Today in History: January 11, Theodore Roosevelt makes the Grand Canyon a national monument

Audio By Carbonatix

Today is Sunday, Jan. 11, the 11th day of 2026. There are 354 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Jan. 11, 1908, the Grand Canyon was established as a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt. The move protected it from mining and other activities until it became a national park in 1919.

Also on this date:

In 1861, Alabama became the fourth state to declare its secession from the Union.

In 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart began what would be the first solo flight from Hawaii to California, completing the 2,400-mile flight across the Pacific to Oakland in just under 19 hours.

In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry issued “Smoking and Health,” a report that concluded that “cigarette smoking contributes substantially to mortality from certain specific diseases and to the overall death rate.”

In 2002, the first al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan arrived at the U.S. military’s Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba.

In 2010, Mark McGwire admitted to The Associated Press that he’d used steroids and human growth hormone when he broke baseball’s home run record in 1998.

In 2021, House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” after the attack on the U.S. Capitol building five days earlier.

In 2024, U.S. and British forces bombed more than dozen sites used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen, in a massive retaliatory strike for the militant group's attacks on international cargo ships and other targets in the Red Sea.

Today’s birthdays: Filmmaker Alfonso Arau is 94. Golf Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw is 74. Jazz guitarist Lee Ritenour is 74. Olympic swimming gold medalist Tracy Caulkins is 63. Filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee is 56. Singer Mary J. Blige is 55. Actor Amanda Peet is 54. Actor Devin Ratray is 49. Actor Aja Naomi King is 41. Singer and former competitive swimmer Cody Simpson is 29.