Category: Uncategorized

Updated January 29, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.

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On Jan. 30, 1882, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, was born. Following his death on April 12, 1945, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1649	England’s King Charles I was beheaded.
1882	Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president of the United States, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y.
1883	James Ritty and John Birch received a U.S. patent for the first cash register.
1933	The first episode of the “Lone Ranger” was broadcast on radio station WXYZ in Detroit.
1948	Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.
1968	The Tet offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.
1969	The Beatles performed in public for the last time in a 45-minute gig on the roof of their Apple Records headquarters in London.
1972	Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
2003	Richard Reid, a British citizen and al-Qaida follower, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston for trying to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes.
2005	Iraqis voted in their country’s first free election in a half-century.
2006	Coretta Scott King, the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died at age 78.
2007	Microsoft’s Windows Vista operating system went on sale.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Actress Vanessa Redgrave turns 75 years old today.

AP Photo/Joel Ryan

Actor Christian Bale (“The Dark Knight,” “Batman Begins”) turns 38 years old today.

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

1925	Dorothy Malone, Actress, turns 87
1928	Harold Prince, Producer, director, turns 84
1930	Gene Hackman, Actor, turns 82
1934	Tammy Grimes, Actress, turns 78
1941	Dick Cheney, Former vice president, turns 71
1942	Marty Balin, Rock singer (Jefferson Airplane/Starship), turns 70
1951	Phil Collins, Rock singer, musician (Genesis), turns 61
1951	Charles S. Dutton, Actor, turns 61
1958	Brett Butler, Actress, comedian (“Grace Under Fire”), turns 54
1959	Jody Watley, R&B singer, turns 53
1962	King Abdullah II, King of Jordan, turns 50
1967	Norbert Leo Butz, Actor, turns 45
1974	Carl Broemel, Rock musician (My Morning Jacket), turns 38
1980	Wilmer Valderrama, Actor (“That ’70s Show”), turns 32

Historic Birthdays

Franklin Roosevelt 1/30/1882 – 4/12/1945 America’s 32nd President.Go to obituary »

59	George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham 1/30/1628 – 4/16/1687 English politician
60	Bernardo Bellotto 1/30/1720 – 10/17/1780 Italian “Vedute” painter
70	Philip Henry Stanhope 1/30/1805 – 12/24/1875 English politician/historian
54	Samuel Armstrong 1/30/1839 – 5/11/1893 American founder of Hampton Institute
58	Felix Faure 1/30/1841 – 2/16/1899 6th President of French Republic
64	Edward Martyn 1/30/1859 – 12/5/1923 Irish dramatist
88	Walter Damrosch 1/30/1862 – 12/22/1950 Prussian-bn.American conductor
78	Roy Eldridge 1/30/1911 – 2/26/1989 American musician
77	Barbara Tuchman 1/30/1912 – 2/6/1989 American author/historian
87	Livia Drusilla 1/30/58BC – //AD 29 Political wife of Emperor Augustus

Updated January 28, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 29, 1963, poet Robert Frost died in Boston.

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On Jan. 29, 1843, William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was born. Following an assassination attempt on Sept. 6, 1901, his biography appeared in The Times. He died from the wounds eight days later.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1820	Britain’s King George III died insane at Windsor Castle.
1843	William McKinley, the 25th president of the United States, was born in Niles, Ohio.
1845	Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven” was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.
1850	Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery that included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.
1860	Russian author and playwright Anton Chekhov was born in the port city of Taganrog.
1861	Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.
1900	The American League, consisting of eight baseball teams, was organized in Philadelphia.
1936	The first five members of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.
1958	Actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.
1963	Poet Robert Frost died at age 88.
1979	President Jimmy Carter welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House following the establishment of diplomatic relations.
1995	The San Francisco 49ers became the first team to win five Super Bowl titles when they beat the San Diego Chargers 49-26 in Super Bowl XXIX.
1998	A bomb exploded at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., killing an off-duty policeman and severely wounding a nurse. (The bomber, Eric Rudolph, was captured in May 2003 and is serving a life sentence.)
2006	ABC “World News Tonight” co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq.
2009	The Illinois Senate voted to remove Gov. Rod Blagojevich from office.
2010	Abortion opponent Scott Roeder was convicted of murder by a jury in Wichita, Kan., in the shooting death of Dr. George Tiller, one of the only doctors to offer late-term abortions in the U.S.
2011	With protests raging, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak named his intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, as his first-ever vice president as chaos engulfed Cairo.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Talk show host Oprah Winfrey turns 58 years old today.

AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., turns 42 years old today.

AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

1940	Katharine Ross, Actress, turns 72
1945	Tom Selleck, Actor (“Magnum P.I.”), turns 67
1950	Ann Jillian, Actress, turns 62
1956	Irlene Mandrell, Country singer, turns 56
1958	Judy Norton Taylor, Actress (“The Waltons”), turns 54
1960	Greg Louganis, Olympic gold-medal diver, turns 52
1962	Nicholas Turturro, Actor (“NYPD Blue”), turns 50
1965	Dominik Hasek, Hockey player, turns 47
1968	Edward Burns, Actor, director, turns 44
1970	Heather Graham, Actress, turns 42
1975	Sara Gilbert, Actress (“Roseanne,” “The Big Bang Theory”), turns 37
1981	Jonny Lang, Blues musician, turns 31

 

Historic Birthdays

William McKinley 1/29/1843 – 9/14/1901 America’s 25th President.Go to obituary »

84	Emanuel Swedenborg 1/29/1688 – 3/29/1772 Swedish scientist/Christian mystic
80	Jeffery Amherst 1/29/1717 – 8/3/1797 English/American army commander
72	Thomas Paine 1/29/1737 – 6/8/1809 English/American political pamphleteer
62	Henry Lee 1/29/1756 – 3/25/1818 American Revolutionary War officer
44	Anton Chekhov 1/29/1860 – 7/15/1904 Russian playwright
72	Frederick Delius 1/29/1862 – 6/10/1934 English/French composer
78	Romain Rolland 1/29/1866 – 12/30/1944 French novelist/dramatist
86	John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 1/29/1874 – 5/11/1960 American philanthropist
68	Barney Oldfield 1/29/1878 – 10/4/1946 American race car driver
66	W.C. Fields 1/29/1880 – 12/25/1946 American comedian
58	Paddy Chayefsky 1/29/1923 – 8/1/1981 American playwright/screenwriter

 

Updated January 27, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 28, 1986, space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members.

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On Jan. 28 , 1887, Arthur Rubinstein, the Polish-American virtuoso pianist, was born. Following his death on Dec. 20, 1982, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1547	England’s King Henry VIII died.
1853	Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti was born in Havana.
1871	France surrendered in the Franco-Prussian War.
1909	The United States ended direct control over Cuba.
1915	The Coast Guard was created by an act of Congress.
1916	Louis D. Brandeis was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court, becoming its first Jewish member.
1945	During World War II, Allied supplies began reaching China over the newly reopened Burma Road.
1959	Vince Lombardi was named head coach of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers.
1973	A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War.
1999	Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan, honoring a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II, spared a triple murderer from execution.
2003	President George W. Bush said in his State of the Union address that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had sought uranium from Africa. (The claim was later disputed by former ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had been asked by the CIA to investigate.)
2009	In a swift victory for President Barack Obama, the Democratic-controlled House approved a huge $819 billion stimulus bill 244-188 with Republicans unanimous in opposition.
2010	Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke won Senate confirmation for a second term.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

French President Nicolas Sarkozy turns 57 years old today.

AP Photo/Yves Logghe

Actor Alan Alda (“M*A*S*H”) turns 76 years old today.

