Updated January 21, 2012, 1:28 pm
On Jan. 22, 1973, the Supreme Court handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion.
On Jan. 22, 1890, Fred M. Vinson, 13th Chief Justice of the United States, was born. Following his death on Sept. 8, 1953, his obituary appeared in The Times.
Go to obituary » | Other birthdays »
On This Date
By The Associated Press
1901 Queen Victoria died at age 81 after 63 years on the British throne. 1905 Russian troops opened fired on marching workers in St. Petersburg, killing more than 100 in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” 1922 Pope Benedict XV died. 1938 Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” premiered in Princeton, N.J. 1944 Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy, during World War II. 1953 The Arthur Miller drama “The Crucible” opened on Broadway. 1968 “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” premiered on NBC. 1970 The Boeing 747 went on its first regularly scheduled commercial flight, from New York to London. 1973 Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States, died at his ranch in Johnson City, Texas, at age 64. 1995 Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the mother of President John F. Kennedy, died in Hyannis Port, Mass., at age 104. 1997 The Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the nation’s first female secretary of state. 1998 Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, Calif., to being the Unabomber in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole. 2006 Evo Morales, Bolivia’s first Indian president, took office. 2008 Actor Heath Ledger, 28, was found dead of an accidental prescription drug overdose. 2008 Jose Padilla, once accused of plotting with al-Qaida to blow up a radioactive “dirty bomb,” was sentenced by a U.S. federal judge in Miami to more than 17 years in prison on terrorism conspiracy charges. 2009 President Barack Obama ordered the terrorist detention center at Guantanamo Bay closed within a year and banned harsh interrogation of terror suspects. 2010 Conan O’Brien ended his brief tenure on “The Tonight Show” after accepting a $45 million buyout from NBC to leave the show after only seven months. Current Birthdays
By The Associated Press
Actress Diane Lane turns 47 years old today.
AP Photo/Dan Steinberg
Director Jim Jarmusch turns 59 years old today.
AP Photo/Evan Agostini
1928 Birch Bayh, Former U.S. senator, D-Ind., turns 84 1932 Piper Laurie, Actress, turns 80 1937 Joseph Wambaugh, Author, turns 75 1940 John Hurt, Actor, turns 72 1949 Steve Perry, Rock singer (Journey), turns 63 1957 Mike Bossy, Hockey Hall of Famer, turns 55 1959 Linda Blair, Actress (“The Excorcist”), turns 53 1965 Jazzy Jeff, Actor, rapper (“The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”), turns 47 1981 Beverley Mitchell, Actress (“7th Heaven”), turns 31
Historic Birthdays
Fred Vinson 1/22/1890 – 9/8/1953 Chief Justice of the United States.Go to obituary »
36 Lord George Gordon Byron 1/22/1788 – 4/19/1824
English Romantic poet63 August Strindberg 1/22/1849 – 5/14/1912
Swedish playwright/novelist82 Robert Brookings 1/22/1850 – 11/15/1932
American businessman/philanthropist73 D. W. Griffith 1/22/1875 – 7/23/1948
American film director94 Marcel Dassault 1/22/1892 – 4/18/1986
French aircraft designer84 Rosa Ponselle 1/22/1897 – 5/25/1981
American coloratura soprano79 George Balanchine 1/22/1904 – 4/30/1983
Russian-bn. American choreographer65 U Thant 1/22/1909 – 11/25/1974
Myanmar 3rd U.N. Secy. General65 Howard Moss 1/22/1922 – 9/16/1987
American poet/editor of The New Yorker
