Today is Saturday, Jan. 9, the ninth day of 2021. There are 356 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 9, 2020, Chinese state media said a preliminary investigation into recent cases of viral pneumonia had identified the probable cause as a new type of coronavirus.

On this date:

In 1861, Mississippi became the second state to secede from the Union, the same day the Star of the West, a merchant vessel bringing reinforcements and supplies to Federal troops at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, retreated because of artillery fire.

In 1945, during World War II, American forces began landing on the shores of Lingayen Gulf in the Philippines as the Battle of Luzon got underway, resulting in an Allied victory over Imperial Japanese forces.

In 1987, the White House released a January 1986 memorandum prepared for President Ronald Reagan by Lt. Col. Oliver L. North showing a link between U.S. arms sales to Iran and the release of American hostages in Lebanon.

In 2015, French security forces shot and killed two al-Qaida-linked brothers suspected of carrying the rampage at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that had claimed 12 lives, the same day a gunman killed four people at a Paris kosher grocery store before being killed by police.

Today’s Birthdays: Folk singer Joan Baez is 80. Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 77. Singer Crystal Gayle is 70. Actor J.K. Simmons is 66. Actor Joely Richardson is 56. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 54. Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 43. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is 39.