1815: President James Madison approved an act of Congress appropriating $23,950 to purchase Thomas Jefferson's library of 6,487 volumes; the British had destroyed the Library of Congress in 1814, but Jefferson's collection included twice as many books as had been burned.

1964: The United States launched Ranger 6, an unmanned spacecraft carrying TV cameras that was to crash-land on the moon.

2003: Richard Reid, British citizen and al-Qaida follower who had hidden explosives in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight, was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Boston.

Birthdays

Richard Cheney, b 30 Jan 1942; Vice President of the US

Franklin D Roosevelt, b 30 Jan 1882, d 12 April 1945; America's 32nd President

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