Today is Monday, January 30th, the 30th day of 2006. There are 335 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On January 30th, 1968, during the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.
On this date:
In 1649, England’s King Charles the First was beheaded.
In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, New York.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
In 1933, the first episode of the “Lone Ranger” radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.
In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.
In 1962, two members of “The Flying Wallendas” high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.
In 1964, the United States launched Ranger Six, an unmanned spacecraft carrying television cameras that was to crash-land on the moon.
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 1979, the civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who’d been living in exile in France, to return.
In 1981, an estimated two million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the freed American hostages from Iran.
Ten years ago: In an election billed as an early barometer for the national political season, Ron Wyden won a close race to become Oregon’s first Democratic U.S. senator in 30 years, replacing Bob Packwood.
Five years ago: Republicans pushed John Ashcroft’s attorney general nomination to the Senate floor by a narrow ten-to-eight Judiciary Committee vote; all but one Democrat voted against him.
One year ago: Iraqis voted in their country’s first free election in a half-century; President Bush called the balloting a resounding success. The downing of a C-130 military transport plane north of Baghdad killed all ten British servicemen on board; the militant group Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility. Marat Safin defeated Lleyton Hewitt 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Australian Open.
Today’s Birthdays: Comedian Dick Martin is 84. Actress Dorothy Malone is 81. Producer-director Harold Prince is 78. Actor Gene Hackman is 76. Actress Tammy Grimes is 72. Actress Vanessa Redgrave is 69. Country singer Jeanne Pruett is 69. Country singer Norma Jean is 68. Vice President Dick Cheney is 65. Rock singer Marty Balin is 64. Rhythm-and-blues musician William King (The Commodores) is 57. Singer Phil Collins is 55. Actor Charles S. Dutton is 55. Actress-comedian Brett Butler is 48. Singer Jody Watley is 47. Country singer Tammy Cochran is 34. Actor Christian Bale is 32. Actor Wilmer Valderrama is 26. Actor Jake Thomas is 16.
Thought for Today: “History repeats itself in the large because human nature changes with geological leisureliness.”— Will (1885-1981) and Ariel Durant (1898-1981), American historians.