Today in History

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 6, the sixth day of 2015. There are 359 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 6, 1540, England's King Henry VIII married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. (The marriage lasted about six months.)

On this date:

In 1759, George Washington and Martha Dandridge Custis were married in New Kent County, Virginia.

In 1838, Samuel Morse and Alfred Vail gave the first successful public demonstration of their telegraph in Morristown, New Jersey.

In 1912, New Mexico became the 47th state.

In 1919, the 26th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, died in Oyster Bay, New York, at age 60.

In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of "Four Freedoms": Freedom of speech and expression; the freedom of people to worship God in their own way; freedom from want; freedom from fear.

In 1945, George Herbert Walker Bush married Barbara Pierce at the First Presbyterian Church in Rye, New York.

In 1950, Britain recognized the Communist government of China.

In 1963, "Oliver!," Lionel Bart's musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel "Oliver Twist," opened on Broadway. "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" premiered on NBC-TV.

In 1974, year-round daylight saving time began in the United States on a trial basis as a fuel-saving measure in response to the OPEC oil embargo.

In 1975, the original version of "Wheel of Fortune," hosted by Chuck Woolery and Susan Stafford, premiered on NBC-TV.

In 1987, the U.S. Senate voted 88-4 to establish an eleven-member panel to hold public hearings on the Iran-Contra affair.

In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit's Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan's rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding denied knowing about plans for the attack.)

Ten years ago: Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales, under scorching criticism at his Senate confirmation hearing, condemned torture as an interrogation tactic and promised to prosecute abusers of terror suspects. Congress certified President George W. Bush's re-election. Former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was arrested on murder charges 41 years after three civil rights workers were slain in Mississippi. (Killen was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in prison.) Andrea Yates' murder conviction for drowning her children in the bathtub was overturned by a Texas appeals court. (Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity in a retrial.)

Five years ago: James von Brunn, a 89-year-old white supremacist charged in a deadly shooting at Washington's Holocaust museum, died in North Carolina, where he was being held while awaiting trial. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown fended off a challenge to his leadership from within his own ruling Labour Party just months before general elections.

One year ago: The U.S. Supreme Court stayed a decision by a federal judge striking down Utah's ban on same-sex marriage so that the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver could decide the issue. (In June 2014, the Court of Appeals overturned the ban; in October, the U.S Supreme Court turned away appeals from five states seeking to preserve their bans, including Utah.) By a vote of 56-26, the U.S. Senate confirmed Janet Yellen as the first woman to lead the Federal Reserve. Former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear and her ex-husband, Thomas Henry Berry, were shot and killed and their 5-year-old daughter wounded after they'd resisted robbers by locking the doors of their broken-down car. No. 1 Florida State beat No. 2 Auburn 34-31 in the BCS National Championship Game.

Today's Birthdays: Pollster Louis Harris is 94. Retired MLB All-Star Ralph Branca is 89. Author E.L. Doctorow is 84. Country musician Joey, the CowPolka King (Riders in the Sky) is 66. Former FBI director Louis Freeh is 65. Rock singer-musician Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds) is 64. Singer Jett Williams is 62. Rock musician Malcolm Young (AC-DC) is 62. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson is 60. World Golf Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez is 58. Rhythm-and-blues singer Kathy Sledge is 56. TV chef Nigella Lawson is 55. Rhythm-and-blues singer Eric Williams (BLACKstreet) is 55. Movie composer A.R. Rahman is 49. Movie director John Singleton is 47. Actor Norman Reedus is 46. TV personality Julie Chen is 45. Actor Danny Pintauro (TV: "Who's the Boss?") is 39. Actress Cristela Alonzo (TV: "Cristela") is 36. Actress Rinko Kikuchi is 34. Actor Eddie Redmayne (Film: "The Theory of Everything") is 33. NBA player Gilbert Arenas is 33. Actress-comedian Kate McKinnon (TV: "Saturday Night Live") is 31. Rock singer Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) is 29.

Thought for Today: "Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life." -- Katharine Fullerton Gerould, American author (1879-1944).

Copyright 2015, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.