On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence
vessel, was engaged in a routine surveillance of the North
Korean coast when it was intercepted by North Korean
patrol boats.

According to U.S. reports, the Pueblo was in international
waters almost 16 miles from shore, but the North Koreans
turned their guns on the lightly armed vessel and demanded
its surrender.

The Americans attempted to escape, and the North Koreans
opened fire, wounding the commander and two others.

With capture inevitable, the Americans stalled for time,
destroying the classified information aboard while taking
further fire. Several more crew members were wounded.

These men were hailed as heroes and returned home to
the United States in time for Christmas.

Lloyd Mark "Pete" Bucher 
(September 1, 1927 – January 28, 2004)
    
   

   
The USS Pueblo is now on display at a North Korean war
museum.

Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 – May 31, 1910)

At a graduation ceremony in a church in Geneva, New York on
January 23, 1849, Geneva Medical College bestowed a medical
degree upon Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the United
States to receive one.

Despite the near-uniform opposition of her fellow students and
medical professionals, Blackwell pursued her calling with an
iron will and dedicated her life to treating the sick and furthering
the cause of women in medicine.

Illustration of medical students attending a lecture at
the Woman’s Medical College of the New York Infirmary,
founded by Elizabeth and Emily Blackwell.

January 23, 1977 saw the premiere of Roots, a groundbreaking
television program. The eight-episode miniseries, which was
broadcast over eight consecutive nights, follows a family from
its origins in West Africa through generations of slavery and
the end of the Civil War.

Roots was one of the most-watched television events in U.S.
history and a major moment in mainstream American culture’s
reckoning with the legacy of slavery.

Alexander Murray Palmer Haley
(August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992)

A critical and ratings success over the course of its run,
Roots received 37 Primetime Emmy Award nominations
and won nine. It also won a Golden Globe and a Peabody
Award.