Jan 11, 2018 2 min read

Today is Thursday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2018. There are 354 days left in the year.

On Jan. 11, 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued “Smoking and Health,” a report which concluded “cigarette smoking contributes substantially to mortality from certain specific diseases and to the overall death rate.”

In 1861, Alabama became the fourth state to withdraw from the Union.

In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand Canyon National Monument (it became a national park in 1919).

In 1913, the first enclosed sedan-type automobile, a Hudson, went on display at the 13th National Automobile Show in New York.

In 1927, the creation of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was proposed during a dinner of Hollywood luminaries at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

In 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart began an 18-hour trip from Honolulu to Oakland, Calif., that made her the first person to fly solo across any part of the Pacific Ocean.

In 1942, Japan declared war against the Netherlands, the same day that Imperial Japanese forces invaded the Dutch East Indies.

In 1946, the People’s Republic of Albania was proclaimed after King Zog was formally deposed by the Communists.

In 1977, France set off an international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a PLO official behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

In 1978, two Soviet cosmonauts aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule linked up with the Salyut 6 orbiting space station, where the Soyuz 26 capsule was already docked.

“Teach us that wealth is not elegance, that profusion is not magnificence, that splendor is not beauty.”

– Benjamin Disraeli, British statesman (1804-1881)