January 21, 2012

100 years ago
1912

Born on this date
Konrad Emil Bloch. German-born U.S. biochemist. Dr. Bloch was educated in his native Germany, but fled to Switzerland and then the United States in order to escape Nazi persecution of Jews. He taught at Columbia University, the University of Chicago, and Harvard, and shared the 1964 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Feodor Lynen "for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism." Dr. Bloch died on October 15, 2000 at the age of 88.

75 years ago
1937
At the movies
Action for Slander, directed by Tim Whelan, and starring Clive Brook, Ann Todd, and Margaretta Scott, opened in theatres in the United Kingdom.

Died on this date
Marie Prevost, 40. Canadian-born U.S. actress. Miss Prevost, born Marie Dunn in Sarnia, Ontario, starred in comedy short films for the Mack Sennett studio in the 1910s, and achieved success in several feature films directed by Ernst Lubitsch, including The Marriage Circle (1924); Three Women (1924); and Kiss Me Again (1925). Her career soon went into decline, and she drank herself to death.

60 years ago
1952

On television tonight
Lights Out, on NBC
Tonight's episode: The Intruder, starring Chester Morris and Jane Wyatt

40 years ago
1972

Indianica
Tripura, formerly part of the independent Twipra Kingdom, became a state of India.

25 years ago
1987

Hit parade
#1 single in Sweden: One Love to Give--Stéphanie (2nd week at #1)

20 years ago
1992

Diplomacy
The United Nations ordered Libya to surrender intelligence agents accused of airline bombings in 1988 and 1989.