Today is Tuesday, Jan. 19, the 19th day of 2016. There are 347 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 19, 1966, Indira Gandhi was chosen to be prime minister of India by the National Congress party. (Gandhi, a powerful as well as polarizing figure, served as India’s prime minister from 1966 to 1977, and again beginning in 1980 until she was assassinated in 1984.)

On this date:

In 1807, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

In 1853, Giuseppe Verdi’s opera ” Il Trovatore” premiered in Rome.

In 1861, Georgia became the fifth state to secede from the Union.

In 1915, Germany carried out its first air raid on Britain during World War I as a pair of Zeppelins dropped bombs onto Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in England.

In 1937, millionaire Howard Hughes set a transcontinental air record by flying his monoplane from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in 7 hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

In 1942, during World War II, Japan invaded Burma (Myanmar).

In 1955, a presidential news conference was filmed for television and newsreels for the first time, with the permission of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

In 1960, the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between Japan and the United States of America was signed by both countries in Washington, D.C.

The Associated Press