AP Photo/Evan Agostini

1947	Jeanne Shaheen, U.S. senator, D-N.H., turns 65
1950	Barbi Benton, Actress, turns 62
1957	Nick Price, Golfer, turns 55
1968	Sarah McLachlan, Rock singer, turns 44
1969	Kathryn Morris, Actress (“Cold Case”), turns 43
1977	Joey Fatone Jr., Singer (‘N Sync), turns 35
1977	Rick Ross, Rapper, turns 35
1979	Rosamund Pike, Actress, turns 33
1980	Nick Carter, Singer (Backstreet Boys), turns 32
1981	Elijah Wood, Actor (“Lord of the Rings” movies), turns 31

 

Historic Birthdays

Arthur Rubinstein 1/28/1887 – 12/20/1982 Polish-American virtuoso pianist.Go to obituary »

52	Henry VII 1/28/1457 – 4/21/1509 English King
63	Sir Henry Morton Stanley 1/28/1841 – 5/10/1904 English/American explorer
43	William Seward Burroughs 1/28/1855 – 9/15/1898 American inventor
78	Franklin Hooper 1/28/1862 – 8/14/1940 American editor in chief of Encyclopedia Britiannica.
81	(Sidonie-Gabrielle) Colette 1/28/1873 – 8/3/1954 French writer
78	Auguste Piccard 1/28/1884 – 3/24/1962 Swiss-bn. Belgian physicist, balloonist, deep sea diver
55	Ernst Lubitsch 1/28/1892 – 11/30/1947 German/American film director
68	Dame Kathleen Lonsdale 1/28/1903 – 4/1/1971 British crystallographer
44	Jackson Pollock 1/28/1912 – 8/11/1956 American painter
80	Virgilio Ferreira 1/28/1916 – 3/1/1996 Portuguese teacher and novelist

 

Updated January 26, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 27, 1967, Astronauts Virgil I. ”Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo I spacecraft at Cape Kennedy, Fla.

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On Jan. 27, 1885, Jerome (David) Kern, one of America’s foremost composers of music for the theatre and screen, was born. Following his death on Nov. 11, 1945, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1756	Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria.
1832	Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” under the pen name Lewis Carroll, was born in Cheshire, England.
1880	Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.
1885	Broadway composer Jerome Kern was born in New York City.
1944	The Soviet Union announced the end of the deadly German siege of Leningrad, which had lasted for more than two years.
1951	The era of atomic testing in the Nevada desert began.
1967	Astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo 1 spacecraft at Cape Kennedy, Fla.
1967	More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons.
1973	The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.
1998	First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, appearing on NBC’s “Today” show, said that allegations against her husband were the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”
2006	Western Union delivered its last telegram.
2010	Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad tablet computer during a presentation in San Francisco.
2010	J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” died in Cornish, N.H. at age 91.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Chief Justice John Roberts turns 57 years old today.

AP Photo/Michael Conroy

Actor Alan Cumming turns 47 years old today.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer

1930	Bobby “Blue” Bland, Singer, turns 82
1940	James Cromwell, Actor, turns 72
1945	Nick Mason, Rock musician (Pink Floyd), turns 67
1948	Mikhail Baryshnikov, Ballet dancer, turns 64
1956	Mimi Rogers, Actress, turns 56
1959	Keith Olbermann, TV host, turns 53
1964	Bridget Fonda, Actress, turns 48
1968	Mike Patton, Rock singer (Faith No More), turns 44
1980	Marat Safin, Tennis player, turns 32

Historic Birthdays

Jerome (David) Kern 1/27/1885 – 11/11/1945 American musical comedy composer.Go to obituary »

35	Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 1/27/1756 – 12/5/1791 Austrian composer
66	David Friedrich Strauss 1/27/1808 – 2/8/1874 German-Protestant philosopher, theologian
69	Édouard Lalo 1/27/1823 – 4/22/1892 French composer
87	Jozef Israëls 1/27/1824 – 8/12/1911 Dutch painter and etcher
65	Lewis Carroll 1/27/1832 – 1/14/1898 English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist
89	Learned Hand 1/27/1872 – 8/18/1961 American jurist
59	Victor Moritz Goldschmidt 1/27/1888 – 3/20/1947 Swiss-born Norwegian mineralogist and petrologist
89	Ch’ing-ling Soong 1/27/1892 – 5/29/1981 Chinese political figure
86	Hyman G. Rickover 1/27/1900 – 7/8/1986 American naval officer and nuclear engineer

 

Updated January 25, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 26, 1950, India proclaimed itself a republic.

