Event of Interest
1431 Joan of Arc handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon
Joan of Arc
Event of Interest
1496 Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine
Leonardo da Vinci
The Protestant Reformation
1521 Martin Luther excommunicated by Pope Leo X from the Roman Catholic Church
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- 1638 Dutch Premier Van Joost speaks of "Hostage rights of Aemstel"
- 1638 Schouwburg Theater, the 1st in Amsterdam, opens
- 1653 The Coonan Cross Oath is taken in the Saint Thomas Christian community in an effort to avoid submission to Portuguese rule in India
- 1667 Resistance of Androsovo in Russia-Poland
- 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlies army leaves Glasgow, [NS=1/14]
- 1749 Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
- 1750 Tax revolt in Haarlem Neth
- 1752 East Indies invasion "Geldermalsen" leaves at Malacca: 92 killed
Victory in Battle
1777 General George Washington's revolutionary army defeats British forces at Battle of Princeton, New Jersey
George Washington
- 1815 France, the United Kingdom, and Austria form an alliance against Russia and Prussia
Event of Interest
1823 Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
Stephen F. Austin
- 1825 Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Indiana as site for New Harmony utopian community
- 1831 1st US building & loan association organized, Frankford, Penn
- 1833 Britain seizes control of Falkland Islands in South Atlantic
- 1834 The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.
- 1840 1st deep sea sounding by James Clark Ross in south Atlantic at 2425 fathoms (14,450 feet)
Event of Interest
1842 Charles Dickens and his wife Catherine leave Liverpool, England for America on board the RMS Britannia
Charles Dickens
- 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first President of the independent African Republic of Liberia.
- 1852 1st Chinese arrive in Hawaii
- 1853 Solomon Northup is freed after 7 illegal years in slavery with aid of Washington Hunt, Governor of New York
- 1861 Delaware legislature rejects proposal to join Confederacy
- 1861 US Fort Pulaski and Fort Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia
Event of Interest
1862 Romney Campaign: Stonewall Jackson moves north from Winchester
Stonewall Jackson
- 1865 Con Orem & Hugh O'Neill box 193 rounds before darkness ends match
- 1868 Meiji Restoration returns authority to Japan's emperors
- 1870 Construction begins on Brooklyn Bridge in New York; completed May 24, 1883
- 1871 Oleomargarine patented by Henry Bradley, Binghamton, NY
- 1872 1st patent list issued by US Patent Office
- 1885 The beginning of the Battle of Nui Bop in the Sino-French War
- 1888 1st wax drinking straw patented, by Marvin C Stone in Washington, D.C.
- 1889 Admissions convention meets in Ellensburg, WA, asks for statehood
Event of Interest
1889 German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche suffers a mental breakdown after supposedly witnessing a horse flogging
Friedrich Nietzsche
Theater Premiere
1900 Gerhart Hauptmann's play "Schluck und Jau," premieres in Berlin
Gerhart Hauptmann
- 1902 Reg Duff 104 on Test debut, v England at MCG
- 1910 British miners strike for 8 hour working day
- 1911 US postal savings bank inaugurated
- 1911 The Government of India announces that emigration to Natal, Southern Africa, is prohibited with effect from 1 July
- 1911 The Russian Turkestan city of Almaty is destroyed by a magnitude 7.7 earthquake
- 1912 Southern Pacific RR offers to bring Liberty Bell to the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco free
- 1918 US Employment Service opens as a unit of the Department of Labor
Event of Interest
1919 Herbert Hoover is placed in charge of war relief in Europe
Herbert Hoover
- 1919 The Faisal-Weizmann Agreement, which was a short-lived agreement for the development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, is signed by the King of Iraq and the President of the World Zionist Organization
- 1920 Arthur Honegger's "Chant de Nigamon," premieres
- 1921 Turkey makes peace with Armenia
- 1922 1st living person identified on a US coin (Thomas E Kirby) on the Alabama Centennial half-dollar
Event of Interest
1925 Benito Mussolini dissolves the Italian parliament and proclaims himself dictator of Italy, taking the title "Il Duce" (the Leader)
Benito Mussolini
- 1926 Greek gen Theodorus Pangulos names himself dictator
- 1932 Martial law is declared in Honduras to stop revolt by banana workers fired by United Fruit.
- 1933 Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States.
- 1938 March of Dimes established to fight polio
- 1939 Gene Cox becomes 1st girl page in US House of Representatives
- 1940 WPG-AM in Atlantic City NJ consolidates with WBIL & WOV as "new" WOV
- 1941 Canada & US acquire air bases in Newfoundland (99 yr lease)
- 1941 Italian counter offensive in Albania
- 1942 American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command forms
- 1943 1st missing persons telecast (NYC)
- 1943 Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa
- 1944 World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "Pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
- 1945 Allies land on west coast of Burma, conquer Akyab
Event of Interest
1945 British Premier Winston Churchill visits France
Winston Churchill
Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima
1945 Admiral Chester Nimitz begins planning assaults on Okinawa and Iwo Jima in Japan
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Event of Interest
1946 As a reward for his wartime cooperation, Governor Thomas E. Dewey commutes Charles "Lucky" Luciano's pandering sentence on condition that he does not resist deportation to Italy
Charles "Lucky" Luciano
Thomas E. Dewey
- 1947 William Dawson becomes 1st black to head congressional committee
- 1949 The central bank of the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, is founded
- 1951 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians "exposed" as British/US agents
- 1952 Australia beat W Indies by one wicket at the MCG, last stand 38
- 1953 Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
- 1955 Jose Ramon Guizado becomes president of Panama
- 1956 A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.
