January 31st in History

314 - Silvester I begins his reign as Pope of the Catholic Church, succeeding Pope Miltiades.

1504 - France cedes Naples to Aragon.

1606 - Gunpowder Plot: Guy Fawkes is executed for his plotting against Parliament and James I of England.

1814 - Gervasio Antonio de Posadas becomes Supreme Director of Argentina.

1862 - Alvan Graham Clark discovers the white dwarf star Sirius B, a companion of Sirius, through an 18.5-inch (47 cm) telescope now located at Northwestern University.

1865 - American Civil War: The United States Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, abolishing slavery, submitting it to the states for ratification.

1891 - The first attempt at a Portuguese republican revolution breaks out in the northern city of Porto.

1917 - World War I: Germany announces that its U-boats will resume unrestricted submarine warfare after a two-year hiatus.

1944 - World War II: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.

1946 - Yugoslavia's new constitution, modeling the Soviet Union, establishes six constituent republics (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia).

1950 - President Harry S. Truman announces a program to develop the Hydrogen bomb.

1958 - Explorer program: Explorer 1 – The first successful launch of an American satellite into orbit.

1961 - Project Mercury: Mercury-Redstone 2 – Ham the Chimp travels into outer space.


1968 - Viet Cong attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive.

1968 - Nauru gains independence from Australia.


1990 - The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union opens in Moscow.

1995 - President Bill Clinton authorizes a $20 billion loan to Mexico to stabilize its economy.

2001 - In the Netherlands, a Scottish court convicts Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and acquits another Libyan citizen for their part in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988.

2010 - Avatar became the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide.

Famous Birthdays


877 - Emperor Taejo of Goryeo of Korea

1512 - King Henry of Portugal


1550 - Henry I, Duke of Guise

1597 - St. John Francis Regis, saint

1835 - King William Charles Lunalilo of Hawaiʻi

1911 - Eddie Byrne, actor

1938 - Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands

1944 - Connie Booth, writer and actress

1959 - Kelly Lynch, actress

1967 - Chad Channing, musician

1970 - Minnie Driver, actress

1971 - Patrick Kielty, comedian

1979 - Emmett Scanlan, actor



1981 - Justin Timberlake, singer

1983 - Fabio Quagliarella, footballer

1986 - Pauline Parmentier, tennis player

1990 - Nicolò De Cesare, footballer

January 30th in History

1648 - Eighty Years' War: The Treaty of Münster and Osnabrück is signed, ending the conflict between the Netherlands and Spain.

1649 - King Charles I of England is beheaded.

1661 - Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England is ritually executed two years after his death, on the anniversary of the execution of the monarch he himself deposed.

1820 - Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica.

1835 - In the first assassination attempt against a President of the United States, Richard Lawrence attempts to shoot president Andrew Jackson, but fails and is subdued by a crowd, including several congressmen.

1847 - Yerba Buena, California is renamed San Francisco.

1913 - The British House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill.


1933 - Adolf Hitler is sworn in as Chancellor of Germany.

1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade the island of Ambon in the Dutch East Indies.

1945 - World War II: The Wilhelm Gustloff, overfilled with refugees, sinks in the Baltic Sea after being torpedoed by a Soviet submarine, leading to the deadliest known maritime disaster, killing approximately 9,400 people.

1960 - The African National Party is founded in Chad, through the merger of traditionalist parties.

1969 - The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police.


1972 - Bloody Sunday: British Paratroopers kill fourteen unarmed civil rights/anti internment marchers in Northern Ireland.

1972 - Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations.

2000 - Off the coast of Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya Airways Flight 431 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 169.

Famous Birthdays


58 BC - Livia, First Roman Empress the wife of Emperor Augustus

133 - Marcus Severus Didius Julianus, Roman Emperor

1697 - Johann Joachim Quantz, flautist and composer

1832 - Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier

1882 - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

1894 - Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria

1915 - Joachim Peiper, SS officer

1925 - Dorothy Malone, actress

1930 - Gene Hackman, actor

1937 - Vanessa Redgrave, actress

1941 - Dick Cheney, politician, former Vice President of the United States

1951 - Phil Collins, musician

1962 - His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan


1974 - Christian Bale, actor

1988 - Rob Pinkston, actor

2005 - HRH Prince Hashem bin Al Abdullah II of Jordan

January 29th in History

1676 - Feodor III becomes Tsar of Russia.

1814 - France defeats Russia and Prussia in the Battle of Brienne.


1856 - Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross.

1861 - Kansas is admitted as the 34th US state.

1863 - Bear River Massacre.

1891 - Liliuokalani is proclaimed Queen of Hawaiʻi, its last monarch.


1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American U.S. Senator.

1916 - World War I: Paris is first bombed by German Zeppelins.

1940 - Three trains on the Sakurajima Line, in Osaka, Japan, collide and explode while approaching Ajikawaguchi Station. 181 people are killed.

1944 - World War II: Approximately 38 men, women, and children die in the Koniuchy massacre in Poland.

2001 - Thousands of student protesters in Indonesia storm parliament and demand that President Abdurrahman Wahid resign due to alleged involvement in corruption scandals.

