With CHARLIE HARPER

HAVE you ever googled your birthday? Or maybe your wedding day, or the day your child was born? Have you wondered what else might have happened on a date that has special significance for you?

Today is January 6. Let’s consider some of the events over the centuries that have occurred on this date, with a big assist from the internet.

1066 – Harold Godwinson is confirmed as King of England. This helped to precipitate the Norman invasion of England.

1412 – Joan of Arc is born in the Vosges region of France.

1536 – The first European secondary school is established in Mexico City.

1809 – British, Portuguese and Brazilian forces capture Cayenne, French Guiana during Napoleonic Wars. Six years later, the Congress of Vienna restored this colony to France, of which it remains a constituent department today.

1907 – Maria Montessori opens her first school in Rome.

1929 – Mother Theresa arrives for her life’s work in India.

1946 – The first-ever general election is held in Vietnam.

1950 – Britain grants diplomatic recognition to the Peoples Republic of China.

1994 – American Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan is attacked at a skating rink and wounded by the ex-husband of her rival Tonya Harding.

2017 – Five are killed and six injured in a mass shooting at Fort Lauderdale International Airport.

2021 – James Cross, CMG, dies at home in East Sussex of COVID at the age of 99. In 1970 while serving as senior British Trade Commissioner in Montreal, Cross was kidnapped by separatists aligned with the Front de Liberation de Quebec. Cross spent 59 days in captivity, and in a related incident, Quebec’s minister of labour was assassinated. In response to what became known as the October Crisis, Canadian PM Pierre Trudeau invoked the nation’s War Measures Act for the only time in peacetime.

2021 – An unruly mob attacks, invades and pillages the US capitol building in Washington DC, in an attempt to interrupt the congressional ratification of Joe Biden’s election as American president two months earlier. But was that really what happened?

2022 – Today: Many in America eagerly await the public hearings expected in the spring of a controversial congressional commission assigned by Speaker Nancy Pelosi to investigate the 2021 riot and report its findings to the American people. During the year just past, Democrats, liberals and most independent voters appear to have accepted at face value the fact that then-President Donald Trump incited the riot, then gloated in the White House while rioters overwhelmed inadequate Capitol Hill police and other hastily scrambled law enforcement personnel, including the FBI. They saw it all on live TV, after all.

The congressional commission – essentially a commission of inquiry – is chaired by Bennie Thompson of Mississippi and features such Trump impeachment veterans as Adam Schiff of California and Jamie Raskin of Maryland. The idea originally was that Republicans and Democrats would be evenly represented on the committee, but the GOP minority House leader, Kevin McCarthy of California, nominated ideologues like Jim Jordan of Ohio with the avowed intention of dynamiting the process. Pelosi balked, and only Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and Liz Cheney of Wyoming now represent the Republicans on the commission. (Both voted to impeach Trump).

Polls consistently show most Republican rank and file voters still believe Trump was robbed of an election victory in 2020, and that he was unseated via some shadowy plotting. Furthermore, many Republicans tell pollsters the riots one year ago today were really a set-up by anti-fascist (Antifa) groups or Black Lives Matter. The list of conspiracies flying around in cyberspace is extensive and imaginative.

Democrats and moderates look on in disbelief, astounded at the apparently obdurate gullibility of those with different political views. They continue to miss the point that emotionally, Trump continues to resonate with his loyal base of support.

Not so long ago, a well-known Bahamian business leader and public figure asked a visitor where he could really get unbiased, factual news reporting in the American media. The answers might be surprising to some, and there isn’t total consistency among media pundits who study such matters. But there is broad agreement on fewer than a dozen outlets.

Leading most lists are major daily newspapers The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.

Republicans often rail against the Times and to a lesser degree the Post, but they are always quick to cite accounts in those journals when their reporting reinforces points the politicians are making.

The Journal is owned by conservative Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Fox News, so liberals are suspicious.

But the Journal, along with the New Yorker magazine, has long emphasized well-written, expansive, exhaustively fact-checked reporting and both are widely respected.

Wire services Associated Press and Reuters have broad credibility, as do the Economist magazine and the BBC. CNN makes some lists for reliable reporting, especially its web site. Some support is found for the major American networks ABC, CBS and NBC, and it’s no secret to anyone that outlets such as Fox News, One America News, Newsmax, MSNBC and others make their money preaching to like-minded ideological choirs.

Cited by several pundits as mostly free of bias is USA Today, a daily newspaper essentially founded on the principle of being easy to read. There are lots of pictures, relatively short, punchy stories and a consistently broad approach that fully incorporates entertainment news, sports and lifestyle features along with a “hard news” section. USA Today enjoys the largest daily circulation of any US daily newspaper.

As part of its run-up to today, USA Today published a lengthy listing of narratives about the January 6, 2021 riot and fact-checked them. Here are some of the more provocative:

The claim: A facial recognition firm claimed Antifa infiltrated pro-Trump rioters at the Capitol

Our rating: False

Claims that members of Antifa disguised as Trump supporters orchestrated the insurrection are baseless and stem from a rumour that a facial recognition company identified left-wing activists among the rioters.

The technology firm mentioned in the claims refuted the story, and there is no evidence Antifa was responsible for the attack.

The claim: The shirtless man pictured in the Capitol breach is with Antifa and Black Lives Matter

Our rating: False. Jake Angeli, a man who was pictured at the Capitol shirtless wearing a fur hat with horns, is a well-known Trump follower - he is not tied to Black Lives Matter nor Antifa. The claim is part of the false larger conspiracy theory that Trump’s supporters were not actually behind the riot.

The claim: FBI operatives organized the attack on the US Capitol.

Our rating: False

There is no evidence that “unindicted co-conspirators” listed in federal charging documents related to the Jan. 6 attack are undercover FBI agents or federal informants. Legal experts say the term can’t be used to describe undercover government operatives. Rioters have been identified by authorities as Trump supporters, conspiracy theorists and members of far-right groups.

The claim: CNN employees took part in the riot

Our rating: False

Posts claiming CNN employees were among the Capitol rioters are unfounded. Jade Sacker, mentioned in the claims, is a freelance journalist and has never worked for the cable news outlet.

Well-respected news blog Politico reports that as of New Year’s Day this year, 71 of the more than 700 people charged in the January 6 riot have been sentenced. Of those 71, only 30 have received actual prison time, and almost all of those were implicated in acts of physical violence.

The history of the legal aftermath for the rioters will not be written for several years, but there are already criticisms of federal prosecutors and judges for the differentiated and often lenient treatment some of the rioters have received.

As the nation continues to anticipate the congressional commission’s ongoing investigations, reports have circulated about then-president Trump’s behaviour leading up to and during the riot. Supposedly, Trump’s children, House minority leader McCarthy and several others tried unsuccessfully to get Trump to “call off his dogs” and end the violence at the Capitol.

The three-hour delay from the end of the Trump rally near the White House until he finally publicly urged the rioters to leave the Capitol is sure to be the source of much of the more lurid information the commission will reveal.

We’ll see if it changes anyone’s mind.