Event of Interest
27 BC The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate
Augustus Caesar
- 550 Gothic War (535-552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison
- 929 Caliphate of Cordoba is established by Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III
- 1120 The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem
- 1219 Floods in Northern Netherlands after storm, thousands killed
- 1362 A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt
- 1412 The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy
- 1492 The first grammar of a modern language, Spanish, is presented to Queen Isabella.
Historic Discovery
1493 Christopher Columbus leaves the New World and sets sail for Spain
Christopher Columbus
Event of Interest
1501 Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral and 6 ships begin their return voyage to Lisbon
Pedro Álvares Cabral
- 1531 English Reformation parliament's 2nd sitting
Event of Interest
1547 Ivan IV the Terrible (17) crowns himself first tsar of Moscow
Ivan the Terrible
Historic Publication
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
Miguel de Cervantes
- 1707 The Act of Union is ratified by the Scottish Parliament
- 1749 Hoax article advertising fictitious theatrical performer "The Bottle Conjuror" drew huge crowds to the Haymarket Theatre, London, whose inevitable non-appearance caused a riot. It's alleged the Duke of Montagu perpetrated the fiasco to win a bet
- 1756 Britain & Prussia sign Treaty of Westminster
- 1761 The British capture Pondicherry, India, from the French.
- 1765 Charles Messier catalogs M41 (galactic cluster in Canis Major)
- 1776 Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks
- 1777 Vermont declares independence from New York
- 1780 Battle of Cape St Vincent: British fleet under Admiral Sir George Rodney defeats Spanish squadron under Don Juan de Lángara
Event of Interest
1832 Charles Darwin lands at Porto Prayo in the Cape Verde islands, the first landing of his HMS Beagle voyage
Charles Darwin
- 1847 John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory
- 1862 Hartley Colliery disaster results in 204 deaths
- 1863 -Aug 23rd) Cruise of CSS Florida
- 1864 Heavy fighting takes place near Dandridge, Tennessee
- 1865 Drunken sailor attacks munitions at Ft Fisher NC, 40 die
- 1865 General William Sherman issues Field Order #15 (land for blacks)
- 1865 San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle starts
- 1868 Refrigerator car patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit
- 1870 Virginia becomes 8th state readmitted to US after Civil War
- 1871 Jefferson Long of Georgia sworn in as 2nd black congressman
- 1877 Color organ (for light shows) patented, by Bainbridge Bishop
- 1878 Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule
- 1879 January record 13" of snow falls in NYC (broken Jan 7, 1996)
- 1883 Pendleton Act creates basis of US Civil Service system
- 1887 Cliff House damaged when powder cargo of schooner "Parallel" explodes
- 1889 128°F (53°C), Cloncurry, Queensland (Australian record)
- 1896 Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.
Event of Interest
1897 John Dewey's essay "My Pedagogic Creed" appears in School Journal
John Dewey
- 1900 The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands
- 1900 The US gains control over Tutuila in Samoa and several smaller Pacific islands
- 1906 -Apr 13] Conference of Algeciras (about Morocco)
- 1908 Pinnacles National Monument, California established
- 1909 British explorers David, Mawson & Mackay reach south magnetic pole as part of the Nimrod Expedition
- 1911 Pandora becomes 1st 2-man sailboat to round Cape Horn west to east
- 1913 British House of Commons accepts Home Rule for Ireland (but the Great War gets in the way of it happening)
Event of Interest
1914 Writer Maxim Gorky returns to Russia
Maxim Gorky
- 1915 Congress authorizes $1 & $50 Panama-Pacific Intl Expo gold coin
- 1917 The Greek Government accepts reparations for Allied losses sustained in recent actions in Greece
- 1917 "Zimmermann Telegram" is sent from Germany to Mexico, stating in the event of the US entering World War I on the allied side, Mexico would be given Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Intercepted by British intelligence and partially deciphered by the next day. It's release in March shifts US public opinion in favor of war against Germany.
- 1918 Austria and Germany are disrupted by strikes as people express impatience with leaders continuing the war
- 1919 Prohibition ratified by 3/4 of US states; Nebraska is 36th
- 1920 1st assembly of the League of Nations is held in Paris
- 1920 Georgia declares independence
- 1920 Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Incorporated is founded at Howard University
- 1921 Eleftherios Venizelos becomes Prime Minister of Greece (4th time)
Event of Interest
1924 British Government of Stanley Baldwin resigns
Stanley Baldwin
Leon Trotsky
- 1925 Leon Trotsky resigns as chairman of the Russian Revolutionary Military Council as he and Stalin battle for power in the aftermath of Lenin's death.
