On This Day in History - January 16th - Almanac

Today is Sunday, Jan. 16, the 16th day of 2022 with 349 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include Andre Michelin, the French industrialist who first mass-produced rubber automobile tires, in 1853; Canadian poet Robert Service in 1874; former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1901; inventor Frank Zamboni in 1901; Olympic runner/Christian missionary Eric Liddell in 1902; singer Ethel Merman in 1908; zoologist Dian Fossey in 1932; writer Susan Sontag in 1933; opera singer Marilyn Horne in 1934 (age 88); race car driver A.J. Foyt in 1935 (age 87); producer/singer Rene Angelil in 1942; country singer Ronnie Milsap in 1943 (age 79); radio talk show host Laura Schlessinger in 1947 (age 75); film director John Carpenter in 1948 (age 74); choreographer/actor/director Debbie Allen in 1950 (age 72); Nigerian singer Sade Adu in 1959 (age 63); British television host James May in 1963 (age 59); British model Kate Moss in 1974 (age 48); singer Aaliyah in 1979; baseball star Albert Pujols in 1980 (age 42); actor/playwright/singer Lin-Manuel Miranda in 1980 (age 42); actor Birgitte Hjort Sorensen in 1982 (age 40); singer FKA Twigs, born Tahliah Debrett Barnett, in 1988 (age 34).

On this date in history:

In 1581, the English Parliament outlawed Roman Catholicism.

In 1919, the United States went legally "dry" when the 36th state ratified the 18th Amendment. Prohibition went into effect one year later and the amendment was repealed in 1933.

In 1942, screen star Carole Lombard, her mother and 20 other people were killed in a plane crash near Las Vegas. Lombard was the wife of actor Clark Gable.

In 1984, U.S. President Ronald Reagan called for "peaceful competition" with Moscow. He authorized research and development on space-age weapons capable of destroying incoming nuclear missiles -- the program known as "Star Wars."

In 1990, Soviet troops entered Azerbaijan amid fighting between Christian Armenians and Islamic Azerbaijani in Azerbaijan in the waning days of the central government's power.

In 1997, the 28-year-old son of TV star Bill Cosby, Ennis Cosby, was shot to death in the Bel-Air area of Los Angeles while changing a flat tire on his car.

In 2001, President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo was shot to death by one of his bodyguards, who was killed by other guards.

In 2006, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was sworn in as Liberia's president. She was the first female elected head of state in Africa.

In 2014, Major League Baseball announced a "historic" expansion of instant replay to review close calls -- starting in the 2014 season.

In 2020, the Trump administration carried out its last federal execution, its 13th, after a 17-year hiatus of the practice.

A thought for the day: "Some things in life aren't even worth regretting. You're better off passing them like a freight train passes a hobo." -- American actor/singer Ethel Merman