Today is Friday, Jan. 29, the 29th day of 2021. There are 336 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 29, 1979, President Jimmy Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.

On this date:

In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe’s famous narrative poem “The Raven” (“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…”) was first published in the New York Evening Mirror.

In 1919, the ratification of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, which launched Prohibition, was certified by Acting Secretary of State Frank L. Polk.

In 1936, the first inductees of baseball’s Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.

In 1963, the first charter members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio. Poet Robert Frost died in Boston at age 88.

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan announced in a nationally broadcast message that he and Vice President George H.W. Bush would seek re-election in the fall.

In 2002, in his first State of the Union address, President George W. Bush said terrorists were still threatening America — and he warned of “an axis of evil” of North Korea, Iran and Iraq.

In 2006, ABC “World News Tonight” co-anchor Bob Woodruff and a cameraman were seriously injured in a roadside bombing in Iraq.

Today’s Birthdays: Actor Katharine Ross is 81. Actor Tom Selleck is 76. Actor Marc Singer is 73. Actor Ann Jillian is 71. Talk show host Oprah Winfrey is 67. Country singer Irlene Mandrell is 65. Actor Judy Norton (TV: “The Waltons”) is 63. Olympic gold-medal diver Greg Louganis is 61. Actor Nicholas Turturro is 59. Former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is 51. Actor Sara Gilbert is 46. Pop-rock singer Adam Lambert (TV: “American Idol”) is 39.