- 1936 1st photo finish camera installed at Hialeah Race track in Hialeah, Florida
- 1936 Spanish socialists, communists and anarchists form Unidad Popular
- 1939 Daily newspaper comic strip "Superman" debuts
- 1939 The IRA begins a bombing campaign in England
Attack on Pearl Harbor
1941 US vice admiral Bellinger warns of an assault on Pearl Harbor
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- 1941 War Department forms first Army Air Corps squadron for black cadets
- 1942 William Knudsen becomes 1st civilian appointed a general in US army
- 1943 -60°F (-51°C), Island Park Dam, Idaho (state record)
- 1943 1st US air raid on Ambon
- 1943 German 2nd SS-Panzer division evacuates Charkow
- 1943 Red Army recaptures Pitomnik airport at Stalingrad
Event of Interest
1944 General Eisenhower takes command of Allied Invasion Force in London
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Event of Interest
1945 Adolf Hitler moves into the Fuhrerbunker, his underground bunker in Berlin
Adolf Hitler
- 1947 Vincent Aurial elected President of France
- 1948 35 Haganah members are ambushed & killed in Gush Etzyon
- 1950 Belgium, Luxembourg & Netherlands recognize Israel
- 1951 Viet Minh offensive against Hanoi
- 1951 World's largest gas pipeline opens (Brownsville Texas, to 134th St, New York City)
- 1952 New Dutch bible translation finished
- 1953 Egyptian Premier General Naguib disbands all political parties
- 1956 Egyptian President Nasser pledges to reconquer Palestine
- 1957 3 B-52s leave California for 1st non-stop round world flights
- 1958 William Gibson's "Two for the Seesaw" premieres in NYC
- 1961 Russian espionage ring detected in Great Britain
- 1962 Suit accuses NYC Board of Education uses "racial quotas"
Event of Interest
1963 Khrushchev claims to have a 100-megaton nuclear bomb
Nikita Khrushchev
Event of Interest
1963 Tennessee Williams' "Milk Train Doesn't Stop Here Anymore" premieres
Tennessee Williams
- 1964 AL owners vote 9-1 against Charlie Finley moving KC A's to Louisville
- 1965 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakh/Semipalitinsk USSR
- 1966 Harold R Perry becomes 2nd black Roman Catholic bishop in US
- 1966 Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi seizes power in the chaos caused by a military coup and becomes the Nigerian Head of State
- 1967 1st black government installed in Bahamas
- 1967 Lucius Amerson, becomes 1st southern (Alabama) African American sheriff in 20th century
- 1968 Jay Allen's "Prime of Miss Jean Brodie" premieres in NYC
- 1968 The Youth International Party is founded.
- 1969 Soviet Soyuz 4 & Soyuz 5 perform 1st transfer of crew in space
- 1970 AAU player Steve Myers makes a basketball field goal of 92'3½" from out of bounds, Tacoma-it shouldn't have counted, but was allowed
- 1970 Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects
Coup d'état
1970 4 months after leading a coup against monarchy, Muammar Gaddafi takes over rule of Libya
Muammar Gaddafi
Historic Publication
1974 "Jaws" by Peter Benchley is published by Doubleday
Peter Benchley
Event of Interest
1979 Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran for Egypt during the Iranian Revolution
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
- 1979 Bakhtiar government established by the Shah in Iran, will preside until unrest in the country subsides
- 1981 Protestant gunmen shoot & wound Bernadette Devlin McAliskey & husband
- 1985 "Playboy" announces end of stapling centerfolds
- 1986 Police arrested 3 IRA-terrorists in Amsterdam
- 1986 First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
Event of Interest
1988 Czech dissident Václav Havel is arrested in Prague for taking part in demonstrations against the communist government
Václav Havel
- 1989 USSR announces plan for 2-yr manned mission to Mars
- 1990 2 Bank of Credit & Commerce members plea guilty to money laundering
- 1992 Chapultepec Peace Accords are signed in Mexico City which ends the 12-year Salvadoran Civil War
- 1994 Scott skates world record 1000m (1:12.54)
- 1995 UPN (Universal-Parmount Network) begins telecasting (WWOR in NYC)
- 1997 Anthony Stuart takes ODI hat-trick, Aus v Pakistan, MCG
- 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
- 2001 A fuel supply tanker runs aground off the island of San Cristobal, causing an 'ecological disaster'
Event of Interest
2002 UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and freezes assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the members of the Taliban
Osama bin Laden
Election of Interest
2006 Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president. She becomes Africa's first female elected head of state.
Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf
Event of Interest
2011 French politician Marine Le Pen becomes the leader of the National Front Party
Marine Le Pen
- 2013 24 people die after three car bombs exploded in Idlib Governorate, Syria
- 2013 A four day occupation of an Algerian BP facility by Amenas militants begins, killing 48 hostages
- 2013 25 people are killed after an apartment block collapses in Alexandria, Egypt
- 2016 First ever flower grown in space - a zinnia aboard the International Space Station using NASA Veggie system
January in History
The Man Who Saved Elton John's Life
Long John Baldry was born on this day - a friend of stars from Rod Stewart to The Beatles and who, in 1969, famously took Elton John aside and saved the life.
January 12, 1941
British Museum Opens its Doors
The British Museum opened to visitors on January 15, 1759. Fearing damage to the collections by unruly hordes, nobody was admitted without a ticket.
January 15, 1759
Squaring Up for Radio Commentary
This was the day when the BBC broadcast live sports commentary for the first time and introduced a novel way of involving listeners in the action.
January 15, 1927
The British: 139. Zulu Warriors: 4,000. Let Battle Begin
It was one of the most remarkable military engagements ever: the day that 139 British soldiers took on 4,000 Zulu warriors – and won.
January 22, 1879