On This Day...: 22 January

Every once in a while I get curious as to what a "normal" day like today held as important in the past. I belive that I'll start a new category today that will run once a month for those days that are particularly interesting.

For this day three particularly interesting events happened in the year 1973:

- The Supreme Court handed down its Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion. The decision overrulled state laws that prohibited or restricted a woman's right to obtain an abortion during her first three months of pregnancy. The vote was 7 to 2.

- The 36th President, Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ), died at age 64 of a heart attack (his third) at home on his ranch in Texas. His health was ruined by years of heavy smoking and stress, and the former President had severe heart disease. He was found in his bed, reaching for his phone.

- "Big George" Foreman faced world Heavyweight champion Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica, knocking him down no less than six times in two rounds and knocking him out in the second round in one of boxing history's biggest upsets to become the Heavyweight World Champion. In what was HBO Boxing's first transmission ever, the call made by Howard Cosell, the broadcaster that night ("Down goes Frazier!, Down goes Frazier!, Down goes Frazier!") became one of the most memorable sports calls of all time.