On Jan. 12, 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson said in his State of the Union address that the U.S. military should stay in Vietnam until Communist aggression there was stopped.

Ten years ago

Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who shot Pope John Paul II in 1981, was released from an Istanbul prison after serving more than 25 years in Italy and Turkey for the plot against the pontiff and the slaying of a Turkish journalist. A stampede broke out during the Islamic hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, killing 363 people. Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito completed four days of testimony at his Senate confirmation hearing.

Five years ago

President Barack Obama visited Tucson, Arizona, the scene of a deadly shooting rampage, where he urged Americans to refrain from partisan bickering and to embrace the idealistic vision of democracy held by 9-yearold Christina Taylor Green, the youngest of the victims. Torrential summer rains tore through Rio de Janeiro state’s mountains. Floodwaters poured into downtown Brisbane, Australia, swamping neighborhoods and reaching the tops of traffic lights in some parts of the city. Actor Paul Picerni, 88, died in Palmdale, California.

One year ago

France deployed thousands of troops to protect sensitive sites, including Jewish schools and neighborhoods, in the wake of terror attacks that killed 17.

— By The Associated Press