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On Jan. 26, 1880, Douglas MacArthur, the American general who achieved acclaim as a grand strategist in World War II and in Korea, was born. Following his death on April 5, 1964, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1788	The first European settlers in Australia landed in present-day Sydney.
1802	Congress passed an act calling for a library to be established within the U.S. Capitol.
1837	Michigan became the 26th state.
1861	Louisiana seceded from the Union.
1870	Virginia rejoined the Union.
1925	Actor Paul Newman was born in Cleveland, Ohio.
1950	India proclaimed itself a republic.
1979	Former Vice President Nelson A. Rockefeller died at age 70.
1988	The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “Phantom of the Opera,” the longest-running show in Broadway history, opened at the Majestic Theater in New York.
1993	Former Czechoslovak President Vaclav Havel was elected president of the new Czech Republic.
1996	First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton testified before a grand jury connected to the Whitewater probe.
2001	An earthquake hit the Indian subcontinent, killing more than 13,000 people.
2005	Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as secretary of state.
2006	Confronted by Oprah Winfrey on her syndicated talk show, author James Frey acknowledged lies in his addiction memoir “A Million Little Pieces.”
2009	“Octomom” Nadya Suleman of Whittier, Calif., gave birth to octuplets conceived by in vitro fertilization. Suleman was already a mother of six.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Rock musician Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen) turns 57 years old today.

AP Photo/Charles Sykes

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton turns 65 years old today.

AP Photo/Jim Mone

1935	Bob Uecker, Sportscaster-actor, turns 77
1939	Scott Glenn, Actor, turns 73
1949	David Strathairn, Actor (“Good Night, and Good Luck”), turns 63
1950	Jack Youngblood, Football Hall of Famer, turns 62
1953	Lucinda Williams, Country singer, turns 59
1958	Ellen DeGeneres, Talk show host, comedian, turns 54
1961	Wayne Gretzky, Hockey Hall of Famer, turns 51
1963	Andrew Ridgeley, Rock musician (Wham!), turns 49
1977	Vince Carter, Basketball player, turns 35
1978	Sara Rue, Actress, turns 34
1989	Emily Hughes, Figure skater, turns 23

Historic Birthdays

Douglas MacArthur 1/26/1880 – 4/5/1964 American general.Go to obituary »

71	Jean-Baptiste Pigalle 1/26/1714 – 8/21/1785 French sculptor
56	Claude-Adrien Helvatius 1/26/1715 – 12/26/1771 French philosopher
81	Charles XIV John 1/26/1763 – 3/8/1844 French general and later king of Sweden and Norway
68	Benjamin Franklin Keith 1/26/1846 – 3/26/1914 American impresario
87	Samuel Hopkins Adams 1/26/1871 – 11/15/1958 American journalist and author
85	Julia Morgan 1/26/1872 – 2/2/1957 American architect
82	Frank Costello 1/26/1891 – 2/18/1973 American syndicate gangster
33	Bessie Coleman 1/26/1892 – 4/30/1926 American aviator
83	Sean MacBride 1/26/1904 – 1/15/1988 Irish statesman and winner of 1974 Nobel Peace Prize
77	Jimmy Van Heusen 1/26/1913 – 2/7/1990 American songwriter
71	Nicolae Ceausescu 1/26/1918 – 12/25/1989 Romanian dictator

Updated January 24, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 25, 1915, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service.

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On Jan. 25, 1882, Virginia Woolf, the British novelist, was born. Following her death on March 28, 1941, her obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1533	England’s King Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn, his second wife.
1759	Scottish poet Robert Burns was born in Alloway.
1787	Shays’ Rebellion suffered a setback when debt-ridden farmers led by Capt. Daniel Shays failed to capture an arsenal at Springfield, Mass.
1890	The United Mine Workers of America was founded in Columbus, Ohio.
1915	The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated transcontinental telephone service in the United States.
1947	Gangster Al Capone died at age 48.
1959	American Airlines opened the jet age in the United States with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.
1971	Charles Manson and three female followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate.
1995	The defense gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson trial in Los Angeles, saying Simpson was the victim of a “rush to judgment” by authorities.
2006	The Islamic militant group Hamas won a large majority of seats in Palestinian parliamentary elections.
2007	Ford Motor Co. said it had lost a staggering $12.7 billion in 2006, the worst loss in the company’s 103-year history.
2011	A federal judge in New York sentenced Ahmed Ghailani, 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.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

R&B singer Alicia Keys turns 31 years old today.

