On This Day in History - January 18th - Almanac

Today is Saturday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2020 with 348 to follow.

The moon is waning. Morning stars are Jupiter, Mars and Uranus. Evening stars are Neptune, Uranus and Venus.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include English physician Peter Roget, who compiled Roget's Thesaurus, in 1779; American orator/statesman Daniel Webster in 1782; Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girls Scouts, in 1860; English author A.A. Milne in 1882; comedian Oliver Hardy in 1892; actor Cary Grant in 1904; actor Danny Kaye in 1911; American inventor Ray Dolby in 1933; filmmaker John Boorman in 1933 (age 87); former Northern Ireland politician/Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume in 1937 (age 83); former baseball star Curt Flood in 1938; singer David Ruffin in 1941; singer Bobby Goldsboro in 1941 (age 79); actor Kevin Costner in 1955 (age 65); actor Mark Rylance in 1960 (age 60); actor Jesse L. Martin in 1969 (age 51); actor/wrestler Dave Bautista in 1969 (age 51); rocker Jonathan Davis in 1971 (age 49); actor Jason Segel in 1980 (age 40); actor Becca Tobin in 1986 (age 34); actor Ashleigh Murray in 1988 (age 32); actor Samuel Joslin in 2002 (age 18).

On this date in history:

In 1778, James Cook became the first European to reach the Hawaiian Islands. He called them the Sandwich Islands.

In 1871, William of Prussia was declared the first German emperor.

In 1919, world leaders gathered in Paris to begin a peace conference after the end of World War I. President Woodrow Wilson used the negotiations to push his idea of an international peacekeeping organization, the League of Nations.

In 1935, an additional 98 individuals were sentenced, 19 to prison and 79 to exile, for playing a role in the assassination of Sergei Kirov as Josef Stalin ruled unchallenged throughout Soviet Russia.

In 1969, as he prepared for the peaceful transfer of power, President Lyndon Johnson put his faith in history that his record of public service and accomplishments would serve as a fitting legacy.

In 1983, the International Olympic Committee restored Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family. They had been rescinded for Thorpe's having played professional baseball. He won gold medals in 1912 in the pentathlon and decathlon.

In 1990, authorities arrested Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry on narcotics charges after he was caught on camera smoking crack cocaine by a woman who agreed to record him in exchange for a reduced sentence on a previous charge.

In 1996, Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, filed for divorce from singer Michael Jackson after 20 months of marriage.

In 1997, Norwegian Borge Ousland completed a 1,675-mile trek across Antarctica. It was the first time anyone traversed the continent alone.

In 2007, Venezuelan lawmakers voted to allow President Hugo Chavez to rule by decree for 18 months.

In 2010, Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981 and was later forgiven by the pontiff, was released from a Turkish prison.

In 2011, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest among a group of police recruits in Tikrit, Iraq, killing at least 60 people and injuring 150 others.

In 2013, Algerian forces freed more than 600 hostages held by Islamist militants at a gas plant in In Amenas.

In 2017, NOAA and NASA announced 2016 was the hottest year in modern history, the third-consecutive year that record had been broken.

In 2018, hours after being unveiled for a trial run, a new lifesaving drone in Australia helped rescue two teens struggling in heavy surf off the coast of New South Wales.

A thought for the day: "Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while." -- American humorist Kin Hubbard