On Jan. 3, 1521, Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church.
In 1777 Gen. George Washington’s army routed the British at Princeton, N.J.
In 1840 Joseph De Veuster, the Roman Catholic priest who became known as Father Damien during his missionary work among Hawaiian lepers, was born in Tremelo, Belgium.
In 1868 the Meiji Restoration re-established the authority of Japan’s emperor and heralded the fall of the military rulers known as “shoguns.”
In 1892 J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, was born in Bloemfontein, South Africa.
In 1938 the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was organized.
In 1959 Alaska was admitted as the 49th state.
In 1967 Jack Ruby, the gunman who killed presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital.
In 1980 conservationist Joy Adamson, author of “Born Free,” was killed in northern Kenya by a servant; she was 69.
In 1990 ousted Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. forces.
In 1995 the Postal Service raised the price of a first-class stamp to 32 cents.
In 2004 NASA’s Mars rover, Spirit, touched down on Mars.
In 2005 artist Will Eisner, who revolutionized comic books and helped pioneer the graphic novel, died at 87 in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla.
