Word/nation trivia: The week of Jan. 5-11

Jan. 5:

1896, an Austrian newspaper reported the discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen of a new type of radiation that came to be called “X-rays”.

1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge; the bridge was completed in May 1937.

2022, Australia denied entry to tennis star Novak Djokovic, who was seeking to play for a 10th Australian Open title later in the month; authorities canceled his visa upon his arrival in Melbourne because he failed to meet the requirements for an exemption to COVID-19 vaccination rules.

Jan. 6:

1919, former President Theodore Roosevelt died in Oyster Bay, New York, at age 60.

1994, figure skater Nancy Kerrigan was clubbed on the leg by an assailant at Detroit’s Cobo Arena; four men, including the ex-husband of Kerrigan’s rival, Tonya Harding, went to prison for their roles in the attack. (Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution but denied any advance knowledge about the assault.)

2021, supporters of President Donald Trump, fueled by his false claims of a stolen election, assaulted police and smashed their way into the Capitol to interrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s victory, forcing lawmakers into hiding; most of the rioters had come from a nearby rally where Trump urged them to “fight like hell.”

Jan. 7:

1955, singer Marian Anderson became the first Black American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera in New York, in Verdi’s “Un Ballo in Maschera”.

1979, Vietnamese forces captured the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, overthrowing the Khmer Rouge government.

2015, masked gunmen stormed the Paris offices of Charlie Hebdo, a French newspaper that had caricatured the Prophet Muhammad, methodically killing 12 people, including the editor, before escaping. (Two suspects were killed two days later.)

Jan. 8:

1790, President George Washington delivered the first State of the Union address in New York City.

1815, the last major engagement of the War of 1812 came to an end as U.S. forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, not having received word of the signing of a peace treaty.

2011, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was shot and critically wounded when a gunman opened fire as the congresswoman met with constituents in Tucson; six people were killed and 12 others were injured.

2020, Iran struck back at the United States for killing Iran’s top military commander, firing missiles at two Iraqi military bases housing American troops. More than 100 U.S. service members were diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after the attack.

Jan. 9:

1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, retreated because of artillery fire.

2005, Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the Palestinian Authority, following the death of Yasser Arafat the previous November.

2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at the Macworld conference in San Francisco.

2022, 17 people, including eight children, died after a fire sparked by a malfunctioning space heater filled a high-rise apartment building with smoke in the New York City borough of the Bronx; it was the city’s deadliest blaze in three decades.

Jan. 10:

1776, Thomas Paine anonymously published his influential pamphlet “Common Sense”, which argued for American independence from British rule.

1861, Florida became the third state to secede from the Union prior to the Civil War.

1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.

1982, San Francisco 49ers receiver Dwight Clark caught a touchdown pass from Joe Montana with 58 seconds left in the NFC Championship Game; one of the most famous plays in NFL history, “The Catch” led the 49ers to a 28-27 victory over the Dallas Cowboys and a berth in Super Bowl XVI, where they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals for their first Super Bowl victory.

Jan. 11:

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

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.

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.”

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.

— Associated Press