Victory in Battle
46 BC Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina
Julius Caesar
- 274 St Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 871 Battle at Reading: Ethelred of Wessex defeated by Danish invasion army
- 1357 Flemish earl Louis & Luxembourg Duke Wenceslaus sign peace treaty
- 1490 Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered guilty of the crime of lese-majesty.
- 1519 -6] 1st Altenburger sermon (Luther & Karl von Miltitz)
- 1570 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
Event of Interest
1725 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London [OS=Dec 24 1724]
Benjamin Franklin
Event of Interest
1780 Snowstorm hits George Washington's army at Morristown, New Jersey
George Washington
Event of Interest
1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government
Samuel Colt
Historic Publication
1847 Manuscripts of Emily Brontë's "Wuthering Heights" and Anne Brontë's "Agnes Grey" sent to publisher T.C. Newby (published December 1947)
Emily Brontë
Event of Interest
1862 Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath
Stonewall Jackson
- 1863 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
- 1863 The New Apostolic Church is established in Germany
- 1865 New York Stock Exchange opens its 1st permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad St, near Wall Street in New York City
- 1868 Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone" is first serialized in "All the Year Round" owned by Charles Dickins
- 1878 Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule.
- 1881 Johannes Brahms' "Academic Festival Overture" premieres in Breslau
- 1883 Ontario Rugby Football Union (forerunner of CFL) forms
- 1884 Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
- 1884 The Fabian Society is founded in London.
- 1885 Dr William Grant of Iowa, performs 1st appendectomy in America on Mary Gartside, aged 22
- 1887 Thomas Stevens is 1st man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco to San Francisco)
- 1893 US President Cleveland grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
- 1894 France ratifies Duple Alliance with Russia
- 1896 AFL charters Actors' National Protective Union, NYC
- 1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
- 1898 1st installment of William Dean Howell's "Life & Letters" appears
- 1902 Hugh Trumble takes a hat-trick v England at the MCG
- 1902 The French Panama Canal Company offers to sell its right to build a canal to the US for 40 million; this will tip the balance away from those favoring a canal through Nicaraugua
Event of Interest
1903 Topsy the elephant is electrocuted by her owners at Luna Park, Coney Island and filmed by Edison Manufacturing movie company
Thomas Edison
- 1904 Stanley Cup: Ottawa Silver 7 beat Winnipeg Rowing Club, 2 games to 1
- 1904 In 'Gonzales v Williams', the US Supreme Court rules that Puerto Ricans are not aliens and may not be refused admission into continental United States; not until 1917 will citizenship rights be granted
- 1906 South Africa beat England by one wicket, their 1st Test win
Event of Interest
1907 George Bernard Shaw's "Don Juan in Hell" premieres in London
George Bernard Shaw
- 1912 Smallest earth-moon distance this century, 356,375 km center-to-ctr
- 1912 The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter.
- 1915 1st elected Jewish governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho
- 1915 Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
- 1920 1st Black baseball league, National Negro Baseball League, organizes
- 1920 Amsterdam actors decide to strike for retirement benefits
- 1921 Eugene O'Neill's "Diff'rent" premieres in NYC
- 1923 1st broadcast of "Barn Dance Show" (WBAP - Fort Worth Texas)
Vladimir Lenin
Joseph Stalin
Donald Bradman
Mahatma Gandhi
Jawaharlal Nehru
Event of Interest
1939 Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration
Reinhard Heydrich
Hermann Goering
Event of Interest
1943 Thomas Mann completes his tetralogy, "Joseph & His Brothers"
Thomas Mann
Event of Interest
1944 Ralph Bunche appointed 1st African American official in US State Department
Ralph Bunche
- 1944 Operation Carpetbagger begins (aerial dropping of supplies and weapons to resistance fighters in Europe)
- 1945 Germans execute resistance fighters in Amsterdam
- 1945 US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after Japanese kamikaze attack
- 1947 "Park Avenue" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 72 performances
- 1947 "Show Boat" closes at Ziegfeld Theater NYC after 417 performances
Event of Interest
1947 Emilio G. Segrè and Carlo Perrier announce technetium, a previously unknown element and the first artificially synthesized chemical element
Emilio G. Segrè
Music Recording
1954 Elvis Presley records a 10 minute demo in Nashville
Elvis Presley
Event of Interest
1958 Sir Edmund Hillary reaches the South Pole
Edmund Hillary
- 1959 Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes 1st craft to leave Earth's gravity
- 1960 European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
- 1961 Longest recorded strike ends as the Danish barbers' assistants end a 33 year strike
- 1962 1st automated (unmanned) subway train in New York City
- 1963 Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon
Lyndon B. Johnson
- 1966 Doug Walters scores second Test century in his second Test
- 1966 WFLD TV channel 32 in Chicago, IL (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1966 Military coup in Upper Volta leads to a new national constitution
- 1967 Donald Campbell is killed while driving a Bluebird K7, a jet-powered boat, on Coniston Water; Campbell was trying to beat his own speed record
- 1968 Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
- 1968 Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million to CBS
- 1969 "Fig Leaves Are Falling" closes at Broadhurst NYC after 4 performances
- 1969 France begins arms embargo against Israel
- 1969 A People's Democracy march between Belfast and Derry is repeatedly attacked by loyalists and off-duty police officers
- 1970 Beatles last recording session at EMI studios
- 1970 NYC transit fare rises from 20 cents to 30 cents, new larger tokens used
Event of Interest
1970 Walter Cronkite ends hosting weekly documentary
Walter Cronkite
- 1970 More than 15,000 people are killed in Tonghai County, China after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake
Event of Interest
1970 AFL Championship, Alameda County Coliseum, Oakland: Kansas City Chiefs beat Oakland Raiders, 17-7; Chiefs defence forces 4 interceptions
John Madden
- 1970 NFL Championship, Metropolitan Stadium, Bloomington: Minnesota Vikings beat Cleveland Browns, 27-7
- 1971 Dr Melvin H Evans inaugurated as 1st elected governor of Virgin Is
- 1971 Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
- 1971 Philadelphia's Veteran's Stadium dedicated
- 1972 Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.
