This Day in History

[lordroel]

January 14th

1236 – Marriage of King Henry III of England and Eleanor of Provence.

1301 – Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Árpád dynasty in Hungary.

1343 – Arnošt of Pardubice becomes the last bishop of Prague and, subsequently, the first Archbishop of Prague.

1539 – Spain annexes Cuba.

1639 – The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.

1761 – The Third Battle of Panipat is fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marathas.

1784 – American Revolutionary War: Ratification Day, United States - Congress ratifies the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain.

1814 – Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes the Kingdom of Norway to Charles XIII of Sweden in return for Pomerania.

1822 – Greek War of Independence: Acrocorinth is captured by Theodoros Kolokotronis and Demetrios Ypsilantis.

1858 – Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt made by Felice Orsini and his accomplices in Paris.

1907 – An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000 people.

1911 – Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition makes landfall on the eastern edge of the Ross Ice Shelf.

1939 – Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.

1943 – World War II: Japan begins Operation Ke, the successful operation to evacuate its forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal Campaign.

1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.

1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel by airplane while in office when he travels from Miami to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill.

1950 – The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.

1952 – NBC's long-running morning news program Today debuts, with host Dave Garroway.

1953 – Josip Broz Tito is inaugurated as the first President of Yugoslavia.

1954 – The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation forming the American Motors Corporation.

1957 – Kripalu Maharaj was named fifth Jagadguru (world teacher) after giving seven days of speeches before 500 Hindu scholars.

1960 – The Reserve Bank of Australia, the country's central bank and banknote issuing authority, is established.

1967 – Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In takes place in San Francisco, California's Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love.

1967 - The New York Times reports that the U.S. Army is conducting secret germ warfare experiments.

1969 – USS Enterprise fire: An accidental explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.

1972 – Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.

1973 – Elvis Presley's concert Aloha from Hawaii is broadcast live via satellite, and sets the record as the most watched broadcast by an individual entertainer in television history.

1993 – In Poland's worst peacetime maritime disaster, ferry MS Jan Heweliusz sinks off the coast of Rügen, drowning 55 passengers and crew; nine crew-members are saved.

2000 – A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years in prison for the 1993 killing of more than 100 Bosnian Muslims.

2004 – The national flag of the Republic of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", is restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.

2010 – Yemen declares an open war against the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

2011 – Former president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali flees his country to Saudi Arabia after a series of street demonstrations against his regime and corrupt policies, asking for freedom, rights and democracy, considered as the anniversary of the Tunisian Revolution and the birth of the Arab Spring.

[lordroel]

January 15th

AD 69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but rules for only three months before committing suicide.

1541 – King Francis I of France gives Jean-François Roberval a commission to settle the province of New France (Canada) and provide for the spread of the "Holy Catholic faith".

1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.

1582 – Truce of Yam-Zapolsky: Russia cedes Livonia to the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

1759 – The British Museum opens.

1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present-day Vermont) declares its independence.

1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.

1815 – War of 1812: American frigate USS President, commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates.

1818 – A paper by David Brewster is read to the Royal Society, belatedly announcing his discovery of what we now call the biaxial class of doubly-refracting crystals. On the same day, Augustin-Jean Fresnel signs a "supplement" (submitted four days later) on reflection of polarized light.

1822 – Greek War of Independence: Demetrios Ypsilantis is elected president of the legislative assembly.

1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.

1865 – American Civil War: Fort Fisher in North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.

1867 – Forty people died when ice covering the boating lake at Regents Park, London, collapsed.

1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly).

1876 – The first newspaper in Afrikaans, Die Afrikaanse Patriot, is published in Paarl.

1889 – The Coca-Cola Company, then known as the Pemberton Medicine Company, is incorporated in Atlanta.

1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

1908 – The Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African American college women.

1910 – Construction ends on the Buffalo Bill Dam in Wyoming, United States, which was the highest dam in the world at the time, at 325 ft (99 m).

1919 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps at the end of the Spartacist uprising.

1919 – Great Molasses Flood: A wave of molasses released from an exploding storage tank sweeps through Boston, Massachusetts, killing 21 and injuring 150.

1934 – The 8.0 Mw  Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme), killing an estimated 6,000–10,700 people.

1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass, built for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, is completed in Toledo, Ohio.

1937 – Spanish Civil War: Nationalists and Republican both withdraw after suffering heavy losses, ending the Second Battle of the Corunna Road.

1943 – World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.

1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1947 – The Black Dahlia murder: the dismembered corpse of Elizabeth Short was found in Los Angeles.

1949 – Chinese Civil War: The Communist forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.

1962 – The Derveni papyrus, Europe's oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece.

1962 – Netherlands New Guinea Conflict: Indonesian Navy fast patrol boat RI Macan Tutul commanded by Commodore Yos Sudarso sunk in Arafura Sea by the Dutch Navy.

1965 – The Who release their first UK single I Can't Explain.

1966 – The First Nigerian Republic, led by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is overthrown in a military coup d'état.

1967 – The first Super Bowl is played in Los Angeles. The Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs 35–10.

1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.

1970 – Nigerian Civil War: Biafran rebels surrender following an unsuccessful 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria.

1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

1973 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.

1975 – The Alvor Agreement is signed, ending the Angolan War of Independence and giving Angola independence from Portugal.

1976 – Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.

1981 – Pope John Paul II receives a delegation from Solidarity (Polish trade union) at the Vatican led by Lech Wałęsa.

1991 – The United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm.

1991 – Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Queen of Australia, signs letters patent allowing Australia to become the first Commonwealth realm to institute its own Victoria Cross in its honours system.

2001 – Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.

2005 – ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the Moon.

2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.

2009 – US Airways Flight 1549 ditches safely in the Hudson River after the plane collides with birds less than two minutes after take-off.

2013 – A train carrying Egyptian Army recruits derails near Giza, Greater Cairo, killing 19 and injuring 120 others.

2015 – The Swiss National Bank abandons the cap on the franc's value relative to the euro, causing turmoil in international financial markets.

2016 – The Kenyan Army suffers it worst defeat ever in a battle with Al-Shabaab Islamic insurgents in El-Adde, Somalia. An estimated 150 soldiers die.

[lordroel]

January 16th

27 BC – Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus is granted the title Augustus by the Roman Senate, marking the beginning of the Roman Empire.

378 – General Siyaj K'ak' conquers Tikal, enlarging the domain of King Spearthrower Owl of Teotihuacán.

550 – Gothic War: The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.

929 – Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III established the Caliphate of Córdoba.

1120 – The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

1362 – A storm tide in the North Sea ravages the East coast of England and destroys the German city of Rungholt on the island of Strand.

1412 – The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy.

1492 – The first grammar of the Spanish language (Gramática de la lengua castellana) is presented to Queen Isabella I.

