Today in History

Today in History Today is Sunday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2021. There are 362 days left in the year. Today’s Highlight in History: On Jan. 3, 1977, Apple Computer was incorporated in Cupertino, California, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Mike Markkula (MAHR’-kuh-luh) Jr. On this date: In 1777, Gen. George Washington’s army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey. In 1833, Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. (Almost 150 years later, Argentina seized the islands from the British, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.) In 1870, groundbreaking took place for the Brooklyn Bridge. In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state as President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation. In 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced the United States was formally terminating diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba. In 1967, Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, died in a Dallas hospital. In 1975, the original version of the TV game show ‘œJeopardy!,’� hosted by Art Fleming, ended its nearly 11-year run on NBC. In 1990, ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission. In 2000, the last new daily ‘œPeanuts’� strip by Charles Schulz ran in 26-hundred newspapers. In 2007, Gerald R. Ford was laid to rest on the grounds of his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, during a ceremony watched by thousands of onlookers. In 2008, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won Democratic caucuses in Iowa, while Mike Huckabee won the Republican caucuses. In 2013, students from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, reconvened at a different building in the town of Monroe about three weeks after the massacre that had claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators. The new 113th Congress opened for business, with House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) re-elected to his post despite a mini-revolt in Republican ranks. Ten years ago: Democrat Jerry Brown was sworn in as California’s 39th governor, returning to the office he’d left 28 years earlier. Prosecutors in Dallas declared Cornelius Dupree Jr. innocent of a rape and robbery that had put him in prison for 30 years. Five years ago: Republican presidential contender Donald Trump brushed off an African militant group’s video that showed him calling for Muslims to be banned from coming to the U.S., telling the Sunday news shows he wouldn’t be dissuaded from saying what he thought. Saudi Arabia announced it was severing diplomatic relations with Shiite powerhouse Iran amid escalating tensions over the Sunni kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric. One year ago: Health authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan said the number of cases of a newly diagnosed respiratory illness linked to a food market there had risen to 44, with lung damage appearing in a ‘œsmall number’� of cases. Authorities in Hong Kong activated a newly-created ‘œserious response’� level as fears spread about the disease that may have been brought back by visitors to Wuhan. The United States killed Iran’s top general in an airstrike at Baghdad’s international airport; the Pentagon said Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds force, had been ‘œactively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members’� in Iraq and elsewhere. Iran warned of retaliation.