World Almanac

Today is the ninth day of 2022 and the 20th day of winter.

TODAY’S HISTORY: In 1788, Connecticut ratified the U.S. Constitution and became the fifth U.S. state.

In 1861, Confederates fired upon the steamship Star of the West at the garrison of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, an incident many historians consider the “first shots of the American Civil War.”

In 1945, Gen. Douglas MacArthur and the American Sixth Army invaded the island of Luzon in the Philippines.

In 2015, the two perpetrators of the shooting at the of- fices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris two days earlier were killed by police after a hostage crisis.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS: Chic Young (1901-1973), car- toonist; Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), author; Rich- ard Nixon (1913-1994), 37th U.S. president; Judith Krantz (1928-2019), author; Bart Starr (1934-2019), football player; Joan Baez (1941- ), singer-songwriter; Jimmy Page (1944- ), musician; J.K. Simmons (1955- ), actor; Dave Matthews (1967- ), singer-songwriter; Sean Paul (1973- ), rapper/singer-songwriter; Sergio Garcia (1980- ), golfer; Catherine Middleton (1982- ), duchess of Cambridge.

TODAY’S FACT: The comic strip “Blondie,” launched by Chic Young in 1930, eventually appeared in more than 2,000 newspapers around the world and spawned 28 film adaptations between 1938 and 1950.

TODAY’S SPORTS: In 1972, the Milwaukee Bucks ended the Los Angeles Lakers’ record 33-game winning streak with a 120-104 win.

TODAY’S QUOTE: “I am incapable of conceiving infin- ity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end.” — Sim- one de Beauvoir, “The Coming of Age”

TODAY’S NUMBER: 1.2 billion — iPhones sold in the decade after Apple introduced the first-generation unit on this day in 2007.

TODAY’S MOON: First quarter moon (Jan. 9).