Today in History: Jan. 11

Today is Saturday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2025. There are 354 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 11, 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt leveraged the Antiquities Act of 1906 to proclaim the Grand Canyon as a national monument; it would become a national park in 1919.

Also on this date:

In 1861, Alabama became the fourth state to declare its secession from the Union.

In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued “Smoking and Health,” a report that concluded that “cigarette smoking contributes substantially to mortality from certain specific diseases and to the overall death rate.”

In 2002, the first al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan arrived at the U.S. military’s Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

In 2010, Mark McGwire admitted to The Associated Press that he’d used steroids and human growth hormone when he broke baseball’s home run record in 1998.

In 2021, House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against then-President Donald Trump, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” in the wake of the attack on the U.S. Capitol building five days prior.

Today’s birthdays: Filmmaker Alfonso Arau is 93. Golf Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw is 73. Jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour is 73. Olympic swimming gold medalist Tracy Caulkins is 62. Filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee is 55. Singer Mary J. Blige is 54. Actor Amanda Peet is 53.