On This Day in History - January 2nd - Almanac

Today is Wednesday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2019 with 363 to follow.

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

Those born on this date are under the sign of Capricorn. They include former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater, R-Ariz., the 1964 Republican nominee for president, in 1909; author Isaac Asimov in 1920; former televangelist Jim Bakker in 1940 (age 79); zoologist Jack Hanna in 1947 (age 72); journalist Judith Miller in 1948 (age 71); filmmaker Todd Haynes in 1961 (age 58); actor Tia Carrere in 1967 (age 52); actor Cuba Gooding Jr. in 1968 (age 51); actor Taye Diggs in 1971 (age 48); actor/singer Renee Elise Goldsberry in 1971 (age 48); actor Dax Shepard in 1975 (age 44); model Christy Turlington in 1969 (age 50); actor Kate Bosworth in 1983 (age 36); actor Shelley Hennig in 1987 (age 32).

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 1981, police in Britain arrested the so-called "Yorkshire Ripper," after five years on the run. Peter Sutcliffe was convicted of murdering 13 women and attempting to murder seven more.

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.

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.

In 2018, 51 people died when a bus plunged 330 feet off a cliff on a beach in Peru.

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