On this day in 2002, in his State of the Union address, US President George W. Bush described "regimes that sponsor terror" as an Axis of evil, in which he included Iraq, Iran and North Korea.
On this day in 2005, the first direct commercial flights from China to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei.
And on this day in 2009, Governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich was removed from office following his conviction of several corruption charges, including the alleged solicitation of personal benefit in exchange for an appointment to the United States Senate as a replacement for then-US president-elect Barack Obama.