Défense de Rorke’s Drift, by Alphonse de Neuville

Today in History

• The Battle of Isandlwana and the Battle of Rorke’s Drift take place during the Anglo-Zulu War (1879)
• World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk (1941)
• The first commercial TV station west of the Mississippi, KTLA, begins broadcasting (1947)
• Apollo 5 takes off (1968)
• The Boeing 747 enters commercial service (1970)
• The US Supreme Court decides Roe v. Wade (1973)
• The Apple Macintosh is introduced in a Super Bowl XVIII commercial (1984)
• Kmart becomes the largest retailer in US history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (2002)

Birthdays

• Sir Walter Raleigh, courtier and explorer (1552)
• Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher and politician (1561)
• John Donne, poet (1573)
• Captain Kidd, convicted of piracy (1645)
• Lord Byron, poet (1788)
• D. W. Griffith, filmmaker (1875)
• Conrad Veidt, actor (1893)
• Sergei Eisenstein, filmmaker (1898)
• George Balanchine, choreographer (1904)
• Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan the Barbarian (1906)
• Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, pilot (1907)
• Ann Sothern, actress (1909)
• U Thant, UN Secretary-General (1909)
• Sam Cooke, singer-songwriter (1931)
• Piper Laurie, actress (1932)
• Bill Bixby, actor (1934)
• Graham Kerr, chef (1934)
• Joseph Wambaugh, author (1937)
• Linda Blair, actress (1959)
• Diane Lane, actress (1965)

Deaths

• Shah Jahan, Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal (1666)
• Jeremiah Dixon, co-surveyor of the Mason-Dixon Line (1779)
• Queen Victoria (1901)
• Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th US President (1973)
• Telly Savalas, actor (1994)
• Bill Mauldin, soldier and cartoonist (2003)
• Ann Miller, actress and dancer (2004)
• Heath Ledger, actor (2008)
• Jean Simmons, actress (2010)
• Joe Paterno, football coach (2012)

Holidays and Celebrations

• Day of Unity (Ukraine)
• Grandfather’s Day (Poland)

January 22 is the 22nd day of the year. There are 343 days (344 in leap years) remaining until the end of the year.