• 1077 – Walk toCanossa:      The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.
• 1521 – The Diet ofWormsbegins, lasting      until May 25.
• 1547 – Henry VIII dies. His nine      year old son, Edward VI becomes King, and the first Protestant ruler ofEngland.
• 1573 – Articles of Warsaw      Confederation are signed, sanctioning freedom of religion inPoland.
• 1754 – Horace Walpole, in a      letter to Horace Mann, coins the word serendipity.
• 1624 – Sir Thomas Warner founds      the first British colony in theCaribbean,      on Saint Kitts.
• 1724 – TheRussian    Academyof Sciences was founded      inSt. Petersburg     by Peter the
• Great, and implemented in the      Senate decree. It was called St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences until      1917.
• 1760 -Pownal,Vermont     created by Benning Wentworth as one of the New Hampshire Grants.
• 1807 -London’sPall Mall     isfirst street     lit by gaslight.
• 1813 – Pride and Prejudice is      first published in theUnited        Kingdom.
• 1820 – Russian expedition led by      Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Petrovich Lazarev      discovered the Antarctic continent approaching the Antarctic coast.
• 1846 – Battle ofAliwal,Indiawon by British troops      commanded by Sir Harry Smith.
• 1848 – King ofNaplesgrants his      subjects a constitution.
• 1851 – Northwestern      University (Chicago) chartered.
• 1855 – The first locomotive runs      from the Atlantic Ocean to thePacific Ocean     on the Panama Railway.
• 1860 -Britainformally returns Mosquito Coast toNicaragua.
• 1871 – Franco-Prussian War: Siege      of Paris ends in French defeat and an armistice.
• 1878 – Yale Daily News becomes      the first daily, college newspaper in theUnited States.
• 1887 – In a snowstorm atFort Keogh,Montana,      the world’s largest snowflakes are reported, being 15 inches (38 cm) wide      and 8 inches (20 cm) thick.
• 1902 – The Carnegie Institution      is founded inWashington,      DCwith a $10 million gift      from Andrew Carnegie.
• 1909 -United       Statestroops leaveCubawith the exception of      Guantanamo Bay Naval Base after being there since the Spanish-American      War.
• 1915 – An act of the U.S.      Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
• 1916 – Louis D. Brandeis becomes      the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court.
• 1917 – Municipally owned      streetcars take to the streets ofSan        Francisco,California.
• 1918 – Finnish Civil War: Rebels      seized control of the capital,Helsinki,      and members of the Senate of Finland go underground.
• 1921 – A symbolic Tomb of the      Unknown Soldier is installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe inParisto honor the      unknown dead ofWorldWarI.
• 1922 – American      Pro Football Association renamed “National Football League.”
• 1922 – Knickerbocker Storm,WashingtonD.C.’s      biggest snowfall, causes the city’s greatest loss of life when the roof of      the Knickerbocker Theater collapses.
• 1928 – Christopher      Hornsrud chosen PM ofNorway     at age 101.
• 1932 – Japanese forces attackShanghai.
• 1933 – The namePakistanis coined by Choudhary Rehmat Ali Khan and is accepted by the Indian Muslims who then thereby adopted it further for the Pakistan Movement seeking independence.
• 1934 – The first ski tow in theUnited Statesbegins operation inVermont.
• 1935 -Icelandbecomes the first      Western country to legalize therapeutic abortion.
• 1938 – TheWorldLand     Speed Record on a public road is broken by driver Rudolf Caracciola in the      Mercedes-Benz W195.
• 1945 – World War II: Supplies      begin to reach the Republic of China over the newly reopenedBurma Road.
• 1953 – Derek Bentley hanged for a      murder carried out by Christopher Craig.
• 1958 – Charles Starkweather and      Caril Ann Fugate begin their murder spree with the killings of her parents      and infant sister.
• 1958 – The Lego company patented      their design of Lego bricks, still compatible with bricks produced today.
• 1958 –      Construction began on first private thorium-uranium nuclear reactor.
• 1959 -Soviet Unionwins 62-37 for first international      basketball loss by US.
• 1960 – NFL      announces Dallas Cowboys (1960) & Minnesota Vikings (1961) franchises.
• 1961 -RepublicofRwandaproclaimed.
• 1962 – Johanne      Relleke gets stung by bees 2,443 times inRhodesia& survives.
• 1973 –      “Barnaby Jones” premiers on CBS TV.
• 1978 – “FantasyIsland” starring Ricardo      Montalban premiers on ABC TV.
• 1980 – USCGC Blackthorn (WLB-391)      collides with the tanker Capricorn while leavingTampaFlorida     and capsizes killing 23 Coast Guard crewmembers.
• 1981 – Ronald Reagan lifts      remaining domestic petroleum price and allocation controls in theUnited States     helping to end the 1979 energy crisis and begin the 1980s oil glut.
• 1981 – William      J. Casey becomes director of the CIA.
• 1981 – Olympic      Glory tanker atGalveston Bay,      Texas, spills 1 million      gallons of oil in a ship collision.
• 1982 -USArmy general James L.      Dozier is rescued by Italian anti-terrorism forces from captivity under      the Red Brigades.
• 1984 – Los      Angeles Kings stop Wayne Gretsky 51 game scoring streak.
• 1984 – Mr. Glynn      Wolfe marries for non-bigamous record 26th time,Las Vegas.
• 1984 – Record      295,000 dominoes toppled,Fuerth,      West Germany
• 1986 – Space Shuttle program:      STS-51-L mission (Space Shuttle Challenger disaster) – Space Shuttle      Challenger breaks apart after liftoff killing all seven astronauts      onboard.
• 1990 – Defending      champion Ivan Lendl beats Stefan Edberg for Australian Open.
• 1990 – East      German agreement to form all-party government.
• 1994 – The first trial of accused      murderer Lyle Menendez ends in a mistrial. He and his brother Erik are      later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without parole.
• 1998 – Gunmen hold at least 400      children and teachers hostage for several hours at an elementary school in     Manila,Philippines.
• 2002 – TAME Flight 120, a Boeing      727-100 crashes in the Andes mountains in southernColombiakilling 92.
• 2004 – Lord Hutton publishes his      report into the death of U.N. weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly.

January 28 – Birthdays:

• 1225 – Saint Thomas Aquinas (d.      1274)
• 1312 – Queen Joan II ofNavarre     (d. 1349)
• 1457 – King Henry VII ofEngland     (d. 1509)
• 1540 – Ludolph van Ceulen, German      mathematician (d. 1610)
• 1582 – John Barclay, Scottish      writer (d. 1621)
• 1600 – Pope Clement IX (d. 1669)
• 1608 – Giovanni Alfonso Borelli,      Italian physiologist and physicist (d. 1679)
• 1611 – Johannes Hevelius,      astronomer (d. 1687)
• 1622 – Adrien Auzout, French      astronomer (d. 1691)
• 1701 – Charles Marie de La      Condamine, French mathematician and geographer (d. 1774)
• 1706 – John Baskerville, English      printer (d. 1775)
• 1712 – Tokugawa Ieshige, Japanese      shogun (d. 1761)
• 1717 – Mustafa III, Ottoman      Sultan (d. 1774)
• 1719 – Johann Elias Schlegel,      German critic and poet (d. 1749)
• 1755 – Samuel Thomas von      Sömmering, German physician (d. 1830)
• 1784 – George Hamilton GordonAberdeen, Prime Minister of theUnited Kingdom(d. 1860)
• 1818 – George S. Boutwell, 20th      Governor ofMassachusetts     (d. 1905)
• 1822 – Alexander Mackenzie, 2nd      Prime Minister ofCanada     (d. 1892)
• 1833 – Charles George ‘Chinese’      Gordon, British soldier and administrator (d. 1885)
• 1841 – Henry Morton Stanley,      Welsh-born explorer and journalist (d. 1904)
• 1853 – José Martí, Cuban      revolutionary (d. 1895)
• 1855 – William Seward Burroughs      I, American inventor (d. 1898)
• 1863 – Ernst William Christmas,      Australian painter (d. 1918)
• 1864 – Charles W. Nash,      co-founder of Nash Motors, which would become American Motors as well as      co-founder of Buick (d. 1948)
• 1864 – Herbert Akroyd Stuart,      English engineer – inventor of the first compression ignition engine (d.      1927)
• 1865 – Lala Lajpat Rai, Indian      freedom fighter (d. 1928)
• 1865 – Kaarlo Juho Ståhlberg,      first president ofFinland     (d. 1952)
• 1873 – Colette, French writer (d.      1954)
• 1874 – Vsevolod Meyerhold,      Russian theatre director (d. 1940)
• 1879 – Francis Picabia,      French-born painter and poet (d. 1953)
• 1880 – Herbert Strudwick, English      cricketer (d. 1970)
• 1884 – Auguste Piccard, Swiss      physicist (d. 1962)
• 1886 – Marthe Bibesco, Romanian      writer (d. 1973)
• 1887 – Arthur Rubinstein, Polish      pianist and conductor (d. 1982)
• 1890 – Robert Stroud, American      convict, the Birdman of Alcatraz (d. 1963)
• 1891 – Bill Doak, American      baseball player (d. 1954)
• 1892 – Ernst Lubitsch,      German-born film director (d. 1947)
• 1897 – Valentin Kataev, Russian      writer (d. 1986)
• 1899 – Elias Simojoki, Finnish      clergyman and politician (d. 1940)
• 1903 – Aleksander Kaminski,      Polish writer (d. 1978)
• 1908 – Paul Misraki, French      composer and songwriter (d. 1998)
• 1909 – John Thomson, Scottish      footballer (d. 1931)
• 1910 – John Banner, Austrian      actor (d. 1973)
• 1910 – Arnold Moss, American      actor (d. 1989)
• 1910 – Verda Bryant, American      author
• 1912 – Jackson Pollock, American      painter (d. 1956)
• 1918 – Harry Corbett, English      puppeteer (Sooty) (d. 1989)
• 1918 – Trevor Skeet, New      Zealand-born British politician (d. 2004)
• 1919 – Francis Gabreski, American      fighter pilot (d. 2002)
• 1922 – Robert W. Holley, American      biochemist, Nobel Laureate (d. 1993)
• 1927 – Ronnie Scott, British jazz      tenor saxophonist and jazz club owner (d. 1996)
• 1927 – Hiroshi Teshigahara,      Japanese director (d. 2001)
• 1929 – Acker Bilk, English jazz      clarinetist
• 1929 – Claes Oldenburg,      Swedish-born artist
• 1933 – Jack Hill, American film      director
• 1934 – Juan Manuel Bordeu,      Argentine racing driver (d. 1990)
• 1934 – Mitr Chaibancha, Thai      actor (d. 1970)
• 1935 – David Lodge, English      author
• 1936 – Ismail Kadare, Albanian      writer
• 1936 – Alan Alda, American actor,      writer, and director
• 1938 – Leonid Zhabotynsky,      Ukrainian weightlifter
• 1940 – Carlos Slim Helú, Mexican      businessman
• 1941 – Joel Crothers, American      actor (d. 1985)
• 1943 – Paul Henderson, Canadian      ice hockey player
• 1943 – Dick Taylor, English      musician (The Rolling Stones and The Pretty Things)
• 1944 – Susan Howard, American      actress
• 1944 – John Tavener, English      composer
• 1945 – Robert Wyatt, English      musician
• 1948 – Mikhail Baryshnikov,      Russian dancer
• 1948 – Charles Taylor, President      ofLiberia
• 1949 – Gregg Popovich, NBA Basketball      Coach
• 1950 – Barbi Benton, American      actress
• 1950 – Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah,      King of Bahrain
• 1951 – Brian Bilbray, American      politician
• 1951 – Leonid Kadeniuk, Ukrainian      cosmonaut
• 1953 – Colin Campbell, Canadian      ice hockey player and executive
• 1953 – Chris Carter, English      musician (Throbbing Gristle, Chris & Cosey)
• 1954 – Rick Warren, American      pastor and author
• 1955 – Nicolas Sarkozy, President      ofFrance
• 1957 – Frank Skinner English      comedian
• 1957 – Mark Napier, Canadian ice      hockey player
• 1959 – Frank Darabont, American      filmmaker
• 1959 – Burkhard Dallwitz,      German-born composer
• 1959 – Randi Rhodes, AirAmerica     radio personality
• 1959 – Dave Sharp, Welsh      guitarist (The Alarm)
• 1960 – Robert von Dassanowsky,      American cultural historian, writer, and producer
• 1961 – Normand Rochefort,      Canadian ice hockey player
• 1962 – Keith Hamilton Cobb,      American actor
• 1962 – Sam Phillips, American      singer
• 1963 – Dan Spitz, American      musician, guitarist for Anthrax
• 1965 – Lynda Boyd, American      actress
• 1968 – Sarah McLachlan, Canadian      singer and songwriter
• 1968 – DJ Muggs, American      musician (Cypress Hill)
• 1968 – Rakim, born William      Michael Griffin Jr., American rapper
• 1969 – Kathryn Morris, American      actress
• 1969 – Mo Rocca, American writer      and comedian
• 1969 – Linda Sanchez, American      politician
• 1971 – Anthony Hamilton, American      soul singer
• 1972 – Nicky Southall, English      footballer
• 1974 – Tony Delk, American      basketball player
• 1974 – Jermaine Dye, American      baseball player
• 1974 – Magglio Ordóñez,      Venezuelan baseball player
• 1975 – David Zingler, American      writer
• 1975 – Anne Montminy, Canadian      Olympic diver
• 1975 – Lee Latchford-Evans,      English singer
• 1975 – Junior Spivey, American      baseball player
• 1975 – Terri Colombino, American      Actress
• 1976 – Mark Madsen, American      basketball player
• 1976 – Jarrod Montague, American      drummer (Taproot)
• 1976 – Lee Ingleby, British actor
• 1976 – Miltiadis Sapanis, Greek      footballer
• 1976 – Emiko Kado, Japanese      professional wrestler (d. 1999)
• 1977 – Daunte Culpepper, American      football player
• 1977 – Joey Fatone, American      singer (*NSYNC)
• 1977 – Matt DeVries, American      guitarist (Chimaira)
• 1977 – Takuma Sato, Japanese      Formula One driver
• 1977 -LyleOverbay,      American baseball player
• 1978 – Gianluigi Buffon, Italian      footballer
• 1978 – Jamie Carragher, English      footballer
• 1978 – Papa Bouba Diop,      Senegalese footballer
• 1979 – Pixie, English model
• 1979 – Ali Boulala, Swedish      skateboarder
• 1980 – Nick Carter, American      singer (Backstreet Boys)
• 1980 – Jesse James Hollywood,      American drug dealer and fugitive
• 1981 – Rick Razzano, American      football player
• 1981 – Elijah Wood, American      actor
• 1984 – Andre Iguodala, American      basketball player
• 1985 – Arnold Mvuemba, French      footballer
• 1986 – Jessica Ennis, English      heptathlete
• 1986 – Shruti Haasan, Indian      actress
• 1987 – Sophia Larkin, English      artist
• 1988 – Henry Mortensen (actor),      American actor

January 28 – Deaths:

• 814 – Charlemagne (b. 742)
• 1061 – Duke Spytihnev II ofBohemia(b. 1031)
• 1271 – Isabella of Aragon, queen      of Philip III ofFrance     (b. 1247)
• 1443 – Robert le Maçon,      Chancellor of France
• 1547 – King Henry VIII ofEngland     (b. 1491)
• 1596 – Sir Francis Drake, English      explorer and soldier
• 1599 – Cristofano Malvezzi,      Italian composer (b. 1547)
• 1613 – Thomas Bodley, English      diplomat and library founder (b. 1545)
• 1621 – Pope Paul V (b. 1550)
• 1681 – Richard Allestree, English      royalist churchman (b. 1619)
• 1672 – Pierre Séguier, Chancellor      ofFrance     (b. 1588)
• 1687 – Johannes Hevelius, Polish      astronomer (b. 1611)
• 1697 – John Fenwick, English      conspirator
• 1725 – Tsar Peter I ofRussia,      (b. 1672)
• 1754 – Ludvig Holberg, Norwegian      historian and writer (b. 1684)
• 1832 – Augustin Daniel Belliard,      French general (b. 1769)
• 1859 – Frederick John Robinson,      1st Viscount Goderich, Prime Minister of theUnited Kingdom(b. 1782)
• 1864 – Émile Clapeyron, French      engineer and physicist (b. 1799)
• 1903 – Augusta Holmès, French      composer (b. 1847)
• 1912 – Gustave de Molinari,      Belgian economist (b. 1819)
• 1915 – Nikolay Umov, Russian      physicist (b. 1846)
• 1918 – John McCrae, Canadian poet      (b. 1872)
• 1935 – Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov,      Russian composer (b. 1859)
• 1937 – Anastasios Metaxas, Greek      architect and shooter (b. 1862)
• 1938 – Bernd Rosemeyer, German      racecar driver (b. 1909)
• 1939 – William Butler Yeats,      Irish writer, Nobel Prize Laureate (b. 1865)
• 1947 – Reynaldo Hahn, French      composer (b. 1875)
• 1949 – Jean-Pierre Wimille,      French race car driver (b. 1908)
• 1950 – Nikolai Luzin, Russian      mathematician (b. 1883)
• 1951 – Carl Gustaf Emil      Mannerheim, president ofFinland     (b.1867)
• 1953 – James Scullin, 9th Prime      Minister ofAustralia     (b. 1876)
• 1953 – Derek Bentley (b. 1933)      (executed)
• 1960 – Zora Neale Hurston,      American author (b. 1891)
• 1963 – Gustave Garrigou, French      cyclist (b. 1884)
• 1965 – Tich Freeman, English      cricketer (b. 1888)
• 1965 – Maxime Weygand, French      soldier (b. 1867)
• 1971 – Donald Winnicott, British      psychoanalyst (b. 1896)
• 1973 – John Banner, Austrian      actor (b. 1910)
• 1983 – Billy Fury, British singer      (b. 1940)
• 1983 – Frank Forde, 15th Prime      Minister ofAustralia     (b. 1890)
• 1986 – Crew of Space Shuttle      Challenger:
• Greg Jarvis (b.       1944)
• Christa       McAuliffe (b. 1948)
• Ronald McNair       (b. 1950)
• Ellison Onizuka       (b. 1946)
• Judith Resnik       (b. 1949)
• Francis R.       Scobee (b. 1939)
• Michael J. Smith       (b. 1945)
• 1988 – Klaus Fuchs, German      physicist (b. 1911)
• 1991 – Red Grange, American      football player (b. 1903)
• 1994 – Hal Smith, American actor      (b. 1916)
• 1996 – Joseph Brodsky,      Russian-born poet, Nobel Laureate (b. 1940)
• 1996 – Jerry Siegel, American      cartoonist (b. 1914)
• 1996 – Burne Hogarth, American      cartoonist (b. 1911)
• 1999 – Markey Robinson, Irish      painter (b. 1918)
• 1999 – Torgny T:son Segerstedt,      Swedish sociologist and philosopher (b. 1908)
• 2001 – Curt Blefary, American      baseball player (b. 1943)
• 2002 – Astrid Lindgren, Swedish      author (b. 1907)
• 2004 – Lloyd M. Bucher, U.S. Navy      officer (b. 1927)
• 2004 – Don Cholito, Puerto Rican      radio host (b. 1923)
• 2004 – Elroy Hirsch, American      football player (b. 1923)
• 2004 – Don Stansauk, American      professional wrestler (b. 1936)
• 2004 – Joe Viterelli, American      actor (b. 1937)
• 2005 – Jim Capaldi, English      singer and songwriter (b. 1944)
• 2005 – Karen Lancaume, French      actress (suicide) (b. 1973)
• 2005 – Jacques Villeret, French      actor (b. 1951)
• 2006 – Yitzchak Kaduri, rabbi (b.      around 1900)
• 2006 – Henry McGee, English      comedian (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Carlo Clerici, Swiss      professional road racing cyclist (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Father Robert Drinan,      Roman Catholic Priest and American politician (b. 1920)
• 2007 – Karel Svoboda, Czech      composer of popular music (b. 1938)
• 2007 – Hsu Wei Lun, Taiwanese      actress (b. 1978)
• 2007 – Yelena Romanova, Russian      athlete (b. 1963)
• 2007 – Emma Tillman, the world’s      oldest living person from January 24-28, 2007 (b. 1892)
• 2008 – Christodoulos, Archbishop      ofAthensand AllGreece(b. 1939)
• 2008 – Bengt Lindström, Swedish      artist (b. 1925)

January 28 – Holidays:

• Catholicism – Feast day of St.      Thomas Aquinas
• World Leprosy Day

• 98 – Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva.
• 1142 – Wrongful execution of noted Song Dynasty General Yue Fei.
• 1186 – Henry VI, the son and heir of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, weds Constance of Sicily.
• 1343 – Pope Clement VI issues the Bull Unigenitus.
• 1593 – Vatican opens 7 year trial against scholar Giordano Bruno.
• 1606 – Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins, and ending in their execution on January 31.
• 1695 – Mustafa II becomes the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul on the death of Ahmed II. Mustafa rules until his death in 1703.
• 1785 – The University of Georgia is founded, the first public university in the United States.
• 1825 – 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.”
• 1870 – The first women’s fraternity,Kappa Alpha Theta, is formed at DePauw University.
• 1888 – In Washington, D.C., the National Geographic Society is founded.
• 1909 – The Young Left is founded in Norway.
• 1918 – The first hostilities occurred in the Finnish Civil War.
• 1939 – First flight of the Lockheed P-38 Lightning.
• 1944 – World War II: The two-year Siege of Leningrad is lifted.
• 1945 – World War II: The Red Army arrives at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
• 1951 – Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site begins with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on the Frenchman Flats.
• 1951 – David Morrissey, Australian anthropologist, artist, and humanitarian activist is born.
• 1967 – Apollo program: Apollo 1 – Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee are killed in a fire during a test of the spacecraft at the Kennedy Space Center.
• 1967 – More than sixty nations sign the Outer Space Treaty banning nuclear weapons in space.
• 1973 – Paris Peace Accords officially end the Vietnam War. Colonel William Nolde falls, becoming the conflict’s last recorded American combat casualty.
• 1983 – Pilot shaft of the Seikan Tunnel, the world’s longest subaqueous tunnel (53.85 km) between the Japanese islands of Honshu and Hokkaido breaks through.
• 1996 – Colonel Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara deposes the first democratically elected president of Niger, Mahamane Ousmane, in a military coup.
• 1996 – Germany first observes International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

January 27 – Birthdays:

• 1443 – Albert, Duke of Saxony (d. 1500)
• 1546 – Joachim Friedrich, Elector of Brandenburg (d. 1608)
• 1585 – Hendrick Avercamp, Dutch painter (d. 1634)
• 1603 – Harbottle Grimston, English politician (d. 1685)
• 1621 – Thomas Willis, English physician (d. 1675)
• 1662 – Richard Bentley, English classical scholar (d. 1742)
• 1687 – Balthasar Neumann, German architect (d. 1753)
• 1701 – Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim, German historian (d. 1790)
• 1708 – Anna Petrovna of Russia (d. 1728)
• 1720 – Samuel Foote, English dramatist (d. 1777)
• 1741 – Hester Thrale, Welsh diarist (d. 1821)
• 1756 – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (d. 1791)
• 1805 – Samuel Palmer, English artist (d. 1881)
• 1805 – Sophie of Bavaria, archduchess of Austria (d. 1872)
• 1805 – Maria Anna of Bavaria, queen consort of Saxony (d. 1877)
• 1806 – Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish composer (d. 1826)
• 1814 – Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, French architect (d. 1879)
• 1823 – Edouard Lalo, French composer (d. 1892)
• 1826 – Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, Russian writer (d. 1889)
• 1826 – Richard Taylor, American Confederate general (d. 1879)
• 1832 – Lewis Carroll, English author (d. 1898)
• 1836 – Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, Austrian writer (d. 1895)
• 1841 – Arkhip Kuindzhi, Russian painter (d. 1910)
• 1848 – Togo Heihachiro, Japanese admiral (d. 1934)
• 1850 – Samuel Gompers, American labor leader (d. 1924)
• 1850 – Edward J. Smith, English captain of the Titanic (d. 1912)
• 1859 – Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany (d. 1941)
• 1885 – Jerome Kern, American composer (d. 1945)
• 1885 – Eduard Künneke, German composer (d. 1953)
• 1885 – Maeda Seison, Japanese painter (d. 1977)
• 1891 – Ilya Ehrenburg, Russian writer (d. 1967)
• 1893 – Soong Ching-ling, Chinese wife of Sun Yat-sen (d. 1981)
• 1895 – Harry Ruby, American composer (d. 1974)
• 1900 – Hyman Rickover, American admiral (d. 1986)
• 1901 – Art Rooney, American football team owner (d. 1988)
• 1901 – Willy Fritsch, German actor (d. 1973)
• 1903 – John Carew Eccles, Australian neuropsychologist, Nobel Laureate (d. 1997)
• 1905 – Howard McNear, American actor (d. 1969)
• 1908 – Oran Page, American musician (d. 1954)
• 1908 – William Randolph Hearst, Jr., American newspaper magnate (d. 1993)
• 1912 – Arne Næss, Norwegian philosopher
• 1918 – Skitch Henderson, English bandleader (d. 2005)
• 1918 – Elmore James, American blues musician (d. 1963)
• 1918 – William Seawell, United States Army Brigadier General (d. 2005)
• 1919 – Ross Bagdasarian, American musician (d. 1972)
• 1920 – Helmut Zacharias, German violinist (d. 2002)
• 1920 – John Box, British film production designer and art director (d. 2005)
• 1921 – Donna Reed, American actress (d. 1986)
• 1924 – Sabu Dastagir, Indian actor (d. 1963)
• 1924 – Rauf Denktas, founder of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
• 1926 – Fritz Spiegl, Austrian journalist (d. 2003)
• 1926 – Ingrid Thulin, Swedish actress (d. 2004)
• 1928 – Michael Craig, British actor
• 1928 – Hans Modrow, a German politician, premier of East Germany
• 1929 – Gastón Suárez, Bolivian novelist (d. 1984)
• 1930 – Bobby Blue Bland, American singer
• 1931 – Mordecai Richler, Canadian author (d. 2001)
• 1932 – Boris Shakhlin, Soviet gymnast
• 1933 – Mohamed Al-Fayed, Egyptian billionaire businessman
• 1934 – George Follmer, American race car driver
• 1936 – Troy Donahue, American actor (d. 2001)
• 1936 – Samuel C. C. Ting, American physicist, Nobel Laureate
• 1937 – John Ogdon, English pianist (d. 1989)
• 1940 – James Cromwell, American actor
• 1940 – Terry Harper, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1942 – John Witherspoon, American actor
• 1942 – Kate Wolf, American folk singer and songwriter (d. 1986)
• 1944 – Peter Akinola, Nigerian religious leader
• 1944 – Mairéad Corrigan, Irish activist, Nobel Prize Laureate
• 1944 – Nick Mason, English drummer (Pink Floyd)
• 1945 – Harold Cardinal, Cree political leader (d. 2005)
• 1946 – Nedra Talley, American singer (Ronettes)
• 1947 – Björn Afzelius, Swedish singer (d. 1999)
• 1947 – Vyron Polydoras, Greek politician
• 1948 – Jean-Philippe Collard, French pianist
• 1949 – Ethan Mordden, American author
• 1950 – Amos Grunebaum, Israeli-born physician
• 1950 – Derek Acorah, English spirit medium
• 1951 – Brian Downey, Irish musician (Thin Lizzy)
• 1951 – David Morrissey Australian anthropologist, artist, and humanitarian
• involved in forwarding the cause of CSR
• 1952 – Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, American football player
• 1954 – Peter Laird, American comic-book artist
• 1954 – Joko Ninomiya, Japanese martial artist
• 1955 – Brian Engblom, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1955 – John G. Roberts, 17th Chief Justice of the United States
• 1955 – Alexander Stuart, British author
• 1955 – Koji Ushikubo, Japanese racing driver
• 1956 – Mimi Rogers, American actress
• 1957 – Janick Gers, British guitarist (Iron Maiden)
• 1957 – Frank Miller, American comic book artist and writer and film director
• 1958 – James Grippando, American novelist
• 1958 – Kadri Mälk, Estonian artist and jewelry designer
• 1959 – Keith Olbermann, American news presenter
• 1959 – Göran Hägglund, Swedish politician
• 1959 – Cris Collinsworth, American football player
• 1961 – Margo Timmins, Canadian singer (Cowboy Junkies)
• 1961 – Dina Bonnevie, Filipino actress
• 1961 – Gillian Gilbert, British musician (New Order)
• 1961 – Narciso Rodriguez, American fashion designer
• 1964 – Bridget Fonda, American actress
• 1965 – Alan Cumming, Scottish actor
• 1965 – Mike Newell, English football manager
• 1967 – Bobby Deol, Indian actor
• 1967 – Byron Mann, Hong Kong actor
• 1967 – Dave Manson, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1968 – Patrick Blondeau, former French International footballer
• 1968 – Mike Patton, American singer (Faith No More)
• 1968 – Tricky, English rapper
• 1969 – Cornelius, Japanese musician and producer (Flipper’s Guitar)
• 1969 – Michael Kulas, Canadian singer (James)
• 1969 – Patton Oswalt, American actor and writer
• 1970 – Jon Douglas Rainey, American TV personality
• 1970 – Emmanuel Pahud, French-Swiss flautist
• 1971 – Fann Wong, Singapore entertainer (Shanghai Knights)
• 1971 – Lil Jon, American rapper and producer
• 1971 – Patrice Brisebois, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1972 – Guillermo, Mexican-born American TV personality
• 1972 – Keith Wood, Irish rugby player
• 1972 – Mark Owen, English pop singer
• 1972 – Janine Ilitch, Australian netballer
• 1974 – Chaminda Vaas, Sri Lankan cricketer
• 1974 – Andrei Pavel, Romanian tennis player
• 1976 – Clint Ford, American voice actor
• 1976 – Ahn Jung-Hwan, Korean football player
• 1976 – Ruby Lin, Taiwanese actress and singer
• 1978 – Pete Laforest, Canadian baseball player
• 1979 – Daniel Vettori, New Zealand cricketer
• 1979 – Rosamund Pike, British actress
• 1979 – Mario Fatafehi, American-born Canadian Football League player
• 1980 – Marat Safin, Russian tennis player
• 1980 – Chanda Gunn, ice hockey player
• 1981 – Alicia Molik, Australian tennis player
• 1983 – Carlo Colaiacovo, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1983 – Gavin Floyd, American baseball player
• 1983 – Mike Zagurski, American baseball player
• 1984 – Davetta Sherwood, American actress
• 1987 – Lily Donaldson, British model
• 1987 – Katy Rose, American pop singer
• 1987 – Zuleidy Spanish inventor, famous for inventing the tooth brush
• 1988 – Kerlon Moura Souza, Brazilian footballer

