Today in History

In 1915, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Coppage v. Kansas, upheld the right of employers to bar employees from belonging to labor unions by making them sign a "yellow dog contract."

Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first community to add fluoride to its public water supply.

In 1995, the U.S. and Norway launched a Black Brant rocket carrying equipment to study the aurora borealis, startling Russian officials who wondered at first if the rocket was an incoming Trident missile.

In his first encyclical, "God Is Love," Pope Benedict XVI said the Roman Catholic Church had a duty through its charitable work to influence political leaders to ease suffering and promote justice.

Richard Hatch of "Survivor" fame was convicted in Providence, Rhode Island, of failing to pay taxes on his $1 million in winnings (he later served more than three years in federal prison).

Pleading for unity in a newly divided government, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to implore Democrats and Republicans to rally behind his vision of economic revival, declaring: "We will move forward together or not at all."

In Egypt, thousands of anti-government protesters clashed with police during a Tunisia-inspired demonstration to demand the end of President Hosni Mubarak's rule.

A federal judge in New York sentenced Ahmed Ghailani (guh-LAHN'-ee), the first Guantanamo detainee to have a U.S. civilian trial, to life in prison for conspiring in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998.

The left-wing Syriza party rode an anti-austerity platform to victory in Greece's parliamentary elections, setting the stage for a showdown with international creditors.

Party leader Alexis Tsipras promised to end the "five years of humiliation and pain" that Greece had endured since an international bailout saved it from bankruptcy in 2010.