This Day in History
In Alaska
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• In 1901, Fred Welty and Ernest Johns of Mary's Igloo reached Nome after being caught without provisions in a three-day blizzard. They reported that horses had eaten their tent.
• In 1939, a diphtheria epidemic closed Juneau schools, and children were not allowed to leave their homes or yards.
• In 1959, the Legislative Council recommended an annual salary of $3,000 for Alaska lawmakers, plus $40 per day for expenses during session.
• In 1979, a fire swept through a Fairbanks mobile home after the owner tried to thaw the pipes with a weed burner. The U.S. Department of Commerce decided to return management of seven marine mammals to Alaska.
In the nation
• In 1788, Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, N.J.
• In 1861, Mississippi seceded from the Union.
• In 1958, President Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address, warned of the threat of Communist imperialism.
• In 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.
• In 1997, a Comair commuter plane crashed 18 miles short of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing all 29 people on board.
• In 1998, the Barry Switzer era with the Dallas Cowboys ended with the announcement of the coach's resignation.
• In 2007, Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, which went on sale the following June. Tony Gwynn and Cal Ripken Jr. were elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
In the world
• In 1945, during World War II, American forces began landing at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines.
• In 1964, anti-U.S. rioting broke out in the Panama Canal Zone, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and several U.S. soldiers.
• In 1968, the Surveyor VII space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.
• In 1998, Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam visited the Maze Prison to make a face-to-face appeal for peace to Protestant militants.