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diesa_jToday's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 7, 1789, the first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first president.
In 1608, an accidental fire devastated the Jamestown settlement in the Virginia Colony.
In 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei began observing three of Jupiter's moons.
In 1800, the 13th president of the United States, Millard Fillmore, was born in Summerhill, N.Y.
In 1904, the Marconi International Marine Communication Co. of London announced that the telegraphed letters "CQD" would serve as a maritime distress call (it was later replaced by "SOS").
In 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London.
In 1942, the Japanese siege of Bataan began during World War II.
In 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union message to Congress that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb.
In 1972, Lewis F. Powell Jr. and William H. Rehnquist were sworn in as the 99th and 100th members of the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1989, Emperor Hirohito of Japan died in Tokyo at age 87; he was succeeded by his son, Crown Prince Akihito.
In 2006, Jill Carroll, a freelance journalist for The Christian Science Monitor, was kidnapped and her interpreter shot dead in one of Baghdad's most dangerous Sunni Arab neighborhoods. (Carroll was freed almost three months later.)
Ten years ago: Convicted Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols escaped the death penalty when a jury deadlocked over his punishment. The government of Canada apologized for past acts of oppression against the country's native peoples.
Five years ago: President George W. Bush unveiled his $674 billion economic expansion plan. Police in London announced they had found traces of the deadly poison ricin in a north London apartment and arrested six men in connection with the virulent toxin that had been linked to al-Qaida terrorists and Iraq.
One year ago: Newly elected House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, interviewed on CBS' "Face the Nation," said Democrats running Congress would not give President Bush a blank check to wage war in Iraq. NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton, who had won the 2001 Talladega 500, died at age 49.
Thought for Today: "Whether women are better than men I cannot say , but I can say they are certainly no worse." _ Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister (1898-1978).
