Today is Wednesday, Jan. 20, the 20th day of 2016. There are 346 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 20, 1936, Britain’s King George V died after his physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, injected the mortally ill monarch with morphine and cocaine to hasten his death; the king was succeeded by his eldest son, Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne 11 months later to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.

On this date:

In 1265, England’s first representative Parliament met for the first time; the gathering at Westminster was composed of bishops, abbots, peers, Knights of the Shire and town burgesses.

In 1649, King Charles I of England went on trial, accused of high treason (he was found guilty and executed by month’s end).

In 1887, the U. S. Senate approved an agreement to lease Pearl Harbor in Hawaii as a naval base.

In 1942, Nazi officials held the notorious Wannsee conference, during which they arrived at their “final solution” that called for exterminating Jews.

In 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was sworn into office for an unprecedented fourth term.

In 1954, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” a play by Herman Wouk based on part of his novel “The Caine Mutiny,” opened on Broadway.

In 1961, John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States.

In 1975, several former William Morris talent agents, including Michael Ovitz, founded Creative Artists Agency (CAA).

In 1981, Iran released 52 Americans it had held hostage for 444 days, minutes after the presidency had passed from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan.

In 1986, the United States observed the first federal holiday in honor of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1990, actress Barbara Stanwyck died in Santa Monica, California, at age 82.

In 2001, George Walker Bush became America’s 43rd president after one of the most turbulent elections in U.S. history.

Ten years ago: Michael Fortier, the government’s star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was released from federal prison after serving more than 10 years for failing to warn authorities about the plot. Japan halted all imports of U. S. beef because of mad cow fears. ( Shipments resumed six months later.)

Five years ago: Federal authorities orchestrated one of the biggest Mafia takedowns in FBI history, charging 127 suspected mobsters and associates in the Northeast with murders, extortion and other crimes spanning decades.

The Associated Press