Today's Highlight in History:
On Jan. 30, 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu extremist.
On this date:
In 1649, England's King Charles I was beheaded.
In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany. The first episode of the "Lone Ranger" radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.
In 1960, the American Football League awarded a franchise to Oakland, Calif.
In 1962, two members of "The Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.
In 1964, the United States launched Ranger 6, an unmanned spacecraft carrying television cameras that crash-landed on the moon, but failed to send back images.
In 1968, the Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.
In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."
In 1979, the civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (hoh-MAY'-nee), who'd been living in exile in France, to return.
In 2003, Richard Reid, the British citizen and al-Qaida follower who'd tried to blow up a trans-Atlantic jetliner with explosives hidden in his shoes, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston.
Ten years ago: Elian Gonzalez's grandmothers returned home to a hero's welcome in Cuba, vowing to continue the struggle to wrest the six-year-old shipwreck survivor from relatives in Miami. A Kenya Airways A-310 crashed shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, killing 169 people (10 people survived). The St. Louis Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV (34), defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-16.
Five years ago: Iraqis voted in their country's first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success. The downing of a C-130 military transport plane north of Baghdad killed all ten British servicemen on board; the militant group Ansar al-Islam claimed responsibility. In Northern Ireland, Robert McCartney, 33, was killed in a fight at a Belfast pub by members of the Irish Republican Army. Marat Safin defeated Lleyton Hewitt 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Australian Open.