1547 – Grand Duke Ivan IV of Muscovy becomes the first Tsar of Russia, replacing the 264-year-old Grand Duchy of Moscow with the Tsardom of Russia.

1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain.

1572 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.

1605 – The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, Spain.

1707 – The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.

1757 – Forces of the Maratha Empire defeat a 5,000-strong army of the Durrani Empire in the Battle of Narela.

1780 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.

1786 – Virginia enacts the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson.

1809 – Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.

1847 – John C. Frémont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.

1862 – Hartley Colliery disaster: Two hundred and four men and boys killed in a mining disaster, prompted a change in UK law which henceforth required all collieries to have at least two independent means of escape.

1878 – Russo-Turkish War (1877–78): Battle of Philippopolis: Captain Aleksandr Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.

1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.

1900 – The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.

1909 – Ernest Shackleton's expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.

1919 – The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, requiring Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.

1920 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated was founded on the campus of Howard University.

1920 – The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.

1921 – The Marxist Left in Slovakia and the Transcarpathian Ukraine holds its founding congress in Ľubochňa.

1942 – Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard.

1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.

1964 – Hello, Dolly! opened on Broadway, beginning a run of 2,844 performances.

1969 – Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in protest against the Soviets' crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.

1969 – Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk.

1979 – The last Iranian Shah flees Iran with his family for good and relocates to Egypt.

1991 – Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War.

1992 – El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City, Mexico ending the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War that claimed at least 75,000 lives.

2001 – Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.

2001 – US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish–American War.

2002 – The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the remaining members of the Taliban.

2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one. Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.

2006 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.

2016 – Thirty-three out of 126 freed hostages are injured and 23 killed in terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on a hotel and a nearby restaurant.

[lordroel]

January 17th

38 BC – Octavian divorces his wife Scribonia and marries Livia Drusilla, ending the fragile peace between the Second Triumvirate and Sextus Pompey.

395 – Upon the death of Emperor Theodosius I, the Roman Empire is permanently divided into the Eastern Roman Empire under Arcadius, and the Western Roman Empire under Honorius.

1287 – The Treaty of San Agayz is signed. King Alfonso III of Aragon conquers the island of Menorca from the Moors.

1377 – Pope Gregory XI moves the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.

1524 – Giovanni da Verrazzano sets sail westward from Madeira to find a sea route to the Pacific Ocean.

1562 – France recognizes the Huguenots by the Edict of Saint-Germain.

1595 – During the French Wars of Religion, Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.

1608 – Emperor Susenyos I of Ethiopia surprises an Oromo army at Ebenat; his army reportedly kills 12,000 Oromo at the cost of 400 of his men.

1648 – England's Long Parliament passes the "Vote of No Addresses", breaking off negotiations with King Charles I and thereby setting the scene for the second phase of the English Civil War.

1773 – Captain James Cook commands the first expedition to sail south of the Antarctic Circle.

1781 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Cowpens: Continental troops under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan defeat British forces under Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton at the battle in South Carolina.

1799 – Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots, is executed.

1811 – Mexican War of Independence: In the Battle of Calderón Bridge, a heavily outnumbered Spanish force of 6,000 troops defeats nearly 100,000 Mexican revolutionaries.

1852 – The United Kingdom signs the Sand River Convention with the South African Republic.

1873 – A group of Modoc warriors defeats the United States Army in the First Battle of the Stronghold, part of the Modoc War.

1885 – A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.

1893 – Lorrin A. Thurston, along with the Citizens' Committee of Public Safety, led the Overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii and the government of Queen Liliʻuokalani.

1899 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.

1903 – El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve.

1904 – Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre.

1912 – British polar explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.

1915 – Russia defeats Ottoman Turkey in the Battle of Sarikamish during the Caucasus Campaign of World War I.

1917 – The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.

1918 – Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles take place between the Red Guards and the White Guard.

1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.

1941 – Franco-Thai War: French forces inflict a decisive defeat over the Royal Thai Navy.

1943 – World War II: Greek submarine Papanikolis captures the 200-ton sailing vessel Agios Stefanos and mans her with part of her crew.

1944 – World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four assaults on Monte Cassino with the intention of breaking through the Winter Line and seizing Rome, an effort that would ultimately take four months and cost 105,000 Allied casualties.

1945 – World War II: The Vistula–Oder Offensive forces German troops out of Warsaw.

1945 – The SS-Totenkopfverbände begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in.

1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is taken into Soviet custody while in Hungary; he is never publicly seen again.

1946 – The UN Security Council holds its first session.

1948 – The Renville Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia is ratified.

1950 – The Great Brink's Robbery: Eleven thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car company's offices in Boston.

1950 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 79 relating to arms control is adopted.

1961 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military–industrial complex" as well as the dangers of massive spending, especially deficit spending.

1961 – Former Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba is murdered in circumstances suggesting the support and complicity of the governments of Belgium and the United States.

1966 – Palomares incident: A B-52 bomber collides with a KC-135 Stratotanker over Spain, killing seven airmen, and dropping three 70-kiloton nuclear bombs near the town of Palomares and another one into the sea.

1969 – Black Panther Party members Bunchy Carter and John Huggins are killed during a meeting in Campbell Hall on the campus of UCLA.

1977 – Capital punishment in the United States resumes after a ten-year hiatus, as convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by firing squad in Utah.

1981 – President of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos lifts martial law eight years and five months after declaring it.

1991 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning as aircraft strike positions across Iraq, it is also the first major combat sortie for the F-117. LCDR Scott Speicher's F/A-18C Hornet from VFA-81 is shot down by a Mig-25 and is the first American casualty of the War. Iraq fires eight Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.

1991 – Crown prince Harald V of Norway becomes King Harald V, following the death of his father, King Olav V.

1992 – During a visit to South Korea, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa apologizes for forcing Korean women into sexual slavery during World War II.

1994 – The 6.7 Mw  Northridge earthquake shakes the Greater Los Angeles Area with a maximum Mercalli intensity of IX (Violent), leaving 57 people dead and more than 8,700 injured.

1995 – The 6.9 Mw  Great Hanshin earthquake shakes the southern Hyōgo Prefecture with a maximum Shindo of VII, leaving 5,502–6,434 people dead, and 251,301–310,000 displaced.

1996 – The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.

1997 – Cape Canaveral Air Force Station: A Delta II carrying the GPS IIR-1 satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.

1998 – Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the story of the Bill Clinton–Monica Lewinsky affair on his Drudge Report website.

2002 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.

2007 – The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea's nuclear testing.

2010 – Rioting begins between Muslim and Christian groups in Jos, Nigeria, results in at least 200 deaths.

[lordroel]

January 18th

350 – General Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.

474 – Seven-year-old Leo II succeeds his maternal grandfather Leo I as Byzantine emperor. He dies ten months later.