2005 - The first direct commercial flights from mainland China (from Guangzhou) to Taiwan since 1949 arrived in Taipei. Shortly afterwards, a China Airlines flight lands in Beijing.

Famous Birthdays

1584 - Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange


1749 - King Christian VII of Denmark

1754 - Moses Cleaveland, founder of Cleveland


1801 - Johannes Bernardus van Bree, composer, violinist and conductor

1843 - William McKinley, American politician, 25th President of the United States

1880 - W. C. Fields, actor

1924 - Luigi Nono, composer

1930 - Derek Bailey, guitarist

1950 - Ann Jillian, actress

1952 - Tommy Ramone, musician and record producer

1963 - Monica Horan, actress

1979 - April Scott, actress and model

1982 - Adam Lambert, singer and actor

1986 - Mark Howard, football player

1991 - Hugh Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, son of the Duke of Westminster, the richest British person.

January 28th in History

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 25th.

1547 - Henry VIII of England dies. His nine year old son, Edward VI becomes King

1813 - Pride and Prejudice is first published in the United Kingdom.

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


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.

1918 - Finnish Civil War: Rebels seized control of the capital, Helsinki, and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.

1932 - Japanese forces attack Shanghai.

1941 - French-Thai War: Final air battle of the conflict. 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.

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.

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


2011 - Hundreds of thousands of protesters filled up the Egyptian's streets in demonstrations referred to as "Friday of Anger" against the Mubarak regime.

Famous Birthdays


1225 - St Thomas Aquinas

1312 - Queen Joan II of Navarre

1457 - King Henry VII of England

1600 - Pope Clement IX

1717 - Mustafa III, Ottoman sultan

1822 - Alexander Mackenzie, 2nd Prime Minister of Canada

1865 - Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg, 1st President of Finland

1910 - Arnold Moss, actor

1933 - Jack Hill, film director

1943 - Dick Taylor, musician

1950 - His Majesty King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah of Bahrain

1955 - Nicolas Sarkozy, former President of France

1975 - Lee Latchford-Evans, singer

1980 - Nick Carter, singer

1986 - Jessica Ennis CBE, track and field athlete, Olympic champion

1988 - Paul Henry, footballer

1991 - Calum Worthy, actor

January 27th in History

447 - The Walls of Constantinople are severely damaged by an earthquake, destroying large parts of the wall, including 57 towers.


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

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.

1595 - Sir Francis Drake dies

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

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".

1909 - The Young Left is founded in Norway.


1943 - World War II: The VIII Bomber Command dispatched ninety-one B-17s and B-24s to attack the U-Boat construction yards at Wilhemshafen, Germany. This was the first American bombing attack on Germany of the war.

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

1945 - World War II: The Red Army liberates the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp built by the Nazi Germans on the territory of Poland.

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


1973 - The Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War.

1974 - The Brisbane River breaches its banks causing the largest flood to affect the city of Brisbane in the 20th century.


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

1996 - Germany first observes 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.

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

Famous Birthdays

1443 - Albert, Duke of Saxony 

1546 - Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg 

1708 - Grand Duchess Anna Petrovna of Russia 

1805 - Maria Anna of Bavaria, Queen consort of Saxony 

1805 - Sophie of Bavaria, Archduchess of Austria

1823 - Edouard Lalo, composer

1850 - Edward J. Smith, captain of the RMS Titanic 

1859 - Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany

1905 - Howard McNear, actor

1921 - Donna Reed, actress

1928 - Michael Craig, actor

1951 - Brian Downey, musician

1954 - Stelios Papafloratos, footballer

1961 - Narciso Rodriguez, fashion designer

1972 - Mark Owen, singer

1981 - Alicia Molik, tennis player

1989 - Daisy Lowe, model

1992 - Stefano Pettinari, footballer

January 26th in History

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


1564 - The Council of Trent issues its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a 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.


1589 - Job is elected as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

1699 - Treaty of Carlowitz is signed.

1736 - Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.


1837 - Michigan is admitted as the 26th US state.

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

1841 - The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China later formally cedes.

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

1870 - American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.

1905 - The world's largest diamond ever, the Cullinan weighing 3,106.75 carats (0.62135 kg), is found at the Premier Mine near Pretoria in South Africa.


1924 - Saint Petersburg, Russia, is renamed Leningrad.

1930 - The Indian National Congress declares 26th January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) which occurred 20 years later.

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

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

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.

1965 - Hindi becomes the official language of India.

1978 - The Great Blizzard of 1978, a rare severe blizzard with the lowest non-tropical atmospheric pressure ever recorded in the US (until October 2010), strikes the Ohio – Great Lakes region with heavy snow and winds up to 100 mph (161 km/h).

2004 - President Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.