January 27 – Deaths:

• 98 – Nerva, Roman Emperor (b. 35)
• 1490 – Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shogun (b. 1435)
• 1629 – Hieronymus Praetorius, German composer (b. 1560)
• 1638 – Gonzalo de Céspedes y Meneses, Spanish novelist
• 1731 – Bartolomeo Cristofori, Italian musical instrument maker (b. 1655)
• 1740 – Louis Henri, Duc de Bourbon, Prime Minister of France (b. 1692)
• 1814 – Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher (b. 1762)
• 1816 – Samuel Hood, 1st Viscount Hood, British admiral (b. 1724)
• 1851 – John James Audubon, French-born naturalist and ornithologist (b. 1789)
• 1857 – Dorothea Lieven, Russian noblewoman (b. 1785)
• 1860 – János Bolyai, Hungarian mathematician (b. 1802)
•  1880 – Edward Middleton Barry, English architect (b. 1830)
• 1901 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer (b. 1813)
• 1910 – Thomas Crapper, English inventor (b. 1836)
• 1919 – Endre Ady, Hungarian poet (b. 1877)
• 1921 – Maurice Vincent Buckley, Australian soldier (b. 1891)
• 1927 – Georgios Grivas, Cyprus-born general in the Greek Army
• 1927 – Blessed Jurgis Matulaitis-Matulevicius (Matulewicz), Lithuanian bishop
• 1940 – Isaac Babel, Ukrainian writer (b. 1894)
• 1956 – Erich Kleiber, Argentine conductor (b. 1890)
• 1967 – Crew of Apollo 1:
  • Roger Chaffee (b. 1935)
  • Virgil “Gus” Grissom (b. 1926)
  • Edward White (b. 1930)
  • 1967 – Alphonse Juin, Marshal of France (b. 1888)
  • 1970 – Rita Angus, New Zealand painter (b. 1908)
  • 1971 – Jacobo Arbenz, President of Guatemala (b. 1913)
  • 1972 – Mahalia Jackson, American singer (b. 1911)
  • 1972 – Richard Courant, German-American mathematician (b. 1888)
  • 1973 – William Nolde, last American combat casualty of Vietnam War (b. 1929)
  • 1975 – Bill Walsh, American producer and writer (b. 1913)
  • 1979 – Qalander Ba Ba Auliya, Sufi master (b. 1898)
  • 1983 – Louis de Funès, French actor (b. 1914)
  • 1986 – Lilli Palmer, German-born actress (b. 1914)
  • 1988 – Massa Makan Diabaté, Malian author (b. 1938)
  • 1989 – Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer (b. 1888)
  • 1993 – André the Giant, French professional wrestler and actor (b. 1946)
  • 1994 – Claude Akins, American actor (b. 1918)
  • 1996 – Ralph Yarborough, American politician (b. 1903)
  • 1997 – Gerald Marks, American songwriter (All of Me) (b. 1900)
  • 2000 – Friedrich Gulda, Austrian pianist (b. 1930)
  • 2001 – Stavros Damianides, Greek musician (b. 1941)
  • 2003 – Henryk Jablonski, President of Poland (b. 1909)
  • 2003 – Louis Archambault, Quebec sculptor (b. 1915)
  • 2004 – Jack Paar, American television show host (b. 1918)
  • 2004 – Salvador Laurel, Vice President of the Philippines (b. 1928)
  • 2006 – Johannes Rau, 8th President of Germany (b. 1931)
  • 2006 – Gene McFadden, American singer and songwriter (b. 1948)
  • 2006 – Jean-Christophe Lafaille, French mountaineer (disappeared) (b. 1965)
  • 2007 – Tige Andrews, American actor (b. 1920)
  • 2007 – Yang Chuan-kwang, Taiwanese athlete (b. 1933)
  • 2008 – Suharto, President of Indonesia (b. 1921)
  • 2008 – Louie Welch, mayor of Houston (b. 1918)

January 27 – Holidays:

• UN — International Holocaust Remembrance Day
• United Kingdom — Holocaust Memorial Day.
• Germany — Gedenktag für die Opfer des Nationalsozialismus (Commemoration Day for the Victims of National Socialism).
• Poland — Dzien Pamieci Ofiar Nazizmu (Memorial Day for the Victims of Nazism).
• Italy — Giorno della Memoria (Memorial Day).
• Catholicism — Catholic Schools Week.
• Serbia — St. Sava Day.
• Denmark — Auschwitzdag (Auschwitz Day; commemoration day for the victims of the Holocaust and other genocide).
• Monaco, day of Saint Devota, patron saint

• 1340 – King Edward III of England is declared King of France.
• 1500 – Vicente Yáñez Pinzón becomes the first European to set foot on Brazil.
• 1531 – Lisbon, Portugal hit by an earthquake–thousands die.
• 1564 – The Council of Trent issued its conclusions in the Tridentinum, establishing a distinction between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism.
• 1565 – Battle of Talikota, fought between the Vijayanagara Empire and the Islamic sultanates of the Deccan, leads to the subjugation, and eventual destruction of the last Hindu kingdom in India, and the consolidation of Islamic rule over much of the Indian subcontinent.
• 1589 – Job is elected as Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
• 1699 – Treaty of Carlowitz signed.
• 1700 – The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the west coast of the North America, as evidenced by Japanese records.
• 1736 – Stanislaus I of Poland abdicates his throne.
• 1788 – The British First Fleet, led by Arthur Phillip, sails into Sydney Harbour to establish Sydney, the first permanent European settlement on the continent. Commemorated as Australia Day.
• 1808 – Rum Rebellion, the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in Australia.
• 1837 – Michigan is admitted as the 26th U.S. state.
• 1838 – Tennessee enacts the first prohibition law in the United States
• 1841 – The United Kingdom formally occupies Hong Kong, which China later formally ceded.
• 1855 – Point No Point Treaty signed in Washington Territory.
• 1856 – First Battle of Seattle (1856). Marines from the USS Decatur drive off American Indian attackers after all day battle with settlers.
• 1861 – American Civil War: The state of Louisiana secedes from the Union.
• 1863 – American Civil War: General Ambrose Burnside is relieved of command of the Army of the Potomac after the disastrous Fredericksburg campaign. He is replaced by Joseph Hooker.
• 1863 – American Civil War: Massachusetts Governor receives permission from Secretary of War to raise a militia organization for men of African descent.
• 1870 – American Civil War: Virginia rejoins the Union.
• 1885 – Troops loyal to The Mahdi conquer Khartoum.
• 1905 – The Cullinan Diamond is found near Pretoria, South Africa at the Premier Mine.
• 1907 – The Short Magazine Lee-Enfield Mk III is officially introduced into British Military Service, and remains the oldest military rifle still in official use.
• 1911 – Glenn H. Curtiss flies the first successful seaplane.
• 1911 – Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
• 1920 – Former Ford Motor Co. executive Henry Leland launches the Lincoln Motor Company which he later sold to his former employer.
• 1930 – The Indian National Congress declares 26 January as Independence Day or as the day for Poorna Swaraj (Complete Independence) which occurred 20 years later.
• 1934 – The Apollo Theater reopens in Harlem, New York City.
• 1934 – German-Polish Non-Aggression Pact is signed.
• 1939 – Spanish Civil War: Troops loyal to nationalist General Francisco Franco and aided by Italy take Barcelona.
• 1942 – World War II: The first United States forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
• 1950 – India promulgates its constitution forming a republic and Rajendra Prasad is sworn in as its first president Republic Day.
• 1952 – Black Saturday in Egypt: riots burn Cairo’s central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
• 1958 – Japanese ferry Nankai Maru capsized off southern Awaji Island, Japan, 167 killed.
• 1961 – John F. Kennedy appoints Janet G. Travell to be his physician. This is the first time a woman holds this appointment.
• 1962 – Ranger program: Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon. The space probe later missed the moon by 22,000 miles (35,400 km).
• 1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India.
• 1966 – The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia.
• 1980 – Israel and Egypt establish diplomatic relations.
• 1988 – Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera has its first performance on Broadway at the Majestic Theatre in New York.
• 1991 – Mohamed Siad Barre is removed in Somalia, ending centralized government
• 1992 – Boris Yeltsin announces that Russia is going to stop targeting United States cities with nuclear weapons.
• 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: On American television, U.S. President Bill Clinton denies having had “sexual relations” with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
• 2000 – Rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine plays in front of Wall Street, prompting an early closing of trading due to the crowds.
• 2001 – An earthquake hits Gujarat, India, causing more than 20,000 deaths.
• 2004 – President Hamid Karzai signs the new constitution of Afghanistan.
• 2004 – A whale explodes in the town of Tainan, Taiwan. A build-up of gas in the decomposing Sperm whale is suspected of causing the explosion.
• 2005 – Glendale train crash: Two trains derail killing 11 and injuring 200 in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles.
• 2005 – Condoleezza Rice is sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, becoming the first African American woman to hold the post.
• 2006 – Western Union discontinues use of its telegram service.

January 26 – Birthdays:

• 1497 – Emperor Go-Nara of Japan (d. 1557)
• 1541 – Florent Chrestien, French writer (d. 1596)
• 1714 – Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, French sculptor (d. 1785)
• 1716 – George Germain, 1st Viscount Sackville, British soldier and politician (d. 1785)
• 1722 – Alexander Carlyle, Scottish church leader (d. 1805)
• 1763 – Charles XIV John of Sweden, Napoleonic general (d. 1844)
• 1781 – Achim von Arnim, German poet (d. 1831)
• 1813 – Juan Pablo Duarte, Dominican founding father (d. 1876
• 1826 – Julia Dent Grant, First Lady of the United States (d. 1902)
• 1832 – George Shiras Jr., U.S. Supreme Court justice (d. 1924)
• 1842 – François Coppée, French poet and novelist (d. 1908)
• 1852 – Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza (Pietro Paolo Savorgnan di Brazzà), explorer (d. 1905)
• 1857 – the 12th Dalai Lama (d. 1875)
• 1868 – Juventino Rosas, Mexican composer (d. 1894)
• 1880 – Douglas MacArthur, American general and Medal of Honor recipient (d. 1964)
• 1887 – François Faber, Luxembourgian cyclist (d. 1915)
• 1887 – Marc Mitscher, American Navy Admiral (d. 1947)
• 1891 – Frank Costello, Italian-born gangster (d. 1973)
• 1891 – Wilder Penfield, American-born Canadian neurosurgeon (d. 1976)
• 1892 – Zara Cully, American actress (d. 1978)
• 1892 – Bessie Coleman, American pioneer aviator (d. 1926)
• 1893 – Giuseppe Genco Russo, Sicilian mafioso (d. 1976)
• 1900 – Karl Ristenpart, German conductor (d. 1967)
• 1901 – Stuart Symington, American politician (d. 1988)
• 1902 – Menno ter Braak, Dutch author and polemicist (d. 1940)
• 1904 – Ancel Keys, American scientist (d. 2004)
• 1904 – Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1988)
• 1905 – Charles Lane, American actor (d. 2007)
• 1905 – Maria von Trapp, Austrian-born singer (d. 1987)
• 1908 – Stéphane Grappelli, French jazz violinist (d. 1997)
• 1908 – Jill Esmond, English actress (d. 1990)
• 1910 – Jean Image, Hungarian-born French animator (d. 1989)
• 1911 – Polykarp Kusch, German-born physicist, Nobel Prize Laureate (d. 1993)
• 1911 – Norbert Schultze, German composer and songwriter (d. 2002)
• 1913 – Jimmy Van Heusen, American songwriter (d. 1990)
• 1914 – Princess Hadice Hayriye Ayshe Dürrühsehvar (d. 2006)
• 1915 – William Hopper, American actor (d. 1970)
• 1918 – Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian dictator (d. 1989)
• 1918 – Philip José Farmer, American writer
• 1921 – Akio Morita, Japanese businessman (d. 1999)
• 1921 – Eddie Barclay, French producer (Barclay Records) (d. 2005)
• 1922 – Michael Bentine, British comedian (d. 1996)
• 1923 – Anne Jeffreys, American actress
• 1924 – Rauf Denktash, Cypriot politician
• 1924 – Annette Strauss, American philanthropist and politician (d. 1998)
• 1924 – Alice Babs, Swedish singer
• 1925 – Joan Leslie, American actress
• 1925 – Paul Newman, American actor, philanthropist, race car driver and race team owner (d. 2009)
• 1925 – Claude Ryan, Quebec newspaper editor (d. 2004)
• 1926 – Farman Fatehpuri, Pakistani scholar
• 1927 – José Azcona del Hoyo, President of Honduras (d. 2005)
• 1927 – Bob Nieman, American baseball player (d. 1985)
• 1928 – Roger Vadim, French film director and actor (d. 2000)
• 1929 – Jules Feiffer, American cartoonist and writer
• 1929 – Gordon Solie, American wrestling commentator (d. 2000)
• 1931 – Mary Murphy, American film actress
• 1932 – Coxsone Dodd, Jamaican record producer
• 1933 – Ercole Baldini, Italian cyclist
• 1934 – Roger Landry, Quebec businessman and newspaper publisher
• 1935 – Bob Uecker, American baseball player and broadcaster
• 1937 – Joseph Saidu Momoh, Sierra Leone political leader (d. 2003)
• 1941 – Scott Glenn, American actor
• 1941 – Henry Jaglom, English director
• 1943 – César Gutiérrez, Venezuelan baseball player (d. 2005)
• 1943 – Jean Knight, American singer
• 1943 – Austin “Jack” Warner,Trinidadian FIFA Vice-President and CONCACAF President
• 1944 – Angela Davis, American feminist and activist
• 1945 – Jacqueline du Pré, English cellist (d. 1987)
• 1946 – Gene Siskel, American film critic (d. 1999)
• 1947 – Michel Sardou, French singer
• 1947 – Patrick Dewaere, French actor (d. 1982)
• 1949 – Jonathan Carroll, American author
• 1949 – David Strathairn, American actor
• 1950 – Janet Lupo, American model
• 1953 – Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Prime Minister of Denmark
• 1953 – Lucinda Williams, American singer
• 1954 – Kim Hughes, Australian cricketer
• 1955 – Eddie Van Halen, Dutch musician
• 1958 – Anita Baker, American singer
• 1958 – Ellen DeGeneres, American actress and comedian
• 1958 – Salvador Sánchez, Mexican boxer
• 1960 – Road Warrior Animal, American professional wrestler
• 1960 – Charlie Gillingham, American musician (Counting Crows)
• 1961 – Wayne Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1962 – Oscar Ruggeri, Argentine footballer
• 1963 – José Mourinho, Portuguese football manager
• 1963 – Andrew Ridgeley, English musician
• 1964 – Paul Johansson, American actor
• 1965 – Natalia Yurchenko, Soviet gymnast
• 1965 – Thomas Östros, Swedish politician
• 1967 – Pradip Somasundaran, Indian playback singer
• 1968 – Ravi Teja, Tollywood film actor
• 1970 – Kirk Franklin, American singer
• 1971 – Bryan Callen, American actor
• 1971 – Dorian Gregory, American actor
• 1973 – Mayu Shinjo, Japanese mangaka
• 1974 – Shannon Hale, American author
• 1976 – Frankie Rayder, American model
• 1976 – Willie Adler, American guitar player
• 1977 – Vince Carter, American basketball player
• 1977 – Justin Gimelstob, American tennis player
• 1978 – Estéban Germán, Dominican baseball player
• 1978 – Corina Morariu, American tennis player
• 1978 – Kelly Stables, American actress
• 1979 – Sara Rue, American actress
• 1981 – Juan Jose Haedo, Argentinian Cyclist
• 1984 – Layla Kayleigh, British television personality
• 1984 – Iain Turner, Scottish footballer
• 1984 – Luo Xuejuan, Chinese swimmer
• 1986 – Gerald Green, American basketball player
• 1986 – Matt Heafy, American musician (Trivium)
• 1986 – Shantelle Taylor, Canadian professional wrestler
• 1987 – Vladimir Garin, Russian actor (d. 2003)
• 1988 – Mia Rose, British-Portuguese singer
• 1989 – Emily Hughes, American figure skater
• 1993 – Cameron Bright, Canadian actor

