Today in History for January 14

Today is Tuesday, Jan. 14, the 14th day of 2014. There are 351 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Jan. 14, 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.

On this date:

In 1784, the United States ratified a peace treaty with England, ending the Revolutionary War.

In 1814, the Treaty of Kiel ended hostilities between Denmark and Sweden, with Denmark agreeing to cede Norway to Sweden, something Norway refused to accept.

In 1900, Puccini's opera "Tosca" had its world premiere in Rome.

In 1914, Ford Motor Co. greatly improved its assembly-line operation by employing an endless chain to pull each chassis along at its Highland Park plant.

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

In 1952, NBC's "Today" show premiered, with Dave Garroway as the host, or "communicator."

In 1954, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio were married at San Francisco City Hall. (The marriage, however, lasted only about nine months.)

In 1963, George C. Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama with the pledge, "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!" — a view Wallace later repudiated. Sylvia Plath's novel "The Bell Jar" was published in London under the pen name "Victoria Lucas," less than a month before Plath committed suicide.

In 1969, 27 people aboard the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, off Hawaii, were killed when a rocket warhead exploded, setting off a fire and additional explosions.

In 1970, Diana Ross and the Supremes performed their last concert together, at the Frontier Hotel in Las Vegas.

In 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."

In 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.

Ten years ago: Former Enron finance chief Andrew Fastow pleaded guilty to conspiracy as he accepted a ten-year prison sentence. (He was actually sentenced to six years and was released in Dec. 2011.) J.P. Morgan Chase and Co. struck a deal to buy Bank One Corp. for $58 billion. A female Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israeli soldiers and a private security guard at a Gaza crossing. U.N. officials announced that Libya had ratified the nuclear test ban treaty. President George W. Bush unveiled a plan to send astronauts to the moon, Mars and beyond. Death claimed actress Uta Hagen in New York at age 84 and actor Ron O'Neal in Los Angeles at age 66.

Five years ago: Freshly returned from a tour of war zones and global hotspots, Vice President-elect Joe Biden told President-elect Barack Obama that "things are going to get tougher" in Afghanistan. A French court acquitted six doctors and pharmacists in the deaths of at least 114 people who'd contracted brain-destroying Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after being treated with tainted human growth hormones. Actor Ricardo Montalban died in Los Angeles at age 88.

One year ago: Lance Armstrong ended a decade of denial by confessing to Oprah Winfrey that he'd used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France. Veteran stage and film actor Conrad Bain, 89, died in Livermore, Calif.

Today's Birthdays: Blues singer Clarence Carter is 78. Singer Jack Jones is 76. Singer-songwriter Allen Toussaint is 76. Former NAACP Chairman Julian Bond is 74. Actress Faye Dunaway is 73. Actress Holland Taylor is 71. Actor Carl Weathers is 66. Singer-producer T-Bone Burnett is 66. Movie writer-director Lawrence Kasdan is 65. Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd is 62. Rock singer Geoff Tate (Queensryche) is 55. Movie writer-director Steven Soderbergh is 51. Actor Mark Addy is 50. Fox News Channel anchorman Shepard Smith is 50. Rapper Slick Rick is 49. Actor Dan Schneider is 48. Actress Emily Watson is 47. Actor-comedian Tom Rhodes is 47. Rock musician Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne Band) is 47. Rapper-actor LL Cool J is 46. Actor Jason Bateman is 45. Rock singer-musician Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) is 45. Actor Kevin Durand is 40. Actress Jordan Ladd is 39. Retro-soul singer-songwriter Marc Broussard is 32. Rock singer-musician Caleb Followill (Kings of Leon) is 32. Actor Zach Gilford is 32. Rock musician Joe Guese (The Click Five) is 31. Actor Jonathan Osser is 25.

Thought for Today: "If you limit your actions in life to things that nobody can possibly find fault with, you will not do much." — Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ("Lewis Carroll"), English author (1832-1898).

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