Today's Highlight in History:
On January ninth, 1788, Connecticut康乃迪克州 became the fifth state to ratify批准，认可 the US Constitution.

On this date:
In 1793, Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard, using a hot-air balloon, flew between Philadelphia and Woodbury, New Jersey.

In 1861, Mississippi seceded退出，脱离 from the Union.

In 1913, Richard Milhous Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, was born in Yorba Linda, California.

In 1945, during World War Two, American forces began landing at Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines.

In 1957, Anthony Eden resigned as British prime minister.

In 1964, anti-US rioting暴乱，骚乱 broke out in the Panama Canal Zone, resulting in the deaths of 21 Panamanians and three US soldiers.

In 1968, the "Surveyor Seven" space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface.

In 1972, reclusive隐居的，隐遁的 billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported传说的 biography传记，档案 of him by Clifford Irving was a fake.

In 1980, Saudi Arabia beheaded斩首，砍头 63 people for their involvement in the November 1979 raid on the Grand Mosque in Mecca麦加.

In 1997, a Comair commuter plane crashed 18 miles short of the Detroit Metropolitan Airport, killing all 29 people on board.

Ten years ago: The space shuttle "Columbia" was launched on a ten-day mission that included the retrieval取回，拯救 of a drifting scientific satellite.

Five years ago: In New York, the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and eleven other defendants accused of conspiring to wage开展，进行 a holy war against the United States began. (All the defendants were convicted of seditious煽动性的 conspiracy, except for two who had reached plea恳求，请求 agreements with the government.) Severe flooding forced people to flee resort communities in the hills north of San Francisco. British comedian Peter Cook died in London at age 57.

One year ago: At the White House, presidential advisers顾问 prepared a public and legal defense in President Clinton's impeachment trial on charges of perjury伪证，伪誓 and obstruction of justice阻碍司法; Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, meanwhile, pledged "above all, fairness" to the president.