January 26 – Deaths:

• 946 – Eadgyth, German Queen
• 1567 – Nicholas Wotton, English diplomat
• 1630 – Henry Briggs, English mathematician (b. 1556)
• 1636 – Jean Hotman, Marquis de Villers-St-Paul, French diplomat (b. 1552)
• 1697 – Georg Mohr, Danish mathematician (b. 1640)
• 1744 – Ludwig Andreas Graf Khevenhüller, Austrian field marshal (b. 1683)
• 1750 – Albert Schultens, Dutch philologist (b. 1686)
• 1795 – Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer (b. 1732)
• 1799 – Gabriel Christie, British general (b. 1722)
• 1823 – Edward Jenner, English physician (b. 1749)
• 1824 – Théodore Géricault, French painter (b. 1791)
• 1855 – Gérard de Nerval, French writer (b. 1808)
• 1869 – Duncan Gordon Boyes, English recipient of the Victoria Cross (b. 1846)
• 1870 – Victor, 3rd duc de Broglie, French statesman and diplomat (b. 1785)
• 1885 – Edward Davy, English inventor (b. 1806)
• 1885 – Charles George Gordon, British general (b. 1833)
• 1886 – David Rice Atchison, American politician (b. 1807)
• 1891 – Nikolaus August Otto, German inventor (b. 1833)
• 1893 – Abner Doubleday, credited inventor of baseball (b. 1819)
• 1904 – Whitaker Wright, English mining tycoon (b. 1846)
• 1926 – John Flannagan, 2nd president of St. Ambrose University
• 1932 – William Wrigley Jr., American industrialist (b. 1861)
• 1933 – Alva Belmont, American socialite (b. 1853)
• 1942 – Felix Hausdorff, German mathematician (b. 1868)
• 1943 – Harry H. Laughlin, American eugenicist (b. 1880)
• 1943 – Nikolai Vavilov, Russian botanist (b. 1887)
• 1946 – Adriaan van Maanen, Dutch-American astronomer (b. 1884)
• 1947 – Grace Moore, American soprano (b. 1898)
• 1947 – Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, (b. 1906)
• 1952 – Khorloogiin Choibalsan, leader of Mongolia (b. 1895)
• 1953 – Athanase David, French Canadian politician and businessman (b. 1882)
• 1961 – Stan Nichols, English cricketer (b. 1900)
• 1962 – Lucky Luciano, American mobster (b. 1897)
• 1968 – Merrill C. Meigs, American newspaper publisher (b. 1883)
• 1968 – Yvor Winters, American poet (b. 1900)
• 1973 – Edward G. Robinson, American actor (b. 1893)
• 1976 – João Branco Núncio, Portuguese Bullfighter (b. 1901)
• 1979 – Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President of the United States (b. 1908)
• 1983 – Paul “Bear” Bryant, American football coach (b. 1913)
• 1990 – Lewis Mumford, American historian (b. 1895)
• 1990 – Bob Gerard, British racing driver (b. 1914)
• 1992 – José Ferrer, Puerto Rican actor (b. 1912)
• 1993 – Jan Gies, Dutch resistance leader (b. 1905)
• 1993 – Jeanne Sauvé, Governor-General of Canada (b. 1922)
• 1996 – Harold Brodkey, American author (b. 1930)
• 1996 – Dave Schultz, American wrestler (b. 1959)
• 1997 – Jeane Dixon, American astrologer (b. 1904)
• 1998 – Shinichi Suzuki, Japanese music teacher (b. 1898)
• 2000 – Don Budge, American tennis player (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Kathleen Hale, British author (b. 1898)
• 2000 – A. E. van Vogt, Canadian-born author (b. 1912)
• 2001 – Al McGuire, American basketball coach (b. 1928)
• 2003 – Valeriy Brumel, Soviet Olympic athlete (b. 1942)
• 2003 – Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, English historian (b. 1917)
• 2003 – George Younger, 4th Viscount Younger of Leckie, British politician (b. 1931)
• 2004 – Fred Haas, American golfer (b. 1916)
• 2006 – Khan Abdul Wali Khan, Pakistani opposition leader and Pashtun nationalist (b. 1917)
• 2006 – Len Carlson, Canadian actor (b. 1937)
• 2007 – Hans J. Wegner, Danish furniture designer (b. 1914)
• 2007 – Gump Worsley, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1929)
• 2008 – Christian Brando, actor and son of Marlon Brando (b 1958)

January 26 – Holidays:

• Australia – Australia Day.
• Roman Empire – third day of the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra.
• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
  • Timothy and Titus
  • Saint Paula
  • Saint Alberic
  • Saint Margaret of Hungary
  • India – Republic Day – One of only three national holidays in India, celebrated with pomp and a military parade in New Delhi & across Nation.
  • Uganda – Liberation Day.

• 41 – After a night of negotiation, Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate.
• 1327 – Edward III becomes King of England.
• 1494 – Alfonso II becomes King of Naples.
• 1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife Anne Boleyn.
• 1554 – Founding of São Paulo city, Brazil.
• 1573 – Battle of Mikatagahara, in Japan; Takeda Shingen defeats Tokugawa Ieyasu.
• 1755 – Moscow University established on Tatiana Day.
• 1787 – American Daniel Shays leads rebellion to seize Federal arsenal to protest debtor’s prisons.
• 1791 – The British Parliament passes the Constitutional Act of 1791 and splits the old province of Quebec into Upper and Lower Canada.
• 1792 – The London Corresponding Society is founded.
• 1858 – The Wedding March by Felix Mendelssohn becomes a popular wedding recessional after it is played on this day at the marriage of Queen Victoria’s daughter, Victoria, and Friedrich of Prussia.
• 1879 – The Bulgarian National Bank is founded.
• 1881 – Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.
• 1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.
• 1909 – Richard Strauss’ opera Elektra receives its debut performance at the Dresden State Opera.
• 1915 – Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service.
• 1917 – The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million.
• 1919 – The League of Nations is founded.
• 1924 – The 1924 Winter Olympics open in Chamonix, France (in the French Alps), inaugurating the Winter Olympic Games.
• 1937 – The Guiding Light airs on radio for the first time. Also went to television making this show the longest running broadcast program in United States radio and television history.
• 1941 – Pope Pius XII elevates the Apostolic Vicariate of the Hawaiian Islands to the dignity of a diocese. It becomes the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu.
• 1942 – World War II: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom.
• 1945 – World War II: Battle of the Bulge ends.
• 1946 – The United Mine Workers rejoins the American Federation of Labor.
• 1949 – At the Hollywood Athletic Club the first Emmy Awards are presented.
• 1949 – The first Israeli election — David Ben-Gurion becomes Prime Minister.
• 1955 – Soviet Union ends state of war with Germany.
• 1959 – Pope John XXIII proclaims upcoming Second Vatican Council.
• 1960 – The National Association of Broadcasters reacts to the Payola scandal by threatening fines for any disc jockeys who accepted money for playing particular records.
• 1961 – In Washington, D.C. John F. Kennedy delivers the first live presidential television news conference.
• 1971 – Charles Manson and three female “Family” members are found guilty of the 1969 Tate-LaBianca murders.
• 1971 – Idi Amin leads a coup deposing Milton Obote and becomes Uganda’s president.
• 1971 – Himachal Pradesh becomes the 18th Indian state.
• 1981 – Jiang Qing, the widow of Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death.
• 1981 – 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived back in US.
• 1981 – Super Bowl XV-Oakland Raiders-27, Philadelphia Eagles-10.
• 1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie arrested in Bolivia.
• 1985 – “We are the World” is recorded.
• 1986 – The National Resistance Movement topple the government of Tito Okello in Uganda.
• 1987 – NY Giants defeat Denver Broncos, 39-20, to win Super Bowl XXI.
• 1990 – The Burns’ Day storm hits northwestern Europe.
• 1990 – Honduras becomes a member of the Berne Convention copyright treaty.
• 1990 – Avianca Flight 52 crashes, killing 73 passengers.
• 1993 – Five people were shot outside CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia resulting in two murders.
• 1994 – The Clementine space probe launches.
• 1995 – The Norwegian Rocket Incident: Russia almost launches a nuclear attack after it mistakes Black Brant XII, a Norwegian research rocket, for a US Trident missile.
• 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.
• 1998 – Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) suicide attack on Sri Lanka’s Temple of the Tooth, killing 8 people injuring 25 others.
• 1999 – A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.
• 2001 – A 50-year-old Douglas DC-3 crashes near Ciudad Bolivar, Venezuela killing 24.
• 2002 – Wikipedia switches to the new version of its software (“Phase II”) aka Magnus Manske Day.
• 2004 – Opportunity rover (MER-B) lands on surface of Mars.
• 2005 – A stampede at the Mandher Devi temple in Mandhradevi in India kills at least 258.
• 2006 – Three independent observing campaigns announce the discovery of OGLE-2005-
• BLG-390Lb through gravitational microlensing, the first cool rocky/icy extrasolar planet around a main-sequence star.

January 25 – Birthdays:

• 750 – Leo IV the Khazar, Byzantine Emperor
• 1477 – Anna, Duchess of Brittany, wife of Charles VIII of France (d. 1514)
• 1509 – Giovanni Morone, Italian cardinal (d. 1580)
• 1615 – Govert Flinck, Dutch painter (d. 1660)
• 1627 – Robert Boyle, Irish chemist (d. 1691)
• 1634 – Gaspar Fagel, Dutch statesman (d. 1688)
• 1640 – William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, English soldier and statesman (d. 1707)
• 1688 – Juraj Jánošík, famous Slovak outlaw (d. 1713)
• 1736 – Joseph Louis Lagrange, Italian-born mathematician (d. 1813)
• 1741 – Benedict Arnold, American general notorious for treason (d. 1801)
• 1739 – Charles François Dumouriez, French general (d. 1823)
• 1759 – Robert Burns, Scottish poet (d. 1796)
• 1794 – François-Vincent Raspail, French chemist (d. 1878)
• 1796 – William MacGillivray, Scottish naturalist and ornithologist (d. 1852)
• 1825 – George Pickett, American Confederate General (d. 1875)
• 1841 – Jackie Fisher, British First Sea Lord (d. 1920)
• 1858 – Kokichi Mikimoto, Japanese pearl farm pioneer (d. 1954)
• 1860 – Charles Curtis, 31st Vice President of the United States (d. 1936)
• 1864 – Julije Kempf, Croatian historian and writer (d. 1934)
• 1874 – W. Somerset Maugham, English writer (d. 1965)
• 1878 – Ernst Alexanderson, Swedish-born television pioneer (d. 1975)
• 1882 – Virginia Woolf, English writer (d. 1941)
• 1885 – Kitahara Hakushu, Japanese poets and children’s writers (d. 1942)
• 1886 – Wilhelm Furtwängler, German conductor (d. 1954)
• 1899 – Paul-Henri Spaak, Belgian politician (d. 1972)
• 1900 – Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ukrainian-American geneticist and biologist (d. 1975)
• 1900 – Yojiro Ishizaka, Japanese writer (d. 1986)
• 1901 – Martin De Alzaga, Argentine racing driver (d. 1982)
• 1905 – Maurice Roy, French Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal, archbishop of Quebec (d. 1985)
• 1913 – Witold Lutoslawski, Polish composer (d. 1994)
• 1913 – Luis Marden, American photojournalist (d. 2003)
• 1916 – Frank “Pop” Ivy, American and Canadian football coach (d. 2003)
• 1917 – Ilya Prigogine, Russian scientist Nobel Laureate (d. 2003)
• 1917 – Jânio Quadros, Brazilian politician (d. 1992)
• 1918 – Ernie Harwell, American baseball sportscaster
• 1919 – Edwin Newman, American journalist and writer
• 1923 – Rusty Draper, American country and pop singer (d. 2003)
• 1923 – Shirley Mason, American psychiatric patient (Commonly known as “Sybil”) (d. 1998)
• 1924 – Lou Groza, American football player (d. 2000)
• 1924 – Speedy West, Country Hall of Fame steel guitar player (d. 2003)
• 1925 – Giorgos Zampetas, Greek musician and songwriter (d. 1992)
• 1927 – Antonio Carlos Jobim, Brazilian musician (d. 1994)
• 1928 – Eduard Shevardnadze, President of Georgia
• 1928 – Jérôme Choquette, Quebec lawyer and politician
• 1929 – Benny Golson, American jazz musician
• 1930 – Tanya Savicheva, Russian diarist (d. 1944)
• 1931 – Dean Jones, American actor
• 1933 – Corazon Aquino, President of the Philippines
• 1935 – António Ramalho Eanes, 17 President of Portugal
• 1936 – Diana Hyland, American actress (d. 1977)
• 1937 – Ange-Félix Patassé, President of the Central African Republic
• 1937 – Judith Ann Mayotte, American humanitarian, author.
• 1938 – Shotaro Ishinomori, Japanese manga author (d. 1998)
• 1938 – Leiji Matsumoto, sJapanese creator of anime.
• 1938 – Etta James, American singer
• 1938 – Vladimir Vysotsky, Russian poet (d. 1980)
• 1939 – Gabriel Romanus, Swedish politician
• 1941 – Buddy Baker, American race car driver
• 1941 – Gregory Sierra, American actor
• 1942 – Carl Eller, American football player
• 1942 – Eusébio, Portuguese footballer
• 1943 – Tobe Hooper, American film director
• 1944 – Anita Pallenberg, Italian model
• 1945 – Leigh Taylor-Young, American actress
• 1947 – Tostão, Brazilian footballer
• 1947 – Ángel Nieto, Spanish motorcycle racer
• 1948 – Ros Kelly, Australian politician
• 1949 – John Cooper Clarke, English punk-poet
• 1949 – Paul Nurse, English biochemist, Nobel Laureate
• 1951 – Steve Prefontaine, American runner (d. 1975)
• 1952 – Sara Mandiano, French singer and songwriter
• 1952 – Timothy White, American journalist (d. 2002)
• 1953 – The Honky Tonk Man, American professional wrestler
• 1953 – Mark Weil, Uzbek theatre director (d. 2007)
• 1954 – Ricardo Bochini, Argentinian footballer
• 1954 – Richard Finch, American bass player (KC and the Sunshine Band)
• 1954 – Kim Gandy, American feminist
• 1955 – Terry Chimes, English musician (The Clash)
• 1956 – Andy Cox, English musician (The Beat, Fine Young Cannibals)
• 1957 – Jenifer Lewis, American actress
• 1957 – Eskil Erlandsson, Swedish politician
• 1957 – Andrew P. Harris, American politician
• 1958 – Dinah Manoff, American actress
• 1961 – Vivian Balakrishnan, Singaporean politician
• 1961 – Willie Revillame, Filipino game show host and comedian
• 1962 – Chris Chelios, American ice hockey player
• 1965 – Esa Tikkanen, Finnish ice hockey player
• 1967 – Randy McKay, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1967 – Mark Bamford, American writer/director
• 1969 – Kina, American singer
• 1971 – Luca Badoer, Italian race car driver
• 1971 – China Kantner, American actress
• 1971 – Ana Ortiz, American actress and singer
• 1973 – Geoff Johns, American comic book writer
• 1973 – Chris Guy, American professional wrestler
• 1974 – Robert Budreau, Canadian film director
• 1975 – Mia Kirshner, Canadian actress
• 1975 – Tim Montgomery, American athlete
• 1975 – Dat Phan, Vietnamese stand-up comedian
• 1976 – Mario Haberfeld, Brazilian racing car driver
• 1978 – Denis Menchov, Russian cyclist
• 1978 – Jason Roberts, English-born footballer
• 1978 – Derrick Turnbow, Major League Baseball Player
• 1979 – Pi Hongyan, French badminton player
• 1979 – Gabe Jennings, American distance runner
• 1979 – Rodrigo Ribeiro, Brazilian racing driver
• 1979 – Christine Lakin, American actress
• 1980 – Michelle McCool, American professional wrestler
• 1980 – Xavi, Catalan Spanish footballer
• 1980 – Efstathios Tavlaridis, Greek footballer
• 1981 – Tose Proeski, Macedonian Singer (d. 2007)
• 1981 – Francis Jeffers, English footballer
• 1981 – Alicia Keys, American singer
• 1982 – Sho Sakurai, Japanese singer and actor
• 1982 – The-Dream, singer
• 1982 – Shawna Waldron, American actress
• 1983 – Andrée Watters, Canadian singer
• 1984 – Robinho, Brazilian footballer
• 1985 – Tina Karol, Ukrainian singer
• 1985 – Acie Law IV, National Basketball Association player
• 1986 – Chris O’Grady, English footballer
• 1986 – Shahriar Nafees, Bangladeshi cricketer
• 1987 – Maria Kirilenko, Russian tennis player
• 1988 – Tatiana Golovin, French tennis player

