• Today is Friday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2014. There are 362 days left in the year.
•
• Today's Highlight in History:
• On Jan. 3, 1959, Alaska became the 49th state as President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation.
•
• On this date:
• In 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church by Pope Leo X.
• In 1777, Gen. George Washington's army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton, N.J.
• In 1861, more than two weeks before Georgia seceded from the Union, the state militia seized Fort Pulaski at the order of Gov. Joseph E. Brown. The Delaware House and Senate voted to oppose secession from the Union.
• In 1870, groundbreaking took place for the Brooklyn Bridge.
• In 1911, the first postal savings banks were opened by the U.S. Post Office. (The banks were abolished in 1966.)
• In 1938, the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who himself had been afflicted with the crippling disease.
• In 1949, in a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court said that states had the right to ban closed shops.
• In 1958, the first six members of the newly formed U.S. Commission on Civil Rights held their first meeting at the White House.
• In 1967, Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital.
• In 1977, Apple Computer was incorporated in Cupertino, Calif., by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Mike Makkula Jr.
• In 1980, conservationist Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," was killed in northern Kenya by a former employee.
• In 1990, ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission.
•

(Continued on page 32)