Local

Feb. 1, 1990: A group of Wells residents worked in the cold to help relocate over 17,000 books. The books needed to be move from an old library to a new library located in downtown Wells.

Jan. 31, 1990: Roy Nystrom, Albert Lea High School head hockey coach, won his 300th career hockey game when the Tigers beat the Packers of Austin.

Feb. 3, 1980: The Albert Lea Sertoma Club presented its Service to Mankind Award to Ellen Adams. Adams, a native of Albert Lea, was director of Christian education for United Methodist Church, worked with the Girl Scouts and served on the boards of the United Way and American Cancer Society.

Jan. 28, 1960: Striking United Packinghouse Workers in Albert Lea received gifts of meat from members of Local 9, UPWA, of Austin. Wilson strikers each received a 12- to 14-pound ham, 10 pounds of hamburger, and an 8- to 10-pound pork loin. All told, Local 9 contributed 35,000 pounds of meat.

 

National

2019: The largest utility in the U.S., Pacific Gas & Electric, filed for bankruptcy as it faced billions of dollars in potential damages from wildfires in California.

The FBI wrapped up its investigation into the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history; it found that the high-stakes gambler who killed 58 country music fans in Las Vegas in 2017 sought notoriety, but that there was no “single or clear motivating factor.”

A California panel recommended that Charles Manson follower Leslie Van Houten be paroled after serving more than four decades in prison. (Gov. Gavin Newsom overruled the decision, marking the third time a governor had stopped Van Houten’s release.)

1998: First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, on NBC’s “Today” show, charged the sexual misconduct allegations against her husband, President Bill Clinton, were the work of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.”

A bomb rocked an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama, killing security guard Robert Sanderson and critically injuring nurse Emily Lyons. (The bomber, Eric Rudolph, was captured in May 2003 and is serving a life sentence.)

1986: The space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Cape Canaveral, killing all seven crew members, including schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe.

1984: Singer Michael Jackson suffered serious burns to his scalp when pyrotechnics set his hair on fire during the filming of a Pepsi-Cola TV commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

Jan. 27, 1981: President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, greeted the 52 former American hostages released by Iran at the White House.

Jan. 28, 1973: A cease-fire officially went into effect in the Vietnam War, a day after the signing of the Paris Peace Accords by the United States, North Vietnam and South Vietnam.

1973: The Vietnam peace accords were signed in Paris.

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.

1967: Astronauts Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom, Edward H. White and Roger B. Chaffee died in a flash fire during a test aboard their Apollo spacecraft.

1963: The first charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio (they were enshrined when the Hall opened in September 1963).

1960: The National Football League awarded franchises to Dallas and Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Jan. 31, 1958: The United States entered the Space Age with its first successful launch of a satellite, Explorer 1, from Cape Canaveral.

1956: Elvis Presley made his first national TV appearance on “Stage Show,” a CBS program hosted by Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey.

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.)

1945: During World War II, Soviet troops liberated the Nazi concentration camps Auschwitz and Birkenau in Poland.

1943: Some 50 bombers struck Wilhelmshaven in the first all-American air raid against Germany during World War II.

1936: The first inductees of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.

1916: Louis D. Brandeis was nominated by President Woodrow Wilson to the Supreme Court; Brandeis became the court’s first Jewish member.

1915: The American merchant vessel SS William P. Frye, en route to England with a cargo of wheat, became the first U.S. ship to be sunk during World War I by a German cruiser, the SS Prinz Eitel Friedrich, even though the United States was not at war.

1911: The notorious Hope Diamond was sold by jeweler Pierre Cartier to socialites Edward and Evalyn McLean of Washington, D.C., for $180,000.

1880: Thomas Edison received a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

1878: The first daily college newspaper, Yale News (now Yale Daily News), began publication in New Haven, Connecticut.