January 25 – Deaths:

• 389 – Gregory Nazianzus, theologian and Patriarch of Constantinople (b. 329)
• 477 – Geiseric, King of the Vandals and Alans
• 844 – Pope Gregory IV
• 1067 – Emperor Yingzong of China (b. 1032)
• 1366 – Henry Suso, German mystic
• 1431 – Charles II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1364)
• 1494 – King Ferdinand I of Naples (b. 1423)
• 1559 – King Christian II of Denmark, Sweden and Norway (b. 1481)
• 1573 – Hirate Hirohide, Japanese samurai (b. 1553)
• 1586 – Lucas Cranach the Younger, German painter (b. 1515)
• 1640 – Robert Burton, English scholar (b. 1577)
• 1670 – Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine (b. 1612)
• 1726 – Guillaume Delisle, French cartographer (b. 1675)
• 1733 – Gilbert Heathcote, Mayor of London (b. 1652)
• 1751 – Paul Dudley, Attorney-General of Massachusetts (b. 1675)
• 1852 – Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen, Russian explorer (b. 1778)
• 1881 – Konstantin Thon, Russian architect (b. 1794)
• 1907 – René Pottier, French cyclist (b. 1879)
• 1908 – Mikhail Chigorin, Russian chess player (b. 1850)
• 1908 – Ouida, English writer (b. 1839)
• 1912 – Dmitry Milyutin, Russian Field Marshal (b. 1816)
• 1925 – Ivan Vucetic, Croatian anthropologist (b. 1858)
• 1940 – Elias Simojoki, Finnish clergyman and politician (b. 1899)
• 1947 – Al Capone, American gangster (b. 1899)
• 1949 – Makino Nobuaki, Japanese statesman (b. 1861)
• 1957 – Kiyoshi Shiga, Japanese physician and bacteriologist (b. 1871)
• 1957 – Ichizo Kobayashi, Japanese industrialist and Minister of Commerce and Industry (b. 1873)
• 1963 – Wilson Kettle, Guinness World Record holder for most living descendants (b. 1860)
• 1969 – Irene Castle, English dancer (b. 1887)
• 1970 – Jane Bathori, French mezzo-soprano (b. 1877)
• 1970 – Eiji Tsuburaya, Japanese television writer and producer (Ultraman) (b. 1901)
• 1972 – Erhard Milch, German field marshal (b. 1892)
• 1975 – Charlotte Whitton, Canadian politician, mayor of Ottawa (b. 1896)
• 1976 – Chris Kenner, American singer and songwriter (b. 1929)
• 1980 – Queenie Watts, English actress (b. 1926)
• 1981 – Adele Astaire, American dancer (b. 1897)
• 1982 – Mikhail Suslov, Soviet politician (b. 1902)
• 1990 – Ava Gardner, American actress (b. 1922)
• 1994 – Stephen Cole Kleene, American mathematician (b. 1909)
• 1995 – Cal Jammer, American actor (b. 1960)
• 1996 – Jonathan Larson, American composer (b. 1960)
• 1999 – Sarah “Sadie” Delany, American author (b. 1889)
• 1999 – Ted Mallie, American radio and television announcer (b. 1924)
• 1999 – Robert Shaw, American conductor (b. 1916)
• 2003 – Samuel Weems, Arkansas judge (b. 1936)
• 2004 – Fanny Blankers-Koen, Dutch athlete (b. 1918)
• 2004 – Miklós Fehér, Hungarian footballer (b. 1979)
• 2005 – Stanislaw Albinowski, Polish economist and journalist (b. 1923)
• 2005 – William Augustus Bootle, American judge (b. 1902)
• 2005 – Philip Johnson, American architect (b. 1906)
• 2005 – Ray Peterson, American singer (b. 1935)
• 2005 – Nettie Witziers-Timmer, Dutch athlete (b. 1923)
• 2006 – Anna Malle, adult film star (b. 1967)
• 2008 – Christopher Allport, American actor (b. 1947)
• 2008 – Evelyn Barbirolli,English musician (b. 1911)

January 25 – Holidays:

• Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran churches, which concludes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
• Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic Church: Feast of Gregory the Theologian, Archbishop of Constantinople.
• Christian ecumenism — Week of Prayer for Christian Unity ends.
• Burns Night – Burns suppers are held in many parts of the world around this date. (Originated in Scotland)
• Roman Empire – second day of the Sementivae in honour of Ceres and Terra
• St. Dwynwen’s Day – Welsh celebration of love Diwrnod Santes Dwynwen.
• Tatiana Day, celebrated as the Day of Russian students since 1755, when the Moscow University was founded.

• 41 – Gaius Caesar (Caligula),      known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his      disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.
• 1438 – The Council ofBaselsuspends Pope Eugene IV as Prelate of Ethiopia,      arrives at Massawa fromGoa.
• 1568 – In theNetherlands,      Duke of Alva declares William of Orange an outlaw.
• 1634 – Emperor      Ferdinand II declares Wallenstein a traitor.
• 1679 – King Charles II ofEngland     disbands Parliament.
• 1742 – Charles VII Albert becomes      Holy Roman Emperor.
• 1776 – Henry Knox arrives atCambridge,Massachusetts     with the artillery that he has transported fromFortTiconderoga.
• 1826 -Mississippi    Collegeis founded inClinton, becoming the first college in the state ofMississippi.
• 1848 – California Gold Rush:      James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter’s Mill nearSacramento.
• 1857 – TheUniversity     ofCalcuttais formally founded      as the first full-fledged university in southAsia.
• 1859 – Political union ofMoldaviaandWallachia;      Alexandru Ioan Cuza is elected as ruler.
• 1862 -Bucharest     proclaimed capital ofRomania.
• 1878 – The revolutionary Vera      Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
• 1887 -Battleof Dogali: Abyssinian troops      defeat Italians.
• 1899 – Rubber      heel patented by Humphrey O’Sullivan.
• 1900 – Newcastle      Badminton Club, world’s oldest, formed inEngland.
• 1907 – Robert Baden-Powell founds      the Boy Scout movement.
• 1916 – In Brushaber v. Union      Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of theUnited Statesdeclares the      federal income tax constitutional.
• 1918 – The Gregorian calendar      introduced inRussia     by decree of the Council of People’s Commissars effective from February      14(NS)
• 1922 – Eskimo      Pie patented by Christian K. Nelson ofIowa.
• 1923 -Aztec Ruins National Monument,NMestablished.
• 1924 – Petrograd, formerly St. Petersburg, Russia,      is renamed Leningrad.
• 1927 – Director Alfred Hitchcock      releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, inEngland.
• 1935 – Beer      first sold in cans,Richmond,      VA.
• 1936 – Albert Sarraut becomes      Prime Minister of France.
• 1939 – 30,000      killed by earthquake in Concepcion Chile.
• 1943 – World War II: Franklin D.      Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference inCasablanca.
• 1952 – Vincent Massey is sworn in      as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada.
• 1966 – An Air India Boeing 707      jet crashes on Mont Blanc, on the border betweenFranceandItaly, killing 117.
• 1964 – CBS      purchases 1964 & 1965 NFL TV rights for $28.2 million.
• 1972 – Japanese Sgt. Shoichi      Yokoi is found hiding in aGuamjungle,      where he had been since the end of World War II.
• 1977 – Massacre of Atocha inMadrid, during the      Spanish transition to democracy.
• 1978 – Soviet satellite Cosmos      954 burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, scattering debris overCanada’sNorthwest Territories.
• 1978 – Rose Dugdale and Eddie      Gallagher become the first convicted prisoners to marry in prison in the      history of theRepublic      ofIreland.
• 1982 –San Francisco49′ers win their first Super Bowl (XVI)      beatingCincinnati,      26-21
• 1984 – The first Apple Macintosh      goes on sale.
• 1986 – Voyager 2 passes within      81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus, finds new moons.
• 1993 – Turkish journalist and      writer Ugur Mumcu is assassinated by a car bomb inAnkara.
• 1996 – Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy      resigns amid charges that he spied forMoscow.
• 2003 – The United States      Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

January 24 – Birthdays:

• 76 – Hadrian, Roman Emperor (d.      138)
• 1287 – Richard Aungerville,      English bishop (d. 1345)
• 1444 – Galeazzo Maria Sforza,      Duke ofMilan     (d. 1476)
• 1540 – Edmund Campion, English      Jesuit (d. 1581)
• 1638 – Charles Sackville, 6th      Earl of Dorset, English poet (d. 1706)
• 1670 – William Congreve, English      playwright (d. 1729)
• 1674 – Thomas Tanner, English      bishop (d. 1735)
• 1679 – Christian Wolff, German      philosopher (d. 1754)
• 1705 – Farinelli, Italian      castrato (d. 1782)
• 1712 – King Frederick II ofPrussia     (d. 1786)
• 1724 – Frances Brooke, English      writer (d. 1789)
• 1732 – Pierre-Augustin Caron de      Beaumarchais, French playwright (d. 1799)
• 1742 – Anne, Duchess ofCumberlandand      Strathearn (d. 1808)
• 1752 – Muzio Clementi, Italian      composer (d. 1832)
• 1754 – Andrew Ellicott, American      surveyor (d. 1820)
• 1763 – Louis Alexandre Andrault      de Langeron, Russian general (d. 1831)
• 1776 – E.T.A. Hoffmann, German      writer (d. 1822)
• 1779 – Elizabeth Alexeievna      (Louise of Baden), Russian tsarina (d. 1826)
• 1848 – Vasily Surikov, Russian      painter (d. 1916)
• 1862 – Edith Wharton, American      writer (d. 1937)
• 1864 – Marguerite Durand, French      feminist leader (d. 1936)
• 1872 – Konstantin Bogaevsky,      Russian painter (d. 1943)
• 1873 – Leon Czolgosz, American      anarchist, assassin of U.S. President William McKinley (d. 1901)
• 1886 – Henry King, American film      director (d. 1982
• 1888 – Vicki Baum, Austrian      writer (d. 1960)
• 1888 – Ernst Heinkel, German      aircraft designer (d. 1958)
• 1891 – Walter Model, German field      marshal (d. 1945)
• 1895 – Eugen Roth, German writer      (d. 1976)
• 1898 – Cliff Heathcote, American      baseball player (d. 1939)
• 1901 – Harry Calder, South      African cricketer (d. 1995)
• 1902 – E. A. Speiser, American      Bible scholar (d. 1965)
• 1905 – J. Howard Marshall,      American billionaire (d. 1995)
• 1907 – Maurice Couve de Murville,      French politician (d. 1999)
• 1909 – Martin Lings, English      Islamic scholar (d. 2005)
• 1909 – Ann Todd, English actress      (d. 1993)
• 1913 – Norman Dello Joio,      American composer
• 1915 – Robert Motherwell,      American painter (d. 1991)
• 1916 – Jack Brickhouse, American      sports broadcaster (d. 1998)
• 1917 – Ernest Borgnine, American      actor
• 1918 – Oral Roberts, American      evangelist
• 1919 – Coleman Francis, American      film director
• 1920 – Jerry Maren, American      actor
• 1922 – Charles Socarides,      American psychiatrist (d. 2005)
• 1925 – Maria Tallchief, American      ballerina
• 1926 – Georges Lautner, French      director and screenwriter
• 1927 – Sir Patrick Macnaghten,      11th Baronet, British aristocrat (d. 2007)
• 1928 – Desmond Morris, British      anthropologist
• 1928 – Michel Serrault, French      actor (d. 2007)
• 1934 – Stanislaw Grochowiak,      Polish poet (d. 1976)
• 1936 – Doug Kershaw, American      musician
• 1939 – Ray Stevens, American      musician
• 1941 – Neil Diamond, American      singer
• 1941 – Aaron Neville, American      singer
• 1943 – Subhash Ghai, Indian film      director
• 1943 – Sharon Tate, American      actress and Manson murder victim (d. 1969)
• 1944 – Klaus Nomi, German singer      (d. 1983)
• 1945 – John Garamendi, American      politician
• 1946 – Michael Ontkean, Canadian      actor
• 1947 – Warren Zevon, American      musician (d. 2003)
• 1947 – Masashi Ozaki, Japanese      golfer
• 1948 – Michael Des Barres,      British actor and rock singer
• 1949 – John Belushi, American      actor (d. 1982)
• 1950 – Gerald Brisco, American      professional wrestler
• 1950 – Benjamin Urrutia,      Ecuadorian writer
• 1950 – Daniel Auteuil, French      actor
• 1951 – Yakov Smirnoff,      Ukrainian-born American comedian
• 1954 – Jo Gartner, Austrian      racing driver (d. 1986)
• 1956 – Hanne Krogh, Norwegian      singer (Bobbysocks)
• 1957 – Adrian Edmondson, British      comedian
• 1958 – Neil Allen, American      baseball player
• 1958 – Jools Holland, British      musician
• 1959 – Vic Reeves, English      comedian
• 1959 – David Mills, American      author
• 1961 – Nastassja Kinski,      German-born actress
• 1961 – Vince Russo, American      writer
• 1963 – Martyn Grimley, English      field hockey player
• 1963 – Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch      boxer
• 1965 – Carlos Saldanha, Brazilian      director
• 1965 – Mike Awesome, American      professional wrestler (d. 2007)
• 1966 – Jimeoin, Northern Irish      comedian
• 1967 – Mark Kozelek, American      singer/songwriter (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon)
• 1967 – Phil LaMarr, American      voice actor
• 1967 – John Myung, American      musician (Dream Theater)
• 1968 – Michael Kiske, German      musician
• 1968 – Mary Lou Retton, American      gymnast
• 1969 – Hilmir Snær Guðnason,      Icelandic actor
• 1970 – Matthew Lillard, American      actor
• 1971 – Cory Bailey, Major League      Baseball Player
• 1971 – Andrea Mackris, American      television producer
• 1972 – Naoshi Mizuta, Japanese      composer
• 1974 – Shii Ann Huang, American      game show contestant
• 1974 – Ed Helms, American actor
• 1975 – Rónald Gómez, Costa Rican      soccer player
• 1976 – Shae-Lynn Bourne, Canadian      ice dancer with Victor Kraatz
• 1979 – Tatyana Ali, American      actress and singer
• 1979 – Tom Kostopoulos, Canadian      ice hockey player
• 1980 – Rocky Boiman, National      Football League outside linebacker
• 1980 – Nicole Marie Lenz,      American actress
• 1981 – Travis Hanson, Major      League Baseball player
• 1983 – Shaun Maloney, Scottish      soccer player
• 1983 – Scott Speed, American race      car driver
• 1984 -Benoît Huot,Quebec     paralympic swimmer
• 1984 – Scott Kazmir, Major League      Baseball pitcher
• 1984 – Witold Kieltyka, Polish      drummer (Decapitated) (d. 2007)
• 1986 – Mischa Barton,      English-born American actress
• 1986 – Raviv Ullman, Israeli-born      American actor

