Died

Radio and television host Larry King died Jan. 23 at age 87. ­Lawrence Harvey Zeiger, born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants, became Larry King when he landed his first radio job as a disc jockey in Miami in 1957. His boss thought Zeiger sounded “too ethnic” and saw “King” in a newspaper ad. King credited his ability to talk with anyone, whether a prime minister or bus driver, to his insatiable curiosity. Larry King Live premiered on CNN in 1985 and became a mainstay of American television for 25 years. He welcomed everyone from the Dalai Lama and Mikhail Gorbachev to Elizabeth Taylor and Frank Sinatra. Obsessed with the afterlife, King often asked about faith in interviews. King said he wanted to live forever and was public about his wish to be cryogenically ­preserved. His estranged wife and three of his five children survive him.

Died

Joe Scheidler left his career and became a full-time worker for the pro-life cause shortly after the Supreme Court legalized abortion with its 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. The veteran pro-lifer and co-founder of the Pro-Life Action League died on Jan. 18 at age 93. Scheidler used sit-ins and protests to advocate for babies in and around abortion facilities. He fought a legal battle that lasted almost two decades and came before the Supreme Court three times when a pro-abortion group tried to pin him with racketeering charges for his pro-life campaigning. In the end, NOW v. Scheidler assured that advocates for the unborn have the right to protest and witness outside of abortion facilities.

Arrested

Protesters from Siberia to St. Petersburg to Moscow filled the streets of Russian cities on Jan. 23 to condemn the arrest of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Russian police arrested more than 3,000 protesters across the country, including Navalny’s wife, Yulia, in Moscow. Someone poisoned Navalny, 44, with a Soviet-era nerve agent, and he went into a coma on Aug. 20. After his hospitalization in Berlin, he returned to Russia on Jan. 17 and was arrested. He could face more than three years in jail for alleged fraud and money laundering—charges Navalny says are politically motivated, since he has campaigned against corruption in the government of President Vladimir Putin.

Pardoned

Outgoing President Donald Trump commuted the sentences of 70 people and granted pardons to 73 others in his last hours in office. They include former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was scheduled to face trial in May for siphoning money from a fundraising campaign to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House said Bannon served as “an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen.” Trump also extended clemency to Elliott Broidy, a former fundraiser for Trump who illegally lobbied on behalf of foreign countries.