Today in History
Today is Saturday, Jan. 6, the sixth day of 2024. There are 360 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump, fueled by his false claims of a stolen election, assaulted police and smashed their way into the Capitol to interrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, forcing lawmakers into hiding; most of the rioters had come from a nearby rally where Trump urged them to “fight like hell.” A Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a police officer as she tried to breach a barricaded doorway inside the Capitol. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, injured while confronting the rioters, suffered a stroke the next day and died from natural causes, the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office said. Congress reconvened hours later to finish certifying the election result.
On this date:
In 1412, tradition holds that Joan of Arc was born in Domremy.
In 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph in Morristown, New Jersey.
In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state.
In 1919, former President Theodore Roosevelt died in Oyster Bay, New York at age 60.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of “Four Freedoms”: Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear.
In 1974, year-round daylight saving time began in the United States on a trial basis as a fuel-saving measure in response to the OPEC oil embargo.
In 1982, truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of 10 of the “Freeway Killer” slayings of young men and boys. (Bonin was later convicted of four other killings; he was executed in 1996.)
In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution, but denied any advance knowledge about the assault.)
In 2001, with his opponent, Vice President Al Gore, presiding in his capacity as president of the Senate, Congress formally certified George W. Bush the winner of the bitterly contested 2000 presidential election.
In 2005, former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was arrested on murder charges 41 years after three civil rights workers were slain in Mississippi. (Killen was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in prison; he died in prison in 2018.)
In 2006, velvet-voiced singer Lou Rawls died in Los Angeles at age 72.
In 2013, the NHL and the players’ association agreed on a tentative pact to end a 113-day lockout.
In 2018, pushing back against a new book that said his own aides questioned his competence, President Donald Trump defended his mental fitness in a series of tweets, saying that he is “like, really smart” and “a very stable genius.”
In 2020, throngs of Iranians attended the funeral of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who’d been killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq; Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei wept while praying over the casket.
In 2022, actor Sidney Poitier (PWAH’-tee-ay) the first Black actor to win an Oscar for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, died at age 94, while Peter Bogdanovich, director of 1970s black-and-white classics “The Last Picture Show” and “Paper Moon,” died at 82.
Today’s Birthdays: Country musician Joey Miskulin (Riders in the Sky) is 75. Former FBI director Louis (LOO’-wee) Freeh is 74. Rock singer-musician Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) is 73. Singer Jett Williams is 71. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson is 69. World Golf Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez is 67. Actor Scott Bryce is 66. R&B singer Kathy Sledge is 65. TV chef Nigella Lawson is 64. R&B singer Eric Williams (BLACKstreet) is 64. Actor Norman Reedus is 55. Food writer and blogger Ree Drummond is 55. TV personality Julie Chen Moonves is 54. Actor Danny Pintauro (TV: “Who’s the Boss?”) is 48. Actor Cristela Alonzo is 45. Actor Rinko Kikuchi (RINK’-oh kih-KOO’-chee) is 43. Actor Eddie Redmayne is 42. Retired NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas is 42. Actor-comedian Kate McKinnon is 40. Actor Diona Reasonover is 40. Rock singer Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) is 38.
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