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TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Thursday, Jan. 31, the 31st day of 2013. There are 334 days left in the year.
Today's highlight:
On Jan. 31, 1863, during the Civil War, the First South Carolina Volunteers, an all-black Union regiment composed of former slaves, was mustered into federal service at Beaufort, S.C.
On this date:
In 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee was named general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies.
In 1917, during World War I, Germany served notice it was beginning a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.
In 1944, during World War II, U.S. forces began a successful invasion of Kwajalein Atoll and other parts of the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
In 1950, President Harry S. Truman announced he had ordered development of the hydrogen bomb.
In 1958, the United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite into orbit, Explorer I.
In 1961, NASA launched Ham the Chimp aboard a Mercury-Redstone rocket from Cape Canaveral; Ham was recovered safely from the Atlantic Ocean following his 16½-minute suborbital flight.
In 1971, astronauts Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa blasted off aboard Apollo 14 on a mission to the moon.
Ten years ago: President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair met at the White House; Bush said he would welcome a second U.N. resolution on Iraq but only if it led to the prompt disarming of Saddam Hussein. Pushing for a new resolution, Blair called confronting Iraq "a test of the international community."
Five years ago: President George W. Bush, speaking at the Nevada Policy Research Institute, said he would not jeopardize security gains in Iraq by withdrawing U.S. forces too quickly.
Today's birthdays: Actress Carol Channing is 92. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Banks is 82. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is 75. Blues singer-musician Charlie Musselwhite is 69. Actor Glynn Turman is 67. Singer-musician Harry Wayne Casey (KC and the Sunshine Band) is 62. Rock singer Johnny Rotten is 57. Actress Kelly Lynch is 54. Actor Anthony LaPaglia is 54. Rock musician Al Jaworski (Jesus Jones) is 47. Actress Minnie Driver is 43. Actress Portia de Rossi is 40. Actor-comedian Bobby Moynihan is 36. Actress Kerry Washington is 36. Singer Justin Timberlake is 32. Folk-rock singer-musician Marcus Mumford is 26.
Thought for today: "Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have." -- Rabbi Hyman Judah Schachtel, American theologian, author and educator (1907-1990)
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