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

Famous Birthdays

1497 - Emperor Go-Nara of Japan

1763 - Charles XIV John of Sweden, general

1826 - Julia Dent-Grant, First Lady of the United States

1892 - Bessie Coleman, pioneer aviator

1904 - Seán MacBride, statesman, Nobel Prize Laureate

1914 - Princess Hadice Hayriye Ayshe Dürrühsehvar

1918 - Nicolae Ceauşescu, 1st President of Romania

1925 - Joan Leslie, actress


1941 - Scott Glenn, actor

1953 - Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Secretary General of NATO

1958 - Ellen DeGeneres, actress and comedian

1963 - Andrew Ridgeley, musician

1978 - Kelly Stables, actress

1984 - Wu Qian, classical pianist

1989 - Torrey Smith, football player

2008 - Paul the Octopus

January 25th in History

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


1494 - Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.

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

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

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

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


1918 - Ukraine declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.

1919 - The League of Nations is founded.


1932 - Second Sino-Japanese War: The Chinese National Revolutionary Army begins its defence of Harbin.


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

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

1955 - The Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.

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

1980 - Mother Theressa honored with Indian highest civilian award Bharat Ratna

1981 - Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death.

1996 - Billy Bailey became the last person to be hanged in the United States of America.

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

2003 - 2003 Invasion of Iraq: A group of people left London for Baghdad, Iraq, to serve as human shields to prevent the US led coalition troops from bombing certain locations.

2011 - The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins in Egypt, with a series of street demonstrations, marches, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labour strikes, and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria, and throughout other cities in Egypt.

Famous Birthdays


750 - Leo IV the Khazar, Byzantine Emperor

1477 - Anna, Duchess of Brittany

1627 - Robert Boyle, chemist

1841 - John "Jacky" Fisher, admiral

1923 - Rusty Draper, singer

1938 - Etta James, singer

1949 - Paul Nurse, biochemist

1957 - Jenifer Lewis, actress

1971 - Ana Ortiz, actress and singer

1975 - Mia Kirshner, actress

1978 - HSH Charlene Princess of Monaco, consort of Albert II, Prince of Monaco

1981  Alicia Keys, singer

1989 - Víctor Ruiz Torre, footballer

January 24th in History

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

1438 - The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV.


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

1742 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.

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

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

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

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


1942 - World War II: The Allies bombard Bangkok, leading Thailand 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.

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.

1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale

1996 - Polish Premier Józef Oleksy resigns amid charges that he spied for Moscow.

Famous Birthdays

76 - Hadrian, Roman Emperor

1444 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan

1712 - King Frederick II of Prussia

1746 - King Gustav III of Sweden

1779 - Tsarina Elizabeth Alexeievna

1864 - Marguerite Durand, suffragette

1909 - Ann Todd, actress

1934 - Ann Cole, singer

1958 - Jools Holland, musician

1967 - Phil LaMarr, actor,comedian,and voice actor

1976 - Olga Vymetálková, tennis player

1983 - Davide Biondini, footballer

1987 - Luis Suárez, footballer

2012 - HH Princess Athena of Denmark

January 23rd in History

3102 BCE - Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga.

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

1510 - Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.

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.

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

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

1793 - Second Partition of Poland

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


1909 - The 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 ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.

1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.

1942 - World War II: The Battle of Rabaul begins, the first fighting of the New Guinea campaign.


1943 - World War II: The Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse on Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign ends.

1945 - World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.

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

1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.

1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.

2003 - Final communication between Earth and Pioneer 10.

Famous Birthdays


1350 - St. Vincent Ferrer, missionary and saint

1688 - Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden

1896 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg

1907 - Dan Duryea, actor

1929 - Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko) of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church

1947 - Megawati Sukarnoputri, 5th President of Indonesia

1957 - HSH Princess Caroline of Monaco

1971 - Scott Gibbs, rugby player

1981 - Julia Jones, actress

1987 - Felicia Brandström, singer

January 22nd in History

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

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


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 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Isandlwana – Zulu troops defeat British troops.

1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift – 139 British soldiers successfully defend their garrison against an intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors.

1901 - Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom dies in Osborne House on the Isle of Wight aged 81. She reigned 63 years, seven months and two days. The longest-reigning British monarch and the longest-reigning Queen regnant in world history


1901 - Edward VII is proclaimed King of the  United Kingdom

1905 - Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution.

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

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

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

1962 - The Organization of American States suspends Cuba's membership.

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

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.

1991 - Gulf War: Three SCUDs and one Patriot missile hit Ramat Gan in Israel, injuring 96 people. Three elderly people die of heart attacks.

1995 - Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Beit Lid massacre – In central Israel, near Netanya, two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blow themselves up at a military transit point killing 19 Israelis.

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

Famous Birthdays

1440 - Tsar Ivan III of Russia


1796 - Karl Claus, chemist

1797 - Maria Leopoldina of Austria, Empress of Brazil

1831 - Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein

1909 - U Thant, 3rd United Nations Secretary General

1920 - Sir Alf Ramsey, football manager


1936 - Ong Teng Cheong, 5th President of Singapore

1955 - Thomas David Jones, astronaut

1965 - Steven Adler, drummer

1974 - Cameron McConville, racing driver

1980 - Christopher Masterson, actor

1983 - Shaun Cody, football player

1990 - Alizé Cornet, tennis player

January 21st in History

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

1720 - Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.

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


1864 - The Tauranga Campaign begins during the Maori Wars.

