Today in History

Today is Monday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2023. There are 356 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 9, 2015, French security forces shot and killed two al-Qaida-linked brothers suspected of carrying out the rampage at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that had claimed 12 lives.

On this date:

In 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew from Philadelphia to Woodbury, New Jersey.

In 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, retreated because of artillery fire.

In 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, was born in Yorba Linda, California.

In 1914, the County of Los Angeles opened the country's first public defender's office.

In 1916, the World War I Battle of Gallipoli ended after eight months with an Ottoman Empire victory as Allied forces withdrew.

In 1945, during World War II, American forces began landing on the shores of Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines as the Battle of Luzon got underway, resulting in an Allied victory over Imperial Japanese forces.

In 1951, the United Nations headquarters in New York officially opened.

In 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address to Congress, warned of the threat of Communist imperialism.

In 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported autobiography of him, as told to writer Clifford Irving, was a fake.

In 1987, the White House released a January 1986 memorandum prepared for President Ronald Reagan by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North showing a link between U.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of American hostages in Lebanon.

In 2003, U.N. weapons inspectors said there was no "smoking gun" to prove Iraq had nuclear, chemical or biological weapons but they demanded that Baghdad provide private access to scientists and fresh evidence to back its claim that it had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction.

In 2005, Mahmoud Abbas, the No. 2 man in the Palestinian hierarchy during Yasser Arafat's rule, was elected president of the Palestinian Authority by a landslide.

In 2020, Chinese state media said a preliminary investigation into recent cases of viral pneumonia had identified the probable cause as a new type of coronavirus.

Ten years ago: Vice President Joe Biden heard personal stories of gun violence from representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations at the White House as he undertook to draft the Obama administration's response to the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. The Seastreak Wall Street, a commuter ferry, made a hard landing into a Manhattan pier, injuring 85 people. No one was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; for the second time in four decades.

Five years ago: Downpours sent mud and boulders roaring down Southern California hillsides that had been stripped of vegetation by a gigantic wildfire; more than 20 people died and hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed. Breitbart News Network announced that Steve Bannon was stepping down as chairman after his public break with President Donald Trump.

One year ago: Seventeen people, including eight children, died after a fire sparked by a malfunctioning space heater filled a high-rise apartment building with smoke in the New York City borough of the Bronx; it was the city's deadliest blaze in three decades. Comedian and actor Bob Saget, best known for his role on the sitcom "Full House," was found dead in a hotel room in Orlando, Florida. (A medical examiner later determined that Saget died from an accidental blow to the head, likely from a backward fall.) Dwayne Hickman, an actor and TV executive remembered for his role as TV's Dobie Gillis from 1959 to 1963, died of complications from Parkinson's at his Los Angeles home; he was 87.

Today's birthdays: Actor K Callan is 87. Folk singer Joan Baez is 82. Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 79. Actor John Doman is 78. Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 73. Singer Crystal Gayle is 72. Actor J.K. Simmons is 68. Actor Imelda Staunton is 67. Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu is 64. Rock musician Eric Erlandson is 60. Actor Joely Richardson is 58. Rock musician Carl Bell (Fuel) is 56. Actor David Costabile ("Breaking Bad" is 56. Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 56. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 56. Actor-director Joey Lauren Adams is 55. Comedian/actor Deon Cole is 52. Actor Angela Bettis is 50. Actor Omari Hardwick is 49. Roots singer-songwriter Hayes Carll is 47. Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 45. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is 41. Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (OneRepublic) is 39. Rock-soul singer Paolo Nutini is 36. Actor Nina Dobrev is 34. Actor Basil Eidenbenz is 30. Actor Kerris Dorsey is 25. Actor Tyree Brown is 19.