532 – Nika riots in Constantinople fail.

1126 – Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.

1486 – King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV uniting the House of Lancaster and the House of York, after the Wars of the Roses.

1535 – Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founds Lima, the capital of Peru.

1562 – Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.

1591 – King Naresuan of Siam kills Crown Prince Mingyi Swa of Burma in single combat, for which this date is now observed as Royal Thai Armed Forces day.

1670 – Henry Morgan captures Panama.

1701 – Frederick I crowns himself King of Prussia in Königsberg.

1778 – James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the "Sandwich Islands".

1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from Great Britain to Australia arrive at Botany Bay.

1806 – Jan Willem Janssens surrenders the Dutch Cape Colony to the British.

1866 – Wesley College, Melbourne, is established.

1871 – Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed Kaiser Wilhelm in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. Wilhelm already had the title of German Emperor since the constitution of 1 January 1871, but he had hesitated to accept the title.

1884 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.

1886 – Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.

1896 – An X-ray generating machine is exhibited for the first time by H. L. Smith.

1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay, the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.

1913 – First Balkan War: A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.

1915 – Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.

1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.

1919 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.

1941 – World War II: British troops launch a general counter-offensive against Italian East Africa.

1943 – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

1945 – World War II: Liberation of Kraków, Poland by the Red Army.

1958 – Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut with the Boston Bruins.

1960 – Capital Airlines Flight 20 crashes into a farm in Charles City County, Virginia, killing all 50 aboard, the third fatal Capital Airlines crash in as many years.

1967 – Albert DeSalvo, the "Boston Strangler", is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life imprisonment.

1969 – United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay killing all 32 passengers and six crew members.

1974 – A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.

1976 – Lebanese Christian militias kill at least 1,000 in Karantina, Beirut.

1977 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease.

1977 – Australia's worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.

1977 – SFR Yugoslavia's Prime minister, Džemal Bijedić, his wife and six others are killed in a plane crash in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1978 – The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom's government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.

1981 – Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs).

1983 – The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family.

1990 – Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry is arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.

1993 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is officially observed for the first time in all 50 states.

2002 – Sierra Leone Civil War is declared over.

2003 – A bushfire kills four people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.

2005 – The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France

2007 – The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people and Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Cyclone Kyrill causes at least 44 deaths across 20 countries in Western Europe.

2008 – The Euphronios Krater is unveiled in Rome after being returned to Italy by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

2018 – A bus catches fire on the Samara–Shymkent road in Yrgyz District, Aktobe, Kazakhstan. The fire kills 52 passengers, with three passengers and two drivers escaping.

[lordroel]

January 19th

379 – Emperor Gratian elevates Flavius Theodosius at Sirmium to Augustus, and gives him authority over all the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire.

639 – Clovis II, King of Neustria and Burgundy, is crowned.

649 – Conquest of Kucha: The forces of Kucha surrender after a forty-day siege led by Tang dynasty general Ashina She'er, establishing Tang control over the northern Tarim Basin in Xinjiang.

1419 – Hundred Years' War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England, completing his reconquest of Normandy.

1511 – Mirandola surrenders to the French.

1520 – Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, is mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.

1607 – San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is the oldest church still standing in the Philippines.

1661 – Thomas Venner is hanged, drawn and quartered in London.

1764 – John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

1764 – The world's first mail bomb severely injures the Danish Colonel Poulsen, residing at Børglum Abbey.

1788 – The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrive at Botany Bay.

1795 – The Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands, bringing to an end the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands.

1806 – Britain occupies the Dutch Cape Colony after the Battle of Blaauwberg.

1812 – Peninsular War: After a ten-day siege, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, orders British soldiers of the Light and third divisions to storm Ciudad Rodrigo.

1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.

1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance.

1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden.

1853 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

1861 – American Civil War: Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in declaring secession from the United States.

1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs: The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.

1871 – Franco-Prussian War: In the Siege of Paris, Prussia wins the Battle of St. Quentin. Meanwhile, the French attempt to break the siege in the Battle of Buzenval will end unsuccessfully the following day.

1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.

1899 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.

1915 – German strategic bombing during World War I: German zeppelins bomb the towns of Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn in the United Kingdom killing at least 20 people, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.

1917 – Silvertown explosion: A blast at a munitions factory in London kills 73 and injures over 400. The resulting fire causes over £2,000,000 worth of damage.

1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.

1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is founded.

1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.

1940 – You Nazty Spy!, the very first Hollywood film of any kind to satirize Adolf Hitler and the Nazis premieres, starring The Three Stooges, with Moe Howard as the character "Moe Hailstone" satirizing Hitler.

1941 – World War II: HMS Greyhound and other escorts of convoy AS-12 sink Italian submarine Neghelli with all hands 40 miles northeast of Falkonera.

1942 – World War II: The Japanese conquest of Burma begins.

1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the Łódź Ghetto. Of more than 200,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived the Nazi occupation.

1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.

1953 – Almost 72% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.

1960 – Japan and the United States sign the US–Japan Mutual Security Treaty

1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire three days earlier in Prague's Wenceslas Square to protest about the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turns into another major protest.

1974 – China gains control over all the Paracel Islands after a military engagement between the naval forces of China and South Vietnam.

1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D'Aquino (a.k.a. "Tokyo Rose").

1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW's plant in Emden. Beetle production in Latin America continues until 2003.

1981 – Iran hostage crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.

1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.

1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.

1986 – The first IBM PC computer virus is released into the wild. A boot sector virus dubbed (c)Brain, it was created by the Farooq Alvi Brothers in Lahore, Pakistan, reportedly to deter unauthorized copying of the software they had written.

1991 – Gulf War: Iraq fires a second Scud missile into Israel, causing 15 injuries.

1993 – Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

1995 – After being struck by lightning the crew of Bristow Flight 56C are forced to ditch. All 18 aboard are later rescued.

1996 – The barge North Cape oil spill occurs as an engine fire forces the tugboat Scandia ashore on Moonstone Beach in South Kingstown, Rhode Island.

1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.

1999 – British Aerospace agrees to acquire the defence subsidiary of the General Electric Company plc, forming BAE Systems in November 1999.

2007 – Turkish-Armenian Journalist Hrant Dink is assassinated in front of his newspaper's Istanbul office by 17-year-old Turkish ultra-nationalist Ogün Samast.

2007 – Four-man Team N2i, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Antarctic pole of inaccessibility for the first time since 1965 and for the first time ever without mechanical assistance.

2012 – The Hong Kong-based file-sharing website Megaupload is shut down by the FBI.

2014 – A bomb attack on an army convoy in the city of Bannu kills at least 26 Pakistani soldiers and injures 38 others.

