This Day in History

1642: In the Second Battle of Breitenfeld, an engagement of the Thirty Years' War, a Swedish army defeats the imperial army of the Holy Roman Empire near Breitenfeld, Saxony (now a suburb of Leipzig, Germany).
1772: Boston establishes the first of the revolutionary Committees of Correspondence, colonial groups organized prior to the American Revolution to mobilize public opinion and coordinate patriotic actions against Great Britain.
1795: A new, more conservative phase of the French Revolution begins with the government of the Directory replacing the National Convention.
1889: North Dakota and South Dakota are admitted to the Union as the 39th and 40th states.
1917: Britain issues the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming its intention to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
1947: Howard Hughes flies his wooden Spruce Goose airplane for the only time.
1948: Harry S. Truman is reelected president in a historic upset over Thomas E. Dewey.
1962: Pres. John F.Kennedy announces that Soviet missile bases in Cuba are being dismantled—the end of a crisis that had threatened to ignite a full-scale war between superpowers.
1964: Prince Faisal, who has been consolidating his power and introducing major social and economic reforms, replaces Saud as king of Saudi Arabia.
1978: Dominica, an island in the West Indies, attains independence.
1983: Pres. Ronald Reagan signs a bill making the third Monday in January a federal holiday to mark the birth of Martin Luther King, Jr.
2001: The Bush administration announces that the assets of 22 known terrorist groups, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are subject to seizure.
2003: Sixteen U.S. soldiers die and 20 are wounded when insurgents shoot down a Chinook helicopter near Falluja, Iraq. The U.S. Episcopal Church consecrates Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, its first openly gay bishop.
2004: President George W. Bush is reelected, defeating his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry.