Today is Monday, Jan. 6, the sixth day of 2025. There are 359 days left in the year.
Today in history:
On Jan. 6, 2021, supporters of President Donald Trump, fueled by his false claims of a stolen election, assaulted police and smashed their way into the Capitol to interrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, forcing lawmakers into hiding; most of the rioters had come from a nearby rally where Trump urged them to “fight like hell.” A Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed by a police officer as she tried to breach a barricaded doorway inside the Capitol. Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, injured while confronting the rioters, suffered a stroke the next day and died from natural causes, the Washington, D.C., medical examiner’s office said. Congress reconvened hours later on Jan. 6 to finish certifying the election result.
Also on this date:
In 1919, former President Theodore Roosevelt died in Oyster Bay, New York, at age 60.
In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in his State of the Union address, outlined a goal of “Four Freedoms”: freedom of speech and expression, the freedom of people to worship God in their own way, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.
In 1974, year-round daylight saving time began in the United States on a trial basis as a fuel-saving measure in response to the OPEC oil embargo.
In 1982, truck driver William G. Bonin was convicted in Los Angeles of 10 of the “Freeway Killer” slayings of young men and boys. (Bonin was later convicted of four other killings; he was executed in 1996.)
In 1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution but denied any advance knowledge about the assault.)
In 2005, former Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen was indicted on murder charges 41 years after three civil rights workers were slain in Mississippi. (Killen was later convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 60 years in prison; he died in prison in 2018.)
Today’s Birthdays: Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson is 70. Golf Hall of Famer Nancy Lopez is 68. TV chef Nigella Lawson is 65. Football Hall of Famer Howie Long is 65. Football Hall of Famer Charles Haley is 61. Actor Norman Reedus is 56. TV personality Julie Chen Moonves is 55. Actor Eddie Redmayne is 43. Actor-comedian Kate McKinnon is 41. Businessman Eric Trump is 41.