Monday, Jan. 21, is the 21st day of 2013. There are 344 days left in the year. This is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Today’s birthdays: World Golf Hall of Famer Jack Nicklaus is 73. Opera singer Placido Domingo is 72. Singer Richie Havens is 72. Attorney General Eric Holder is 62. Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen is 60. Actress Geena Davis is 57. Rock singer-songwriter Cat Power is 41.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, King Louis XVI, condemned for treason, was executed on the guillotine.
In 1861, Jefferson Davis of Mississippi and four other Southerners whose states had seceded from the Union resigned from the US Senate.
In 1910, the Great Paris Flood began as the rain-swollen Seine River burst its banks.
In 1924, Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.
In 1954, the first atomic submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched at Groton, Conn.
In 1968, the Battle of Khe Sanh began during the Vietnam War.
In 1977, President Carter pardoned almost all Vietnam War draft evaders.
In 2003, a powerful earthquake shook west-central Mexico, killing at least 29 people.
In 2012, hundreds of angry Libyans stormed the transitional government’s headquarters in the eastern city of Benghazi.