[lordroel]

January 20th

250 – Pope Fabian is martyred during the Decian persecution.

649 – King Chindasuinth, at the urging of bishop Braulio of Zaragoza, crowns his son Recceswinth as co-ruler of the Visigothic Kingdom.

1265 – The first English parliament to include not only Lords but also representatives of the major towns holds its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now commonly known as the "Houses of Parliament".

1320 – Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.

1356 – Edward Balliol surrenders his claim to the Scottish throne to Edward III in exchange for an English pension.

1523 – Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.

1567 – Battle of Rio de Janeiro: Portuguese forces under the command of Estácio de Sá definitively drive the French out of Rio de Janeiro.

1576 – The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.

1649 – Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes".

1783 – The Kingdom of Great Britain signed preliminary articles of peace with France, setting the stage to the official end of hostilities in the American Revolutionary War later that year.

1785 – Invading Siamese forces attempt to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, but are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong river by the Tây Sơn in the Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút.

1788 – The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides that Port Jackson is a more suitable location for a colony.

1839 – In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats an alliance between Peru and Bolivia.

1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.

1877 – The last day of the Constantinople Conference results in agreement for political reforms in the Balkans.

1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.

1921 – The British K-class submarine HMS K5 sinks in the English Channel; all 56 on board die.

1921 – The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.

1929 – In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking motion picture filmed outdoors, is released.

1936 – King George V of the United Kingdom dies. His eldest son succeeds to the throne, becoming Edward VIII. The title Prince of Wales is not used for another 22 years.

1937 – Franklin D. Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in for their second terms as U.S. President and U.S. Vice President, the first occasion a Presidential Inauguration to take place on January 20 following the ratification of the 20th Amendment

1941 – A German officer is killed in Bucharest, Romania, sparking a rebellion and pogrom by the Iron Guard, killing 125 Jews and 30 soldiers.

1942 – World War II: At the Wannsee Conference held in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee, senior Nazi German officials discuss the implementation of the "Final Solution to the Jewish question".

1945 – World War II: The provisional government of Béla Miklós in Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.

1945 – World War II: Germany begins the evacuation of 1.8 million people from East Prussia, a task which will take nearly two months.

1948 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 39 relating to India and Pakistan is adopted.

1949 – Point Four Program a program for economic aid to poor countries announced by United States President Harry S. Truman in his inaugural address for a full term as President.

1953 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States of America, becoming the first President to begin his presidency on January 20 following the ratification of the 20th Amendment.

1954 – In the United States, the National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.

1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated the 35th President of the United States of America, becoming the second youngest man to take the office, and the first Catholic.

1969 – Richard Nixon is inaugurated the 37th President of the United States of America.

1972 – Pakistan launched its nuclear weapons program, a few weeks after its defeat in the Bangladesh Liberation War, as well as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.

1977 – Jimmy Carter is inaugurated the 39th President of the United States of America.

1981 – Ronald Reagan is inaugurated the 40th President of the United States of America. Twenty minutes later, Iran releases 52 American hostages.

1986 – In the United States, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

1989 – George H. W. Bush is inaugurated the 41st President of the United States of America.

1990 – Protests in Azerbaijan, part of the Dissolution of the Soviet Union.

1991 – Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.

1992 – Air Inter Flight 148, an Airbus A320-111, crashes into a mountain near Strasbourg, France killing 87 of the 96 people on board.

1993 – Bill Clinton is inaugurated the 42nd President of the United States of America.

2001 – George W. Bush is inaugurated the 43rd President of the United States of America.

2001 – President of the Philippines Joseph Estrada is ousted in a nonviolent 4-day revolution, and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

2009 – Barack Obama is inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States of America, becoming the first African-American President of the United States.

2009 – A protest movement in Iceland culminates as the 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests start.

2017 – Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States of America, becoming the oldest person to assume the office.

2018 – The United States federal government shuts down after the Senate fails to pass a temporary funding bill.

2018 – A group of 4 or 5 gunmen attack The Inter-Continental Hotel in Kabul, Afghanistan, sparking a 12-hour battle. The attack kills at least 18 people and injures more than 22 and with reports that the death toll may rise to 43.

[lordroel]

January 21st

763 – The Battle of Bakhamra between Alids and Abbasids near Kufa ends in a decisive Abbasid victory.

1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is founded when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz's mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.

1535 – Following the Affair of the Placards, French Protestants are burned at the stake in front of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris.

1720 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.

1749 – The Teatro Filarmonico in Verona is destroyed by fire. It is rebuilt in 1754.

1774 – Abdul Hamid I became Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and Caliph of Islam.

1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth by William Hill Brown, is printed in Boston.

1793 – After being found guilty of treason by the French National Convention, Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine.

1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.

1893 – The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, is formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana.

1908 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor.

1911 – The first Monte Carlo Rally takes place.

1915 – Kiwanis International is founded in Detroit.

1919 – A revolutionary Irish parliament is founded and declares the independence of the Irish Republic. One of the first engagements of the Irish War of Independence takes place.

1925 – Albania declares itself a republic.

1931 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.

1941 – Sparked by the murder of a German officer in Bucharest, Romania, the day before, members of the Iron Guard engaged in a rebellion and pogrom killing 125 Jews.

1948 – The Flag of Quebec is adopted and flown for the first time over the National Assembly of Quebec. The day is marked annually as Québec Flag Day.

1950 – American lawyer and government official Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.

1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, the First Lady of the United States.

1960 – Little Joe 1B, a Mercury spacecraft, lifts off from Wallops Island, Virginia with Miss Sam, a female rhesus monkey on board.

1960 – Avianca Flight 671 crashes and burns upon landing at Montego Bay, Jamaica killing 37. It is the worst air disaster in Jamaica's history and the first for Avianca.

1960 – A coal mine collapses at Holly Country, South Africa, killing 435 miners.

1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh: One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.

1968 – A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. One of the four bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup operation is complete.

1971 – The current Emley Moor transmitting station, the tallest free-standing structure in the United Kingdom, begins transmitting UHF broadcasts.

1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with the London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.

1981 – Production of the iconic DeLorean DMC-12 sports car begins in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom.

1997 – The U.S. House of Representatives votes 395–28 to reprimand Newt Gingrich for ethics violations, making him the first Speaker of the House to be so disciplined.

1999 – War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 4,300 kilograms (9,500 lb) of cocaine on board.

2000 – Ecuador: After the Ecuadorian Congress is seized by indigenous organizations, Col. Lucio Gutiérrez, Carlos Solorzano and Antonio Vargas depose President Jamil Mahuad. Gutierrez is later replaced by Gen. Carlos Mendoza, who resigns and allows Vice-President Gustavo Noboa to succeed Mahuad.

2003 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 29 and leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless.

2004 – NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies in the management of its flash memory and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.

2005 – In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.

