Today is Monday January 30, the 30th day of 2023. There are 335 days left of the year.
Today’s highlight in history:
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
In this date:
In 1649, the King of England Charles I was executed for high treason.
In 1911, James White, an intellectually disabled young black man who had been convicted of rape for having sex with a 14-year-old white girl when he was 16, was publicly hanged in Bell County, Kentucky.
In 1945, during World War II, a Soviet submarine torpedoed the German ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic Sea with the loss of over 9,000 lives, most of them war refugees; about 1,000 people survived.
In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. (Godse and a co-conspirator were later executed.)
In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War when communist forces launched surprise attacks on South Vietnamese towns and cities; although the Communists were repulsed, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the United States and its allies.
In 1969, the Beatles staged an impromptu concert atop Apple’s London headquarters; it was the group’s last public performance.
In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights protesters were shot and killed by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday”.
In 1981, an estimated 2 million New Yorkers attended a parade in honor of American hostages freed from Iran.
In 1993, Los Angeles opened its Metro Red Line, the city’s first modern subway system.
In 2005, Iraqis voted in their country’s first free elections in half a century; President George W. Bush called the runoff a resounding success.
In 2006, Coretta Scott King, widow of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico at the age of 78.
In 2020, health officials reported the first known case of the new coronavirus spreading from one person to another in the United States. The World Health Organization has declared the virus outbreak, which had reached more than a dozen countries, a global emergency. Russia has ordered the closure of its 2,600-mile land border with China in a bid to limit the spread of the virus. President Donald Trump described the handful of virus cases in the US as a “small problem” and said those people were “successfully recovering”. The State Department has advised US citizens against traveling to China.
Ten years ago: In a dramatic appeal before the Senate Judiciary Committee, wounded former Representative Gabrielle Giffords urged Congress to enact tougher limits on guns, saying, “too many children die” without them. Israel conducted a rare airstrike on a military target inside Syria amid fears that President Bashar Assad’s regime could supply powerful weapons to Islamic militant group Hezbollah. Patty Andrews, 94, the last surviving member of the singing trio Andrews Sisters, died in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge.
Five years ago: In his first State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called on Congress to deliver on long-standing promises to repair a fractured immigration system and issued ominous warnings about deadly gangs, the scourge of drugs and violent immigrants living in the country illegally; the speech also included calls for optimism in a growing economy. In the Democratic response, Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III said rising stock prices boosted investor wallets and corporate profits, but didn’t ease the anxieties of middle-class families. The body of 35-year-old actor Mark Salling, a former cast member of the television show ‘Glee’, was found in an area of a Los Angeles riverbed in what a coroner ruled was a suicide by hanging; Salling’s death came just weeks after he pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse materials.
One year ago: Matching the largest comeback in an AFC Championship game, the Cincinnati Bengals rallied from an 18-point hole to stun the Kansas City Chiefs 27-24 in overtime. The Los Angeles Rams rallied from a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to secure a Super Bowl berth in their home stadium with a 20-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Championship Game. (The Rams would beat the Bengals 23-20 in the Super Bowl two weeks later.) Spotify said it would add content alerts ahead of podcasts discussing the coronavirus; The move followed protests by the music streaming service that were initiated by singer Neil Young over the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Today’s birthdays: Actor Gene Hackman is 93 years old. Actor Vanessa Redgrave is 86 years old. Country singer Jeanne Pruett is 86 years old. Country singer Norma Jean is 85 years old. Horn player William King of The Commodores is 74 years old. Musician Phil Collins is 72 years old. Actor Charles S. Dutton (“Roc”) is 72 years old. Actor Ann Dowd (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) is 67 years old. Comedian Brett Butler (“Anger Management,” “Grace Under Fire”) is 65 years old. Singer Jody Watley is 64 years old. Actor Wayne Wilderson (” Veep”) is 57 years old. Country singer Tammy Cochran is 51 years old. Actor Christian Bale is 49 years old. Guitarist Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket is 49 years old. Actor Olivia Colman is 49 years old. Singer Josh Kelley is 43 years old. Actor Wilmer Valderrama (“That 70s Show”) is 43 years old. Actor Mary Hollis Inboden (“The Real O’Neals”) is 37 years old. Actor Kylie Bunbury (“Big Sky”, “Pitch”) is 34 years old. Actor Jake Thomas (“Lizzie McGuire”, “AI”) is 33. Actor Danielle Campbell (“Tell Me A Story”, “The Originals”) is 28 years old.
