January tenth

Today's Highlight in History:
On January tenth, 1776, Thomas Paine published his influential pamphlet, "Common Sense."

On this date:
In 1861, Florida seceded from the Union.

In 1870, John D. Rockefeller incorporated Standard Oil.

In 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect.

In 1928, the Soviet Union ordered the exile of Leon Trotsky.

In 1946, the first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London.

In 1957, Harold Macmillan became prime minister of Britain, following the resignation of Anthony Eden.

In 1967, Massachusetts Republican Edward W. Brooke, the first black elected to the US Senate by popular vote, took his seat.

In 1978, the Soviet Union launched two cosmonauts aboard a "Soyuz" capsule for a rendezvous with the "Salyut Six" space laboratory.

In 1980, former AFL-CIO president George Meany died in Washington DC at age 85.

In 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.