@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Tuesday, January 26, the 26th day of 2010. There are 339 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1788, the first European settlers in Australia, led by Capt. Arthur Phillip, landed in present-day Sydney.

In 1841, Britain formally occupied Hong Kong, which the Chinese had ceded to the British.

In 1905, the world's largest diamond, the Cullinan weighing 3,106 carats, was discovered near Pretoria.

In 1939 in the Spanish Civil War, the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco captured Barcelona.

In 2000, the grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez hugged and kissed the six-year-old boy during a tense, 90-minute meeting in Miami Beach that had been arranged by the US government.

Thought for Today

"As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress." — J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist (1904-1967).