Other Notable Events, January 19

In 1861, Georgia seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.

In 1920, the U.S. Senate voted against the country joining the League of Nations.

In 1938, the Spanish Nationalist air force bombed Barcelona and Valencia, killing 700 civilians and wounding hundreds more.

In 1975, China published a new constitution that adopted the precepts and policies of Mao Zedong.

In 1977, U.S. President Gerald Ford pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino, who had been convicted of treason for her World War II Japanese propaganda broadcasts as Tokyo Rose.

Also in 1977, snowfall was recorded in Miami and the Bahamas. It was the first recorded snowfall in Miami.

In 1994, ice skater Tonya Harding's former husband, Jeff Gillooly, was arrested and charged with conspiracy in the attack two weeks earlier on Harding rival Nancy Kerrigan.

In 1995, Russian forces captured the presidential palace in the rebel republic of Chechnya.

In 2001, U.S. President Bill Clinton announced he had made a deal with the independent prosecutor that would prevent him from being indicted after he left office.

In 2005, the Southeast Asian tsunami death toll was raised to 220,000, including more than 166,000 killed in Indonesia.

In 2006, monitors for the Dec. 15 Iraq parliamentary elections validated the vote despite reports of irregularities.

In 2007, former U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, the only member of Congress to plead guilty in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison.

In 2008, U.S. President George W. Bush said that although the economy was growing, the rate of growth has slowed and there's a risk of a downturn. He called it a challenging period for our economy.

In 2009, Iranian intelligence officials said their forces had dismantled a U.S.-backed spy network involving several nations aimed at toppling the country's Islamic regime.

In 2010, Republican Scott Brown, a little known former state senator, scored a major political upset by winning a special Massachusetts election over a heavily favored Democrat to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the death of Democratic legend Ted Kennedy.

Also in 2010, U.S. soldiers arrived by helicopter in Port-au-Prince to provide security and humanitarian aid in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

In 2011, Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to repeal healthcare reform legislation enacted during the last Congress. The Senate, however, blocked the proposal.

In 2012, a major online protest against anti-Web piracy measures caused House and Senate lawmakers to pull back two proposals for further study. Several national websites suspended service for 24 hours to show opposition to measures some critics saw as potential censorship.