Today is Monday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2016. There are 354 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
49 B.C. – Roman emperor Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon river and moves his troops into an offensive position in the war against Pompeii.
1569 – First lottery in England is drawn in St. Paul’s Cathedral under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I.
1814 – Joachim Murat, King of Naples, deserts Napoleon Bonaparte and joins Allies.
1866 – Ship “London” is wrecked en route to Australia. Some 231 people die.
1919 – Romania annexes Transylvania.
1923 – France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr valley after the German government fails to keep up its World War I reparation payments.
1935 – Aviator Amelia Earhart begins a trip from Honolulu to Oakland, California, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.
1939 – Abu Dhabi Ruler Sheik Shakhbout signs emirate’s first oil agreement, with a British-led consortium.
1942 – Japan declares war against the Netherlands, the same day that Japanese forces invade the Dutch East Indies.
1943 – Britain and United States relinquish extraterritorial rights in China.
1945 – Truce is declared in Greek civil war.
1962 – Avalanche buries village in the Peruvian Andes, and 3,000 people are reported killed.
1964 – U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issues the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to one’s health.
1970 – In Nigeria, 32-month-old secessionist Biafran regime collapses under onslaughts by Nigerian military.
1972 – New state of Bangladesh is recognized by East Germany.
1977 – France sets off an international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
1986 – L. Douglas Wilder becomes Lt. Governor of Virginia, making him the first African-American sworn in as a Southern state official since the American Civil War.
1991 – Hundreds of uniformed Lithuanian nationalists keep all-night vigil in republic’s parliament, saying they are defending it from possible attack by the Soviet army.
1993 – The U.N. Security Council meets to warn Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that he is violating Gulf War cease-fire terms by his unauthorized seizure of weapons in Kuwaiti territory.
1996 – A military court in Peru sentences American Lori Berenson to life in prison without parole for her involvement with a pro-Cuban guerrilla group.
1998 – An armed gang attacks two villages outside Algiers, Algeria, slaughtering 120 people.
2001 – Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, enters the Santiago military hospital to undergo neurological and mental tests ordered by a judge seeking to try him on human rights charges.
2004 – Hardliners throw Iran’s legislative elections into crisis by disqualifying hundreds of liberal candidates, including more than 80 sitting lawmakers who are allied with the reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
2006 – Peru’s President Alejandro Toledo issues a sharp rebuke to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for openly supporting a nationalist former military officer running in Lima’s upcoming presidential elections.
2008 – Eleven U.S. soldiers are convicted and five officers disciplined in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
2011 – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vows to step up his site’s release of secret documents while he fights extradition to Sweden.
2012 – Motorcycle riders attach a magnetic bomb onto a car carrying a nuclear scientist working at Iran’s main uranium enrichment facility, instantly killing him and fatally wounding his driver in what Iran calls the latest strike in an escalating covert war.
2013 – France launches a military operation to help the government of Mali defeat al-Qaida-linked militants seeking to take over the vast desert nation in Africa.
2014 — About two million people, including more than 40 world leaders, meet in Paris for a rally of national unity and 3.7 million join demonstrations across France after three days of violence.
Today’s Birthdays:
Francesco Parmigianino, Italian artist (1504-1540); William James, U.S. philosopher (1842-1910); Rod Taylor, Australian actor (1930-2015); Jean Chretien, former Canadian prime minister (1934–); Clarence Clemons, U.S. saxophonist w/rock group Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band (1942-2011); Kim Coles, U.S. actress (1962–); Mary J. Blige, U.S. singer (1971–).
Thought for Today:
If you are ruled by mind you are a king; if by body, a slave — Cato, Roman statesman and historian (234 B.C.-149 B.C.)
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