1887 - 465 millimetres (18.3 in) of rain falls in Brisbane, a record for any Australian capital city.


1899 - Opel manufactures its first automobile.

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.


1919 - Meeting of the First Dáil Éireann (Irish parliament) in the Mansion House Dublin. Sinn Féin adopts Ireland's first constitution. The first engagement of Irish War of Independence, Sologhead Beg, County Tipperary.

1925 - Albania declares itself a republic.

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 Quebec Flag Day.

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

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

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 lbs) of cocaine on board.


2008 - Black Monday in worldwide stock markets. FTSE 100 had its biggest ever one-day points fall, European stocks closed with their worst result since 11 September 2001, and Asian stocks drop as much as 14%.

2011 - 2011 Albanian opposition demonstrations

Famous Birthdays

1338 - King Charles V of France

1827 - Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin, mathematician

1899 - Alexander Tcherepnin, Russian born American composer

1922 - Paul Scofield, actor

1924 - Benny Hill, actor, comedian, and singer

1937 - HRH Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria, the heir presumptive to both the headship of the former Bavarian Royal House and the Jacobite Succession.

1953 - Paul Allen, entrepreneur, co-founder of Microsoft

1962 - Marie Trintignant, actress

1975 - Ito, footballer

1978 - Phil Stacey, singer

1979 - Brian O'Driscoll, rugby union footballer

1988 - Vanessa Hessler, Italian model

2004 - HRH Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway, second in line to the Norwegian throne.

January 20th in History

250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian is martyred.

1265 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting held by Simon de Montfort in the Palace of Westminster, now also known colloquially as the "Houses of Parliament".


1356 - Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.

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


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

1783 - The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the American Revolutionary War

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

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

1936 - Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom upon the death of his father George V.

1945 - World War II: Hungary agrees to an armistice with the Allies.

1986 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.

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

2009 - Barack Obama is inaugurated as the first African American President of the United States.

2013 - Barack Obama is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.

Famous Birthdays

225 - Gordian III, Roman Emperor

1554 - King Sebastian of Portugal

1716 - King Charles III of Spain

1798 - Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas

1915 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan

1933 - Ron Townson, singer

1945 - Robert Olen Butler, writer

1952 - Paul Stanley, musician

1965 - HRH Sophie, Countess of Wessex, the wife of HRH Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex

1971 - Gary Barlow, singer

1973 - HRH Princess Mathilde of Belgium , Duchess of Brabant

1979 - Will Young, singer

1984 - Victoria Asher, keytarist

January 19th in History

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

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


1788 - The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.

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

1806 - The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope.


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.

1840 - Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.

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.

1899 - Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.

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

1942 - World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma

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

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


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

1993 - Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations.

Famous Birthdays:


399 - Pulcheria, Byzantine Empress

1544 - King Francis II of France

1757 - Countess (later Princess) Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf, maternal grandmother of Queen Victoria

1908 - Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, mathematician

1920 - Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, former United Nations Secretary General

1949 - Dennis Taylor, snooker player

1954 - Katey Sagal, actress

1972 - Jon Fisher, entrepreneur

1972 - HRH Princess Kalina of Bulgaria

1972 - Drea de Matteo, actress

1985 - Pascal Behrenbruch, decathlete

1991 - Petra Martić, tennis player

January 18th in History

350 - Generallus 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 died ten months later.

1486 - King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.

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


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".

1871 - Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the Hall of Mirrors of the Palace of Versailles (France) towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire is known as the Second Reich to Germans.

1903 - President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.

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.


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

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

1945 - Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army.

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.

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

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.

2009 - Gaza War: Hamas announces they will accept Israeli Defense Forces's offer of a ceasefire, ending the assault.

Famous Birthdays:


885 - Daigo, Emperor of Japan

1519 - Isabella Jagiellon, Queen of Hungary

1688 - Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland

1795 - Anna Pavlovna of Russia, Queen consort of the Netherlands.

1849 - Sir Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia

1908 - Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha

1937 - John Hume, politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and Knight Commander of the Papal Order of St. Gregory the Great.


1952 - Michael Angelis, actor

1969 - Dave Bautista, professional wrestler

1974 - HRH Princess Claire of Belgium

1980 - Jason Segel, actor

1985 - Riccardo Montolivo, footballer

January 17th in History

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

395 - Emperor Theodosius I dies in Milan, the Roman Empire is re-divided into an eastern and a western half. The Eastern Roman Empire is centered in Constantinople under Arcadius, son of Theodosius, and the Western Roman Empire in Mediolanum under Honorius, his brother (aged 10).

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


1595 - Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.

1608 - Emperor Susenyos of Ethiopia surprises an Oromo army at Ebenat; his army reportedly kills 12,000 Oromo at the cost of 400 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 and his crew become the first Europeans to sail below 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.


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 recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal.

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


1944 - World War II: Allied forces launch the first of four battles 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: Soviet forces capture the almost completely destroyed Polish city of Warsaw.

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

1961 - US 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".

1982 - "Cold Sunday": in numerous cities in the United States temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years.

1991 - His Majesty Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.