2009 – Israel withdraws from the Gaza Strip, officially ending a three-week war it had with Hamas. However, intermittent fire by both sides continues in the weeks to follow.

2011 – Anti government demonstrations take place in Tirana, Albania. Five people lose their lives from gunshots, allegedly fired from armed police protecting the Prime Minister's office. To date, no one has been held accountable for the deaths.

2017 – Over 400 cities across America and 160+ countries worldwide participate in a large-scale women's march, on Donald Trump's first full day as President of the United States.

2018 – Rocket Lab's Electron becomes the first rocket to reach orbit using an electric pump-fed engine and deploys three CubeSats.

[lordroel]

January 22nd

613 – Eight-month-old Constantine is crowned as co-emperor (Caesar) by his father Heraclius at Constantinople.

871 – Battle of Basing: The West Saxons led by King Æthelred I are defeated by the Danelaw Vikings at Basing.

1506 – The first contingent of 150 Swiss Guards arrives at the Vatican.

1517 – The Ottoman Empire under Selim I defeats the Mamluk Sultanate and captures present-day Egypt at the Battle of Ridaniya.

1555 – The Ava Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in what is now Myanmar.

1689 – The Convention Parliament convenes to determine whether James II and VII, the last Roman Catholic monarch of England, Ireland and Scotland, had vacated the thrones of England and Ireland when he fled to France in 1688.

1808 – The Portuguese royal family arrives in Brazil after fleeing the French army's invasion of Portugal two months earlier.

1824 – The Ashantis defeat British forces in the Gold Coast.

1849 – Second Anglo-Sikh War: The Siege of Multan ends after nine months when the last Sikh defenders of Multan, Punjab, surrender.

1863 – The January Uprising breaks out in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. The aim of the national movement is to regain Polish–Lithuanian–Ruthenian Commonwealth from occupation by Russia.

1879 – The Battle of Isandlwana during the Anglo-Zulu War results in a British defeat.

1879 – The Battle of Rorke's Drift, also during the Anglo-Zulu War and just some 71km away from Isandlwana, results in a British victory.

1889 – Columbia Phonograph is formed in Washington, D.C.

1890 – The United Mine Workers of America is founded in Columbus, Ohio.

1901 – Edward VII is proclaimed King after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria.

1905 – Bloody Sunday in Saint Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

1906 – SS Valencia runs aground on rocks on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, killing more than 130.

1915 – Over 600 people are killed in Guadalajara, Mexico, when a train plunges off the tracks into a deep canyon.

1917 – World War I: President Woodrow Wilson of the still-neutral United States calls for "peace without victory" in Europe.

1919 – Act Zluky is signed, unifying the Ukrainian People's Republic and the West Ukrainian National Republic.

1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1927 – Teddy Wakelam gives the first live radio commentary of a football match anywhere in the world, between Arsenal F.C. and Sheffield United at Highbury.

1941 – World War II: British and Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk from Italian forces during Operation Compass.

1943 – World War II: Australian and American forces defeat Japanese army and navy units in the bitterly-fought Battle of Buna–Gona.

1944 – World War II: The Allies commence Operation Shingle, an assault on Anzio and Nettuno, Italy.

1946 – In Iran, Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people's Republic of Mahabad at Chahar Cheragh Square in the Kurdish city of Mahabad; he becomes the new president and Haji Baba Sheikh becomes the prime minister.

1946 – Creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.

1947 – KTLA, the first commercial television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation in Hollywood.

1957 – Israel withdraws from the Sinai Peninsula.

1957 – The New York City "Mad Bomber", George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs.

1963 – The Élysée Treaty of cooperation between France and Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.

1968 – Apollo 5 lifts off carrying the first Lunar module into space.

1968 – Operation Igloo White, a US electronic surveillance system to stop communist infiltration into South Vietnam begins installation.

1970 – The Boeing 747, the world's first "jumbo jet", enters commercial service for launch customer Pan American Airways with its maiden voyage from John F. Kennedy International Airport to London Heathrow Airport.

1971 – The Singapore Declaration, one of the two most important documents to the uncodified constitution of the Commonwealth of Nations, is issued.

1973 – The Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decisions in Roe v. Wade and Doe v. Bolton, legalizing elective abortion in all fifty states.

1973 – The crew of Apollo 17 addresses a joint session of Congress after the completion of the final Apollo moon landing mission.

1973 – A chartered Boeing 707 explodes in flames upon landing at Kano Airport, Nigeria, killing 176.

1973 – In a bout for the world heavyweight boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica, challenger George Foreman knocks down champion Joe Frazier six times in the first two rounds before the fight is stopped by referee Arthur Mercante.

1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during a Super Bowl XVIII television commercial.

1987 – Philippine security forces open fire on a crowd of 10,000–15,000 demonstrators at Malacañang Palace, Manila, killing 13.

1992 – Rebel forces occupy Zaire's national radio station in Kinshasa and broadcast a demand for the government's resignation.

1992 – Space Shuttle program: Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman and the first neurologist in space.

1995 – Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid massacre: In central Israel, near Netanya, two Gazans blow themselves up at a military transit point, killing 19 Israelis.

1999 – Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.

2002 – Kmart becomes the largest retailer in United States history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated as President of Bolivia, becoming the country's first indigenous president.

2007 – At least 88 people are killed when two car bombs explode in the Bab Al-Sharqi market in central Baghdad, Iraq.

2015 – An explosion near a civilian trolley-bus in Donetsk kills at least thirteen people.

[lordroel]

January 23rd

393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his eight-year-old son Honorius co-emperor.

971 – Using crossbows, Song dynasty troops soundly defeat a war elephant corps of the Southern Han at Shao.

1264 – In the conflict between King Henry III of England and his rebellious barons led by Simon de Montfort, King Louis IX of France issues the Mise of Amiens, a one-sided decision in favour of Henry that later leads to the Second Barons' War.

1368 – In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.

1546 – Having published nothing for eleven years, François Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.

1556 – The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.

1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such.

1571 – The Royal Exchange opens in London.

1579 – The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.

1656 – Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.

1719 – The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.

1789 – Georgetown College, the first Catholic university in the United States, is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (now a part of Washington, D.C.)

1793 – Second Partition of Poland.

1795 – After an extraordinary charge across the frozen Zuiderzee, the French cavalry captured 14 Dutch ships and 850 guns, in a rare occurrence of a battle between ships and cavalry.

1846 – Slavery in Tunisia is abolished.

1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Geneva Medical College of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first female doctor.

1870 – In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in what becomes known as the Marias Massacre.

1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.

1899 – The Malolos Constitution is inaugurated, establishing the First Philippine Republic. Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn in as its first President.

1900 – Second Boer War: The Battle of Spion Kop between the forces of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and British forces ends in a British defeat.

