Today is Saturday, Jan. 4, the fourth day of 2025. There are 361 days left in the year.
On Jan. 4, 2007, Nancy Pelosi was elected the first female speaker of the House as Democrats took control of Congress.
In 1853, New Yorker Solomon Northup regained his freedom after being kidnapped in Washington, D.C., and forced into slavery in 1841; he would later tell his story in his memoir, “Twelve Years a Slave.”
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered his State of the Union address in which he outlined the goals of his “Great Society” initiative.
In 1974, President Richard Nixon refused to hand over tape recordings and documents subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
In 1999, Europe’s new currency, the euro, got off to a strong start on its first trading day, rising against the dollar on world currency markets.
In 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a significant stroke; his official powers were transferred to his deputy, Ehud Olmert (EH’-hood OHL’-murt). (Sharon remained in a coma until his death in January 2014.)
In 2010, the Burj Khalifa, the tallest structure in the world, opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
