Today’s Highlight

On Jan. 15, 2009, US Airways Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger landed an Airbus A320 safely in the Hudson River after striking a flock of birds that disabled both engines shortly after takeoff; all 155 people aboard survived.

On this date

1559: Elizabeth I was crowned queen of England and Ireland in Westminster Abbey.

1919: In Boston, a tank containing an estimated 2.3 million gallons of molasses burst, flooding the city’s North End and killing 21 people.

1929: Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta.

1943: Work was completed on the Pentagon, headquarters of the U.S. Department of War.

1967: The Green Bay Packers of the National Football League defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League 35-10 in the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game, known retroactively as Super Bowl I.

1991: Sean Lennon’s remake of his father’s “Give Peace A Chance” was released to coincide with the United Nations’ midnight deadline for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. The lyrics were updated to reflect concerns of the 1990s.

2001: Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia maintained by volunteer editors, made its debut.

Today’s birthdays

Football Hall of Famer Randy White is 72. Boxing Hall of Famer Bernard Hopkins is 60. Actor-director Regina King is 54. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is 48.