Today in History

Today is Friday, Jan. 10, the 10th day of 2020. There are 356 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 10, 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.

On this date:

In 1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet, "Common Sense," which argued for American independence from British rule.

In 1860, the Pemberton Mill in Lawrence, Mass., collapsed and caught fire, killing up to 145 people, mostly female workers from Scotland and Ireland.

In 1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union.

In 1863, the London Underground had its beginnings as the Metropolitan, the world's first underground passenger railway, opened to the public with service between Paddington and Farringdon Street.

In 1870, John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

In 1917, legendary Western frontiersman and showman William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody died at his sister's home in Denver at age 70.

In 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.

In 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, asked Congress to impose a surcharge on both corporate and individual income taxes to help pay for his "Great Society" programs as well as the war in Vietnam. That same day, Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black person elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, took his seat.

In 1994, President Bill Clinton, attending a NATO summit meeting in Brussels, Belgium, announced completion of an agreement to remove all long-range nuclear missiles from the former Soviet republic of Ukraine.

In 2002, Marines began flying hundreds of al-Qaida prisoners in Afghanistan to a U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In 2004, actor-writer Spalding Gray, 62, vanished from his New York apartment (his body was found two months later in the East River).

In 2016, David Bowie, the chameleon-like star who transformed the sound -- and the look -- of rock with his audacious creativity and his sexually ambiguous makeup and costumes, died in New York.

Ten years ago: Data showed China edging past Germany in 2009 to become the top exporting nation. NBC announced it had decided to cancel "The Jay Leno Show," returning Leno from prime time to 11:35 p.m. Eastern time while pushing "The Tonight Show" with Conan O'Brien back to 12:05 a.m. (O'Brien ended up leaving NBC, and Leno resumed hosting "Tonight.")

Five years ago: Hundreds of thousands of people marched in French cities from Toulouse in the south to Rennes in the west to honor the victims of recent terror attacks. SpaceX sent a supply ship soaring flawlessly toward the International Space Station, but the booster rocket ended up in pieces in the Atlantic following a failed attempt to land on a barge.

One year ago: A 13-year-old Wisconsin girl, Jayme Closs, who had disappeared in October after her parents were killed, was found alive in a rural town about an hour from her home and a suspect was taken into custody. (Jake Patterson pleaded guilty to two counts of intentional homicide and one count of kidnapping after admitting that he killed Jayme's parents and imprisoned her under a bed in his remote cabin for 88 days before she made a daring escape; he was sentenced to life in prison.) In the 20th day of a partial government shutdown caused by a stalemate over funding for a border wall, President Donald Trump toured a section of the U.S.-Mexico border and said that "a lot of the crime in our country is caused by what's coming through here." Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrated the start of a second term, as countries elsewhere in the Americas cut back diplomatic ties with Venezuela and labeled him a dictator.

Today's Birthdays: Opera singer Sherrill Milnes is 85. Rock singer-musician Ronnie Hawkins is 85. Movie director Walter Hill is 80. Actor William Sanderson is 76. Singer Rod Stewart is 75. Rock singer-musician Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) is 72. Boxing Hall of Famer and entrepreneur George Foreman is 71. Roots rock singer Alejandro Escovedo is 69. Rock musician Scott Thurston (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers) is 68. Singer Pat Benatar is 67. Hall of Fame race car driver and team owner Bobby Rahal is 67. Rock musician Michael Schenker is 65. Singer Shawn Colvin is 64. Rock singer-musician Curt Kirkwood (Meat Puppets) is 61. Actor Evan Handler is 59. Rock singer Brad Roberts (Crash Test Dummies) is 56. Actress Trini Alvarado is 53. Rock singer Brent Smith (Shinedown) is 42. Rapper Chris Smith (Kris Kross) is 41. Actress Sarah Shahi is 40. Presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner is 39. American roots singer Valerie June is 38.

Thought for Today: "In much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1:18.

Copyright 2020, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.