Today in History  

Today is Thursday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2002. There are 334 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 31, 1950, President Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.

On this date:

In 1606, Guy Fawkes, convicted for his part in the "Gunpowder Plot" against the English Parliament and King James I, was executed.

In 1797, composer Franz Schubert was born in Vienna, Austria.

In 1865, Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.

In 1917, Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

In 1934, President Franklin Roosevelt devalued the dollar in relation to gold.

In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces began invading Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

In 1958, the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer 1.

In 1971, astronauts Alan B. Shepard Jr., Edgar D. Mitchell and Stuart A. Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.

In 1990, McDonald's Corp. opened its first fast-food restaurant in Moscow.

In 2000, an Alaska Airlines jet plummeted into the Pacific Ocean, killing all 88 people aboard.

Ten years ago: Leaders of the U.N. Security Council's member states held an unprecedented summit, after which they issued a declaration on collective security, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation.

Five years ago: Three days of deliberations in the O.J. Simpson civil trial in Santa Monica, Calif., were scrapped and the jury ordered to start again after the only black woman on the panel was replaced because of misconduct.

One year ago: A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. The state of Georgia hoisted its new flag above its statehouse, one featuring a smaller Confederate battle emblem. Michel Navratil, one of the last known survivors of the sinking of the Titanic, died in Montpellier, France, at age 92.

Today in History  

Today is Thursday, Dec. 27, the 361st day of 2001. There are four days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Dec. 27, 1979, Soviet forces seized control of Afghanistan. President Hafizullah Amin, who was overthrown and executed, was replaced by Babrak Karmal.

On this date:

In 1831, naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific aboard the HMS Beagle. (Darwin's discoveries during the trip helped to form the basis of his theories on evolution.)

In 1900, militant prohibitionist Carry A. Nation carried out her first public smashing of a bar, at the Carey Hotel in Wichita, Kan.

In 1927, the musical play "Show Boat," with music by Jerome Kern and libretto by Oscar Hammerstein II, opened at the Ziegfeld Theater in New York.

In 1932, Radio City Music Hall opened in New York.

In 1945, 28 nations signed an agreement creating the World Bank.

In 1947, the children's television program "Howdy Doody" made its debut on NBC.

In 1968, Apollo 8 and its three astronauts made a safe, nighttime splashdown in the Pacific.

In 1970, "Hello, Dolly!" closed on Broadway after a run of 2,844 performances.

In 1985, Palestinian guerrillas opened fire inside the Rome and Vienna airports; a total of 20 people were killed, including five of the attackers, who were slain by police and security personnel.

In 1985, American naturalist Dian Fossey, who had studied gorillas in the wild, was found hacked to death at a research station in Rwanda.

Ten years ago: Muslim fundamentalists in Algeria won a major victory in free legislative elections; however, the military ended up canceling the election results. The United States and the Philippines announced that the United States would abandon the Subic Bay naval base by the end of 1992.

Five years ago: In Belgrade, Yugoslavia, about 60,000 opposition supporters defied riot police and rallied in celebration of an international report backing their triumph over Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic in recent local elections.

One year ago: Software engineer Michael McDermott pleaded innocent to seven counts of murder in the shooting deaths of seven co-workers the day before at an Internet consulting company in Wakefield, Mass.