Today in HistoryToday is Thursday, January 12, the 12th day of 2006. There are 353 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1519, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.

In 1932, Hattie W. Caraway became the first woman elected to the US Senate.

In 1945, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.

In 1948, the US Supreme Court ruled that states could not discriminate against law-school applicants because of race.

In 1966, US President Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the US should stay in South Vietnam until Communist aggression there ended.

In 1976, mystery writer Dame Agatha Christie died in Wallingford, England, at age 85.

In 1996, Chechen fighters holding more than 100 hostages in the Russian village of Pervomayskaya freed a dozen captives and pledged to release the rest if four top Russian officials took their place.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Love is the strongest force the world possesses, and yet it is the humblest imaginable.” — Mohandas K. Gandhi, Indian spiritual leader