Ali accepts Hollywood star on Walk of Fame
2002 - Legendary boxing champion Muhammad Ali, surrounded once again by hundreds of adoring fans chanting his name, was not content to be just another star in Hollywood. In accepting his star on famed Hollywood Boulevard, Ali, who sprang to fame in 1960 as a gold medal winner at the Rome Olympics, explained why the star would be hung from a theatre wall rather than embedded in the sidewalk with 2,188 other celebrities. “I didn’t want my star to be on the sidewalk because I didn’t want anybody walking on it,” Ali told the packed crowd outside the Kodak Theater. Because the former boxer said he did not want his name to be walked on by “people who have no respect for me. I bear the name of our beloved Prophet Mohammad (PBUH)”, he said.
January 12
1773 - The first US museum dedicated to the preservation of knowledge is established in Charleston, South Carolina.
1908 - A long-distance radio message is sent from the Eiffel Tower for the first time.
1932 - Hattie Caraway becomes the first elected woman US senator.
1950 - Swedish tanker rams British submarine Truculent on the Thames, killing 64.
1953 - Yugoslav National Assembly adopts new constitution.
1954 - Queen Elizabeth II opens New Zealand parliament.
1958 - Soviet Union proposes a zone free of nuclear weapons from Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean Sea.
1964 - Zanzibar proclaims itself a republic.
1966 - The first episode of the television series Batman is broadcast on ABC in the US.
1970 - Boeing 747 makes its maiden flight.
1990 - Romania bans the Communist Party.
1991 - US Congress grants President George H.W. Bush authority to use force to drive Iraq from Kuwait.
1996 - The first Russian military contingent arrives to work alongside Americans in the Nato peacekeeping mission in Bosnia.
1997 - At least eight people die and 30 are injured when a high-speed train hurtles off the track and crashed into electricity pylons in northern Italy.
2001 - Hewlett-Packard Co co-founder William Hewlett dies at the age of 87.
2002 - Colombian peace process in crisis as President Andres Pastrana sets a deadline for leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces to meet with mediators for a truce.
2004 - Queen Mary 2 sets off on its first transatlantic voyage.
2006 - At least 346 pilgrims die in Haj stampede in Mina, Saudi Arabia.
2007 - China and Russia veto a US resolution in the UN Security Council calling on Myanmar’s military junta to stop persecution of minority and opposition groups.
2010 - An estimated 200,000 people die in a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti.
2014 - Shaikh Hasina sworn in as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh.
