Jan. 22 history: Roe v Wade

In 1788, English poet Lord Byron is born

In 1901, Britain’s Queen Victoria died at age 81 after a reign of 63 years. She was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII.

In 1938, Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town” was performed publicly for the first time in Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.

In 1947, America’s first commercially licensed television station west of the Mississippi, KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, made its official debut.

In 1953, the Arthur Miller drama “The Crucible” opened on Broadway.

In 1973, Lyndon Baines Johnson dies in Texas

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision declared a nationwide constitutional right to abortion. (The decision was overturned in 2022.)

In 1995, Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy died at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, at age 104.

In 1997, the Senate confirmed Madeleine Albright as the nation’s first female secretary of state.

In 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.

In 2006, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points, the second highest in NBA history, in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors. (Wilt Chamberlain scored 100.)

In 2008, actor Heath Ledger, age 28, was found dead of an accidental prescription overdose in a New York City apartment.

In 2009, 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.)

In 2012, longtime Penn State coach Joe Paterno, who’d won more games than anyone in major college football but was fired amid a child sex abuse scandal that scarred his reputation, died at age 85.

In 2020, Chinese health authorities urged people in the city of Wuhan to avoid crowds and public gatherings after warning that a new viral illness that had infected hundreds of people and caused at least nine deaths could spread further. Health officials in Washington state said they were actively monitoring 16 people who’d come in close contact with a traveler to China, the first U.S. resident known to be infected with the virus. (History.com 01/22/24)