Today is Wednesday, January 11, the 11th day of 2023. There are 354 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On January 11, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon National Monument (it became a national park in 1919).
In 1913, the first closed sedan car, the Hudson, was exhibited at the 13th National Automobile Show in New York.
In 1927, during a dinner of Hollywood celebrities at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was proposed.
In 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart began an 18-hour journey from Honolulu to Oakland, California, making her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean.
In 1943, the United States and Britain signed treaties renouncing extraterritorial rights in China.
In 1963, the Beatles single “Please Please Me” (the B-side of “Ask Me Why”) was released in Britain by Parlophone.
In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the “Smoking and Health” report, which concluded that “cigarette smoking contributes significantly to mortality from certain specific diseases and to total mortality.”
In 1978, two Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule docked with the Salyut 6 orbital space station, where the Soyuz 26 capsule was already docked.
In 1989, nine days before leaving the White House, President Ronald Reagan bid farewell to the nation on prime time, saying of his eight years in office, “We wanted to change the nation and instead we changed the world.”
In 2003, Illinois Governor George Ryan called the death penalty process “arbitrary and arbitrary and therefore immoral” and commuted the sentences of 167 condemned inmates and purged his state’s death row two days before leaving office.
In 2010, Mark McGwire admitted to The Associated Press that he had taken steroids and human growth hormone when he broke the baseball home run record in 1998.
In 2020, health authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan reported the first death from what was identified as a new type of coronavirus; the patient was a 61-year-old man who was a frequent customer at the food market associated with most of the cases there.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama and Afghan President Hamid Karzai met at the White House, agreeing to slightly accelerate a plan to move Afghan security forces into command across the country. The government has assured the public that the new Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” is safe to fly, even as it launches a review to determine what caused the fire, fuel leak and other recent incidents. Italian actress Mariangela Melato (“Swept Away”), 71, died in Rome.
Five years ago: President Donald Trump was quoted as using bluntly profanity during an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers when he asked why the U.S. would accept more immigrants from Haiti and African countries rather than places like Norway. Edgar Ray Killen, the 1960s Klan leader who decades later was convicted of the murders of three human rights workers, has died in prison at the age of 92.
A year ago: In a speech in Atlanta, President Joe Biden urged senators to “stand up to voter suppression” by changing Senate rules to pass voting rights legislation that Republicans had blocked from debate and a vote. (The legislation failed after two Democrats refused to join others in their party in changing the rules to defeat the Republican filibuster.) Just days after the one-year anniversary of the violent uprising at the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department’s top national security official told lawmakers that the department is establishing a specialized unit focused on domestic terrorism.
Birthdays Today: Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien (zhahn kray-tee-EHN’) is 89. Film director Joel Zwick is 81. World Golf Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw is 71. Singer Robert Earl Keen is 61. Actor Phyllis Logan is 67 Musician Vicki Peterson (The Bangles) is 65. Actor Kim Coles is 60. Actor Jason Connery is 60. Former child actor Dawn Lyn (TV: “My Three Sons”) is 60. Rock musician Tom Dumont (No Doubt) is 55. Film director Malcolm D Lee is 53. Singer Mary J. Blige is 52. Musician Tom Rowlands (The Chemical Brothers) is 52. Actor Marc Blucas is 51. Actor Amanda Peet is 51. Actor Rockmond Dunbar is 50. Actress Aja Naomi King is 38. Actors Kristolyn Lloyd is 38. Reality star Jason Wahler is 36. Pop singer Cody Simpson is 26.