January 24 – Deaths:

• 41 – Caligula, Emperor ofRome(b. 12)
• 772 – Pope Stephen III (b. 720)
• 1002 – Otto III, Holy Roman      Emperor (b. 980)
• 1125 – David IV ofGeorgia     (b. 1073)
• 1366 – Alfonso IV ofAragon     (b. 1299)
• 1376 – Richard FitzAlan, 10th      Earl of Arundel, English military leader
• 1473 – Conrad Paumann, German      composer
• 1595 – Ferdinand II ofAustria     (b. 1529)
• 1626 – Samuel Argall, English      adventurer and naval officer (b. 1580)
• 1639 – Georg Jenatsch, Swiss      politician (b. 1596)
• 1666 – Johann Andreas Herbst,      German composer (b. 1588)
• 1709 – George Rooke, English      admiral (b. 1650)
• 1769 – François de Chevert,      French general (b. 1695)
• 1856 – Rabbi Yechezkel of Kuzmir,      Polish Hasidic leader (b. 1775)
• 1877 – Johann Christian      Poggendorff, German physicist (b. 1796)
• 1882 – Levi Boone, Mayor ofChicago(b. 1808)
• 1883 – Friedrich von Flotow,      German composer (b. 1812)
• 1895 – Lord Randolph Churchill,      British politician (b. 1849)
• 1911 – David Graham Phillips,      American journalist and novelist (b. 1867)
• 1920 – Amedeo Modigliani, Italian      painter and sculptor (b. 1884)
• 1924 – Marie-Adélaïde, Grand      Duchess ofLuxembourg     (b. 1894)
• 1932 – Alfred Yarrow, English      shipbuilder (b. 1842)
• 1939 – Maximilian Bircher-Benner,      Swiss physician and nutritionist (b. 1867)
• 1943 – John Burns, English      politician (b. 1858)
• 1948 – Maria Mandel,CampLeader     atAuschwitz(b. 1912)
• 1948 – Arthur Liebehenschel,      Commandant atAuschwitzconcentration      camp (b. 1901)
• 1955 – Ira Hayes, American World      War II hero (b. 1923)
• 1960 – Edwin Fischer, Swiss      pianist and conductor (b. 1886)
• 1961 – Alfred Carlton Gilbert,      American swimmer and inventor (b. 1884)
• 1962 – Stanley Lord, captain of      the SS Californian the night of the Titanic disaster (b. 1877)
• 1962 – André Lhote, french      painter.
• 1965 – Winston Churchill,      soldier, politician, historian, Prime Minister of theUnited Kingdomand Nobel      laureate (b. 1874)
• 1966 – Homi J. Bhabha, Indian      physicist (b. 1909)
• 1970 – Caresse Crosby, American      poet (b. 1891)
• 1971 – Bill W., American      co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous (b. 1895)
• 1973 – J. Carrol Naish, American      actor (b. 1897)
• 1975 – Larry Fine, American actor      and comedian (b. 1902)
• 1978 – Herta Oberheuser, German      doctor (b. 1911)
• 1982 – Alfredo Ovando Candía,      Bolivian president and dictator (b. 1918)
• 1983 – George Cukor, American      film director (b. 1899)
• 1986 – L. Ron Hubbard, American science      fiction writer and founder of Scientology cult (b. 1911)
• 1986 – Flo Hyman, American      volleyball player (b. 1954)
• 1986 – Gordon MacRae, American      actor and singer (b. 1921)
• 1988 – Werner Fenchel, German      mathematician (b. 1905)
• 1989 – Ted Bundy, American serial      killer (b. 1946)
• 1989 – George Knudson, Canadian      golfer (b. 1937)
• 1990 – Madge Bellamy, American      actress (b. 1899)
• 1991 – John M. Kelly, Irish      politician and academic (b. 1931)
• 1992 – Ken Darby, American      composer, arranger and conductor (b. 1909)
• 1992 – Ricky Ray Rector, American      murderer (b. 1950)
• 1993 -Thurgood Marshall,U.S.     Supreme Court Justice (b. 1908)
• 1993 – Ugur Mumcu, Turkish      journalist and writer (b. 1942)
• 1994 – Yves Navarre, French      writer (b. 1940)
• 1998 – Walter D. Edmonds,      American author (b. 1903)
• 2000 – Bobby Duncum, Jr.,      American professional wrestler (b. 1965)
• 2002 – Peter Gzowski, Canadian      broadcaster, writer and reporter (b. 1934)
• 2002 – Elie Hobeika, Lebanese      Forces militia commander (b. 1956)
• 2003 – Gianni Agnelli, Italian      auto executive (b. 1921)
• 2004 – Leônidas da Silva,      Brazilian footballer (b. 1913)
• 2005 – June Bronhill, Australian      singer (b. 1929)
• 2005 – Vladimir Savchenko,      Ukrainian writer (b. 1933)
• 2005 – Chalkie White, English      rugby union coach (b. 1929)
• 2006 – Fayard Nicholas, American      tap dancer, one-half of The Nicholas Brothers (b. 1914)
• 2006 – Schafik Handal,      Salvadorean politician
• 2006 – Chris Penn, American actor      (b. 1965)
• 2007 – Krystyna Feldman, Polish      actress (b. 1916)
• 2007 – Guadalupe Larriva,      Ecuadorian politician (b. 1956)
• 2007 – Emiliano Mercado del Toro,      World’s Oldest Military Veteran (b. 1891)
• 2008 – Randy Salerno, co-anchor      ofChicago’s      CBS 2 News (b. 1963)

January 24 – Holidays:

• Roman Empire- first day of      the Sementivae in honor of Ceres and Terra
• Roman Catholic Church – Feasts of      St. Francis de Sales and Our Lady of Peace
• Wales- Saint Cadoc

• 393 – Roman Emperor Theodosius I      proclaims his nine year old son Honorius coemperor.
• 971 – InChina, the      war elephant corps of the Southern Han are soundly defeated at Shao by      crossbow fire from Song Dynasty troops. The Southern Han state is forced      to submit to the Song Dynasty, ending not only Southern Han rule, but also      the first regular war elephant corps employed in a Chinese army that had      gained the Southern Han victories throughout the 10th century.
• 1368 – In a coronation ceremony,      Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne ofChina     as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule overChinathat would last for      three centuries.
• 1492 –      “Pentateuch” (Jewish holy book) first printed.
• 1510 – Henry VIII ofEngland, then 18 years old, appears      incognito in the lists atRichmond,      and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
• 1533 – Anne Boleyn, second wife      of Henry VIII of England,      discovers herself pregnant.
• 1546 – Having published nothing      for eleven years, Francois Rabelais publishes the Tiers Livre, his      sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel.
• 1556 – The deadliest earthquake      in history, theShaanxiearthquake, hitsShaanxiprovince,China. The death toll may have      been as high as 830,000.
• 1570 – The assassination of regent      James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throwsScotlandinto civil war.
• 1571 – The Royal Exchange opens      inLondon.
• 1579 – The Union of Utrecht forms      a Protestant republic in theNetherlands.
• 1656 – Blaise Pascal publishes      the first of his Lettres provinciales.
• 1719 – The Principality of      Liechtenstein is created within theHoly Roman Empire.
• 1789 -Georgetown    Collegebecomes the first Roman      Catholic college in theUnited States     in the city ofWashington,      D.C.
• 1793 -Russia     andPrussiapartitionPoland.
• 1849 – Elizabeth Blackwell is      awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva,New       York, becoming theUnited States’ first female      doctor.
• 1855 – The first bridge over the      Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing      made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
• 1870 – InMontana,     U.S.     cavalrymen kill 173 Native Americans, mostly women and children, in the      Marias Massacre.
• 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: the Battle      of Rorke’s Drift ends.
• 1879 – National      Archery Association formed, Crawfordsville IN.
• 1894 – G.W.      Bunbury ofDublin     sets shorthand record of 250 words per minute for 10 minutes.
• 1897 – Elva Zona Heaster is found      dead inGreenbrier County,      West Virginia. The resulting      murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case inUnited Stateshistory where      the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
• 1899 – Emilio Aguinaldo is sworn      in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
• 1904 – Ålesund Fire: the      Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000      people homeless and one person dead. Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the      rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style.
• 1907 – Charles Curtis ofKansasbecomes the      first Native American U.S. Senator.
• 1912 – The International Opium      Convention is signed atThe Hague.
• 1920 – TheNetherlandsrefuses to surrender ex-Kaiser      Wilhelm II ofGermany     to the Allies.
• 1924 – Ramsey      MacDonald forms first Labour government inBritain.
• 1930 -George Washington Birthplace National        Monument,Virginia     established.
• 1937 – InMoscow, 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.
• 1941 – Charles Lindbergh      testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that theUnited States     negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• 1943 – World War II: British      forces captureTripoliinLibyafrom the Nazis.
• 1943 – Jewish-led Warsaw Ghetto      Uprising.
• 1943 – World War II: Australian      and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This      turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of      Japanese aggression.
• 1943 – Duke Ellington plays at      Carnegie Hall inNew York City     for the first time.
• 1945 – World War II: Karl Dönitz      launches Operation Hannibal.
• 1950 – The Knesset passes a      resolution that statesJerusalemis the      capital ofIsrael.
• 1953 – NFL      Dallas Texans become Baltimore Colts (now Indianapolis Colts).
• 1958 – Overthrow inVenezuela     of Marcos Pérez Jiménez
• 1960 – The bathyscaphe USS Trieste      breaks a depth record by descending to 10,911 m (35,798 feet)in thePacific Ocean.
• 1964 – The 24th Amendment to the      United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national      elections, is ratified.
• 1967 – The diplomatic relations      between the Soviet Union andIvory Coastwere established.
• 1968 – North Koreaseizes the USS Pueblo,      claiming the ship had violated their territorial waters while spying.
• 1973 – President Richard Nixon      announces that a peace accord has been reached inVietnam.
• 1973 – A volcano eruption      devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south      coast ofIceland.
• 1975 –      “Barney Miller” premiers on ABC TV.
• 1975 – Ralph      Kiner elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame.
• 1977 –      Miniseries “Roots” premiers on ABC.
• 1978 -Swedenbecomes the first      nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to      earth’s ozone layer.
• 1983 –      “A-Team” with Mr. T premiers on NBC.
• 1983 – Bjorn      Borg announces his retirement from tennis.
• 1985 – O.J. Simpson becomes the      first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
• 1986 – The Rock and Roll Hall of      Fame inducts its first members: Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles,      Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis      Presley.
• 1996 – The first version of the      Java programming language was released.
• 1997 – Madeleine Albright becomes      the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
• 2001 – The Chinese Communist      Party stages a self-immolation inTiananmen Square     to frame Falun Gong and escalate the persecution.
• 2002 – “American      Taliban” John Walker Lindh returns to theUnited Statesin Federal Bureau      of Investigation custody.
• 2002 – Reporter Daniel Pearl was      kidnapped inKarachi,Pakistan. He was subsequently murdered      .
• 2003 – Final communication      between Earth and Pioneer 10

January 23 – Birthdays:

