Today is Monday, Jan. 17, the 17th day of 2011. There are 348 days left in the year. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Today’s highlight:
On Jan. 17, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivered his farewell address, in which he warned, “We must guard against the acquisitio
n of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
On this date:
In 1893, the 19th president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes, died in Fremont, Ohio, at age 70. Hawaii’s monarchy was overthrown when a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Lili’uokalani to abdicate.
In 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade.
In 1994, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake struck Southern California, killing at least 72 people.
In 1995, more than 6,000 people were killed when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 devastated the city of Kobe, Japan.
Five years ago: The U.S. Supreme Court protected Oregon’s assisted-suicide law, ruling that doctors there who helped terminally ill patients die could not be arrested under federal drug laws.
One year ago: At the Golden Globes, top honors went to James Cameron’s “Avatar” as well as the TV series “Glee” and “Mad Men.”
Associated Press
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