Today is Saturday, January 7, the seventh day of 2023. There are 358 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On January 7, 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union address to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
In 1608, an accidental fire destroyed the settlement of Jamestown in the Virginia Colony.
In 1789, America’s first presidential election was held, when voters chose electors who, a month later, elected George Washington as the nation’s first chief executive.
In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service opened 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 US Postal Service raised the price of a first-class stamp from 4 to 5 cents.
In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh and overthrew 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 accused US president went on trial before the Senate. President Bill Clinton faced charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; he was acquitted.
In 2004, President George W. Bush proposed legal status, at least temporarily, for the millions of immigrants who work in the US illegally.
In 2015, masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that caricatures the Prophet Muhammad, and methodically killed 12 people, including the editor, 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 U.S. For the first time in more than 25 years, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did not participate in oral arguments as she recovered from cancer surgery.
Ten years ago: President Barack Obama announced that he would nominate former GOP Senator Chuck Hagel to be his next Secretary of Defense, calling him “the leader our troops deserve”; Obama also chose White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide beat top-ranked Notre Dame 42-14 for the BCS championship.
Five years ago: “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” was the best picture at the Golden Globes, winning best drama and taking home prizes for stars Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell and writer-director Martin McDonagh. The Golden Globes became an expression of female empowerment in the post-Harvey Weinstein era, capped off by 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 has engulfed parts of the East Coast has broken records for cold temperatures 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 any possibility of parole for a father and son who armed themselves and launched a deadly pursuit of a 25-year-old black man after seeing him running in their neighborhood. In a first for medical science, doctors at the University of Maryland transplanted a heart from a genetically engineered pig into a human patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life. (The patient, 57-year-old David Bennett, died two months later; he was considered too ill to receive a human heart.)
Birthdays Today: Magazine publisher Jann Wenner is 77. Singer Kenny Loggins is 75. Singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman is 74. Actor Erin Gray is 73. Actor Sammo Hung is 71. Actor Jodi Long is 69. Actor David Caruso is 67. Talk show host Katie Couric is 66. Country singer David Lee Murphy is 64. Rock musician Kathy Valentine is 64. Actors David Marciano is 63. Sen. John Thune, RS.D., is 62. Actors Hallie Todd is 61. Sen. Rand Paul , R -Ky., is 60. Actor Nicolas Cage is 59. Singer-songwriter John Ondrasik (on-DRAH’-sik) (Five for Fighting) is 58. Actor Rex Lee is 54. Actor Doug E. Doug is 53. Actor Kevin Rahm is 52. Actor Jeremy Renner is 52. Country singer and musician John Rich is 48. Actor Reggie Austin is 44. Singer and rapper Aloe Blacc is 44. Actor Lauren Cohan is 41. Actor Brett Dalton is 40. Actor Robert Richard is 40. Actor Lyndsy Fonseca is 36. Actor Liam Aiken is 33. Actor Camryn Grimes is 33. Actors Max Morrow is 32. Actor Marcus Scribner is 23.