• 1350 – Vincent Ferrer, Spanish      missionary and saint (d. 1419)
• 1688 – Queen Ulrika Eleonora ofSweden     (d. 1741)
• 1719 – John Landen, English      mathematician (d. 1790)
• 1737 – John Hancock, American      statesman (d. 1793)
• 1745 – William Jessop, English      canal engineer (d. 1814)
• 1783 – Stendhal, French writer      (d. 1842)
• 1786 – Auguste de Montferrand,      French architect (d. 1858)
• 1813 – Camilla Collett, Norwegian      writer and feminist (d. 1895)
• 1827 – Takamori Saigo, Samurai,      leader of Satsuma rebellion (d. 1877)
• 1832 – Edouard Manet, French      artist (d. 1883)
• 1840 – Ernst Abbe, German      physicist (d. 1905)
• 1855 – John Moses Browning,      American inventor (d. 1926)
• 1857 – Andrija Mohorovicic,      Croatian seismologist (d. 1936)
• 1862 – David Hilbert, German      mathematician (d. 1943)
• 1872 – Goce Delchev, a      revolutionary from the Balkans – leader of the Internal Macedonian      Revolutionary Organization (d. 1903)
• 1872 – Paul Langevin, French physicist      (d. 1946)
• 1872 – Joze Plecnik, Slovenian      architect (d. 1957)
• 1876 – Otto Diels, German      chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1954)
• 1884 – Ralph DePalma,      Italian-American race car driver (d. 1956)
• 1891 – Italian Marxist Antonio      Gramsci. He is renowned for his concept of cultural hegemony as a means of      maintaining the state in a capitalist society. (d. 1937)
• 1896 – Charlotte, Grand Duchess      ofLuxembourg     (d. 1985)
• 1897 – Subhas Chandra Bose,      Indian independence fighter (d. 1945)
• 1897 – Sir William Samuel Stephenson,      Canadian soldier, W.W.II codename, Intrepid. Inspiration for James Bond.      (d. 1989)
• 1897 – Margarete      Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (d. 2000)
• 1897 – Netaji Subhash Chandra      Bose, Indian Leader and Freedom Fighter (d. Unknown, Disputed)
• 1898 – Sergei Eisenstein, Russian      film director (d. 1948)
• 1898 – Freda Utley, British      scholar and author (d. 1978)
• 1898 – Randolph Scott, American      actor (d. 1987)
• 1899 – Glen Kidston, British      aviator and racing driver (d. 1931)
• 1900 – William Ifor Jones, Welsh      conductor and organist (d. 1988)
• 1903 – Jorge Eliécer Gaitán,      Colombian politician (d. 1948)
• 1907 – Dan Duryea, American actor      (d. 1968)
• 1907 – Hideki Yukawa, Japanese      physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1981)
• 1910 – Django Reinhardt, Belgian      guitarist (d. 1953)
• 1915 – Potter Stewart, U.S.      Supreme Court Justice (d. 1985)
• 1915 – Arthur Lewis, British      economist, Nobel laureate (d. 1991)
• 1916 – Airey Neave, British      Major, politician and indictment server at the Nuremberg Trials (d. 1979)
• 1916 – David Douglas Duncan,      American photo-journalist
• 1918 – Gertrude B. Elion,      American scientist, Nobel laureate (d. 1999)
• 1919 – Ernie Kovacs, American      comedian (d. 1962)
• 1919 – Bob Paisley, English      Football player and manager. (d. 1996)
• 1919 – Hans Hass, Austrian      zoologist and underwater scientist
• 1923 – Walter M. Miller, Jr.,      American writer (d. 1996)
• 1923 – Cot Deal, major league      baseball player and coach
• 1924 – Bal Thackeray, founder and      president of Indian political party Shiv Sena.
• 1927 – Lars-Eric Lindblad,      Swedish-American entrepreneur and explorer (d. 1994)
• 1928 – Chico Carrasquel,      Venezuelan baseball player (d. 2005)
• 1928 – Jeanne Moreau, French      actress
• 1929 – Patriarch Filaret      (Mykhailo Denysenko) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kyiv Patriarchate
• 1929 – John Charles Polanyi,      Canadian chemist, Nobel laureate
• 1930 – Derek Walcott, West Indian      writer, Nobel laureate
• 1930 – Teresa Zylis-Gara, Polish      singer
• 1933 – Chita Rivera, Puerto Rican      actress and dancer
• 1934 -Pierre Bourgault,Quebec     politician and essayist (d. 2003)
• 1936 – Jerry Kramer, American      football player
• 1938 – Shohei Baba, Japanese      professional wrestler (d. 1999)
• 1938 – Georg Baselitz, German      painter and sculptor
• 1939 – SonnyChiba, Japanese actor and martial artist
• 1939 – Arlene Golonka, American      actress
• 1940 – Johnny Russell, American      country singer and songwriter (d. 2001)
• 1940 – Ben Gallagher, prolific      woodturner
• 1942 – Razzak, Bangladeshi actor      and director
• 1943 – Gary Burton, American jazz      vibraphonist
• 1943 – Gil Gerard, American actor
• 1943 – Millie Jackson, American      singer
• 1944 – Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
• 1945 – Mike Harris, Canadian      politician, Premier of Ontario
• 1946 – Arnoldo Alemán,      ex-president ofNicaragua
• 1946 – Don Whittington, American      businessman, car & airplane racer and convicted felon
• 1947 – Thomas R. Carper, American      politician.
• 1947 – Megawati Sukarnoputri, 5th      President ofIndonesia
• 1948 – Anita Pointer, American      singer (Pointer Sisters)
• 1950 – Richard Dean Anderson,      American actor
• 1950 – Danny Federici, American      musician (Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band)
• 1950 – John Greaves, English      musician (Henry Cow, National Health)
• 1953 – Antonio Villaraigosa,      Hispanic-American 52nd Mayor ofLos        Angeles
• 1953 – Robin Zander, American      singer (Cheap Trick)
• 1954 – Franco De Vita, Venezuelan      singer and songwriter
• 1954 – Edward Ka-Spel, English      musician (Legendary Pink Dots)
• 1957 – Princess Caroline ofMonaco
• 1957 – Lou Schuler, American      fitness journalist
• 1959 – Clive Bull, English radio      talk show host
• 1960 – Patrick de Gayardon,      French skydiver and skysurfing pioneer (d. 1998)
• 1960 – Jean-Francois Sauve,      Canadian ice hockey player
• 1962 – Elvira Lindo, Spanish      writer and journalist1962 – Vasia Panayopoulou, Greek actress
• 1963 – Gail O’Grady, American      actress
• 1964 – Mariska Hargitay, American      actress
• 1964 – Mario Roberge, Canadian      ice hockey player
• 1967 – Naim Süleymanoglu,      Bulgaria-born Turkish weightlifter
• 1968 – Petr Korda, Czech tennis      player
• 1969 – Ariadna Gil, Spanish      actress
• 1969 – Andrei Kanchelskis,      Ukrainian-Russian footballer
• 1969 – Brendan Shanahan, Canadian      ice hockey player
• 1970 – Spiridon Vasdekis, Greek      long jumper
• 1971 – Kevin Mawae, American      football player
• 1972 – Ewen Bremner, Scottish      actor
• 1972 – Mark Curry, American      rapper
• 1972 – Marcel Wouda, Dutch      swimmer
• 1973 – Lanei Chapman, American      actress
• 1974 – Joel Bouchard, Canadian      ice hockey player
• 1974 – Rebekah Elmaloglou,      Australian actress
• 1974 – Yosvani Pérez, Cuban      baseball player
• 1974 – Richard T. Slone, British      artist
• 1974 – Tiffani Thiessen, American      actress
• 1975 – Tito Ortiz, American UFC      fighter
• 1976 – Brandon Duckworth,      American baseball player
• 1976 – Angelica Lee, Taiwanese      actress and singer
• 1976 – Nigel McGuinness, English      professional wrestler
• 1979 – Sampsa Astala, Finnish      musician (Lordi)
• 1979 – Larry Hughes, American      basketball player
• 1979 – Juan Rincón, Venezuelan      baseball player
• 1981 – Greg Smith, American UFC      fighter
• 1982 – Wily Mo Peña, Dominican      baseball player
• 1983 – David Firth, British      animator
• 1984 – Arjen Robben, Dutch      footballer
• 1985 – Dong Fangzhuo, Chinese      footballer
• 1985 – Doutzen Kroes, Dutch      supermodel
• 1986 – José Enrique Sánchez,      Spanish footballer
• 1986 – Steven Taylor, English      footballer
• 1987 – Felicia Brandström,      Swedish singer

January 23 – Deaths:

• 1199 – Yaqub, Almohad Caliph (b.      1160)
• 1548 – Bernardo Pisano, Italian      composer (b. 1490)
• 1549 – Johannes Honter,      Transylvanian Saxon humanist and theologian (b. 1498)
• 1567 – Jiajing, Emperor ofChina     (b. 1507)
• 1570 – James Stewart, Earl of      Moray, regent ofScotland     (assassinated)
• 1622 – William Baffin, English      explorer (b. 1584)
• 1744 – Giambattista Vico, Italian      philosopher and historian (b. 1668)
• 1785 – Matthew Stewart, Scottish      mathematician (b. 1717)
• 1789 – Frances Brooke, English      writer (b. 1724)
• 1789 – John Cleland, English      novelist (b. 1709)
• 1800 – Edward Rutledge, American      statesman (b. 1749)
• 1803 – Arthur Guinness, Irish      brewer (b. 1725)
• 1805 – Claude Chappe, French      telecommunications pioneer (b. 1763)
• 1806 – William Pitt the Younger,      Prime Minister of theUnited        Kingdom(b. 1759)
• 1812 – Robert Craufurd, British      general (b. 1764)
• 1820 – Prince Edward Augustus,      Duke of Kent and Strathearn
• 1833 – Edward Pellew, 1st      Viscount Exmouth, British admiral (b. 1757)
• 1837 – John Field, Irish composer      (b. 1782)
• 1866 – Thomas Love Peacock,      English satirist (b. 1785)
• 1875 – Charles Kingsley English      writer (b. 1819)
• 1883 – Gustave Doré, French      artist, engraver, and illustrator (b. 1832)
• 1893 – Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus      Lamar, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1825)
• 1922 – Arthur Nikisch, Hungarian      conductor (b. 1855)
• 1923 – Max Nordau, Austrian      author, philosopher, and Zionist leader (b. 1849)
• 1931 – Anna Pavlova, Russian      ballerina (b. 1881)
• 1937 – Orso Mario Corbino,      Italian physicist (b. 1876)
• 1939 – Matthias Sindelar,      Austrian footballer (b. 1903)
• 1943 – Alexander Woollcott,      American actor, author, and bon vivant (b. 1887)
• 1944 – Edvard Munch, Norwegian      painter (b. 1863)
• 1944 – Viktor Gusev, Russian poet      (b. 1909)
• 1956 – Alexander Korda,      Hungarian/British film director (b. 1893)
• 1958 – Nikolaos Georgantas, Greek      discus thrower (b. 1880)
• 1971 – Fritz Feigl, Austria-born      chemist (b. 1871)
• 1973 – Alexander Onassis, Greek      heir of the Onassis family (b. 1948)
• 1973 – Kid Ory, American jazz      trombonist (b. 1886)
• 1976 – Paul Dupuis, French      Canadian film and television actor (b. 1913)
• 1976 – Paul Robeson, American      actor, singer, and social activist (b. 1898)
• 1977 – TootsShor,New York     restaurateur (b. 1903)
• 1978 – Terry Kath, American      musician (Chicago)      (b. 1946)
• 1978 – Jack Oakie, American actor      (b. 1903)
• 1978 – Vic Ames, American singer      (Ames Brothers) (b. 1925)
• 1981 – Samuel Barber, American      composer (b. 1910)
• 1983 – Fred Bakewell, English      cricketer (b. 1908)
• 1984 – Mu’in Bseiso, Palestinian      poet (b. 1926)
• 1986 – Joseph Beuys, German      artist (b. 1921)
• 1986 – Yvonne Lefébure, French      virtuoso pianist (b. 1898)
• 1988 – Charles Glen King,      American biochemist (b. 1896)
• 1989 – Salvador Dalí, Catalan artist      (b. 1904)
• 1990 – Allen Collins, American      guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (b. 1952)
• 1991 – Northrop Frye, Canadian      writer and critic (b. 1912)
• 1992 – Freddie Bartholomew, Irish      actor (b. 1924)
• 1993 – Thomas A. Dorsey, American      singer (b. 1899)
• 1994 – Nikolai Ogarkov, Soviet      field marshal (b. 1917)
• 1994 – Brian Redhead, English      journalist and broadcaster (b. 1929)
• 1997 – Richard Berry, American      composer and musician (b. 1935)
• 1999 – Jay Pritzker, American      businessman (b. 1922)
• 1999 – Prince Lincoln Thompson,      Jamaican musician (b. 1949)
• 2002 – Pierre Bourdieu, French      sociologist (b. 1930)
• 2002 – Paul Aars, American      racecar driver (b. 1934)
• 2002 – Robert Nozick, American      philosopher (b. 1938)
• 2003 – Nell Carter, American      singer and actress (b. 1948)
• 2004 – Bob Keeshan, American      actor (b. 1927)
• 2004 – Helmut Newton, German-born      photographer (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Morys George Lyndhurst      Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare, British politician (b. 1921)
• 2005 – Johnny Carson, American      television host (b. 1925)
• 2006 – Chris McKinstry, Canadian      scientist (b. 1967)
• 2007 – E. Howard Hunt, American      Watergate figure (b. 1918)
• 2007 – Ryszard Kapuscinski,      Polish journalist and writer (b. 1932)

January 23 – Holidays:

• St. Abakuh, an Egyptian Christian      martyr
• Bounty Day, celebrating the      burning of HMAV Bounty in 1790,Pitcairn Island
• St. Raymond of Peñafort,      confessor, d. 1275 (Roman Catholic calendar of saints)
• St. Emerentiana, virgin and      martyr, d. 305 (Roman Catholic calendar of saints)
• Blessed Marianne ofMolokai

• 565 – Eutychius is deposed as      Patriarch of Constantinople by John Scholasticus.
• 1506 – The first contingent of      150 Swiss Guards arrive at theVatican.
• 1517 – Turks      conquerCairo.
• 1521 – Emperor Charles V opens      the Diet of Worms.
• 1673 – Postal      service betweenNew York&Bostoninaugurated.
• 1771 -Spain     cedes Port Egmont in the Falkland Islands toEngland.
• 1824 -Ashantisdefeat British forces      in the Gold Coast.
• 1840 – British colonists reachNew Zealand.
• 1859 – Brahms’      first piano concerto (in D minor) premiers, Hanover.
• 1863 – The January Uprising      breaks out inPoland,LithuaniaandBelarus. The aim of the national      movement is to regainPolish-Lithuanian-Ruthenian    Commonwealthfrom occupation ofRussia.
• 1877 – Arthur Tooth, an Anglican      clergyman is taken into custody after being prosecuted for using ritualist      practices.
• 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of      Isandlwana – Zulu troops defeat British troops.
• 1879 – Anglo-Zulu War:Battleof Rorke’s      Drift – 139 British soldiers successfully defend their garrison against an      intense assault by four to five thousand Zulu warriors.
• 1889 – Columbia Phonograph was      formed inWashington,D.C.
• 1890 – The United Mine Workers of      America was founded inColumbus,      Ohio.
• 1899 – Leaders of six Australian      colonies meet inMelbourne     to discuss confederation.
• 1901 – Edward VII becomes King      after his mother, Queen Victoria of theUnited Kingdom, dies.
• 1905 – Bloody Sunday inSt. Petersburg,      beginning of the 1905 revolution.
• 1906 – SS Valencia runs aground      on rocks onVancouver Island,      British Columbia, killing more      than 130.
• 1917 – World War I: President      Woodrow Wilson calls for “peace without victory” inEurope.
• 1919 – Act Zluky is signed,      unifying the Ukrainian People’s Republic and theWestUkrainian     NationalRepublic.
• 1924 – Ramsay MacDonald becomes      the first Labour Prime Minister.
• 1927 – First live radio      commentary of a football match anywhere in the world with the Arsenal F.C.      vs. the Sheffield United at Highbury.
• 1931 – Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn      in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.
• 1941 – World War II: The United      Kingdom captures Tobruk from Nazi forces.
• 1944 – World War II: The Allies      commence Operation Shingle which was an assault onAnzio,Italy.
• 1946 -Iran:      Qazi Muhammad declares the independent people’s Republic of Mahabad atChuwarchira Square     in the Kurdish city ofMahabad.      He is the new president; Hadschi Baba Scheich is the prime minister.
• 1946 – Creation of the Central      Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.
• 1947 – KTLA, the first commercial      television station west of the Mississippi River, begins operation inHollywood,California.
• 1952 – The first Jet airliner,      the de Havilland Comet, enters service for BOAC.
• 1957 -Israel     withdraws from theSinai Peninsula.
• 1957 – TheNew       York City”Mad Bomber,” George P. Metesky, was      arrested inWaterbury,      Connecticutand was charged      with planting more than 30 bombs.
• 1962 – The Organization of      American States suspendsCuba’s      membership.
• 1963 – The Elysée treaty of      cooperation betweenFrance     andGermany     was signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer.
• 1964 – World’s      largest cheese (15,723 kg) manufactured,Wisconsin.
• 1968 –      “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In” premiers on NBC.
• 1968 – Apollo 5 launched      to Moon; unmanned lunar module tests made.
• 1969 – Orbiting      Solar Observatory 5 launched into earth orbit.
• 1970 – First      commercial Boeing 747 flight, NY toLondon.
• 1972 –      “Emergency” with Robert Fuller premiers on NBC TV.
  1973 – George Foreman beats Joe Frazier for world heavyweight boxing      title.
• 1973 – The Supreme Court of theUnited States     delivers its decision in Roe v. Wade striking down state laws restricting      abortion during the first six months of pregnancy.
• 1973 – A chartered Boeing 707 explodes      in flames upon landing atKano        Airport,Nigeria     killing 176.
• 1980 – Andrei Sakharov is      arrested inMoscow.
• 1980 – PGA      begins a senior golf tour.
• 1981 – O.A.      “Bum” Phillips becomes head coach of the New Orleans Saints.
• 1984 – Annette      Kennedy of SUNY sets women’s basketball record with 70 points.
• 1984 Oakland      Raiders beat Washington Redskins, 38-9, in Super Bowl XVIII.
• 1984 – The Apple Macintosh, the      first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical      user interface, was introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous “1984″      television commercial.
• 1987 -Pennsylvaniapolitician R. Budd Dwyer      shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national      television, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism.
• 1988 –      Heavyweight champ Mike Tyson KOs former champ Larry Holmes in 4.
• 1989 – Super      Bowl XXIII-San Francisco 49ers-20,Cincinnati     Bengels-16
• 1990 – Radio Borders[1] became      the first station of the new decade to hit theUKairwaves. Robert Tappan      Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm.
• 1991 – Gulf War. Three SCUDs and      one Patriot missile hitRamat GaninIsrael,      injuring 96 people. Three elderly people die of heart attacks.
• 1992 – Rebel forces occupyZaire’s national radio station inKinshasaand      broadcast a demand for the government’s resignation.
• 1992 – Space Shuttle program:      STS-42 Mission – Dr. Roberta Bondar becomes the first Canadian woman in      space.
• 1995 – Israeli-Palestinian      conflict: In centralIsrael,      two suicide bombers from the Gaza Strip blow themselves up at a military      transit point killing 19 Israelis.
• 1999 – Australian missionary      Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while      sleeping in their car inEastern India.
• 2002 – Kmart Corp becomes the largest      retailer inUnited        Stateshistory to file for Chapter 11      bankruptcy protection.
• 2003 – Last successful contact      with the spacecraft Pioneer 10, one of the most distant man-made objects.
• 2006 – Evo Morales is inaugurated      as President of Bolivia, becoming the country’s first indigenous      president.
• 2007 – The jury portion of the      trial against Robert Pickton, accused of beingCanada’s      worst serial killer, opens inNew        Westminster,British Columbia,      Canada.

