Local

Jan. 25, 1990: Elaine Nelson was named District 241 Teacher of the Year. Nelson had been teaching in the area for 36 years.

Jan. 22, 1990: Albert Lea Mayor Harlan Nelson signed a proclamation saluting the Kiwanis service organization on its 75th anniversary.

Jan. 21, 1990: Albert Lea High School Snow Dance royalty Queen Stef Nystrom and King Pat Jirele were pictured in the Albert Lea Tribune.

Jan. 24, 1970: A memorial service was held at First Lutheran Church for Sgt. Robert Farnham, who was killed in a mortar attack near the Cambodian border in Vietnam. Born in Albert Lea on July 3, 1949, he was the son of Dale and Lorraine Farnham.

 

National

2019: The Supreme Court said the Trump administration could go ahead with its plan to restrict military service by transgender men and women as court challenges continued.

After a week-long showdown with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Donald Trump said he was postponing his State of the Union address until the partial government shutdown was over.

2018: 2018, former sports doctor Larry Nassar, who had admitted molesting some of the nation’s top gymnasts for years under the guise of medical treatment, was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.

2017: Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, pledging emphatically to empower America’s “forgotten men and women.” Protesters registered their rage against the new president in a chaotic confrontation with police just blocks from the inaugural parade.

2010: A bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, vastly increased the power of big business and labor unions to influence government decisions by freeing them to spend their millions directly to sway elections for president and Congress.

2009: 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s 44th, as well as first African-American, president.

President Barack Obama signed an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within a year. (The facility remained in operation as lawmakers blocked efforts to transfer terror suspects to the United States; President Donald Trump later issued an order to keep the jail open and allow the Pentagon to bring new prisoners there.)

2007: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., launched her first campaign for the White House, saying in a videotaped message on her website: “I’m in, and I’m in to win.”

Jan. 20, 2001: George Walker Bush became America’s 43rd president after one of the most turbulent elections in U.S. history.

Jan. 22, 1998: Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, California, to being the Unabomber responsible for three deaths and 29 injuries in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

1997: Speaker Newt Gingrich was reprimanded and fined as the House voted for the first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.

The Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the nation’s first female secretary of state.

1994: A jury in Manassas, Virginia, found Lorena Bobbitt not guilty by reason of temporary insanity of maliciously wounding her husband John, whom she had accused of sexually assaulting her.

1989: Confessed serial killer Theodore Bundy was executed in Florida’s electric chair.

1986: The United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

1984: Apple Computer began selling its first Macintosh model, which boasted a built-in 9-inch monochrome display, a clock rate of 8 megahertz and 128k of RAM.

1977: On his first full day in office, President Jimmy Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

1973: The U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, legalized abortions using a trimester approach.

President Richard Nixon announced an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War, and would be formally signed four days later in Paris.

1944: During World War II, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.

Jan. 24, 1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco.

1942: Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Europe’s Jews.

1937: President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.

1935: Beer was first sold in cans in Richmond, Virginia, by Gottfried Krueger Brewing Co.

1932: New York Gov. Franklin D. Roosevelt announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1848: James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of 1949.

1845: Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.