SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 2010

Today is Saturday, January 16, the 16th day of 2010. There are 249 days left in the year.

1547 _ Ivan IV the Terrible, 17, crowns himself first tsar of Russia

1581 _ English parliament passes laws against Catholicism

1868 _ Refrigerator car patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit

1920 _ 18th Amendment, prohibition, becomes the law of the land ― one year after ratification; it is repealed in 1933

1920 _ First assembly of League of Nations (Paris)

1938 _ Benny Goodman refuses to play Carnegie Hall when black members of his band were barred from performing

1956 _ Egyptian President Nasser pledges to reconquer Palestine

1963 _ Khrushchev claims to have a 100-megaton nuclear bomb

1964 _ ``Hello, Dolly!" starring Carol Channing, opens at St. James Theater , New York City, for 2,844 performances

1981 _ John Lennon's ``Woman" is released in U.K.