- 1974 Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee
- 1975 "Good News" closes at St James Theater NYC after 16 performances
- 1975 "Gypsy" closes at Winter Garden Theater NYC after 120 performances
- 1975 "Over Here" closes at Shubert Theater NYC after 341 performances
- 1975 Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)
- 1975 Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica
- 1975 Montreal Canadiens shutout Washington Capitals 10-0
- 1975 New Orleans Jazz set a then NBA record (with 24-second shot clock) by scoring only 20 points in the first half of a 111-89 loss in Seattle; unwanted record stands for nearly 25 years
- 1976 "Candide" closes at Broadway Theater NYC after 740 performances
- 1976 "Home Sweet Homer" opens & closes at Palace Theater NYC
- 1976 The Ulster Volunteer Force shoot dead 6 Catholic civilians in 2 co-ordinated attacks in County Armagh, North Ireland
- 1976 Australian Open Men's Tennis: In an all-Australian final Mark Edmondson upsets John Newcombe 6-7, 6-3, 7-6, 6-1 for his first and only Grand Slam title
- 1976 AFC Championship, Three Rivers Stadium, Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh Steelers beat Oakland Raiders, 16-10
- 1976 NFC Championship, LA Memorial Coliseum: Dallas Cowboys beat Los Angeles Rams, 37-7
- 1977 Mary Shane hired by Chicago White Sox as 1st woman TV play-by-play
- 1981 "Frankenstein" opens & closes on Broadway
- 1981 "Peter Pan" closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theater NYC after 578 performances
- 1981 British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
- 1981 "Red Right 88", trailing 14–12 Clevelands Browns attempt an end zone pass play (Red Right 88) and a game-winning field goal in the final minute, but pass intercepted by Raiders safety Mike Davis and Oakland wins
- 1981 Australian Open Men's Tennis: American Brian Teacher wins his first and only Grand Slam event; beats home favourite Kim Warwick 7-5, 7-6, 6-3
- 1982 Bryant Gumbel became co-host of NBC's "Today Show"
- 1982 Chris Wallace becomes co-anchor of the Today Show
- 1982 Golden Gate Bridge closed for 3rd time by fierce storm
- 1982 ABC Direction Network (57 affiliates) & ABC Rock Network (40 affiliates) become the 5th & 6th ABC radio network
- 1983 US Football League holds its 1st player draft
- 1984 "Night Court" starring Harry Anderson premieres on NBC TV
- 1984 Edmonton beats Minnesota 12-8 highest-scoring modern NHL game
- 1984 Adrian Dantley ties Wilt Chamberlain's NBA record for most free throws made in a game by converting 28 of 29 free throws in Utah's 116-111 win over Houston at Las Vegas
- 1986 David Boon's second Test century, 131 v India at Adelaide
Event of Interest
1986 NCAA basketball's David Robinson blocks a record 14 shots
David Robinson
Event of Interest
1989 George H. W. Bush is 1st Vice President since Martin Van Buren to declare himself President of the United States
George H. W. Bush
Martin Van Buren
- 1990 307 dead and 700 injured after overloaded passenger train collides with empty freight train in Pakistan
- 1991 AT&T workers in Newark accidentally snap a cable
- 1991 12 year old Chinese diver Fu Mingxia wins 10m platform gold medal World Swimming Championships in Perth, Australia
- 1991 Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th
- 1991 Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
- 1991 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Goran Prpić beats American David Wheaton 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 for an unassailable 2-0 lead, (ends 2-1) and Yugoslavia's first title
- 1992 8th= largest wrestling crowd NJPW Starcade (60,000-Tokyo Dome)
Event of Interest
1992 Boston's Robert Parish becomes 5th player in NBA history to register 2,000 career blocks during Celtics' 100-96 loss at Minnesota - others Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Mark Eaton, Wayne Rollins and George Johnson
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Event of Interest
1995 Newt Gingrich (R) becomes speaker of the US House of Representatives
Newt Gingrich
- 1996 "Father" opens at Criterion Theater NYC for 52 performances
- 1997 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Justin Gimelstob & Chanda Rubin clinch first title for the US; beat South African pair Wayne Ferreira & Amanda Coetzer 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 for a 2-1 victory
- 1998 "Funny Thing Happened" closes at St James NYC after 715 perform
- 1998 "Ivanov" closes at Vivian Beaumont Theater NYC after 51 performances
- 1998 "Triumph of Love" closes at Royale Theater NYC
- 1998 Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria: over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
- 1998 A massive ice storm hits eastern Canada and the northeastern United States, continuing through January 10 and causing widespread destruction.
