Today is Saturday, January 7, the seventh day of 2023. There are 358 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in the story:
On January 7, 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union message to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
To this date :
In 1608, an accidental fire devastated the settlement of Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia.
In 1789, America held its first presidential election when voters chose voters who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation’s first chief executive.
In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.
In 1955, singer Marian Anderson made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera”.
In 1959, the United States recognized Cuba’s new government, six days after Fidel Castro led the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
In 1963, the U.S. Post Office increased the cost of a first class stamp from 4 to 5 cents.
In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.
In 1989, Emperor Hirohito of Japan died in Tokyo at the age of 87; he was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito.
In 1999, for the second time in history, an impeached American president was tried before the Senate. President Bill Clinton was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice; he was acquitted.
In 2004, President George W. Bush proposed legal status, at least temporarily, for millions of immigrants working illegally in the United States.
In 2015, masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, methodically killing 12 people, including the editor-in-chief, before fleeing in a car. (Two suspects were killed two days later.)
In 2019, Amazon eclipsed Microsoft as the most valuable publicly traded company in the United States. For the first time in more than 25 years, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was absent from oral arguments as she recovered from cancer surgery.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama announced he would appoint former GOP Senator Chuck Hagel as his next Secretary of Defense, calling him “the leader our troops deserve”; Obama also chose White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to head the Central Intelligence Agency. The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide rode Notre Dame 42-14 in first place for the BCS Championship.
Five years ago: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” was Best Picture at the Golden Globe Awards, winning Best Drama and winning awards for stars Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell and for writer-director Martin McDonagh. The Golden Globes ceremony has become an expression of female empowerment in the post-Harvey Weinstein era, capped off with a speech in which Cecil B. DeMille Award winner Oprah Winfrey said of men who use their power to abuse women: “Their time is up! Arctic air that engulfed parts of the east coast broke cold temperature records from Maine to West Virginia.
A year ago: Three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison; A Georgia judge has denied the chance of parole to the father and son who armed themselves and launched the murderous pursuit of the 25-year-old black man after spotting him running in their neighborhood. In a first for medical science, doctors at the University of Maryland transplanted the heart of a pig that had undergone genetic modification into a human patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life. (The patient, David Bennett, 57, died two months later; he had been deemed too ill to have a human heart.)
Today’s birthdays: Magazine publisher Jann Wenner turns 77. Singer Kenny Loggins is 75. Singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman is 74 years old. Actor Erin Gray is 73 years old. Actor Sammo Hung is 71 years old. Actor Jodi Long is 69 years old. Actor David Caruso is 67 years old. host Katie Couric is 66 years old. Country singer David Lee Murphy is 64 years old. Rock musician Kathy Valentine is 64 years old. Actor David Marciano is 63 years old. Senator John Thune, RS.D., is 62 years old. Actor Hallie Todd is 61 years old. Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., is 60 years old. Actor Nicolas Cage is 59 years old. Singer-songwriter John Ondrasik (on-DRAH’-sik) (Five for Fighting) is 58 years old. Actor Rex Lee is 54 years old. Actor Doug E. Doug is 53 years old. Actor Kevin Rahm is 52 years old. Actor Jeremy Renner is 52 years old. Country singer-musician John Rich is 48 years old. Actor Reggie Austin is 44 years old. Singer-rapper Aloe Blacc is 44 years old. Actor Lauren Cohan is 41 years old. Actor Brett Dalton is 40 years old. Actor Robert Ri’chard is 40 years old. Actor Lyndsy Fonseca is 36 years old. Actor Liam Aiken is 33 years old. Actor Camryn Grimes is 33 years old. Actor Max Morrow is 32 years old. Actor Marcus Scribner is 23 years old.