Today is Monday, Jan. 18, the 18th day of 2010. There are 347 days left in the year. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

On this date:

In 1778, English navigator Captain James Cook reached the Hawaiian Islands, which he dubbed the "Sandwich Islands."

In 1911, the first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot Eugene B. Ely brought his Curtiss biplane in for a safe landing on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania in San Francisco Harbor.

In 1949, Charles Ponzi, engineer of one of the most spectacular swindles in history, died destitute in the charity ward of a hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, at age 66.