- 1957 1st electric watch introduced, Lancaster Pa
Event of Interest
1958 Edmund Hillary reaches South Pole overland
Edmund Hillary
- 1958 Lindsay Kline takes a hat-trick v South Africa at Cape Town
- 1958 The West Indies Federation is formed.
- 1959 Alaska admitted as 49th US state
- 1961 Adam Clayton Powell elected Chairman of US House Education & Labor Committee
- 1961 US breaks diplomatic relations with Cuba
- 1962 Ground is broken for the Houston Astrodome
Excommunication
1962 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
John XXIII
- 1966 Floyd B McKissick, named national director of CORE
- 1967 "Tonight Show" is shortened from 105 to 90 minutes
- 1967 Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys is indicted for draft evasion
- 1969 Rep Adam Clayton Powell Jr seated by Congress
- 1970 Marxist government takes over in Congo
- 1972 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) explodes a bomb in Callender Street, Belfast, injuring over 60 people
- 1974 Arias Navarro succeeds Carrero Blanco as premier of Spain
- 1974 Burma accepts its constitution
- 1974 Gold hits record $121.25 an ounce in London
- 1974 Miguel Pinero's "Short Eyes," premieres in NYC
- 1976 US performs nuclear test at Nevada Test Site
- 1977 Apple Computer, Inc incorporates
- 1977 Lindy McDaniel retires with 2nd most pitching appearances (987 games)
- 1977 Former Home Secretary Roy Jenkins announces his intention to be Britain's first President of the European Commission
- 1977 "The Police Tapes" premiere on New York City TV station WNET, based somewhat on 1960s NYPD officers who worked in its South Bronx
- 1978 Chandrasekar takes 6-52 & 6-52 at MCG in Indian innings win
- 1980 Gold hits record $634 an ounce
- 1980 Babrak Karmal defends the Soviet-backed coup in first public appearance since taking power as President of Afghanistan
- 1981 Greg Chappell scores 204 v India at the SCG
- 1981 Mary Terstegge Meagher swims female record 100m butterfly (58.91)
- 1984 Syria frees captured US pilot after appeal from Jesse Jackson
- 1985 Azharuddin scores 110 in 1st Test innings
- 1985 Israel government confirms resettlement of 10,000 Ethiopian Jews
Event of Interest
1985 Mitch McConnell becomes Senator of Kentucky
Mitch McConnell
- 1988 Israel orders 9 Palestinian "instigators" deported from W Beirut
Event of Interest
1988 Margaret Thatcher becomes longest-serving British PM this century
Margaret Thatcher
- 1989 Russian newspaper Izvestia gets its 1st commercial advertisement
Event of Interest
1990 Panama's leader General Manuel Noriega surrenders to US authorities
Manuel Noriega
Treaty of Interest
1993 In Moscow, the Start II arms reduction treaty is signed by George H. W. Bush (USA) and Boris Yeltsin (Russia)
Boris Yeltsin
George H. W. Bush
Event of Interest
1994 Restoration of South African citizenship, announced on 15 December 1993 by the South African parliament led by President F. W. de Klerk, becomes effective four months before the first South Africa non-racial polls of 27 April, 1994
F. W. de Klerk
- 1996 1st clamshell flip mobile phone, the Motorola StarTAC, goes on sale. Eventually 60 million are sold.
- 1997 Eddo Brandes takes ODI hat-trick v England at Harare
- 1997 Zimbabwe clean-sweep ODI series v England 3-0
- 1997 The People's Republic of China announces it will spend $US27.7 billion to fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys
- 1998 Grandpa Jones suffers a stroke
- 1999 Israel detains, and later expels, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
- 1999 The Mars Polar Lander was launched.
- 2002 The Palestinian freighter Karine A is seized by Israeli forces in the Red Sea
- 2004 Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people on board.
- 2007 National Express has its worst ever coach crash just outside Heathrow Airport.
- 2009 Israeli ground forces invade Gaza.
- 2013 27 Shiite pilgrims are killed and 60 are injured by a suicide bombing in Musayyib, Iraq
- 2014 Cambodian garment workers go on strike demanding a wage increase
- 2014 Tommy Lynn Sells is executed at Texas State Penitentiary, Huntsville, for the murder of nine-year-old Mary Perez, thought to have committed 21 more murders
- 2015 18 people are killed after the Norwegian cargo ship MS Bulk Jupiter sinks off the coast of Vietnam
- 2015 Over 2,000 people are killed in north-east Nigeria after Boko Haram militants raze the town of Baga
- 2018 Security expert reveal two security flaws, Meltdown and Spectre which affect most microprocessors
Event of Interest
2018 Lawyers of US President Trump try to stop the publication of book on Trump's administration "Fire and Fury" by Michael Wolff
Donald Trump
- 2018 Previously unknown ancient Beringians group of people unearthed in Alaska, earliest known Native Americans at 11,500 years old
- 2018 First bionic hand with a sense of touch, for use outside a lab unveiled in Rome
- 2018 Landslide and flooding caused by heavy rains in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, kills at least 37
- 2019 Archaeologists in Mexico announce discovery of pre-Aztec temple to god Xipe Tótec in Puebla state (dated 900-1150 AD)
- 2019 Chinese Chang'e-4 spacecraft becomes the first ever to touch down on the far side of the Moon
Election of Interest
2019 116th US Congress convenes in Washington D.C., electing Nancy Pelosi Speaker of the House of Representatives for the second time
Nancy Pelosi
January in History
![The Beatles? 'They have no future in show business']()
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']()
'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![A Crackdown on Lovers in New York]()
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![The Man Who Saved Elton John's Life]()
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