1904 – Ålesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.

1909 – RMS Republic, a passenger ship of the White Star Line, becomes the first ship to use the CQD distress signal after colliding with another ship, the SS Florida, off the Massachusetts coastline, an event that kills six people. The Republic sinks the next day.

1912 – The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.

1920 – The Netherlands refuses to surrender the exiled Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

1937 – The trial of the anti-Soviet Trotskyist center sees seventeen mid-level Communists accused of sympathizing with Leon Trotsky and plotting to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime.

1941 – Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.

1942 – World War II: The Battle of Rabaul commences Japan's invasion of Australia's Territory of New Guinea.

1943 – World War II: Troops of Montgomery's Eighth Army capture Tripoli in Libya from the German–Italian Panzer Army.

1945 – World War II: German admiral Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.

1950 – The Knesset resolves that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

1957 – American inventor Walter Frederick Morrison sells the rights to his flying disc to the Wham-O toy company, which later renames it the "Frisbee".

1958 – After a general uprising and rioting in the streets, President Marcos Pérez Jiménez leaves Venezuela.

1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 metres (35,797 ft) in the Pacific Ocean.

1961 – The Portuguese luxury cruise ship Santa Maria is hijacked by opponents of the Estado Novo regime with the intention of waging war until dictator António de Oliveira Salazar is overthrown.

1963 – The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence officially begins when PAIGC guerrilla fighters attack the Portuguese army stationed in Tite.

1964 – The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.

1967 – Diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast are established.

1967 – Milton Keynes (England) is founded as a new town by Order in Council, with a planning brief to become a city of 250,000 people. Its initial designated area enclosed three existing towns and twenty one villages. The area to be developed was largely farmland, with evidence of continuous settlement dating back to the Bronze Age.

1973 – United States President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts its first members: Little Richard, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

1998 – Netscape announced Mozilla, with the intention to release Communicator code as open source.

2001 – Five people attempt to set themselves on fire in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, an act that many people later claim is staged by the Communist Party of China to frame Falun Gong and thus escalate their persecution.

2002 – U.S. journalist Daniel Pearl is kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan and subsequently murdered.

2003 – A very weak signal from Pioneer 10 is detected for the last time, but no usable data can be extracted.

2018 – A 7.9 Mw  earthquake occurs in the Gulf of Alaska. It is tied as the sixth-largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States, but there are no reports of significant damage or fatalities.

2018 – A double car bombing in Benghazi, Libya, kills at least 33 people and wounds "dozens" of others. The victims include both military personnel and civilians, according to local officials.

[lordroel]

January 24th

AD 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula's uncle Claudius as Emperor.

914 – Start of the First Fatimid invasion of Egypt.

1438 – The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV.

1458 – Matthias Corvinus becomes King of Hungary.

1624 – Afonso Mendes, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.

1679 – King Charles II of England dissolves the Cavalier Parliament.

1739 – Peshva warrior Chimnaji Appa defeats Portuguese forces and captures Tarapur Fort, India.

1742 – Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

1758 – During the Seven Years' War the leading burghers of Königsberg submit to Elizabeth of Russia, thus forming Russian Prussia.

1817 – Crossing of the Andes: Many soldiers of Juan Gregorio de las Heras are captured during the Action of Picheuta.

1835 – Slaves in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, stage a revolt, which is instrumental in ending slavery there 50 years later.

1848 – California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.

1857 – The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first fully fledged university in South Asia.

1859 – The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (later named Romania) is formed as a personal union under the rule of Domnitor Alexandru Ioan Cuza.

1862 – Bucharest is proclaimed the capital of Romania.

1900 – Second Boer War: Boers stop a British attempt to break the Siege of Ladysmith in the Battle of Spion Kop.

1908 – The first Boy Scout troop is organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.

1915 – World War I: British Grand Fleet battle cruisers under Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty engage Rear-Admiral Franz von Hipper's battle cruisers in the Battle of Dogger Bank.

1916 – In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad Co., the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.

1918 – The Gregorian calendar is introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective February 14(NS)

1933 – The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, changing the beginning and end of terms for all elected federal offices.

1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people.

1942 – World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand, then under Japanese control, to declare war against the United States and United Kingdom.

1943 – World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.

1946 – The United Nations General Assembly passes its first resolution to establish the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission.

1960 – Algerian War: Some units of European volunteers in Algiers stage an insurrection known as the "barricades week", during which they seize government buildings and clash with local police.

1961 – Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.

1968 – Vietnam War: The 1st Australian Task Force launches Operation Coburg against the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong during wider fighting around Long Bình and Biên Hòa.

1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II.

1977 – Atocha massacre occurs in Madrid during the Spanish transition to democracy.

1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.

1984 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

1989 – Notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, with over 30 known victims, is executed by the electric chair at the Florida State Prison.

1990 – Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe, the first robotic lunar probe since the Soviet Union's Luna 24 in 1976, and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States.

2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

2009 – Cyclone Klaus makes landfall near Bordeaux, France, causing 26 deaths as well as extensive disruptions to public transport and power supplies.

2011 – At least 35 die and 180 are injured in a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport.

[lordroel]

January 25th

AD 41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.

750 – In the Battle of the Zab, the Abbasid rebels defeat the Umayyad Caliphate, leading to overthrow of the dynasty.

1348 – A strong earthquake strikes the South Alpine region of Friuli in modern Italy, causing considerable damage to buildings as far away as Rome.

1494 – Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.

1515 – Coronation of Francis I of France.

1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.

1554 – Founding of São Paulo city, Brazil.

1573 – Battle of Mikatagahara: In Japan, Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.

1575 – Luanda, the capital of Angola, is founded by the Portuguese navigator Paulo Dias de Novais.

1704 – The Battle of Ayubale results in the destruction of most of the Spanish missions in Florida.

1755 – Moscow University is established on Tatiana Day.

1765 – Port Egmont, the first British settlement in the Falkland Islands near the southern tip of South America, is founded.

1787 – Shays's Rebellion: The rebellion's largest confrontation, outside the Springfield Armory, results in the killing of four rebels and the wounding of twenty.

1791 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old Province of Quebec into Upper Canada and Lower Canada.

1792 – The London Corresponding Society is founded.

1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn is played at the marriage of Queen Victoria's daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia, and becomes a popular wedding processional.

1879 – The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.

1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.

1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

1909 – Richard Strauss's opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.

1915 – Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

1918 – The Ukrainian People's Republic declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.

1924 – The 1924 Winter Olympics opens in Chamonix, in the French Alps, inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.

1932 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese National Revolutionary Army begins the defense of Harbin.

1937 – The Guiding Light debuts on NBC radio from Chicago. In 1952 it moves to CBS television, where it remains until September 18, 2009.

1941 – Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.

1942 – World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.