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

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

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

Famous Birthdays:

1463 - Frederick III of Saxony, Elector of Saxony

1504 - Pope Saint Pius V

1600 - Pedro Calderón de la Barca, playwright

1732 - King Stanislaw II August Poniatowski of Poland

1831 - Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria

1860 - Douglas Hyde, 1st President of Ireland

1863 - David Lloyd George, British Prime Minister

1899 - Al Capone, gangster

1922 - Betty White, actress

1922 - Robert De Niro, Sr., painter

1940 - Tabaré Vázquez, President of Uruguay

1954 - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., lawyer and environmental activist, son of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy

1964 - Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States

1978 - Ricky Wilson, singer

1980 - Kimberly Spicer, model

1984 - Calvin Harris, music producer and vocalist

January 16th in History

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

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

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


1547 - Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.

1556 - Philip II becomes King of Spain.

1581 - The English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.

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

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


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.

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


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

1956 - President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.

1979 - The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.

1991 - The Coalition Forces go to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf 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.

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

Famous Birthdays:

1245 - Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England

1409 - René I of Naples

1516 - Bayinnaung, King of Burma

1836 - King Francis II of the Two Sicilies

1872 - Henri Busser, composer

1900 - Edith Frank, Holocaust victim and mother of Anne Frank

1920 - Elliott Reid, actor

1937 - Lorraine Bayly, actress

1952 - King Fuad II of Egypt

1962 - Denis O'Hare, actor

1974 - Kate Moss, model

1981 - Nick Valensi, guitarist

1986 - Irina Kuzmina, tennis player

January 15th in History

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

1493 - Christopher Columbus sets sail for Spain from Hispaniola, ending his first voyage to the New World.

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.

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

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

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


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

1892 - James Naismith publishes the rules of basketball.

1933 - A twelve-year-old girl experiences the first Marian apparition of Our Lady of Banneux in Banneux, Belgium.

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

1949 - Chinese Civil War: The Communist Party of China forces take over Tianjin from the Nationalist Government.


1970 - Nigerian Civil War: After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.

1970 - Moammar Gadhafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.

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.

2001 - Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopaedia, goes online.

2009 - US Airways Flight 1549 makes an emergency landing in the Hudson River shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport in New York, New York. All passengers and crew members survive.

Famous Birthdays:


1342 - Philip II, Duke of Burgundy

1432 - King Afonso V of Portugal

1841 - Frederick Arthur Stanley, Governor General of Canada


1863 - Wilhelm Marx, Chancellor of Germany

1866 - Nathan Söderblom, archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize

1882 - Princess Margaret of Connaught

1906 - Aristotle Onassis, shipping magnate

1918 - João Figueiredo, former President of Brazil

1929 - Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize


1945 - HRH Princess Michael of Kent

1960 - Jeremy Beck, composer

1972 - Claudia Winkleman, television presenter

1981 - Pitbull, rapper

1982 - HRH Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia

1987 - David Knight, footballer

1990 - Fernando Forestieri, footballer

January 14th in History

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.

1514 - Pope Leo X issues a papal bull against slavery.

1539 - Spain annexes Cuba.

1724 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne.

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


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

1858 - Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt.

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

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.

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.

2000 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.

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

Famous Birthdays:

47 BC - Marcus Antonius Antyllus, Roman soldier and eldest son of Marc Antony

1131 - King Valdemar I of Denmark

1507 - Catherine of Habsburg, Infanta of Spain and Queen of Portugal

1806 - Sir Charles Hotham, Governor of Victoria

1861 - Mehmed VI, Ottoman Sultan

1883 - Nina Ricci, fashion designer

1941 - Barry Jenner, actor

1967 - Kerri Green, actress

1969 - David Grohl, drummer and composer

1982 - Caleb Followill, singer

1989 - Frankie Sandford, singer

1992 - Nimue Smit, fashion model

January 13th in History

888 - Odo, Count of Paris becomes King of the Franks.

1328 - Edward III of England marries Philippa of Hainault, daughter of the Count of Hainault.

1607 - The Bank of Genoa fails after announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain.

1815 - War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state.

1832 - President Andrew Jackson writes to Vice President Martin Van Buren expressing his opposition to South Carolina's defiance of federal authority in the Nullification Crisis.

1842 - Dr. William Brydon, an assistant surgeon in the British East India Company Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole survivor of an army of 4,500 men and 12,000 camp followers when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

1893 - US Marines land in Honolulu, Hawaii from the USS Boston to prevent Queen Kapiʻolani from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution.

1915 - An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800.

1939 - The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometers of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people.

1951 - First Indochina War: The Battle of Vinh Yen begins, which will end in a major victory for France.

1964 - Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Kraków, Poland.

1972 - Prime Minister Kofi Abrefa Busia and President Edward Akufo-Addo of Ghana are ousted in a bloodless military coup by Colonel Ignatius Kutu Acheampong.

1985 - A passenger train plunges into a ravine in Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst rail road disaster in Africa.

1990 - Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia.

2012 - The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia sinks off the coast of Italy. There are 32 deaths (and a few people still missing) amongst the 4232 passengers and crew.

