Local

Jan. 19, 1990: The Albert Lea Tribune ran a front-page photo of a real lifesaver. Second-grader Amy Attig was pictured demonstrating how she used the 9-1-1 system to save her mother’s life. Laura Attig, Amy’s mother, had a pill lodged in her throat and was choking when her daughter called for help.

Jan. 14, 1980: The Interstate Power smokestack, which towered above the Albert Lea skyline for 57 years, was demolished. The 300-foot stack had been declared obsolete and had to be removed to avoid cost of maintenance, inspections, insurance and taxes.

Jan. 17, 1960: The Speltz Grain & Coal Co. elevator on East Main was dismantled after 44 years of operation. A group of striking Wilson & Co. workers answered an Evening Tribune classified ad which asked for persons interested in helping to take down the elevator.

 

National

2010: President Barack Obama and the U.S. moved to take charge in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, dispatching thousands of troops along with tons of aid.

Jan. 15, 2009: U.S. Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditched his Airbus 320 in the Hudson River after a flock of birds disabled both engines; all 155 people aboard survived.

Jan. 14, 1994: President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed an accord to stop aiming missiles at any nation; the leaders joined Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk in signing an accord to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine.

Jan. 16, 1991: The White House announced the start of Operation Desert Storm to drive Iraqi forces out of Kuwait. (Allied forces prevailed on Feb. 28, 1991.)

1989: President Ronald Reagan delivered his 331st and final weekly White House radio address, telling listeners, “Believe me, Saturdays will never seem the same. I’ll miss you.”

1969: Twenty-seven people aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, off Hawaii, were killed when a rocket warhead exploded, setting off a fire and additional explosions.

1964: Former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, in a brief televised address, thanked Americans for their condolences and messages of support following the assassination of her husband, President John F. Kennedy, nearly two months earlier.

1943: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French General Charles de Gaulle opened a wartime conference in Casablanca.

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

1929: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta.

1920: Prohibition began in the United States as the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution took effect, one year to the day after its ratification. (It was later repealed by the 21st Amendment.)

1784: The United States ratified the Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War; Britain followed suit in April 1784.