On this date: Motown Records founded; ‘All in the Family’ debuts

Published 4:08 am Saturday, January 12, 2019

Today is Saturday, Jan. 12, the 12th day of 2019. There are 353 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 12, 1959, Berry Gordy Jr. founded Motown Records (originally Tamla Records) in Detroit.

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On this date:

In 1828, the United States and Mexico signed a Treaty of Limits defining the boundary between the two countries to be the same as the one established by an 1819 treaty between the U.S. and Spain.

In 1915, the U.S. House of Representatives rejected, 204-174, a proposed constitutional amendment to give women nationwide the right to vote.

In 1932, Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate after initially being appointed to serve out the remainder of the term of her late husband, Thaddeus.

In 1945, during World War II, Soviet forces began a major, successful offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe. Aircraft from U.S. Task Force 38 sank about 40 Japanese ships off Indochina.

In 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Sipuel v. Board of Regents of University of Oklahoma, unanimously ruled that state law schools could not discriminate against applicants on the basis of race.

In 1965, the music variety show “Hullabaloo” premiered on NBC-TV with host-of-the-week Jack Jones; guests included Joey Heatherton, the New Christy Minstrels and Woody Allen.

In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the U.S. military should stay in Vietnam until Communist aggression there was stopped. The TV series “Batman,” starring Adam West and Burt Ward as the Dynamic Duo, premiered on ABC, airing twice a week on consecutive nights.

In 1971, the groundbreaking situation comedy “All in the Family” premiered on CBS television.

In 1986, the shuttle Columbia blasted off with a crew that included the first Hispanic-American in space, Dr. Franklin R. Chang-Diaz.

In 1998, Linda Tripp provided Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr’s office with taped conversations between herself and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
In 2000, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court, in Illinois v. Wardlow, gave police broad authority to stop and question people who run at the sight of an officer.

In 2006, Mehmet Ali Agca (MEH’-met AH’-lee AH’-juh), the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from an Istanbul prison after serving more than 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the plot against the pontiff and the slaying of a Turkish journalist.

Ten years ago: Senate Democrats announced they would accept former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris as President-elect Barack Obama’s Senate successor. Acting at Obama’s behest, President George W. Bush agreed to ask Congress for the final $350 billion in the financial bailout fund. In the final news conference of his presidency, Bush vigorously defended his record but also offered an extraordinary listing of his mistakes — including his optimistic Iraq speech in 2003. Rickey Henderson was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame on the first ballot, and Jim Rice made it in on his 15th and final try. French movie actor-writer-director Claude Berri died in Paris at age 74.

Five years ago: Officials announced that Iran had agreed to limit uranium enrichment and to open its nuclear program to daily inspection by international experts. Southwest Flight 4013, a Boeing 737 from Chicago, landed at the wrong Missouri airfield while enroute to Branson. Jeremy Abbott won his fourth U.S. figure skating title at the championships in Boston. At the Golden Globes, “12 Years a Slave” won for best motion picture drama while “American Hustle” was named best musical or comedy picture.

One year ago: President Donald Trump’s White House physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, declared him in “excellent health” after the president received his first checkup at Walter Reed military hospital. Sportscaster Keith Jackson, best known as the down-home voice of college football, died; he was 89. John Tunney, whose successful campaign for a California seat in the U.S. Senate was the basis for the Robert Redford film “The Candidate,” died in Los Angeles at the age of 83.

Today’s Birthdays: The Amazing Kreskin is 84. Country singer William Lee Golden (The Oak Ridge Boys) is 80. Actor Anthony Andrews is 71. Movie director Wayne Wang is 70. Actress Kirstie Alley is 68. Political commentator Rush Limbaugh is 68. Legal affairs blogger Ann Althouse is 68. Writer Walter Mosley is 67. Country singer Ricky Van Shelton is 67. Radio-TV personality Howard Stern is 65. Writer-producer-director John Lasseter is 62. Broadcast journalist Christiane Amanpour is 61. Actor Oliver Platt is 59. Basketball Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins is 59. Entrepreneur Jeff Bezos is 55. Rock singer Rob Zombie is 54. Actor Olivier Martinez is 53. Rapper TBird (B-Rock and the Bizz) is 52. Model Vendela is 52. Actress Farrah Forke is 51. Actress Rachael Harris is 51. Rock singer Zack de la Rocha is 49. Rapper Raekwon (Wu Tang Clan) is 49. Singer Dan Haseltine (Jars of Clay) is 46. Rock musician Matt Wong (Reel Big Fish) is 46. Singer Melanie Chisholm (Spice Girls) is 45. Contemporary Christian singer Jeremy Camp is 41. Actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson is 39. Rhythm-and-blues singer Amerie is 39. Actress Issa Rae is 34. Actress Naya Rivera is 32. Actor Will Rothhaar is 32. Actor Andrew Lawrence is 31. Rock singer ZAYN is 26. Pop/soul singer Ella Henderson (TV: “The X Factor”) is 23.

Thought for Today: “Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.” — George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (1856-1950).