Wednesday,  January 2, 2013 • Vol. 13--No. 167 • 23 of 24 •  Other Editions

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night.

Today in History
The Associated Press

• Today is Wednesday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2013. There are 363 days left in the year.

• Today's Highlight in History:
• On Jan. 2, 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

• On this date:
• In 1893, the U.S. Postal Service issued its first commemorative stamp to honor the World's Columbian Expedition and the quadricentennial of Christopher Columbus' voyage.
• In 1900, Secretary of State John Hay announced the "Open Door Policy" to facilitate trade with China.
• In 1921, the play that coined the term "robot," ''R.U.R." (Rossum's Universal Robots) by Karel Capek, was first performed in Czechoslovakia.
• In 1935, Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty, and executed.)
• In 1942, the Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.
• In 1959, the Soviet Union launched its space probe Luna 1, the first manmade object to fly past the moon, its apparent intended target.
• In 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts launched his successful bid for the presidency.
• In 1971, 66 people were killed in a pileup of spectators leaving a soccer match at Ibrox (EYE'-brox) Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland.
• In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 miles an hour. (Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995).
• In 1981, police in Sheffield, England, arrested Peter Sutcliffe, who confessed to being the "Yorkshire Ripper," the serial killer of 13 women.
• In 1983, the musical play "Annie" closed on Broadway after a run of 2,377 performances.
• In 2006, 12 miners died in a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia, W.Va., but one miner, Randal McCloy Jr., was eventually rescued.

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