This Day in History

Today is Wednesday, January 30th, the 30th day of the year.There are 335 days until the end of the year.

On this day:

In 1835, President Andrew Jackson survived the first ever assassination attempt on a U.S. President.

In 1836, flagmaker Betsy Ross died at the age of 84.Legend dictates she created the first stars and stripes flag of the United States.

In 1948, aviation pioneer Orville Wright died at the age of 77.

In 1948, Indian nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi died at the age of 78.The political and spiritual leader was assassinated by a Hindu extremist in New Delhi, India.

In 1962, two members of the Flying Wallendas high wire act were killed when their seven-member pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1968, North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong guerrillas launched surprise attacks on South Vietnamese provincial capitals in what was known as the Tet Offensive.

In 1972, British soldiers killed 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers in Northern Ireland in what is now known as "Bloody Sunday."

In 1973, G. Gordon Liddy and James McCord were convicted of burglary, wiretapping and attempted bugging of the Democratic headquarters at the Watergate building.

In 1989, former criminal lawyer Joel Steinberg was convicted in New York of first-degree manslaughter in the death of his illegally adopted six-year-old daughter, Lisa.

In 2006, award-winning playwright Wendy Wasserstein died at the age of 55.Wasserstein won a Pulitzer prize and a Tony award for "The Heidi Chronicles."

In 2006, Coretta Scott King, the widow of late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died at the age of 78.

In 2007, best-selling author Sidney Sheldon died of complications from pneumonia at a hospital in Rancho Mirage, California.He was 89.

In 2016, Facebook banned private gun sales on the social networking site.


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