January 26th 1998. President Bill Clinton denies having an affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie , not a single time, never. These allegations are false.”

Yet months later, Clinton finally does acknowledge that he did have a relationship with Lewinsky. The House Representatives impeaches Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice over the scandal. Clinton is acquitted by the Senate the following year, and he finishes the rest of his term in office.

1788. The first European settlers in Australia, the British expedition including hundreds of convicts land in present-day Sydney.

1880. General Douglas Macarthur is born in Little Rock, Arkansas. Macarthur commanded US forces in the Pacific during World War II, and ran the postwar allied occupation of Japan. He also led American troops under the UN banner during the early months of the Korean War.

1961. Wayne Gretzky considered one of the greatest hockey-players of all time is born Ontario, Canada.

And 1988. Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “The Phantom of the Opera” opens in New York. In 2006, it leaps past “Cats”, another Lloyd Webber musical, to become the longest-running show in Broadway history.

Today in history, January 26th. Mike Gracia. The Associated Press.