1945 – World War II: The Battle of the Bulge ends.

1946 – The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.

1946 – United Nations Security Council Resolution 1 relating to Military Staff Committee is adopted.

1947 – Thomas Goldsmith Jr. files a patent for a "Cathode Ray Tube Amusement Device", the first ever electronic game.

1949 – The first Emmy Awards are presented; the venue is the Hollywood Athletic Club.

1960 – The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the "payola" scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accept money for playing particular records.

1961 – In Washington, D.C., President John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.

1961 – 101 Dalmatians premiered from Walt Disney Productions.

1964 – Blue Ribbon Sports is founded by University of Oregon track and field athletes, which would later become Nike.

1969 – Brazilian Army captain Carlos Lamarca deserts in order to fight against the military dictatorship, taking with him ten machine guns and 63 rifles.

1971 – Charles Manson and three female "Family" members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate–LaBianca murders.

1971 – Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda's president.

1979 – Pope John Paul II starts his first official papal visits outside Italy to The Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Mexico.

1980 – Mother Teresa is honored with India's highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.

1986 – The National Resistance Movement topples the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.

1993 – Five people are shot outside the CIA Headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Two are killed and three wounded.

1994 – The spacecraft Clementine by BMDO and NASA is launched.

1995 – The Norwegian rocket incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.

1996 – Billy Bailey becomes the last person to be hanged in the U.S.A.

1998 – During a historic visit to Cuba, Pope John Paul II demands political reforms and the release of political prisoners while condemning US attempts to isolate the country.

1998 – A suicide attack by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on Sri Lanka's Temple of the Tooth kills eight and injures 25 others.

1999 – A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.

2003 – Invasion of Iraq: A group of people leave London, England, for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields, intending to prevent the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing certain locations.

2005 – A stampede at the Mandhradevi temple in Maharashtra, India kills at least 258.

2006 – Mexican professional wrestler Juana Barraza is arrested in connection with the serial killing of at least ten elderly women.

2011 – The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins throughout the country, marked by street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes.

2013 – At least 50 people are killed and 120 people are injured in a prison riot in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.

2015 – A clash in Mamasapano, Maguindanao in the Philippines killing 44 members of Special Action Force (SAF), at least 18 from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and five from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

[lordroel]

January 26th

661 – The Rashidun Caliphate is effectively ended with the assassination of Ali, the last caliph.

1500 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.

1531 – The 6.4–7.1 Mw Lisbon earthquake kills about thirty thousand people.

1564 – The Council of Trent establishes an official distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.

1564 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania defeats the Tsardom of Russia in the Battle of Ula during the Livonian War.

1565 – Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Deccan sultanates, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.

1699 – For the first time, the Ottoman Empire permanently cedes territory to the Christian powers.

1700 – The 8.7–9.2 Mw Cascadia earthquake takes place off the west coast of North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.

1736 – Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.

1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour) to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on Australia. Commemorated as Australia Day.

1808 – The Rum Rebellion is the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in Australia.

1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.

1838 – Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States

1841 – James Bremer takes formal possession of Hong Kong Island at what is now Possession Point, establishing British Hong Kong.

1855 – Point No Point Treaty is signed in Washington Territory.

1856 – First Battle of Seattle. Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.

1861 – American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.

1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.

1863 – American Civil War: Governor of Massachusetts John Albion Andrew receives permission from the Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.

1870 – Reconstruction Era: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1885 – Troops loyal to The Mahdi conquer Khartoum, killing the Governor-General Charles George Gordon.

1905 – The world's largest diamond ever, the Cullinan weighing 3,106.75 carats (0.621350 kg), is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.

1911 – Glenn Curtiss flies the first successful American seaplane.

1915 – The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of the U.S. Congress.

1918 – Finnish Civil War: A group of Red Guards hangs a red lantern atop the tower of Helsinki Workers' Hall to symbolically mark the start of the war.

1920 – Former Ford Motor Company executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company which he later sold to his former employer.

1926 – The first demonstration of the television by John Logie Baird.

1930 – The Indian National Congress declares 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj ("Complete Independence") which occurred 17 years later.

1934 – The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.

1934 – German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed.

1939 – Spanish Civil War: Catalonia Offensive: Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.

1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.

1945 – World War II: The Red Army begins encircling the German Fourth Army near Heiligenbeil in East Prussia, which will end in destruction of the 4th Army two months later.

1945 – World War II: Audie Murphy displays valor and bravery in action for which he will later be awarded the Medal of Honor.

1949 – The Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory sees first light under the direction of Edwin Hubble, becoming the largest aperture optical telescope (until BTA-6 is built in 1976).

1950 – The Constitution of India comes into force, forming a republic. Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first President of India. Observed as Republic Day in India.

1952 – Black Saturday in Egypt: rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.

1956 – Soviet Union cedes Porkkala back to Finland.

1961 – John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be the first woman Physician to the President.

1962 – Ranger 3 is launched to study the Moon. The space probe later misses the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).

1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India.

1980 – Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.

1986 – The Ugandan government of Tito Okello is overthrown by the National Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni.

1991 – Mohamed Siad Barre is removed from power in Somalia, ending centralized government, and is succeeded by Ali Mahdi.

1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia will stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.

1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had "sexual relations" with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

2001 – The 7.7 Mw Gujarat earthquake shakes Western India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme), leaving 13,805–20,023 dead and about 166,800 injured.

2009 – Rioting breaks out in Antananarivo, Madagascar, sparking a political crisis that will result in the replacement of President Marc Ravalomanana with Andry Rajoelina.

2015 – An aircraft crashes at Los Llanos Air Base in Albacete, Spain, killing 11 people and injuring 21 others.

[lordroel]

January 27th

AD 98 – Trajan succeeds his adoptive father Nerva as Roman emperor; under his rule the Roman Empire would reach its maximum extent.

945 – The co-emperors Stephen and Constantine are overthrown and forced to become monk by Constantine VII, who becomes sole emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

1186 – Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, marries Constance of Sicily.

1302 – Dante Alighieri is exiled from Florence.

1343 – Pope Clement VI issues the papal bull Unigenitus to justify the power of the pope and the use of indulgences. Nearly 200 years later, Martin Luther would protest this.

1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, ending with their execution on January 31.

1695 – Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan and Caliph of Islam in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his abdication in 1703.

1776 – American Revolutionary War: Henry Knox's "noble train of artillery" arrives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.

1820 – A Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev discovers the Antarctic continent, approaching the Antarctic coast.

1825 – The U.S. Congress approves Indian Territory (in what is present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for forced relocation of the Eastern Indians on the "Trail of Tears".

1868 – Boshin War: The Battle of Toba–Fushimi between forces of the Tokugawa shogunate and pro-Imperial factions begins, which will end in defeat for the shogunate, and is a pivotal point in the Meiji Restoration.

