On Jan. 2, 1492, Spaniards seized the city of Granada from the Moors. It had been the last Arab stronghold in Spain.
In 1921 religious services were broadcast for the first time when station KDKA in Pittsburgh transmitted the Sunday service from the city’s Calvary Episcopal Church.
In 1929 the U.S. and Canada agreed on joint action to preserve Niagara Falls.
In 1942 Manila was captured by the Japanese in World War II.
In 1943, after a campaign that began in early November, American and Allied forces seized the New Guinea island of Buna from the Japanese.
In 1960 Sen. John Kennedy (D-Mass.) announced his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
In 1965 the New York Jets signed University of Alabama quarterback Joe Namath for a reported $400,000.
In 1974 a crowd barrier collapsed at a soccer match in Glasgow, Scotland, and 66 people were trampled to death. Also in 1974 President Richard Nixon signed a bill requiring states to limit highway speeds to a maximum of 55 m.p.h. because of the energy crisis. In 1995, the federal speed limits were abolished.
In 1976 the Soviet Union hardened its stand on emigration despite the 1975 Helsinki agreement to permit free movement of people and ideas in Europe.
In 1983 the musical “Annie” closed after 2,377 Broadway performances.
In 1984 W. Wilson Goode was sworn in as Philadelphia’s first African-American mayor.
In 1986 former White Sox owner Bill Veeck died in Chicago; he was 71.
In 1990 the Dow Jones industrial average reached a record high, ending the day above 2800 for the first time, at 2810.15.
In 1996 former Interior Secretary James Watt pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of attempting to sway a grand jury investigating 1980s influence-peddling at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (Watt was fined and sentenced to five years’ probation.)
In 1997 rain and melting snow swamped much of the West, trapping visitors in Yosemite National Park, closing casinos in Reno and forcing 50,000 Californians to flee their homes.
In 1999 a blizzard dumped 17 inches of snow on the Chicago area, the largest recorded snowfall for one day. (The next day, 4 more inches fell, making the storm the second most prolific in Chicago records; five deaths were blamed on the storm.)
In 2001 ships made the first legal and direct crossing between China and Taiwan in more than half a century.
