Today’s highlight

On Jan. 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

On this date

1649: England’s King Charles I was executed for high treason.

1911: James White, an intellectually disabled Black young man who’d been convicted of rape for having sex with a 14-year-old white girl when he was 16, was publicly hanged in Bell County, Ky.

1948: Indian political and spiritual leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, 78, was shot and killed in New Delhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist. (Godse and a co-conspirator were later executed.)

1968: The Tet Offensive began during the Vietnam War as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese towns and cities; although the Communists were beaten back, the offensive was seen as a major setback for the U.S. and its allies.

1969: The Beatles staged an impromptu concert atop Apple headquarters in London; it was the group’s last public performance.

1993: Los Angeles inaugurated its Metro Red Line, the city’s first modern subway.

2005: Iraqis voted in their country’s first free election in a half-century; President George W. Bush called the balloting a resounding success.

The Associated Press