Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 25, the 25th day of 2022. There are 340 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 25, 1945, the World War II Battle of the Bulge ended as German forces were pushed back to their original positions.

On this date:

In 1533, England's King Henry VIII secretly married his second wife, Anne Boleyn, who later gave birth to Elizabeth I.

In 1915, America's first official transcontinental telephone call took place as Alexander Graham Bell, who was in New York, spoke to his former assistant, Thomas Watson, who was in San Francisco, over a line set up by American Telephone & Telegraph.

In 1924, the first Winter Olympic Games opened in Chamonix, France.

In 1945, Grand Rapids, Michigan, became the first community to add fluoride to its public water supply.

In 1971, Charles Manson and three women followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actor Sharon Tate.

In 1981, the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States.

In 1993, Sears announced that it would no longer publish its famous century-old catalog.

In 1994, maintaining his innocence, singer Michael Jackson settled a child molestation lawsuit against him; terms were confidential, although the monetary figure was reportedly $22 million.

In 2004, NASA's Opportunity rover zipped its first pictures of Mars to Earth, showing a surface smooth and dark red in some places, and strewn with fragmented slabs of light bedrock in others.

In 2020, President Donald Trump's defense team opened its arguments at his first Senate impeachment trial, casting the effort to remove him from office as a politically motivated attempt to subvert the 2016 election and the upcoming 2020 contest. Canada, Australia and Malaysia each reported their first cases of the new coronavirus.

Ten years ago: The U.S. Department of Education declared that students with disabilities had to be given a fair shot to play on a traditional sports team or have their own leagues. Thousands of anti-abortion demonstrators marched through Washington to the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to protest the landmark decision that legalized abortion.

Five years ago: President Donald Trump arrived at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland; after meeting there with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump threatened to cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinians unless they negotiated peace with Israel. In an interview in InStyle magazine, Oprah Winfrey said she was not interested in a presidential bid, adding that she doesn't "have the DNA" for a White House run.

One year ago: A man was found clinging to the hull of an overturned 25-foot boat off Florida; he was the only known survivor from what he said was a group of 40 migrants who had set out for Florida from a chain of islands in the Bahamas. The Navy said it had discharged 23 active-duty sailors for refusing the coronavirus vaccine; it marked the first time the Navy had thrown currently-serving sailors out of the military over the mandatory shots. David Ortiz was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in his first turn on the ballot, while steroid-tainted stars Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were denied entry to Cooperstown in their final year under consideration by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Today's birthdays: Country singer Claude Gray is 91. Actor Leigh Taylor-Young is 79. Actor Jenifer Lewis is 66. Country musician R&B singer Kina is 54. Actor China Kantner is 52. Actor Ana Ortiz is 53. Drummer Joe Sirois (Mighty Mighty Bosstones) is 51. Musician Matt Odmark (Jars of Clay) is 49. Actor Mia Kirshner is 48. Actor Christine Lakin is 44. R&B singer Alicia Keys is 43. Actor Michael Trevino is 38. Pop musician Calum Hood (5 Seconds of Summer) is 27. Actor Olivia Edward is 16.