Famous Birthdays:


1434 - King Henry II of Castile

1505 - Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg

1610 - Maria Anna of Austria, Electress of Bavaria


1777 - Elisa Bonaparte, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, sister of Napoleon Bonaparte

1865 - Princess Marie of Orléans

1883 - Prince Arthur of Connaught

1905 - Kay Francis, actress

1911 - Sir Johannes "Joh" Bjelke-Petersen, Premier of Queensland

1934 - Rip Taylor, actor

1964 - Bill Bailey, comedian

1977 - Orlando Bloom, actor

1984 - Nathaniel Motte, musician

1989 - Beau Mirchoff, actor

1992 - Dinah Pfizenmaier, tennis player

January 11th in History

1055 - Theodora is crowned Empress of the Byzantine Empire.

1569 - First recorded lottery in England.

1787 - William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus.

1861 - Alabama secedes from the United States.

1879 - The Anglo-Zulu War begins.

1922 - First use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient.


1935 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California.

1942 - World War II: The Japanese capture Kuala Lumpur.

1946 - Enver Hoxha, Secretary General of the Communist Party of Albania, declares the People's Republic of Albania with himself as head of state.

1957 - The African Convention is founded in Dakar, Senegal.

1972 - East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh.

1994 - The Irish Government announces the end of a 15 year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Féin.

1998 - Sidi-Hamed massacre takes place in Algeria, over 100 people are killed.

Famous Birthdays:


347 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I "the Great"

1322 - Emperor Komyo of Japan

1359 - Emperor Go-En'yu of Japan

1755 - Alexander Hamilton, American Founding Father, economist, and 1st United States Secretary of the Treasury

1815 - John A. Macdonald, 1st Prime Minister of Canada

1852 - Konstantin Fehrenbach, Chancellor of Germany

1859 - Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy of India

1911 - Zenko Suzuki, Prime Minister of Japan

1934 - Jean Chrétien, 20th Prime Minister of Canada

1962 - Kim Coles, actress

1975 - Rory Fitzpatrick, ice hockey player


1980 - Deanna Wright, actress

1984 - Kevin Boss, football player

1997 - Cody Simpson, singer

January 10th in History

49 BC - Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon, signalling the start of civil war.

69 - Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus is appointed by Galba to deputy Roman Emperor.

236 - Pope Fabian succeeds Anterus as the twentieth Pope of Rome.


1475 - Stephen III of Moldavia defeats the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Vaslui.

1645 - Archbishop William Laud is beheaded at the Tower of London.


1861 - American Civil War: Florida secedes from the Union.

1863 - The London Underground, the world's oldest underground railway, opens between London Paddington station and Farringdon station.


1920 - The Treaty of Versailles takes effect, officially ending World War I.

1922 - Arthur Griffith is elected President of the Dáil Éireann (Irish Parliament).

1929 - The Adventures of Tintin, one of the most popular European comic books ever, is first published in Belgium.

1946 - The first General Assembly of the United Nations opens in London. Fifty-one nations are represented.

1984 - The United States and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations after 117 years.

2007 - A general strike begins in Guinea in an eventually successful attempt to get President Lansana Conté to resign.

Famous Birthdays:

1480 - Archduchess Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands

1573 - Simon Marius, astronomer

1741 - Princess Elizabeth of Great Britain, grandchild of George II and sister of George III.

1853 - Jessie Bond, singer and actress

1864 - Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia

1940 - Ntare VI of Ankole, Omugabe of Nkole

1944 - Frank Sinatra, Jr., singer

1963 - Kira Ivanova, figure skater

1980 - Sarah Shahi, actress and model

1985 - Craig Lewis, cyclist

January 9th in History

1127 - Invading Jurchen soldiers from the Jin Dynasty besiege and sack Bianjing (Kaifeng), the capital of the Song Dynasty of China, and abduct Emperor Qinzong and others, ending the Northern Song Dynasty.

1349 - The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, is rounded up and incinerated.


1768 - In London, England, Great Britain, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus.

1788 - Connecticut becomes the fifth state to be admitted to the United States.

1861 - Mississippi becomes the second state to secede from the Union before the outbreak of the American Civil War.

1878 - Umberto I becomes King of Italy.

1916 - World War I: The Battle of Gallipoli concludes with an Ottoman Empire victory when the last Allied forces are evacuated from the peninsula.

1945 - World War II: The United States invades Luzon in the Philippines.

1991 - Representatives from the United States and Iraq meet at the Geneva Peace Conference to try to find a peaceful resolution to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.

1996 - First Chechen War: Chechen separatists launch a raid against the helicopter airfield and later a civilian hospital in the city of Kizlyar in the neighboring Dagestan, which turns into a massive hostage crisis involving thousands of civilians.

Famous Birthdays:


1554 - Pope Gregory XV

1571 - Charles Bonaventure de Longueval, Count of Bucquoy, soldier in Habsburg service

1819 - James Francis, Premier of Victoria

1848 - Princess Frederica of Hanover

1854 - Jennie Jerome, socialite and mother of Winston Churchill

1900 - Maria of Romania, Queen Consort of Yugoslavia

1913 - Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States


1944 - Jimmy Page, musician and producer

1958 - Mehmet Ali Ağca, attempted assassin of Pope John Paul II

1967 - Carl Bell, musician

1982 - HRH Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

1987 - Paolo Nutini, singer-songwriter

January 8th in History

871 - Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings.