1869 – Boshin War: Tokugawa rebels establish the Ezo Republic in Hokkaidō.

1880 – Thomas Edison receives the patent on the incandescent lamp.

1916 – World War I: The British government passed a legislation that introduced conscription in the United Kingdom.

1918 – Beginning of the Finnish Civil War.

1927 – Ibn Saud takes the title of King of Nejd.

1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.

1943 – World War II: The Eighth Air Force sorties ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-boat construction yards at Wilhelmshaven, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany.

1944 – World War II: The 900-day Siege of Leningrad is lifted.

1945 – World War II: The Soviet 322nd Rifle Division liberates the remaining inmates of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with Operation Ranger.

1961 – The Soviet submarine S-80 sinks when its snorkel malfunctions, flooding the boat.

1967 – Apollo program: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of their Apollo 1 spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida.

1967 – Cold War: The Soviet Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom sign the Outer Space Treaty in Washington, D.C., banning deployment of nuclear weapons in space, and limiting use of the Moon and other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.

1973 – The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde is killed in action becoming the conflict's last recorded American combat casualty.

1980 – Through cooperation between the U.S. and Canadian governments, six American diplomats secretly escape hostilities in Iran in the culmination of the Canadian Caper.

1983 – The pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world's longest sub-aqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō, breaks through.

1996 – In a military coup, Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane.

1996 – Germany first observes the International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

2002 – An explosion at a military storage facility in Lagos, Nigeria, kills at least 1,100 people and displaces over 20,000 others.

2003 – The first selections for the National Recording Registry are announced by the Library of Congress.

2010 – The 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis ends when Porfirio Lobo Sosa becomes the new President of Honduras.

2011 – Arab Spring: The Yemeni Revolution begins as over 16,000 protestors demonstrate in Sana'a.

2013 – Two hundred and forty-two people die in a nightclub fire in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul.

[lordroel]

January 28th

814 – Charlemagne dies of pleurisy in Aachen as the first Holy Roman Emperor. He is succeeded by his son Louis the Pious as king of the Frankish Empire.

946 – Caliph Al-Mustakfi is blinded and deposed by Emir Mu'izz al-Dawla, ruler of the Buyid Empire. He is succeeded by Al-Muti as caliph of the Abbasid Caliphate.

1069 – Robert de Comines, the Earl of Northumbria, is killed while attempting to subdue rebels in Durham, England. This leads to the Harrying of the North by William the Conqueror.

1077 – Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.

1393 – King Charles VI of France is nearly killed when several dancers' costumes catch fire during a masquerade ball.

1521 – The Diet of Worms begins, lasting until May 25.

1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine-year-old son, Edward VI, becomes king.

1568 – The Edict of Torda prohibited the persecution of individuals on religious ground in John Sigismund Zápolya's Eastern Hungarian Kingdom.

1573 – Articles of the Warsaw Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion in Poland.

1624 – Sir Thomas Warner founds the first British colony in the Caribbean, on the island of Saint Kitts.

1724 – The Russian Academy of Sciences is founded in St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, and implemented by Senate decree. It is called the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until 1917.

1754 – Sir Horace Walpole coins the word serendipity in a letter to a friend.

1813 – Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.

1846 – The Battle of Aliwal, India, is won by British troops commanded by Sir Harry Smith.

1851 – Northwestern University becomes the first chartered university in Illinois.

1855 – A locomotive on the Panama Canal Railway runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean for the first time.

1871 – Franco-Prussian War: The Siege of Paris ends in French defeat and an armistice.

1878 – Yale Daily News becomes the first daily college newspaper in the United States.

1896 – Walter Arnold of East Peckham, Kent, becomes the first person to be convicted of speeding. He was fined one shilling, plus costs, for speeding at 8 mph (13 km/h), thereby exceeding the contemporary speed limit of 2 mph (3.2 km/h).

1902 – The Carnegie Institution of Washington is founded in Washington, D.C. with a $10 million gift from Andrew Carnegie.

1908 – Members of the Portuguese Republican Party fail in their attempted coup d'état against the administrative dictatorship of Prime Minister João Franco.

1909 – United States troops leave Cuba with the exception of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish–American War.

1915 – An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard as a branch of the United States Armed Forces.

1918 – Finnish Civil War: The Red Guard rebels seize control of the capital, Helsinki; members of the Senate of Finland go underground.

1920 – Foundation of the Spanish Legion.

1922 – Knickerbocker Storm, Washington D.C.'s biggest snowfall, causes the city's greatest loss of life when the roof of the Knickerbocker Theatre collapses.

1932 – Japanese forces attack Shanghai.

1933 – The name Pakistan is coined by Choudhry Rahmat Ali Khan and is accepted by Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.

1935 – Iceland becomes the first Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion.

1938 – The World Land Speed Record on a public road is broken by Rudolf Caracciola in the Mercedes-Benz W195 at a speed of 432.7 kilometres per hour (268.9 mph).

1941 – Franco-Thai War: Final air battle of the conflict. A Japanese-mediated armistice goes into effect later in the day.

1945 – World War II: Supplies begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopened Burma Road.

1956 – Elvis Presley makes his first national television appearance.

1958 – The Lego company patents the design of its Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.

1960 – The National Football League announced expansion teams for Dallas to start in the 1960 NFL season and Minneapolis-St. Paul for 1961 NFL season.

1964 – An unarmed United States Air Force T-39 Sabreliner on a training mission is shot down over Erfurt, East Germany, by a Soviet MiG-19.

1965 – The current design of the Flag of Canada is chosen by an act of Parliament.

1977 – The first day of the Great Lakes Blizzard of 1977 which dumps 10 feet (3.0 m) of snow in one day in Upstate New York, with Buffalo, Syracuse, Watertown, and surrounding areas are most affected.

1980 – USCGC Blackthorn collides with the tanker Capricorn while leaving Tampa, Florida and capsizes, killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.

1981 – Ronald Reagan lifts remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in the United States helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.

1982 – US Army general James L. Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity by the Red Brigades.

1984 – Tropical Storm Domoina makes landfall in southern Mozambique, eventually causing 214 deaths and some of the most severe flooding so far recorded in the region.

1985 – Supergroup USA for Africa (United Support of Artists for Africa) records the hit single We Are the World, to help raise funds for Ethiopian famine relief.

1986 – Space Shuttle program: STS-51-L mission: Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff, killing all seven astronauts on board.

1988 – In R v Morgentaler the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down all anti-abortion laws.

2002 – TAME Flight 120, a Boeing 727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southern Colombia, killing 92.

2006 – The roof of one of the buildings at the Katowice International Fair in Poland, collapses due to the weight of snow, killing 65 and injuring more than 170 others.