On this day in conspiracies

At dawn, surfman C. P. Brady at the Cape Hatteras Coast Guard station sights the Deering hard aground with all sails set on the outer edge of Diamond Shoals, the treacherous sandbar known as the Graveyard of the Atlantic. Heavy surf keeps rescuers from reaching her.

At a habeas corpus hearing, Bedwell recants, saying he confessed only because he was held for days and subjected to threats, inducements, and rough treatment, and believed police would release him if he cooperated. Autopsy findings undercut his story: the food and drink he described were not in the girls' stomachs, and they had not been beaten to death.

A US embassy cable, prepared after a limited visit near the area by officer Todd Greentree and a military attaché, is transmitted under Ambassador Deane Hinton's name. It stops short of confirming a massacre and casts doubt on the death tolls, giving Washington cover to question the press accounts.

After a trial held at Camp Zeist in the Netherlands, before three Scottish judges sitting without a jury, Megrahi is convicted of murder and Fhimah is acquitted. Megrahi is sentenced to life imprisonment.

Lam is last seen alive. Hotel surveillance captures her in an elevator, alone, pressing multiple buttons, stepping in and out, peering into the hallway, and gesturing. Her daily calls home stop.

By the end of January the fires are largely contained. Across the January outbreak at least 29 people are confirmed dead and more than 18,000 homes and structures destroyed or damaged, with the Palisades and Eaton fires accounting for nearly all of the loss.