Today’s highlight

On Jan. 9, 2015, French security forces shot and killed two al-Qaida-linked brothers suspected of carrying out the rampage at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that had claimed 12 lives.

On this date

1788: Connecticut became the fifth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.

1793: Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew from Philadelphia to Woodbury, New Jersey.

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.

1914: The County of Los Angeles opened the country’s first public defender’s office.

1951: The United Nations headquarters in New York officially opened.

1958: President Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his State of the Union address to Congress, warned of the threat of Communist imperialism.

2003: U.N. weapons inspectors said there was no “smoking gun” to prove Iraq had nuclear, chemical or biological weapons but they demanded that Baghdad provide private access to scientists and fresh evidence to back its claim that it had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction.

Today’s birthdays: Actor K Callan is 87. Folk singer Joan Baez is 82. Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 79. Actor John Doman is 78. Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 73. Singer Crystal Gayle is 72.

Actor J.K. Simmons is 68. Actor Imelda Staunton is 67. Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu is 64. Rock musician Eric Erlandson is 60. Actor Joely Richardson is 58. Rock musician Carl Bell (Fuel) is 56. Actor David Costabile (“Breaking Bad” is 56. Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 56. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 56. Actor-director Joey Lauren Adams is 55. Comedian/actor Deon Cole is 52. Actor Angela Bettis is 50. Actor Omari Hardwick is 49. Roots singer-songwriter Hayes Carll is 47. Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 45. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is 41. Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (OneRepublic) is 39. Rock-soul singer Paolo Nutini is 36. Actor Nina Dobrev is 34. Actor Basil Eidenbenz is 30. Actor Kerris Dorsey is 25. Actor Tyree Brown is 19.