Today is Wednesday, Jan. 20, the 20th day of 2021. There are 345 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 20, 1986, the United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

On this date:

In 1801, Secretary of State John Marshall was nominated by President John Adams to be chief justice of the United States. (Marshall would be sworn in on Feb. 4, 1801.)

In 1887, the U.S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.

In 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt became the first chief executive to be inaugurated on Jan. 20 instead of March 4.

In 1942, Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Europe’s Jews.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States.

In 1964, Capitol Records released the album “Meet the Beatles!”

In 1981, Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

In 2009, Barack Obama was sworn in as the nation’s 44th, as well as first African-American, president.

In 2017, Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, pledging emphatically to empower America’s “forgotten men and women.” Protesters registered their rage against the new president in a chaotic confrontation with police just blocks from the inaugural parade.

Today’s Birthdays: Former astronaut Buzz Aldrin is 91. Olympic gold medal figure skater Carol Heiss is 81. Rock musician Paul Stanley (KISS) is 69. Comedian Bill Maher is 65. Actor Lorenzo Lamas is 63. Country singer John Michael Montgomery is 56. Actor Rainn Wilson is 55. Actor Stacey Dash is 54. TV personality Melissa Rivers is 53. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is 49. Country singer Brantley Gilbert is 36.