January 22, 'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski pleads guilty

Today is Thursday, Jan. 22, the 22nd day of 2026. There are 343 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 22,1998, Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, California, to being the “Unabomber” responsible for three deaths and 23 injuries in a mail-bombing campaign. In return for the pleas in federal court, he received a sentence of life in prison without parole.

Also on this date:

In 1901, Britain’s Queen Victoria died at age 81 after a reign of more than 63 years; she was succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII.

In 1944, during World War II, Allied forces began landing at Anzio, Italy.

In 1947, America’s first commercially licensed television station west of the Mississippi, KTLA-TV in Los Angeles, made its official debut.

In 1953, the Arthur Miller drama “The Crucible” opened at the Martin Beck Theatre in New York.

In 1973, former President Lyndon B. Johnson died at his Texas ranch at the age of 64.

Also in 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court, in its Roe v. Wade decision, declared a nationwide constitutional right to abortion. (The court would overturn Roe v. Wade in 2022, in the decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.)

In 2006, Kobe Bryant scored 81 points, the second-highest single-game point total in NBA history, in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 122-104 victory over the Toronto Raptors. (Wilt Chamberlain set the record with 100 points in 1962 for the Philadelphia Warriors in a 169-147 win against the New York Knicks.

In 2017, an outbreak of tornadoes in the U.S. Southeast killed at least 16 people in Georgia after claiming four lives in Mississippi.