Today in History: Jan. 15

Today is Monday, Jan. 15, the 15th day of 2018. There are 350 days left in the year. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday.

Today’s highlight: On Jan. 15, 1943, work was completed on the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of War (now Defense).

On this date:

In 1559, England’s Queen Elizabeth I was crowned in Westminster Abbey.

In 1777, the people of New Connecticut declared their independence. (The republic later became the state of Vermont.)

In 1892, the original rules of basketball, devised by James Naismith, were published for the first time in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the game originated.

In 1918, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the second president of Egypt, was born in Alexandria.

In 1929, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta.

In 1947, the mutilated remains of 22-year-old Elizabeth Short, who came to be known as the “Black Dahlia,” were found in a vacant Los Angeles lot; her slaying remains unsolved.

In 1961, a U.S. Air Force radar tower off the New Jersey coast collapsed into the Atlantic Ocean during a severe storm, killing all 28 men aboard.

In 1967, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, retroactively known as Super Bowl I.

In 1978, two students at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Lisa Levy and Margaret Bowman, were slain in their sorority house. (Ted Bundy was later convicted of the crime, and executed.)

In 1989, NATO, the Warsaw Pact and 12 other European countries adopted a human rights and security agreement in Vienna, Austria.

In 1993, a historic disarmament ceremony ended in Paris with the last of 125 countries signing a treaty banning chemical weapons.

In 2009, US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger ditched his Airbus 320 in the Hudson River after a flock of birds disabled both engines; all 155 people aboard survived.

Ten years ago: Republican Mitt Romney scored his first major presidential primary victory in his native Michigan. During a visit to Saudi Arabia, President George W. Bush warned that surging oil prices threatened the U.S. economy, and urged OPEC nations to boost their output. Actor Brad Renfro, who as a youngster had played the title role in “The Client,” was found dead in his Los Angeles home; he was 25.

Five years ago: New York state enacted the nation’s toughest gun restrictions and the first since the Newtown, Connecticut, school massacre, including an expanded assault-weapon ban and background checks for buying ammunition. Twin blasts ripped through a university campus in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, killing more than 80 people, most of them students, in the government-controlled part of the city.

One year ago: In his final interview as president, Barack Obama told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the increase of Israeli settlements had “gotten so substantial” that it was inhibiting the possibility of an “effective, contiguous Palestinian state.” Former pro wrestler Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka, who had just been found not competent to stand trial in the 1983 death of his girlfriend, died at his son-in-law’s home near Pompano Beach, Florida, at age 73.

Today’s birthdays: Actress Margaret O’Brien is 80. Actress Andrea Martin is 71. College and Pro Football Hall of Famer Randy White is 65. Actor-director Mario Van Peebles is 61. Rock musician Adam Jones (Tool) is 53. Actor James Nesbitt is 53. Singer Lisa Lisa (Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam) is 51. Actor Chad Lowe is 50. Alt-country singer Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy) is 48. Actress Regina King is 47. Actor Eddie Cahill is 40. NFL quarterback Drew Brees is 39. Rapper/reggaeton artist Pitbull is 37. Actor Victor Rasuk is 33. Actress Jessy Schram is 32. Electronic dance musician Skrillex is 30. Singer-songwriter Grace VanderWaal (TV: “America’s Got Talent”) is 14.

Thought for today: “A man can’t ride your back unless it’s bent.” — Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968).

— Associated Press