1455 - The Romanus Pontifex is written.

1499 - Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany.

1746 - Second Jacobite Rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling.


1815 - War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans – Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British.

1835 - The United States national debt is 0 for the only time.

1867 - African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C.

1912 - The African National Congress is founded.

1940 - World War II: Britain introduces food rationing.

1964 - President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States.

1977 - Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.

2004 - The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

Famous Birthdays:

1628 - François Henri de Montmorency-Bouteville, duc de Luxembourg, general

1788 - Archduke Rudolph of Austria

1824 - Wilkie Collins, novelist

1864 - Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and Avondale

1885 - John Curtin, 14th Prime Minister of Australia

1894 - St Maximilian Kolbe, martyr and saint

1924 - Benjamin Lees, composer

1937 - Dame Shirley Bassey, singer

1961 - Calvin Smith, athlete

1979 - Sarah Polley, actress

1987 - Carmen Klaschka, tennis player

January 7th in History

1325 - Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal.

1558 - France takes Calais, the last continental possession of England.

1610 - Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, Io and Europa, although he is not able distinguish the last two until the following day.

1797 - The modern Italian flag is first used.

1922 - Dáil Éireann ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by a 64-57 vote.

1935 - Benito Mussolini and French Foreign minister Pierre Laval sign the Franco-Italian Agreement.

1942 - World War II: The siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.

1959 - The United States recognizes the new Cuban government of Fidel Castro.

1979 - Third Indochina War – Cambodian–Vietnamese War: Phnom Penh falls to the advancing Vietnamese troops, driving out Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge.

1989 - Prince Akihito is sworn in as the emperor of Japan after the death of his father Hirohito

1993 - Bosnian War: The Bosnian Army executes a surprise attack on the village of Kravica in Srebrenica.

Famous Birthdays:


1355 - Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester, son of Edward III of England

1502 - Pope Gregory XIII

1768 - Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples

1800 - Millard Fillmore, 13th President of the United States

1837 - Thomas Henry Ismay, founder of the White Star Line shipping company

1845 - King Ludwig III of Bavaria

1911 - Butterfly McQueen, actress

1938 - Lou Graham, golfer

1950 - Erin Gray, actress

1967 - Nick Clegg, British Deputy Prime Minister

1977 - Dustin Diamond, actor

1985 - Lewis Hamilton, F1 racing driver

1988 - Robert Sheehan, actor

January 6th in History

1066 - Harold Godwinson is crowned King of England.

1205 - Philip of Swabia becomes King of the Romans.

1540 - King Henry VIII of England marries Anne of Cleves.

1690 - Joseph, son of Emperor Leopold I, becomes King of the Romans.

1781 - In the Battle of Jersey, the British defeat the last attempt by France to invade Jersey.


1907 - Maria Montessori opens her first school and daycare centre for working class children in Rome, Italy.

1912 - New Mexico is admitted as the 47th US state.

1929 - Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta, India to begin her work among India's poorest and sick people.


1941 - President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivers his Four Freedoms speech in the State of the Union address.

1947 - Pan American Airlines becomes the first commercial airline to schedule a flight around the world.

1967 - Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and ARVN troops launch "Operation Deckhouse Five" in the Mekong River delta.

1978 - The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II.

2005 - American Civil Rights Movement: Edgar Ray Killen is arrested as a suspect in the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers.

Famous Birthdays:


1367 - King Richard II of England

1412 - Joan of Arc, military figure and Roman Catholic Saint

1655 - Empress Eleonore-Magdalena of Neuburg of the Holy Roman Empire

1803 - Henri Herz, pianist, composer

1812 - Melchora Aquino, revolutionary figure

1870 - Gustav Bauer, Chancellor of Germany

1912 - Danny Thomas, actor

1934 - Sylvia Syms, actress

1935 - Her Majesty Queen Margarita  Gomez-Acebo y Cejuela, consort of Tsar Simeon II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha and Bulgaria

1944 - Bonnie Franklin, actress

1953 - Malcolm Young, guitarist

1964 - Mark O'Toole, musician

1986 - Alex Turner, musician

December 5th in History

63 BC - Cicero gives the fourth and final of the Catiline Orations.


1484 - Pope Innocent VIII issues the Summis desiderantes, a papal bull that deputizes Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger as inquisitors to root out alleged witchcraft in Germany and leads to one of the most oppressive witch hunts in European history.

1492 - Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic).

1496 - King Manuel I of Portugal issues a decree of expulsion of "heretics" from the country.

1865 - Chincha Islands War: Peru allies with Chile against Spain.

1932 - German-born Swiss physicist Albert Einstein is granted an American visa.

1933 - Prohibition in the United States ends: Utah becomes the 36th U.S. state to ratify the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution, thus establishing the required 75% of states needed to enact the amendment (this overturned the 18th Amendment which had made the manufacture, sale, or transportation of alcohol illegal in the United States).

