This Day in History: Jan. 10

On this day, Jan. 10 ...

1920: The League of Nations takes effect, established as the Treaty of Versailles, ending World War I.

Also on this day:

• 1776: Thomas Paine anonymously publishes his influential pamphlet, "Common Sense," which argues for American independence from British rule.
• 1870: John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil.
• 1946: The first General Assembly of the United Nations convenes in London. 
• 1946: The first manmade contact with the moon is made as radar signals transmitted by the U.S. Army Signal Corps are bounced off the lunar surface.
• 1967: President Lyndon B. Johnson, in his State of the Union address, asks Congress to impose a surcharge on both corporate and individual income taxes to help pay for his "Great Society" programs as well as the war in Vietnam. 
• 1984: The United States and the Vatican establish full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century.
• 1994: President Bill Clinton, attending a NATO summit meeting in Brussels, announces completion of an agreement to remove all long-range nuclear missiles from the former Soviet republic of Ukraine.
• 2000: America Online announces it is buying Time Warner for $162 billion.
• 2002: Marines begin flying hundreds of Al Qaeda prisoners in Afghanistan to the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
• 2009: The aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is commissioned with its namesake, the 41st president, and other members of the Bush family on hand for the ceremonies at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia.

• 2016: David Bowie, the chameleon-like star who transformed the sound — and the look — of rock with his creativity and his sexually ambiguous makeup and costumes, dies in New York City after an 18-month battle with cancer.
• 2018: Immigration agents descend on dozens of 7-Eleven stores nationwide before dawn to check on the immigration status of employees in what officials describe at the time as the largest operation so far against an employer under President Trump’s presidency.
• 2018: Charles Dutoit steps down as artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra after multiple allegations of sexual assault.