This day in history

[January 29, 2009]  (AP)  Today is Thursday, Jan. 29, the 29th day of 2009. There are 336 days left in the year.

Today's highlight in history:

On Jan. 29, 1820, Britain's King George III died at Windsor Castle, ending a reign that had seen both the American and French revolutions.

On this date:

In 1843, the 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, was born in Niles, Ohio.

In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.

In 1861, Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

In 1919, the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which launched Prohibition, was certified by Acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk.

In 1929, The Seeing Eye, a New Jersey-based school which trains guide dogs to assist the blind, was incorporated by Dorothy Harrison Eustis and Morris Frank.

In 1936, the first members of baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.

In 1939, Irish poet-dramatist William Butler Yeats died in Menton, France.

In 1963, the first members of pro football's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.

In 1979, President Jimmy Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.

In 1998, a bomb rocked an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Ala., killing security guard Robert Sanderson and critically injuring Emily Lyons, a nurse. (The bomber, Eric Rudolph, was captured in May 2003 and is serving a life sentence.)

Ten years ago: The Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two of President Bill Clinton's advisers, summoning them for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial. Attorney General Janet Reno rejected a special prosecutor investigation of former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes.

Five years ago: A suicide bomber struck a bus in Jerusalem, killing 10 Israelis. British author M.M. Kaye died in Lavenham, England, at age 95.

One year ago: John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary, easing past Mitt Romney for his first-ever triumph in a primary open only to Republicans. Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton claimed victory in a campaign-free Florida presidential primary in which all the candidates had signed pledges not to compete. (The national Democratic Party had stripped the state of its delegates as punishment for moving its primary ahead of Feb. 5.) Margaret Truman, the only child of President Harry S. Truman, died in Chicago at age 83. Raymond Jacobs, believed to be the last surviving member of the group of Marines photographed during the first U.S. flag-raising on Iwo Jima, died in Redding, Calif., at age 82.

Today's birthdays: Actor John Forsythe is 91. Actor Noel Harrison is 75. Author Germaine Greer is 70. Actress Katharine Ross is 69. Actor Tom Selleck is 64. Rhythm-and-blues singer Bettye LaVette is 63. Actor Marc Singer is 61. Actress Ann Jillian is 59. Rock musician Tommy Ramone (Ramones) is 57. Rock musician Louie Perez (Los Lobos) is 56. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is 55. Country singer Irlene Mandrell is 53. Actress Diane Delano is 52. Actress Judy Norton Taylor ("The Waltons") is 51. Rock musician Johnny Spampinato (NRBQ) is 50. Olympic gold-medal diver Greg Louganis is 49. Rock musician David Baynton-Power (James) is 48. Rock musician Eddie Jackson (Queensryche) is 48. Actor Nicholas Turturro is 47. Rock singer-musician Roddy Frame (Aztec Camera) is 45. Actor-director Edward Burns is 41. Actress Heather Graham is 39. Actor Sharif Atkins is 34. Actress Sara Gilbert is 34. Actor Andrew Keegan is 30. Actor Jason James Richter is 29. Blues musician Jonny Lang is 28.

Thought for today: "And were an epitaph to be my story, I'd have a short one ready for my own. I would have written of me on my stone: 'I had a lover's quarrel with the world.'" -- Robert Frost, American poet (born 1874, died on this day in 1963)

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.