Today in History

Today is Saturday, Jan. 7, the seventh day of 2023. There are 358 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 7, 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union message to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.

On this date:

In 1608, an accidental fire devastated the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia Colony.

In 1789, America held its first presidential election as voters chose electors who, a month later, selected George Washington to be the nation's first chief executive.

In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.

In 1955, singer Marian Anderson made her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Verdi's "Un Ballo in Maschera."

In 1959, the United States recognized the new government of Cuba, six days after Fidel Castro led the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

In 1963, the U.S. Post Office raised the cost of a first-class stamp from 4 to 5 cents.

In 1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.

In 1989, Emperor Hirohito of Japan died in Tokyo at age 87; he was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito.

In 1999, for the second time in history, an impeached American president went on trial before the Senate. President Bill Clinton faced charges of perjury and obstruction of justice; he was acquitted.

In 2004, President George W. Bush proposed legal status, at least temporarily, for millions of immigrants improperly working in the U.S.

In 2015, masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Mohammad, methodically killing 12 people, including the editor, before escaping in a car. (Two suspects were killed two days later.)

In 2019, Amazon eclipsed Microsoft as the most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S. For the first time in more than 25 years, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was absent from oral arguments as she recuperated from cancer surgery.

Ten years ago: The Pentagon reported that an Iranian fleet of high-speed boats had charged at and threatened to blow up a three-ship U.S. Navy convoy in the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier, then vanished as the American ship commanders were preparing to open fire. Second-ranked LSU defeated No. 1 Ohio State, 38-24, in the BCS championship game played in New Orleans. Philip Agee, a renegade CIA agent whose naming of operatives led to a law against exposing spies, died in Cuba at age 72.

Five years ago: President Barack Obama announced he would nominate former GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel as his next defense secretary, calling him "the leader our troops deserve"; Obama also chose White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide rolled top-ranked Notre Dame 42-14 for the BCS championship.

One year ago: Three white men who chased and killed Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison; a judge in Georgia denied any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man after spotting him running in their neighborhood. In a first for medical science, doctors at the University of Maryland transplanted a heart from a pig that had undergone gene-editing into a human patient in a last-ditch effort to save his life. (The patient, 57-year-old David Bennett, died two months later; he'd been considered too sick to get a human heart.)

Today's Birthdays: Magazine publisher Jann Wenner is 77. Singer Kenny Loggins is 75. Singer-songwriter Marshall Chapman is 74. Actor Erin Gray is 73. Actor Sammo Hung is 71. Actor Jodi Long is 69. Actor David Caruso is 67. Talk show host Katie Couric is 66. Country singer David Lee Murphy is 64. Rock musician Kathy Valentine is 64. Actor David Marciano is 63. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., is 62. Actor Hallie Todd is 61. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is 60. Actor Nicolas Cage is 59. Singer-songwriter John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting) is 59. Actor Rex Lee is 54. Actor Doug E. Doug is 53. Actor Kevin Rahm is 52. Actor Jeremy Renner is 52. Country singer-musician John Rich is 49. Actor Reggie Austin is 44. Singer-rapper Aloe Blacc is 44. Actor Lauren Cohan is 41. Actor Brett Dalton is 40. Actor Robert Ri'chard is 40. Actor Lyndsy Fonseca is 36. Actor Liam Aiken is 33. Actor Camryn Grimes is 33. Actor Max Morrow is 32. Actor Marcus Scribner is 23.