Today in History.....January 5

On this day in …

* 1781, a British naval expedition led by Benedict Arnold burned Richmond, Va.

* 1895, French Capt. Alfred Dreyfus, convicted of treason, was publicly stripped of his rank. (He was ultimately vindicated.)

* 1896, the Austrian newspaper Wiener Presse reported the discovery by German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen of a type of radiation that came to be known as X-rays

* 1925, Nellie T. Ross succeeded her late husband as governor of Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in U.S. history

* 1949, in his State of the Union address, President Truman labeled his administration the Fair Deal

* 1970, Joseph A. Yablonski, an unsuccessful candidate for the presidency of the United Mine Workers of America, was found murdered with his wife and daughter at their Clarksville, Pa., home. UMWA President Anthony Boyle and three others were convicted of the killings

* 1993, the state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd, an admitted child s e x killer, in America's first legal hanging since
1965

* 2004, President Bush opened a new drive for caps on medical malpractice awards, contending the limits would lower health care costs