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Local

Jan. 25, 1991: One man died and several others were injured in a fire at an apartment complex located at 105 1/2 W. College St.

Jan. 20, 1981: Navy Petty Officer Third Class Stan Malepsy was a member of the Navy Ceremonial Guard Cordon that escorted President Ronald Reagan to the White House after his inauguration. Malepsy graduated from Albert Lea High School in 1978.

Jan. 19, 1971: Newly elected Mayor of Albert Lea Paul W. Larimore was shown in the Tribune affixing the city’s seal to his first proclamation. Larimore declared it Jaycee Week and asked the community to support the local Jaycees.

National

1793: During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, condemned for treason, was executed on the guillotine.

1915: The first Kiwanis Club, dedicated to community service, was founded in Detroit.

1924: Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.

1942: Pinball machines were banned in New York City after a court ruled they were gambling devices that relied on chance rather than skill (the ban was lifted in 1976).

1954: The first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton (GRAH’-tuhn), Connecticut (however, the Nautilus did not make its first nuclear-powered run until nearly a year later).

1976: British Airways and Air France inaugurated scheduled passenger service on the supersonic Concorde jet.

1977: On his first full day in office, President Jimmy Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.

1997: Speaker Newt Gingrich was reprimanded and fined as the House voted for the first time in history to discipline its leader for ethical misconduct.

2003: The Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed Blacks as America’s largest minority group.

2007: Lovie Smith became the first Black head coach to make it to the Super Bowl when his Chicago Bears won the NFC championship, beating the New Orleans Saints 39-14; Tony Dungy became the second when his Indianapolis Colts took the AFC title over the New England Patriots, 38-34.

2010: A bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court, in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, vastly increased the power of big business and labor unions to influence government decisions by freeing them to spend their millions directly to sway elections for president and Congress. Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards finally admitted fathering a daughter during an affair before his second White House bid.

2019: First-term senator and former California attorney general Kamala Harris entered the Democratic presidential race. (Harris would withdraw from the race in December; she would be chosen the following August as the party’s vice presidential nominee.)