By The Associated Press

Today in History

Today is Friday, Jan. 3, the third day of 2020. There are 363 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 3, 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announced the United States was formally terminating diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba.

On this date:

In 1777, Gen. George Washington’s army routed the British in the Battle of Princeton, New Jersey.

In 1833, Britain seized control of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic. (Almost 150 years later, Argentina seized the islands from the British, but Britain took them back after a 74-day war.)

In 1868, Japan’s Meiji (may-jee) Restoration re-established the authority of the emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as shoguns; the upheaval paved the way for Japan’s drive toward becoming a modern power.

In 1892, J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein (BLOOM’-fahn-tayn), South Africa.

In 1938, the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who himself had been afflicted with the crippling disease.

In 1959, Alaska became the 49th state as President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation.

In 1967, Jack Ruby, the man who shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin of President John F. Kennedy, died in a Dallas hospital.

In 1977, Apple Computer was incorporated in Cupertino, California, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Mike Markkula (MAHRí-kuh-luh) Jr.

In 1990, ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces, 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican’s diplomatic mission.

In 2000, the last new daily “Peanuts” strip by Charles Schulz ran in 26-hundred newspapers.

In 2008, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won Democratic caucuses in Iowa, while Mike Huckabee won the Republican caucuses.

In 2013, students from Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, reconvened at a different building in the town of Monroe about three weeks after the massacre that had claimed the lives of 20 first-graders and six educators. The new 113th Congress opened for business, with House Speaker John Boehner (BAY’-nur) re-elected to his post despite a mini-revolt in Republican ranks.

Ten years ago: The U.S. closed its embassy in Yemen, citing ongoing threats by the al-Qaida branch linked to the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt of a U.S. airliner headed to Detroit; Britain also shuttered its embassy. A Rutgers University doctoral student breached security at Newark Liberty Airport to kiss his girlfriend goodbye, prompting a six-hour shutdown. (Haisong Jiang (hy-song gee-ong) later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, and was fined.)

Five years ago: Boko Haram (BOH’-koh hah-RAHM’) extremists kidnapped about 40 boys and young men and killed scores of soldiers in a bold attack on a multinational military base in northern Nigeria. Former U.S. Sen. Edward W. Brooke, a liberal Republican who became the first black person in U.S. history to win popular election to the Senate, died in Coral Gables, Florida, at age 95.