January 30th

Today's Highlight in History:
On January 30th, 1968, during the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

On this date:
In 1649, England's King Charles the First was beheaded.

In 1798, a brawl broke out in the House of Representatives in Philadelphia, as Matthew Lyon of Vermont spat in the face of Roger Griswold of Connecticut.

In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, New York.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

In 1933, the first episode of the "Lone Ranger" radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.

In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.

In 1962, two members of the "Flying Wallendas" high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.

In 1964, the United States launched "Ranger Six," an unmanned spacecraft carrying television cameras that was to crash-land on the moon.

In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday."

In 1979, the civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (hoh-MAY'-nee), who'd been living in exile in France, to return.

Ten years ago: A federal judge ordered former President Reagan to provide excerpts of his personal diaries to John M. Poindexter for the former national security adviser's upcoming Iran-Contra trial. (However, the judge later reversed himself, deciding the material was not essential.)

Five years ago: At least 42 people were killed and nearly 300 wounded when a car bomb blamed on Muslim insurgents exploded in downtown Algiers. The Smithsonian Institution abandoned plans for a major exhibit on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, yielding to critics who charged the exhibit would have portrayed America as the aggressor and Japan as the victim in World War Two.

One year ago: NATO authorized its secretary-general to launch military action in Yugoslavia if the warring parties failed to negotiate an agreement for autonomy in Kosovo.

"The only tyrant I accept in this world is the `still small voice' within me."

-- Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948).