Today is Sunday, Jan. 30, the 30th day of 2005. There are 335 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

On Jan. 30, 1968, during the Vietnam War, the Tet Offensive began as Communist forces launched surprise attacks against South Vietnamese provincial capitals.

On this date:

In 1649, England’s King Charles I was beheaded.

In 1882, the 32nd president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was born in Hyde Park, N.Y.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany.

In 1933, the first episode of the “Lone Ranger” radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.

In 1948, Indian political and spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by a Hindu extremist.

In 1962, two members of the “Flying Wallendas” high-wire act were killed when their seven-person pyramid collapsed during a performance in Detroit.

In 1964, the United States launched “Ranger 6” an unmanned spacecraft carrying television cameras that was to crash-land on the moon.

In 1972, 13 Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.”

In 1979, the civilian government of Iran announced it had decided to allow Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who’d been living in exile in France, to return.

In 1981, an estimated 2 million New Yorkers turned out for a ticker-tape parade honoring the freed American hostages from Iran.

Ten years ago: At least 42 people were killed and nearly 300 wounded when a car bomb blamed on Muslim insurgents exploded in downtown Algiers. The Smithsonian Institution abandoned plans for a major exhibit on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, yielding to critics who charged the exhibit would have portrayed America as the aggressor and Japan as the victim in World War II.

Five years ago: Elian Gonzalez’s grandmothers returned home to a hero’s welcome in Cuba, vowing to continue the struggle to wrest the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor from relatives in Miami. A Kenya Airways plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, killing 169 people. The St. Louis Rams won Super Bowl XXXIV, defeating the Tennessee Titans 23-16.

One year ago: Former French Prime Minister Alain Juppe was found guilty in connection with a party financing scandal and declared ineligible for public office for 10 years. NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity spied hints of a mineral that typically forms in water – a finding that could mean the dry and dusty Red Planet was once wetter and more hospitable to life.

Today’s Birthdays: Comedian Dick Martin is 83. Actress Dorothy Malone is 80. Producer-director Harold Prince is 77. Actor Gene Hackman is 75. Actress Tammy Grimes is 71. Actress Vanessa Redgrave is 68. Country singer Jeanne Pruett is 68. Country singer Norma Jean is 67. Vice President Dick Cheney is 64. Rock singer Marty Balin is 63. R&B musician William King (The Commodores) is 56. Singer Phil Collins is 54. Actor Charles S. Dutton is 54. Actress-comedian Brett Butler is 47. Singer Jody Watley is 46. Country singer Tammy Cochran is 33. Actor Christian Bale is 31. Actor Wilmer Valderrama is 25. Actor Jake Thomas is 15.

Thought for Today: “Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none.” – From “Poor Richard’s Almanack” by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).