Today in History

Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 12, the 12th day of 2021. There are 353 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 12, 2000, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Illinois v. Wardlow, gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.

On this date:

In 1773, the first public museum in America was organized in Charleston, South Carolina.

In 1828, the United States and Mexico signed a Treaty of Limits defining the boundary between the two countries to be the same as the one established by an 1819 treaty between the U.S. and Spain.

In 1910, at a White House dinner hosted by President William Howard Taft, Baroness Rosen, wife of the Russian ambassador, caused a stir by requesting and smoking a cigarette - it was, apparently, the first time a woman had smoked openly during a public function in the executive mansion. (Some of the other women present who had brought their own cigarettes began lighting up in turn.)

In 1915, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected, 204-174, a proposed constitutional amendment to give women nationwide the right to vote.

In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma, unanimously ruled that state law schools could not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race.

In 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records (originally Tamla Records) in Detroit.

In 1969, the New York Jets of the American Football League upset the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League 16-7 in Super Bowl III, played at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

In 1971, the groundbreaking situation comedy “All in the Family” premiered on CBS television.

In 1976, mystery writer Dame Agatha Christie died in Wallingford, England, at age 85.

In 1995, Qubilah Shabazz (keh-BEE’-lah shuh-BAZ’), the daughter of Malcolm X, was arrested in Minneapolis on charges she’d tried to hire a hitman to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan (the charges were later dropped in a settlement with the government).

In 2006, Mehmet Ali Agca (MEH’-met AH’-lee AH’-juh), the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from an Istanbul prison after serving more than 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the plot against the pontiff and the slaying of a Turkish journalist.

In 2010, Haiti was struck by a magnitude-7 earthquake; the Haitian government said 316,000 people were killed, while a report prepared for the U.S. Agency for International Development suggested the death toll may have been between 46,000 and 85,000.

Ten years ago: President Barack Obama visited Tucson, Arizona, the scene of a shooting rampage that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed six others; he urged Americans to refrain from partisan bickering and to embrace the idealistic vision of democracy held by 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, the youngest of the victims.

Five years ago: In his final State of the Union address, President Barack Obama urged Americans to rekindle their belief in the promise of change that first carried him to the White House, declaring that the country must not allow election-year fear and division to put economic and security progress at risk. Iran detained 10 American sailors and their two small Navy boats after the boats drifted into Iranian waters; the sailors and their vessels were released the following day. The St. Louis Rams’ move back to Los Angeles was approved by 30 of 32 NFL owners. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch announced his engagement to ex-supermodel Jerry Hall, Mick Jagger’s ex-wife (they married the following March).

One year ago: President Donald Trump and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sparred ahead of Trump’s impeachment trial, with Pelosi saying senators would “pay a price” for blocking new witnesses, and Trump labeling the House impeachment vote a “totally partisan hoax.” Defense Secretary Mark Esper said he had seen no hard evidence that four American embassies had been under a possible threat, as Trump had claimed, when the president authorized the drone strike that killed Iran’s top military commander.

Today’s Birthdays: The Amazing Kreskin is 86. Country singer William Lee Golden (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 82. Actor Anthony Andrews is 73. Movie director Wayne Wang is 72. Actor Kirstie Alley is 70. Political commentator Rush Limbaugh is 70. Legal affairs blogger Ann Althouse is 70. Writer Walter Mosley is 69. Country singer Ricky Van Shelton is 69. Radio-TV personality Howard Stern is 67. Writer-producer-director John Lasseter is 64. Broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour is 63. Actor Oliver Platt is 61. Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins is 61. Entrepreneur Jeff Bezos is 57. Rock singer Rob Zombie is 56. Actor Olivier Martinez is 55. Model Vendela is 54. Actor Farrah Forke is 53. Actor Rachael Harris is 53. Rock singer Zack de la Rocha is 51. Rapper Raekwon (Wu Tang Clan) is 51. Actor Zabryna Guevara is 49. Singer Dan Haseltine (Jars of Clay) is 48. Singer Melanie Chisholm (Spice Girls) is 47. Contemporary Christian singer Jeremy Camp is 43. Actor Cynthia Addai-Robinson is 41. Rhythm-and-blues singer Amerie is 41. Actor Issa Rae is 36. Actor Will Rothhaar is 34. Actor Andrew Lawrence is 33. Rock singer ZAYN is 28. Pop/soul singer Ella Henderson (TV: “The X Factor”) is 25.