JANUARY 2ND

Today is Friday, Jan. 2, the second day of 2009.
There are 363 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

• Fifty years ago, on Jan. 2, 1959, the Soviet Union launched its space probe Luna 1, the first manmade object to fly past the moon, its apparent intended target.
• Click here to find out more!

On this date:

• In 1492, Muhammad XII, the sultan of Granada, the last Arab stronghold in Spain, surrendered to Spanish forces.
• In 1788, Georgia became the fourth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
• In 1900, Secretary of State John Hay announced the "Open Door Policy" to facilitate trade with China.
• In 1929, the United States and Canada reached agreement on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.
• In 1935, Bruno Hauptmann went on trial in Flemington, N.J., on charges of kidnapping and murdering the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty, and executed.)
• In 1942, the Philippine capital of Manila was captured by Japanese forces during World War II.
• In 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.
• In 1965, the New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath to a contract reportedly worth $427,000.
• In 1974, President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation requiring states to limit highway speeds to 55 miles an hour. (However, federal speed limits were abolished in 1995).
• In 2006, a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia claimed the lives of 12 miners, but a 13th miner, Randal McCloy Jr., was eventually rescued.

Ten years ago:

• A U.N.-chartered cargo plane carrying nine people was downed in Angola's central highland war zone; there were no survivors.

Five years ago:

• Insurgents shot down a U.S. helicopter west of Baghdad, killing one soldier.
• British flights to Washington and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, were canceled as a security precaution.
• The NASA spacecraft Stardust flew through the halo of the distant comet Wild 2.

One year ago:

• The Justice Department opened a full criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes.
• Pakistan pushed back parliamentary elections until Feb. 18, 2008, a six-week delay prompted by rioting that followed the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
• Oil prices soared to $100 a barrel for the first time.
• Late-night talk shows returned to the air two months into a writers' strike. (David Letterman and Craig Ferguson had interim agreements allowing writers to work on their shows; Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and ABC's Jimmy Kimmel returned without theirs.)

Today's Birthdays:

• Country musician Harold Bradley is 83.
• TV host Jack Hanna is 62.
• Actress Wendy Phillips is 57.
• Actress Gabrielle Carteris is 48.
• Movie director Todd Haynes is 48.
• Actress Tia Carrere is 42.
• Actor Cuba Gooding Jr. is 41.
• Model Christy Turlington is 40.
• Actor Taye Diggs is 38.
• Rock musician Scott Underwood (Train) is 38.
• Rock singer Doug Robb (Hoobastank) is 34.
• Actor Dax Shepard is 34.
• Actress Paz Vega is 33.
• Country musician Chris Hartman is 31.
• Rock musician Jerry DePizzo Jr. (O.A.R.) is 30.
• Rhythm-and-blues singer Kelton Kessee (IMX) is 28.
• Actress Kate Bosworth is 26.

Thought for Today:

"There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths. It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil." -
Alfred North Whitehead, English philosopher and mathematician (1861-1947).

"Let's all be careful out there!"