- 1999 Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as Governor of Minnesota
- 1999 Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.
- 1999 College Football, 1st BCS National Championship, Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, AZ: #1 Tennessee beats #2 Florida State, 23-16, at 28th Fiesta Bowl
Event of Interest
2000 A day after accepting the head coaching position of the New York Jets, Bill Belichick resigns
Bill Belichick
- 2000 After 2 months, Catherine Hartley and Fiona Thornewill, reach the South Poll, the same day as Sir Edmund Hillary 48 years before
- 2000 19 are killed after two trains collide in Asta, Norway
- 2000 American businessman and investor Mark Cuban purchases a majority stake in the Dallas Mavericks NBA franchise for $285m from H. Ross Perot, Jr.
Event of Interest
2001 Rapper Vanilla Ice spends night in jail after allegedly ripping out some of his wife's hair during a row
Vanilla Ice
Event of Interest
2001 Michael Jordan, then of the Washington Wizards, becomes the 4th player in NBA history to score 30,000 career points; hits a free throw in 2nd quarter of an 89-83 win against his old team, the Chicago Bulls
Michael Jordan
Event of Interest
2003 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Serena Williams & James Blake beat Australian pair Alicia Molik & Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-2 for a 3-0 win, and 2nd American title
Serena Williams
Election of Interest
2007 The 110th United States Congress convenes and elects Nancy Pelosi as the 1st female Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi
- 2008 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: Americans Serena Williams & Mardy Fish beat Serbian pair Novak Đoković & Jelena Janković 7-6, 6-2 for an unassailable 2-0 lead, and the 5th US title
- 2009 Phil Taylor, with a 7–1 victory in the final over Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld wins his 12th PDC World Darts title, his 14th in all; his 110.94 average remains a record for the PDC World Championship final
- 2010 The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention removed HIV infection from its list of communicable diseases of public health significance.
- 2010 The Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building at 829.8 m (2,722 ft), officially opens in Dubai
- 2013 9 people are killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria
- 2013 8 people are killed by a gunman in Kawit, the Philippines
- 2013 6 people are killed a 2 are seriously injured after a snowmobile veers off a ski slope on Mt Cermis, Italy
- 2013 3 people are killed after a Beechcraft BE35 crashes into a house in Florida
- 2014 14 people are killed after a three-story building construction site collapses in Goa, India
- 2014 Hopman Cup Tennis, Perth: France wins first title; Alizé Cornet & Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Poland's Agnieszka Radwańska & Grzegorz Panfil 6-0, 6-2 to clinch 2-1 victory
- 2015 Gary Anderson of Scotland beats 16-time world champion Phil Taylor, 7-6 to win his first PDC World Darts Championship at the Alexandra Palace, London
- 2016 Colombo's Gemology Institute certifies world's largest ever blue star sapphire at 1404.49 carats, found in a Sri Lankan mine in August 2015
- 2018 Truck hits a train near Kroonstad city, South Africa killing 19 passengers
- 2018 'Bomb Cyclone' hits US Northeast prompting flooding and snow in New York subway system
- 2018 Liverpool and Egyptian forward Mohamed Salah is named African Football Player of the Year
- 2019 Indian cricket batsmen Cheteshwar Pujara scores 193 and Rishabh Pant 159no as the tourists declare at 622/7 on Day 2 of 4th Test against Australia in Sydney; Pant, first Indian wicketkeeper to hit a century in Australia
- 2019 Thailand's worst storm in 30 years, Tropical Storm Pabuk makes landfall on country's east coast
January in History
The Beatles? 'They have no future in show business'
In 1962, an unknown group called the Beatles travelled to London for a recording contract audition with one of the major record labels. They were rejected.
January 1, 1962
'The Most Famous of All Streaks'
Erika Roe bounced into the history books on this day when, topless, she skipped onto the pitch at a rugby game to the roar of 60,000 cheering spectators.
January 2, 1982
Designer Throws His Hat Into the Ring; Creates a Sensation
The first time a man stepped out in London wearing a topper it caused a sensation, then a court case. Who now could imagine Fred Astaire without his famous top hat?
January 5, 1797
A Crackdown on Lovers in New York
New York wasn't always a free and easy city. Time was when not only adultery was a crime, but even looking at a lady in the wrong way could land a guy in trouble.
January 8, 1902