AP Photo/Charles Sykes

Former Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze turns 84 years old today.

AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov

1931	Dean Jones, Actor, turns 81
1958	Dinah Manoff, Actress (“Empty Nest,” “Soap”), turns 54
1975	Mia Kirshner, Actress, turns 37
1979	Christine Lakin, Actress, turns 33

Historic Birthdays

Virginia Woolf 1/25/1882 – 3/28/1941 British author.Go to obituary »

71	Giovanni Morone 1/25/1509 – 12/1/1580 Italian cardinal and diplomat
64	Robert Boyle 1/25/1627 – 12/30/1691 Anglo-Irish chemist
77	Joseph-Louis Lagrange 1/25/1736 – 4/10/1813 Italian-French mathematician
37	Robert Burns 1/25/1759 – 7/21/1796 Scottish national poet
60	Benjamin Robert Haydon 1/25/1786 – 6/22/1846 English historical painter/writer
77	Dan Rice 1/25/1823 – 2/22/1900 American clown
50	George Edward Pickett 1/25/1825 – 7/30/1875 American Confederate Army officer
76	Charles Curtis 1/25/1860 – 2/8/1936 American 31st vice president
85	Rufus Matthew Jones 1/25/1863 – 6/16/1948 American Quaker and author
91	W. Somerset Maugham 1/25/1874 – 12/16/1965 English novelist/playwright
76	William C. Bullitt 1/25/1891 – 2/15/1967 U.S. diplomat
73	Paul-Henri Spaak 1/25/1899 – 7/31/1972 Post-World War II statesmen from Belgium
54	Viljo Revell 1/25/1910 – 11/8/1964 Finnish architect

Updated January 23, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 24, 1965, Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.

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On Jan. 24 , 1862, Edith Wharton, the American novelist, was born. Following her death on Aug. 11, 1937, her obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1908	The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.
1924	The Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of late revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin.
1943	President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.
1965	Former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill died in London at age 90.
1972	The Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year.
1986	The Voyager 2 space probe swept past Uranus, coming within 50,679 miles of the seventh planet from the sun.
1987	Gunmen in Lebanon kidnapped educators Alann Steen, Jesse Turner, Robert Polhill and Mitheleshwar Singh. (All were later released.)
1989	Confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair.
1993	Retired Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall died at age 84.
1995	The prosecution gave its opening statement in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
2003	The new federal Department of Homeland Security officially opened as Tom Ridge was sworn in as secretary.
2004	NASA’s Opportunity rover landed on Mars three weeks after its identical twin, Spirit.
2008	French bank Societe Generale announced it had uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud by a single futures trader.
2011	Jared Lee Loughner pleaded not guilty in Phoenix to federal charges he’d tried to kill U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and two of her aides in a Tucson shooting rampage that had claimed six lives.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Actor Ernest Borgnine turns 95 years old today.

AP Photo/Vince Bucci

Singer-songwriter Neil Diamond turns 71 years old today.

AP Photo/Dan Steinberg

1939	Ray Stevens, Country singer, turns 73
1941	Aaron Neville, Singer, turns 71
1951	Yakov Smirnoff, Comedian, turns 61
1958	Jools Holland, Rock musician (Squeeze), turns 54
1959	Nastassja Kinski, Actress, turns 53
1966	Shaun Donovan, Secretary of housing and urban development, turns 46
1968	Mary Lou Retton, Olympic gold-medal gymnast, turns 44
1970	Matthew Lillard, Actor, turns 42
1974	Ed Helms, Actor (“The Office,” “The Daily Show”), turns 38
1979	Tatyana Ali, Actress, singer, turns 33
1986	Mischa Barton, Actress (“The O.C.”), turns 26

Historic Birthdays

Edith Wharton 1/24/1862 – 8/11/1937 American author.Go to obituary »

