January 7, 2021
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Today is Friday, Jan. 8, the eighth day of 2021. There are 357 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 8, 1998, Ramzi Yousef (RAHM’-zee YOO’-sef), the mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was sentenced in New York to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On this date:
In 1815, the last major engagement of the War of 1812 came to an end as U.S. forces defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans, not having gotten word of the signing of a peace treaty.
In 1918, President Woodrow Wilson outlined his Fourteen Points for lasting peace after World War I. Mississippi became the first state to ratify the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which established Prohibition.
Almanacs are full of lists of global and national historic events. But “This Day in History” feature invites you to not just peruse a list, but to take a trip back in time to see how a significant event originally was reported in the Chicago Tribune.
30 Rock takes its viewers behind the scenes of a sketch-comedy show, covering the tendency toward lunacy of its actors, writers, and corporate executives. Liz Lemon (Fey) is continually forced to mediate between her show’s stars (played by Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski) while dealing with the absurd demands of her mentor/boss, the sharp-toothed corporate shark Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), whose strict capitalist conservatism clashes with Lemon’s liberalism. In her efforts to “have it all,” a successful career and a loving family, the overworked, food-loving curmudgeon invents her own sense of normalcy, which at one point includes being married in a Princess Leia dress. This critically acclaimed comedy is infused with irony line after line and owns a self-awareness that often offers commentary on the sitcom genre as well as social concerns in a quirky voice that is completely unique to its creator.