1941 - World War II: Great Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.

1945 - Flight 19 is lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

1955 - E.D. Nixon and Rosa Parks lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

2004 - The Civil Partnership Act comes into effect in the United Kingdom, and the first civil partnership is registered there.

Famous Birthdays:


1377 - Emperor Jianwen of China

1443 - Pope Julius II

1666 - Francesco Scarlatti, composer

1782 - Martin Van Buren, 8th President of the United States

1829 - Henri-Gustave Joly de Lotbinière, 4th Premier of Quebec

1863 - Paul Painlevé, mathematician and Prime Minister of France

1901 - Walt Disney, animator, director, screenwriter, and producer, co-founded The Walt Disney Company

1907 - Lin Biao, military officer and Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China

1927 - His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand,  Rama IX


1940 - Peter Pohl, author, screenwriter, and director

1962 - Fred Rutten, footballer and manager

1967 - HRH Konstantin-Assen, Prince of Vidin

1975 - Ronnie O'Sullivan, snooker player

1985 - Frankie Muniz, actor and race car driver

1989 - Gregory Tyree Boyce, actor

January 4th in History

46 BC - Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina.

871 - Battle of Reading: Ethelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish invasion army.


1642 - King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war.

1649 - English Civil War: The Rump Parliament votes to put King Charles I on trial.

1896 - Utah is admitted as the 45th US state.

1948 - Burma gains its independence from the United Kingdom.


1958 - Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit.

1959 - Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.


1970 - A magnitude 7.7 earthquake strikes Tonghai, China, killing at least 15,000 people.

1972 - Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, England, United Kingdom.

2004 - Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.


2007 - The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in US history.

2010 - Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, is officially opened.

Famous Birthdays:

1077 - Emperor Zhezong of Song Dynasty in China

1334 - Amadeus VI of Savoy

1785 - Jacob Grimm, philologist and folklorist (one of the Brothers Grimm)

1848 - Katsura Taro, Prime Minister of Japan

1896 - André Masson, artist

1915 - Meg Mundy, actress

1934 - Rudolf Schuster, former President of Slovakia

1948 - Cissé Mariam Kaïdama Sidibé, first female Malian prime minister

1954 - Tina Knowles, fashion designer, mother of Beyoncé

1966 - Deana Carter, singer

1982 - Richard Logan, footballer

1990 - Alberto Paloschi, footballer

January 3rd in History

1431 - Joan of Arc is handed over to Bishop Pierre Cauchon.

1496 - Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.

1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.

1653 - At the Coonan Cross Oath, the Eastern Church in India cuts itself off from colonial Portugue

1777 - American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.

1815 - Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.

1861 - American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.

1870 - The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.

1925 - Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.

1956 - A fire damages the top part of the Eiffel Tower.

1959 - Alaska is admitted as the 49th US state.

1962 - Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro.

1977 - Apple Computer is incorporated.

1994 - More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receive South African citizenship.

1999 - The Mars Polar Lander is launched.

Famous Birthdays:


106 BC - Cicero, Roman statesman and philosopher

1196 - Emperor Tsuchimikado of Japan

1819 - Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland

1862 - Sir Matthew Nathan, Governor of Queensland

1879 - Grace Coolidge, First Lady of the United States

1883 - Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

1926 - Sir George Martin, record producer

1944 - Blanche d'Alpuget, novelist, biographer

1946 - John Paul Jones, musician

1956 - Mel Gibson, actor and director

1981 - Eli Manning, football player

1989 - Alex D. Linz, actor

January 2nd in History

533 - Mercurius becomes Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.


1777 - American Revolutionary War: American forces under the command of George Washington repulsed a British attack at the Battle of the Assunpink Creek near Trenton, New Jersey.

1788 - Georgia becomes the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1833 - Re-establishment of British rule on the Falkland Islands.


1865 - Uruguayan War: The Siege of Paysandú ends as Brazilian and Coloradans capture Paysandú, Uruguay.

1871 - Amadeus I becomes King of Spain.

1905 - Russo-Japanese War: The Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China.

1942 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) convicts 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne in the largest espionage case in United States history—the Duquesne Spy Ring.

1945 - World War II: Nuremberg, Germany is severely bombed by Allied forces.


1959 - Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the Soviet Union.

1963 - Vietnam War: The Viet Cong wins its first major victory in the Battle of Ap Bac.

2001 - Sila María Calderón becomes the first female Governor of Puerto Rico.

Famous Birthdays:

1642 - Mehmed IV, Ottoman Sultan

1699 - Osman III, Ottoman Sultan

1836 - Queen Emma of Hawaii, Consort of King Kamehameha IV

1886 - Florence Lawrence, actress

1913 - Anna Lee, actress

1944 - Prince Norodom Ranariddh, half-brother of King Norodom Sihamoni of Cambodia

1954 - Dawn Silva, singer


1968 - Anky van Grunsven, dressage champion

1980 - Annie Bellemare, Figure Skater

1981 - Maxi Rodríguez, footballer

1992 - Anna Marenko, tennis player