On this date in history:

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

In 1920, threats against the life of Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, because of his activities in suppressing criminal radicalism, led officials to take every precaution to guard the head of the Justice Department.

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

In 1961, President Eisenhower met with his successor, John F. Kennedy, to complete plans for the transition of power. Both met privately at first before conferring with the incoming and outgoing secretaries of State, Treasury and Defense.

In 1966, Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.

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.

In 1983, police in Bolivia arrested Klaus Barbie, the so-called Butcher of Lyons. Barbie was a Nazi Gestapo chief accused of for the capture, torture and deaths of thousands of Jewish people and French resistance workers in Lyon, France.

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

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. Ney was released after 17 months.

In 2020, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Green Bay Packers to win the NFC Championship Game and the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Tennessee Titans in the AFC Championship Game. The 49ers and Chiefs faced off in Super Bowl LIV two weeks later.

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