Thursday, January 20, 2011

TODAY IN HISTORY

JANUARY 20
1961:John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th president of the United States. At the ceremony, 86-year-old Robert Frost recites his poem "The Gift Outright," while opera singer Marian Anderson sings "The Star-Spangled Banner." Kennedy, the youngest person and the first Roman Catholic to be elected president, famously asks the American people to "ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

1981: Twenty minutes after the inauguration of President Ronald Reagan, 52 American hostages are released from 444 days in captivity in Iran.

1987: Anglican Church envoy and veteran hostage negotiator Terry Waite is kidnapped while attempting to negotiate the release of Western hostages captured by Islamic extremists in Beirut, Lebanon. Waite, an assistant to the Archbishop of Canterbury, will be held captive until Nov. 18, 1991, largely in solitary confinement.
Enhanced by Zemanta

No comments:

Post a Comment