This day in history

[January 11, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Tuesday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2011. There are 354 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Jan. 11, 1861, Alabama became the fourth state to withdraw from the Union, with delegates voting 61-39 in favor of an Ordinance of Secession during a convention in Montgomery.

On this date:

In 1805, the Michigan Territory was created by an act of Congress.

In 1815, Sir John A. Macdonald, the first prime minister of Canada, was born in Glasgow, Scotland.

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon National Monument (it became a national park in 1919).

In 1913, the first sedan-type automobile, a Hudson, went on display at the 13th National Automobile Show in New York.

In 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart began an 18-hour trip from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif., that made her the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean.

In 1942, Japan declared war against the Netherlands, the same day that Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies.

In 1943, the United States and Britain signed treaties relinquishing extraterritorial rights in China.

In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued the first government report that said smoking may be hazardous to one's health.

In 1977, France set off an international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a PLO official behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

In 1995, 52 people were killed when a Colombian airliner crashed as it was preparing to land near the Caribbean resort of Cartagena -- however, a 9-year-old girl, Erika Delgado, survived.

Ten years ago: The Army acknowledged that U.S. soldiers killed an "unknown number" of South Korean refugees early in the Korean War at No Gun Ri, but said there was no evidence they were ordered to do so. President-elect George W. Bush chose Elaine Chao to be secretary of labor after Linda Chavez withdrew. The Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of America Online and Time Warner.

Five years ago: A Georgian court convicted a man of trying to assassinate President George W. Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili (sah-kahsh-VIH'-leh) with a grenade in Tbilisi (tuh-BLEE'-see) on May 10, 2005, and sentenced him to life in prison. Gunmen stormed an offshore oil platform run by Royal Dutch Shell in Nigeria and seized the workers, an American, a Briton, a Bulgarian and a Honduran. (The four were freed nearly three weeks later.)

One year ago: A federal judge in San Francisco began hearing arguments in a lawsuit aimed at overturning Proposition 8, California's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage. (Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker later overturned the ban; his ruling is currently under appeal.) Mark McGwire admitted to The Associated Press that he'd used steroids and human growth hormone when he broke baseball's home run record in 1998. Miep Gies, the Dutch office secretary who defied Nazi occupiers to hide Anne Frank and her family for two years and saved the teenager's diary, died in Amsterdam at age 100. French New Wave director Eric Rohmer, 89, died in Paris.

Today's birthdays: Producer Grant Tinker is 86. Actor Rod Taylor is 81. Composer Mary Rodgers is 80. The former prime minister of Canada, Jean Chretien (zhahn kray-tee-EHN'), is 77. Actor Mitchell Ryan is 77. Actor Felix Silla is 74. Rock musician Clarence Clemons is 69. Movie director Joel Zwick is 69. Country singer Naomi Judd is 65. World Golf Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw is 59. Singer Robert Earl Keen is 55. Musician Vicki Peterson (The Bangles) is 53. Actress Kim Coles is 49. Actor Jason Connery is 48. Contemporary Christian musician Jim Bryson (MercyMe) is 43. Rock musician Tom Dumont (No Doubt) is 43. Rhythm-and-blues singer Maxee Maxwell (Brownstone) is 42. Movie director Malcolm D. Lee is 41. Singer Mary J. Blige is 40. Musician Tom Rowlands (The Chemical Brothers) is 40. Actor Marc Blucas is 39. Actress Amanda Peet is 39. Actor Rockmond Dunbar is 38. Reality TV star Jason Wahler (TV: "Laguna Beach"; "The Hills") is 24.

Thought for today: "If you are ruled by mind you are a king; if by body, a slave." -- Cato, Roman statesman and historian (234 B.C.-149 B.C.)

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.