On Jan. 25, 1915, America’s first official transcontinental telephone call took place as Alexander Graham Bell, who was in New York, spoke to his former assistant, Thomas Watson, who was in San Francisco, over a line set up by American Telephone & Telegraph.

Ten years ago

In his first encyclical, “God Is Love,” Pope Benedict XVI said the Roman Catholic Church had a duty through its charitable work to influence political leaders to ease suffering and promote justice. Seven children were killed when the car they were in was crushed between a truck and a stopped school bus in Lake Butler, Florida.

Five years ago

Pleading for unity in a newly divided government, President Barack Obama used his State of the Union address to implore Democrats and Republicans to rally behind his vision of economic revival, declaring: “We will move forward together or not at all.”

One year ago

The left-wing Syriza party rode an anti-austerity platform to victory in Greece’s parliamentary elections, setting the stage for a showdown with international creditors. Party leader Alexis Tsipras promised to end the “five years of humiliation and pain” that Greece had endured since an international bailout saved it from bankruptcy in 2010.

— By The Associated Press