On Jan. 18, 1778, English navigator Capt. James Cook reached the Hawaiian Islands, which he dubbed the “Sandwich Islands.”
In 1788 the first English settlers arrived in Australia’s Botany Bay to establish a penal colony.
In 1892 Oliver Hardy, half of the comedy team Laurel & Hardy, was born in Harlem, Ga.
In 1912 English explorer Robert F. Scott and his expedition reached the South Pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it. (Scott and his party perished during the return trip.)
In 1943 during World War II, the Soviets announced they had broken the long Nazi siege of Leningrad. Also in 1943 a wartime ban on the sale of presliced bread in the United States — aimed at reducing bakeries’ demand for metal replacement parts — went into effect.
In 1957 three B-52’s completed the first non-stop round-the-world flight by jet planes, landing at March Air Force Base in California after more than 45 hours aloft.
In 1967 Albert DeSalvo, who claimed to be the Boston Strangler, was convicted in Cambridge, Mass., of armed robbery, assault and sex offenses. (Sentenced to life, DeSalvo was killed by a fellow inmate in 1973.)
In 1975 the situation comedy “The Jeffersons,” a spin-off from “All in the Family,” premiered on CBS.
In 1990 a jury in Los Angeles acquitted former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, of 52 child molestation charges.
In 1991 financially strapped Eastern Airlines shut down after 62 years in business.
In 1995 the death toll continued to climb in Kobe, Japan, where a major earthquake had claimed more than 6,000 lives. Also in 1995 South African President Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet denied amnesty sought by 3,500 police officers in apartheid’s waning days.
In 1996 Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson.
In 1998 Pope John Paul II appointed 22 new Roman Catholic cardinals, including Chicago Archbishop Francis George.
In 2000, in a blow to the Pentagon’s push to develop a national missile defense by 2005, officials announced that a prototype missile interceptor had roared into space in search of a mock warhead over the Pacific, but had failed to hit it.
In 2001 civil rights leader Jesse Jackson revealed an extramarital affair that resulted in a daughter.
In 2002 ’70s radical-turned-suburban mother Sara Jane Olson was sentenced in Los Angeles to 20 years to life in prison for plotting to blow up police cars 27 years earlier.
In 2004 the New England Patriots earned their second trip to the Super Bowl in three seasons by defeating the Indianapolis Colts 24-14 in the AFC championship game; the Carolina Panthers defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 14-3, in the NFC championship game.
In 2005 the world’s largest commercial jet, an Airbus A380 that can carry 800 passengers, was unveiled in Toulouse, France.
