This Day in History: Jan. 19

(AP Photo)

On this day, Jan. 19 ...

1937: Millionaire Howard Hughes sets a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, N.J., in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

Also on this day:

• 1807: Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is born in Westmoreland County, Va.
• 1809: Author, poet and critic Edgar Allan Poe is born in Boston.
• 1861: Georgia becomes the fifth state to secede from the Union.
• 1915: Germany carries out its first air raid on Britain during World War I as a pair of Zeppelins drop bombs onto Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in England.
• 1944: The federal government relinquishes control of the nation’s railroads to their owners following settlement of a wage dispute.
• 1953: CBS-TV airs the widely watched episode of "I Love Lucy" in which Lucy Ricardo, played by Lucille Ball, gives birth to Little Ricky. (By coincidence, Ball gives birth the same day to her son, Desi Arnaz Jr.)
• 1955: A presidential news conference is filmed for television and newsreels for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
• 1966: Indira Gandhi is chosen to be prime minister of India by the National Congress party.
• 1977: President Gerald R. Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino, an American convicted of treason for making radio broadcasts aimed at demoralizing Allied troops in the Pacific Theater during World War II. (Although she is popularly referred to as "Tokyo Rose," D’Aquino never used that name.)

• 1981: The United States and Iran sign an accord paving the way for the release of 52 Americans held hostage for more than 14 months.
• 1998: "Rockabilly" pioneer Carl Perkins dies in Jackson, Tenn., at age 65.
• 2009: Russia and Ukraine sign a deal restoring natural gas shipments to Ukraine and paving the way for an end to the nearly two-week cutoff of most Russian gas to a freezing Europe.
• 2018: The Supreme Court agrees to decide the legality of the latest version of President Trump’s ban on travel to the United States by residents of six majority-Muslim countries. (A sharply divided court would uphold the ban in a 5-4 decision in June.)
• 2018: Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman joins dozens of other women and girls in confronting her former doctor, Larry Nassar, at his sentencing hearing for multiple sexual assaults; she warns him that the testimony of the "powerful army" of survivors would haunt him in prison.
• 2018: Amazon announces that it was raising the monthly price of its Prime membership plan by nearly 20%, to $12.99. (The fee for an annual membership would also rise 20% a few months later, to $119 a year.)