Today in History
Today is Monday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of 2024. There are 344 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 22, 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, declared a nationwide constitutional right to abortion.
On this date:
In 1901, Britain’s Queen Victoria died at age 81 after a reign of 63 years; she was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII.
In 1938, Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” was performed publicly for the first time in Princeton, New Jersey.
In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.
In 1947, America’s first commercially licensed television station west of the Mississippi, KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, made its official debut.
In 1953, the Arthur Miller drama “The Crucible” opened on Broadway.
In 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at age 104.
In 1997, the Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the nation’s first female secretary of state.
In 1998, Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, California, to being the Unabomber responsible for three deaths and 29 injuries in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.
In 2006, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points, the second-highest in NBA history, in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors.
In 2008, actor Heath Ledger, age 28, was found dead of an accidental prescription overdose in a New York City apartment.
In 2009, President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within a year. (The facility remained in operation as lawmakers blocked efforts to transfer terror suspects to the United States; President Donald Trump later issued an order to keep the jail...
