,000 settlers -- mostly Chinese and Muslim -- to a traditionally Tibetan region in its remote west, reviving a plan abandoned after protests by critics of China's Tibetan policies.
In 2003, the French and German governments issue a joint statement expressing their opposition to immediate military action against Iraq.
In 2004, South Dakota politician Bill Janklow was sentenced to 100 days in jail for an auto accident that killed a motorcyclist. Enron Corp.'s former top accountant, Richard Causey, surrendered to federal authorities; he pleaded innocent to conspiracy and fraud charges. (Causey later pleaded guilty to securities fraud and was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison.) Ranchers block a main road in western Brazil to protest what they said were thousands of squatters on their land. Some 3,000 Guarani and Kaiowa Indians have been defying a judge's order to abandon 14 ranches they had occupied in recent weeks to press their claims for ancestral lands.
In 2005, The Iraqi government pledged to do everything in its power to protect voters from insurgent attacks during upcoming elections, as militants announced they'd killed 15 captive Iraqi National Guardsmen for cooperating with the Americans. Iran's hard-line leadership rules out allowing women to run for president in June elections, denying reports in the state-run media that it had decided to allow female candidates for the first time. Friends and family bade farewell to ten people killed when a mudslide damaged more than two dozen homes in La Conchita, Calif. President Richard Nixon's former secretary, Rose Mary Woods, died in Alliance, Ohio, at age 87.
In 2006, Evo Morales, Bolivia's first Indian president, took office. Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant scored 81 points, the second-highest total in a single game in NBA history, in a 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
In 2007, a suicide bomber crashes his car into a central Baghdad market crowded with Shiites just seconds after another car bomb tears through the stalls where vendors were hawking DVDs and used clothing, leaving 88 dead in one of the bloodiest attacks of the Iraq war.
In 2008, Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up a radioactive "dirty bomb," was sentenced by a U.S. federal judge in Miami to more than 17 years in prison on terrorism conspiracy charges. Republican Fred Thompson quit the race for the White House after a string of poor finishes in early primary and caucus states. Iraq's parliament passes a law to change the Saddam Hussein-era flag.
In 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the Guantanamo Bay prison camp closed within a year and banned harsh interrogation of terror suspects. The Senate Finance Committee cleared the nomination of Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, 18-5, despite unhappiness over his mistakes in paying his taxes. A Chinese court sentenced two men to death and a dairy boss to life in prison for their roles in producing and selling infant formula tainted with melamine.
Today's Birthdays: Former Sen. Birch Bayh (D-Ind.) is 82. Actress Piper Laurie is 78. Actor Seymour Cassel is 75. Author Joseph Wambaugh is 73. Actor John Hurt is 70. Singer Steve Perry is 61. Country singer-musician Teddy Gentry (Alabama) is 58. Movie director Jim Jarmusch is 57. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Mike Bossy is 53. Actress Linda Blair is 51. Actress Diane Lane is 45. Actor-rap DJ Jazzy Jeff is 45. Country singer Regina Nicks (Regina Regina) is 45. Rhythm-and-blues singer Marc Gay (Shai) is 41. Actor Gabriel Macht is 38. Actor Balthazar Getty is 35. Actor Christopher Kennedy Masterson is 30. Pop singer Willa Ford is 29. Actress Beverley (cq) Mitchell is 29. Rock singer-musician Ben Moody is 29.
Those Born On This Date Include: Russian Czar Ivan III, known as Ivan the Great (1440); French physicist Andre-Marie Ampere (1775-1836); British poet George Lord Byron (1788-1824); August Strindberg, Swedish author (1849-1912): D.W. Griffith, legendary film director ("Birth of a Nation") (1875); U.N. Secretary-General U Thant (1909); actress Ann Sothern (1909); actor Bill Bixby (1934); soul singer Sam Cooke (1935).
Today In Entertainment History January 22
In 1938, Thornton Wilder's play "Our Town" was performed publicly for the first time, in Princeton, N.J.
In 1953, "The Crucible," Arthur Miller's drama about the Salem witch trials of the 17th century, opened on Broadway.
In 1959, Buddy Holly made his last recordings in New York. He died in a plane crash the next month.
In 1960, singer Sam Cooke signed with RCA Records.
In 1963, Gerry and the Pacemakers held their first recording sessions.
In 1967, the Rolling Stones refused to go on the revolving stage during the finale of the British TV show "Sunday Night At The London Palladium." The press saw it as a snub against tradition.
In 1968, "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," hosted by Dan Rowan and Dick Martin, premiered on NBC.
In 1971, the Joe Cocker film "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" premiered in London. The movie was a documentary of Cocker's tour of the same name and featured performances by Cocker, Leon Russell and Rita Coolidge.
In 1990, Slash, the guitarist for Guns N' Roses, used a profanity while accepting American Music Awards for his band. Viewers complained to ABC, which had broadcast the show live. The network apologized.
In 1994, actor Telly Savalas died, a day after his 70th birthday.
In 1998, singer Toni Braxton filed for bankruptcy, listing liabilities of more than one million dollars.
In 2004, Jennifer Lopez called off her engagement to Ben Affleck. Actress-dancer Ann Miller died in Los Angeles at age 81.
In 2005, "Besame Mucho" songwriter Consuelo Velazquez died at age 84.
In 2008, actor Heath Ledger was found dead of an accidental prescription overdose in New York City; he was 28.
Thought for Today: "Would to God that we might spend a single day really well." — Thomas a Kempis, German monk and author (c. 1380-1471). [It's pretty much His fault if you don't, isn't it? — Ed.]
(Above Advance for Use Friday, Jan. 22) Copyright 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reversed.

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