Today is Wednesday, Jan 25, the 25th day of 2012. There are 341 days left in the year.

1802 ― Napoleon elected President of the Italian (Cisalpine) Republic

1858 ― Mendelssohn's ``Wedding March" first played, at wedding of Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Victoria, to crown prince of Prussia

1918 ― Russia declared a republic of Soviets

1919 ― Founding of League of Nations, first meeting one year later

1924 ― First Winter Olympic games open in Chamonix, France

1951 ― U.N. begins counter offensive in Korea

1955 ― Columbia University scientists develop an atomic clock accurate to within one second in 300 years

1981 ― Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death

1989 ― Michael Jordan scores his 10,000th NBA point in his fifth season

1985 ― ``We are the World" is recorded