TODAY IN HISTORY
In 1649, England’s King 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 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.
In 1945, during World War II, a Soviet submarine torpedoed the German ship MV Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic Sea, killing 9,000, most of them war refugees; roughly 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.
In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese towns and cities.
In 1969, The Beatles staged an impromptu concert atop Apple headquarters in London that would be their last public performance.
In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot and killed by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”
In 1993, Los Angeles inaugurated its Metro Red Line, the city’s first modern subway.
In 2005, Iraqis voted in their country’s first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success.
In 2006, Coretta Scott King, widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., died in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, at age 78.
In 2017, President Donald Trump fired Acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates after she publicly questioned the constitutionality of his controversial refugee and immigration ban and refused to defend it in court.
In 2020, health officials reported the first known case in which the new coronavirus was spread from one person to another in the United States.
BIRTHDAYS
Actor Gene Hackman is 94.
Actor Vanessa Redgrave is 87.
Country singer Jeanne Pruett is 87.
Country singer Norma Jean is 86.
Horn player William King of The Commodores is 75.
Musician Phil Collins is 73.
Actor Charles S. Dutton (“Roc”) is 73.
Actor Ann Dowd (“The Handmaid’s Tale”) is 68.
Comedian Brett Butler (“Anger Management,” ″Grace Under Fire”) is 66.
Singer Jody Watley is 65.
Actor Wayne Wilderson (“Veep”) is 58.
Country singer Tammy Cochran is 52.
Actor Christian Bale is 50.
Guitarist Carl Broemel of My Morning Jacket is 50.
Actor Olivia Colman is 50.
Singer Josh Kelley is 44.
Actor Wilmer Valderrama (“That ’70s Show”) is 44.
Actor Mary Hollis Inboden (“The Real O’Neals”) is 38.
Actor Kylie Bunbury (“Big Sky,” “Pitch”) is 35.
Actor Jake Thomas (“Lizzie McGuire,” ″AI”) is 34.
Actor Danielle Campbell (“Tell Me A Story,” “The Originals”) is 29.
