On This Day in History - January 2nd - Almanac

Today is Monday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2017 with 364 to follow.

The moon is waxing. Morning stars are Jupiter, Saturn and Mercury. Evening stars are Neptune, Venus, Mars and Uranus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Virginia patriot Nathaniel Bacon in 1647; British Gen. James Wolfe, hero of the battle of Quebec, in 1727; former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., the 1964 Republican nominee for president, in 1909; author Isaac Asimov in 1920; singer Julius La Rosa in 1930 (age 87) and singer/songwriter Roger Miller in 1936; former televangelist Jim Bakker in 1940 (age 77); zoologist Jack Hanna in 1947 (age 70); journalist Judith Miller in 1948 (age 69); actors Tia Carrere in 1967 (age 50), Cuba Gooding Jr. in 1968 (age 49) and Taye Diggs in 1971 (age 46); model Christy Turlington in 1969 (age 48); and actor Kate Bosworth in 1983 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1788, Georgia ratified the Constitution, the fourth of the original 13 colonies to do so, and was admitted to the Union.

In 1811, Timothy Pickering, a Federalist from Massachusetts, became the first U.S. senator to be censured after being accused of publicly revealing secret presidential documents.

In 1935, Bruno Hauptmann, "The Most Hated Man in the World," went on trial for the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., eldest son of famed aviator, Charles Lindbergh.

In 1942, Japanese forces occupied Manila, forcing U.S. and Philippine forces under U.S. Army Gen. Douglas MacArthur to withdraw to the Bataan Peninsula.

In 1959, the Soviet Union launched Luna 1, the first unmanned spacecraft to travel to the moon.

In 1967, Ronald Reagan is sworn in as 33rd Governor of California.

In 1974, U.S. President Richard Nixon signed a bill requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 mph or lose federal highway funds.

In 1990, Britain's most-wanted terrorism suspect, Patrick Sheehy, was found dead in the Republic of Ireland.

In 2006, 12 men were killed in a methane gas explosion in a coal mine in West Virginia's Upshur County. One man was found alive after 41 hours trapped underground.

In 2009, in a tight runoff after an even tighter general election, John Atta Mills was elected president of Ghana with 50.2 percent of the vote, edging Nana Akufo-Addo. The president died in a military hospital on July 24, 2012, with five months remaining in his first term in office.

In 2011, Prince Harry, grandson of England's Queen Elizabeth II, was sent home from military service in Afghanistan after a magazine revealed his presence in the war zone. He later returned to continue training as a gunship pilot.

In 2013, a Kremlin statement said President Vladimir Putin raised Russia's retirement age to 70, allowing the country to keep "highly qualified and experienced civil servants as upper level personnel in the federal civil service."

In 2014, fifty-two passengers stranded 10 days on an icebound Russian ship in Antarctica were picked up in small groups by a Chinese helicopter and flown to safety.

A thought for the day: "Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes." -- Mahatma Gandhi