This day in history

[January 15, 2011]  (AP)  Today is Saturday, Jan. 15, the 15th day of 2011. There are 350 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Jan. 15, 1961, a U.S. Air Force radar tower off the New Jersey coast collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean during a severe storm, killing all 28 men aboard. (The structure was known as "Texas Tower 4" because of its resemblance to an oil platform.)

On this date:

In 1559, England's Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1777, the people of New Connecticut declared their independence. (The tiny republic later became the state of Vermont.)

In 1844, the University of Notre Dame received its charter from the state of Indiana.

In 1929, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta.

In 1943, work was completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of War (now Defense).

In 1947, the mutilated remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, who came to be known as the "Black Dahlia," were found in a vacant Los Angeles lot; her slaying remains unsolved.

In 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.

In 1971, the recently completed Aswan High Dam in Egypt was dedicated during a ceremony attended by President Anwar Sadat and Soviet President Nikolai Podgorny.

In 1981, the police drama series "Hill Street Blues" premiered on NBC.

In 2009, US Airways Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger ditched his Airbus 320 in the Hudson River after a flock of birds disabled both the plane's engines; all 155 people aboard survived.

Ten years ago: President-elect George W. Bush marked the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday at an elementary school in Houston, where he promised black Americans: "My job will be to listen not only to the successful, but also to the suffering." Wikipedia, a Web-based encyclopedia, made its debut.

Five years ago: After a seven-year journey, a NASA space capsule, Stardust, returned safely to Earth with the first dust ever fetched from a comet. Michelle Bachelet (bah-cheh-LET') was elected Chile's first woman president. Kuwait's longtime ruler, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, died; he was succeeded by the crown prince, Sheik Saad Al Abdullah Al Sabah.

One year ago: United Nations humanitarian chief John Holmes appealed for more than $560 million to help three million victims of the earthquake in Haiti, calling it "a huge and a horrifying catastrophe." Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas pleaded guilty to carrying a pistol without a license in the District of Columbia, a felony. (Arenas was sentenced to a month in a halfway house and suspended until the end of the season by the NBA.)

Today's birthdays: Actress Margaret O'Brien is 74. Actress Andrea Martin is 64. Actor-director Mario Van Peebles is 54. Actor James Nesbitt is 46. Singer Lisa Lisa (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam) is 44. Actor Chad Lowe is 43. Alt-country singer Will Oldham (aka "Bonnie Prince Billy") is 41. Actress Regina King is 40. Actor Eddie Cahill is 33. Rapper/reggaeton artist Pitbull is 30.

Thought for today: "I refuse to accept the idea that the 'is-ness' of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the 'ought-ness' that forever confronts him." -- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

[Associated Press]

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