58	William Congreve 1/24/1670 – 1/19/1729 English dramatist
75	Christian Wolff 1/24/1679 – 4/9/1754 German philosopher
77	Farinelli 1/24/1705 – 7/15/1782 Italian castrato singer
67	Pierre-Augustin Beaumarchais 1/24/1732 – 5/18/1799 French author
89	Henry Barnard 1/24/1811 – 7/5/1900 American education commissioner
49	Henry Jarvis Raymond 1/24/1820 – 6/18/1869 American journalist/politician
86	Harold Babcock 1/24/1882 – 4/8/1968 American astronomer
70	Ernst Heinkel 1/24/1888 – 1/30/1958 German rocket designer
67	Cassandre 1/24/1901 – 6/19/1968 French graphic artist
77	Mark Goodson 1/24/1915 – 12/18/1992 American radio/TV producer
76	Robert Motherwell 1/24/1915 – 7/16/1991 American abstract painter

Updated January 22, 2012, 1:28 pm

On Jan. 23, 1973, President Richard Nixon announced an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.

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On Jan. 23, 1898, Sergei Eisenstein, the Russian film director and innovator, was born. Following his death on Feb. 11, 1948, his obituary appeared in The Times.

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On This Date

By The Associated Press

1789	Georgetown University was established in present-day Washington, D.C.
1849	English-born Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.
1932	New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
1937	Seventeen people went on trial in Moscow during Soviet leader Josef Stalin’s Great Purge.
1950	The Israeli Knesset approved a resolution proclaiming Jerusalem the capital of Israel.
1964	The 24th amendment to the Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, was ratified.
1968	North Korea seized the U.S. Navy ship the USS Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the communist nation’s territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was held for 11 months.
1977	The TV mini-series “Roots,” based on the Alex Haley novel, began airing on ABC.
1989	Surrealist painter Salvador Dali died in his native Spain at age 84.
1991	Allied forces in the Persian Gulf War announced that they had achieved air superiority after some 12,000 sorties.
1997	A judge in Fairfax, Va., sentenced a Pakistani man to death for an assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two people and wounded three.
2002	Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was abducted in Karachi, Pakistan, by a group demanding the return of prisoners from the Afghan campaign. (He was later killed.)
2005	Former “Tonight Show” host Johnny Carson died at age 79.

Current Birthdays

By The Associated Press

Actress Mariska Hargitay (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) turns 48 years old today.

AP Photo/Peter Kramer

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa turns 59 years old today.

AP Photo/Matt Sayles

1924	Frank Lautenberg, U.S. senator, D-N.J., turns 88
1928	Jeanne Moreau, Actress, turns 84
1930	Derek Walcott, Nobel Prize-winning poet, playwright, turns 82
1933	Chita Rivera, Actress, dancer, turns 79
1944	Rutger Hauer, Actor, turns 68
1947	Thomas R. Carper, U.S. senator, D-Del., turns 65
1948	Anita Pointer, Singer (The Pointer Sisters), turns 64
1950	Richard Dean Anderson, Actor, turns 62
1953	Robin Zander, Rock singer (Cheap Trick), turns 59
1957	Princess Caroline, Member of Monaco’s royal family, turns 55
1958	Anita Baker, R&B singer, turns 54
1974	Tiffani Thiessen, Actress (“Beverly Hills, 90210”), turns 38

Historic Birthdays

Sergei Eisenstein 1/23/1898 – 2/11/1948 Russian film director.Go to obituary »

56	John Hancock 1/23/1737 (N.S.) – 10/8/1793 American Revolutionary statesman
59	Stendhal 1/23/1783 – 3/23/1842 French writer
82	Camilla Collett 1/23/1813 – 3/6/1895 Norwegian novelist/feminist
51	Edouard Manet 1/23/1832 – 4/30/1883 French Impressionist painter
81	David Hilbert 1/23/1862 – 2/14/1943 German mathematician
77	Sergius 1/23/1867 – 5/15/1944 Russian Patriarch of Moscow
61	Herbert D. Croly 1/23/1869 – 5/17/1930 American Founder of New Republic
72	Ralph De Palma 1/23/1884 – 3/31/1956 American race car driver
70	Potter Stewart 1/23/1915 – 12/7/1985 United States Associate Supreme Court Justice
81	Gertrude Belle Elion 1/23/1918 – 2/21/1999 American pharmacologist