January 22 – Birthdays:

• 1263 – Ibn Taymiya, Islamic      scholar (d. 1328)
• 1440 – Ivan III ofRussia     (d. 1505)
• 1553 – Mori Terumoto, Japanese      warrior (d. 1625)
• 1561 – Sir Francis Bacon, English      philosopher (d. 1626)
• 1570 – Sir Robert Bruce Cotton,      English politician (d. 1631)
• 1592 – Pierre Gassendi, French      philosopher, mathematician, and scientist (d. 1655)
• 1654 – Richard Blackmore, English      physician and writer (d. 1729)
• 1690 – Nicolas Lancret, French      painter (d. 1743)
• 1729 – Gotthold Ephraim Lessing,      German author and philosopher (d. 1781)
• 1733 – Philip Carteret, British      Naval Officer
• 1781 – François Antoine Habeneck,      French violinist (d. 1849)
• 1788 – George Gordon Byron, 6th      Baron Byron (Lord Byron), English poet (d. 1824)
• 1796 – Karl Claus, Russian      chemist (d. 1864)
• 1797 – Maria Leopoldina ofAustria, Empress ofBrazil(d. 1826)
• 1799 – Ludger Duvernay, Canadian      printer and publisher (d. 1852)
• 1820 – Joseph Wolf, German artist      (d. 1899)
• 1840 – Ernest Roland Wilberforce,      English bishop (d. 1907)
• 1849 – August Strindberg, Swedish      writer (d. 1912)
• 1858 – Beatrice Webb, English      economist (d. 1943)
• 1869 – Grigori Rasputin, Russian      monk (d. 1916)
• 1874 – Edward Harkness, American      philanthropist (d. 1940)
• 1875 – D. W. Griffith, American      film director (d. 1948)
• 1882 – Theodore Kosloff,      Russian-born actor, ballet dancer and choreographer (d. 1956)
• 1886 – Roman Ungern von      Sternberg, Russian counter-revolutionary (d. 1921)
• 1887 – Helen Hoyt, American poet      (d. 1972)
• 1889 – Henri Pélissier, French      cyclist (d. 1935)
• 1890 – Fred M. Vinson, 13th Chief      Justice of theUnited        States(d. 1953)
• 1890 – Vinko Zganec, Croatian      ethnomusicologist (d. 1976)
• 1892 – Marcel Dassault, French      industrialist (d. 1986)
• 1893 – Conrad Veidt, German actor      (d. 1943)
• 1897 – Rosa Ponselle, American      soprano (d. 1981)
• 1900 – Ernst Busch, German singer      and actor (d. 1980)
• 1902 – Daniel Kinsey, American      hurdler (d. 1970)
• 1903 – Fritz Houtermans, Polish      physicist (d. 1966)
• 1904 – George Balanchine, Russian      choreographer (d. 1983)
• 1904 – Arkady Gaidar, Russian      children’s writer (d. 1941)
• 1906 – Joe Gladwin, English actor      (d. 1987)
• 1906 – Robert E. Howard, American      author (d. 1936)
• 1907 – Douglas Corrigan, American      pilot (d. 1995)
• 1907 – Dixie Dean, English      footballer (d. 1980)
• 1907 – Mary Dresselhuys, Dutch      actress (d. 2004)
• 1908 – Lev Landau, Soviet      physicist, Nobel laureate (d. 1968)
• 1909 – Porfirio Rubirosa,      Dominican diplomat and international playboy (d. 1965)
• 1909 – Ann Sothern, American      actress (d. 2001)
• 1909 – U Thant, Burmese 3rd      United Nations Secretary General (d. 1974)
• 1911 – Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor      ofAustria     (d. 1990)
• 1913 – William Cardinal Conway,      Northern Irish clergyman (d. 1977)
• 1913 – Carl F. H. Henry, American      theologian and publisher (d. 2003)
• 1914 – Dimitris Dragatakis, Greek      composer (d. 2001)
• 1915 – Heinrich Albertz, German      theologian and politician (d. 1993)
• 1916 – Bill Durnan, Canadian ice      hockey player (d. 1972)
• 1916 – Henri Dutilleux, French      composer
• 1918 – Elmer Lach, Canadian ice      hockey player
• 1920 – Sir Alf Ramsey, English      football manager (d. 1999)
• 1922 – Howard Moss, American      poet, dramatist, and critic (d. 1987)
• 1924 – J. J. Johnson, American      jazz trombonist and composer (d. 2001)
• 1927 – Lou Creekmur, American      football player
• 1928 – Yoshihiko Amino, Japanese      historian (d. 2004)
• 1931 – Sam Cooke, American singer      (d. 1964)
• 1932 – Berthold Grünfeld,      Norwegian psychiatrist and former sexologist
• 1932 – Piper Laurie, American      actress
• 1934 – Bill Bixby, American actor      (d. 1993)
• 1934 – Graham Kerr, British-born      chef
• 1935 – Seymour Cassel, American      actor
• 1936 – Alan J. Heeger, American      chemist, Nobel laureate
• 1937 – Edén Pastora, Nicaraguan      rebel leader
• 1937 – Joseph Wambaugh, American      author
• 1938 – Altair, Brazilian      footballer
• 1939 – Jeff Smith, American chef      (d. 2004)
• 1939 – Jean-Claude Tremblay,      Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1994)
• 1940 – Addie “Micki”      Harris, singer (Shirelles) (d. 1982)
• 1940 – John Hurt, English actor
• 1940 – George Seifert, American      football coach
• 1942 – Mimis Domazos, Greek      footballer
• 1943 – Marília Pêra, Brazilian      actress
• 1945 – Arthur Beetson, Australian      rugby league footballer and coach
• 1946 – Malcolm McLaren, English      impresario, musician and self-publicist
• 1946 – Serge Savard, Canadian ice      hockey player
• 1948 – Gilbert Levine, American      conductor
• 1949 – Mike Caldwell, American      baseball player
• 1949 – Phil Miller, English      guitarist (National Health, In Cahoots, Matching Mole)
• 1949 – Steve Perry, American      singer and musician (Journey)
• 1951 – Ondrej Nepela, Slovak      figure skater (d. 1989)
• 1952 – Teddy Gentry, American      musician (Alabama)
• 1952 – Ace Vergel, Filipino actor      (d. 2007)
• 1953 – Jim Jarmusch, American      director
• 1954 – Tully Blanchard, American      professional wrestler
• 1954 – Chris Lemmon, American      actor
• 1954 – Peter Pilz, Austrian politician
• 1955 – Timothy R. Ferguson,      American politician
• 1956 – John Wesley Shipp,      American actor
• 1957 – Mike Bossy, Canadian ice      hockey player
• 1957 – Francis Wheen, English      writer and journalist
• 1958 – Nikos Anastopoulos, Greek      football player and manager
• 1959 – Linda Blair, American      actress
• 1960 – Michael Hutchence,      Australian singer (INXS) (d. 1997)
• 1961 – Daniel Johnston, American      singer-songwriter and artist
• 1962 – Choi Min-sik, South Korean      actor
• 1962 – Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin      of Terengganu, Yang di-Pertuan Agong ofMalaysia
• 1963 – Andrei Tchmil,      Ukrainian-Belgian cyclist
• 1965 – Steven Adler, American      drummer (Guns N’ Roses)
• 1965 – DJ Jazzy Jeff, American      rapper and actor
• 1965 – Diane Lane, American      actress
• 1965 – Brian McCardie, Scottish      actor
• 1965 – Andrew Roachford, English      singer and songwriter
• 1965 – Chintara Sukapatana, Thai      actress
• 1966 – Ecaterina Szabo, Romanian      gymnast
• 1967 – Manabu Nakanishi, Japanese      professional wrestler
• 1968 – Heath, Japanese bass      guitarist (X Japan)
• 1968 – Frank Leboeuf, French      footballer
• 1968 – Mauricio Serna, Colombian      footballer
• 1969 – Olivia d’Abo, English      actress
• 1969 – John Linton Roberson,      American cartoonist
• 1970 – Abraham Olano, Spanish      cyclist
• 1970 – Alex Ross, American comic      book painter (Marvels, Kingdom Come)
• 1971 – Stan Collymore, English      footballer
• 1972 – Gabriel Macht, American      actor
• 1972 – Romi Paku, Japanese seiyu      (voice actress)
• 1972 – Gonzalo Rodríguez,      Uruguayan racing driver (d. 1999)
• 1973 – Rogerio Ceni, Brazilian      footballer
• 1974 – Cameron McConville,      Australian racing driver
• 1975 – Balthazar Getty, American      actor
• 1975 – Felipe Giaffone, Brazilian      racing driver
• 1975 – ZP Theart, South African      singer
• 1975 – David Výborný, Czech ice      hockey player
• 1976 – James Dearth, American      football player
• 1976 – Mikko Luoma, Finnish ice      hockey player
• 1977 -Jono Gibbes,New        Zealandrugby union footballer
• 1977 – Hidetoshi Nakata, Japanese      footballer
• 1978 – Chone Figgins, American      baseball player
• 1980 – Jake Grove, American football      player
• 1980 – Christopher Masterson,      American actor
• 1980 – Ben Moody, American      guitarist (Evanescence)
• 1980 – Jonathan Woodgate, English      footballer
• 1981 – Willa Ford, American      singer
• 1981 – Beverley Mitchell,      American actress
• 1981 – Ibrahima Sonko, French      footballer
• 1982 – Fabricio Coloccini,      Argentine footballer
• 1982 – Jason Peters, American      football player
• 1983 – Shaun Cody, American      football player
• 1983 – Robert Steinhäuser, German      perpetrator of theErfurt     massacre (d. 2002)
• 1984 – Ben Eager, Canadian ice      hockey player
• 1984 – Raica Oliveira, Brazilian      supermodel
• 1984 – Leon Powe, American      basketball player
• 1984 – Maceo Rigters, Dutch      footballer
• 1985 – Mohamed Sissoko, Malian      footballer
• 1986 – Lee Pa-ni, South Korean      model
• 1986 – Robert O’Connor, Irish      singer-songwriter, actor and model
• 1986 – Rhys Barker, British      Model, Musician
• 1987 – Astrid Jacobsen, Norwegian      cross-country skier
• 1988 – Greg Oden, American      basketball player

January 22 – Deaths:

• 1536 – Bernhard Knipperdolling,      German religious leader (b. 1495)
• 1599 – Cristofano Malvezzi,      Italian composer (b. 1547)
• 1666 – Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor      ofIndia     (b. 1592)
• 1750 – Franz Xaver Josef von      Unertl, Bavarian politician (b. 1675)
• 1763 – John Carteret, 2nd Earl      Granville, English statesman (b. 1690)
• 1767 – Johann Gottlob Lehmann,      German minterologist and geologist (b. 1719)
• 1779 – Jeremiah Dixon, English      surveyor and astronomer (b. 1733)
• 1779 – Claudius Smith, American      Revolutionary War loyalist (b. 1736)
• 1840 – Johann Friedrich      Blumenbach, German anthropologist (b. 1752)
• 1892 – Joseph Philo Bradley, U.S.      Supreme Court Justice (b. 1813)
• 1900 – David E. Hughes, American      musician (b. 1831)
• 1901 – Queen Victoria of theUnited Kingdom     (b. 1819)
• 1921 – Captain George Streeter,      American riverboat captain and circus owner (b. 1837)
• 1922 – Fredrik Bajer, Danish      politician and pacifist, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1837)
• 1922 – Pope Benedict XV (b. 1854)
• 1922 – Camille Jordan, French      mathematician (b. 1838)
• 1931 – Alma Rubens, American      actress (b. 1897)
• 1945 – Else Lasker-Schuler,      German-born poet (b. 1869)
• 1949 – William Thomas Walsh,      American author (b. 1891)
• 1950 – Alan Hale, Sr., American      actor (b. 1892)
• 1951 – Karl Nessler, inventor of      the perm (b. 1872)
• 1959 – Mike Hawthorn, English      race car driver and one-time F1 world champion (b. 1929)
• 1966 – Herbert Marshall, English      actor (b. 1890)
• 1967 – Robert Henriques, English      writer (b. 1905)
• 1968 – Duke Kahanamoku, American      swimmer (b. 1890)
• 1973 – Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th      President of theUnited        States(b. 1908)
• 1975 – Andrew George Burry,      Swiss-born manufacturer and businessman (b. 1873)
• 1978 – Oliver Leese, British      World War II general (b. 1894)
• 1978 – Herbert Sutcliffe, English      cricketer (b. 1894)
• 1981 – Ishtiaq Hussain Qureshi,      Pakistani historian and educationist (b. 1903)
• 1982 – Tommy Tucker, American      singer and pianist (b. 1933)
• 1987 – Budd Dwyer, American      politician (b. 1939)
• 1988 – Parker Fennelly, American      comedian and actor (b. 1891)
• 1991 – Robert Choquette, French      Canadian novelist, poet and diplomat (b. 1905)
• 1993 – Abe Kobo, Japanese writer      (b. 1924)
• 1994 – Jean-Louis Barrault,      French actor and director (b. 1910)
• 1994 – Rhett Forrester, American      singer (Riot) (b. 1956)
• 1994 – Telly Savalas, American      actor (b. 1924)
• 1995 – Jerry Blackwell, American      professional wrestler (b. 1949)
• 1995 – Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy,      matriarch of the Kennedy family (b. 1890)
• 1997 – Ron Holden, American      singer (b. 1939)
• 1997 – Billy Mackenzie, Scottish      musician (Associates) (b. 1957)
• 1997 – Wally Whyton, English      musician (b. 1929)
• 1999 – Graham Staines, Australian      missionary (b. 1941)
• 2000 – Craig Claiborne, American      writer and editor (b. 1920)
• 2000 – Anne Hébert, French      Canadian author and poet (Kamouraska) (b. 1916)
• 2001 – Tommie Agee, American      baseball player (b. 1942)
• 2001 – Roy Brown, American clown      (b. 1932)
• 2002 – Stanley Marcus, American      business executive (b. 1905)
• 2003 – Bill Mauldin, American      World War II cartoonist (b. 1921)
• 2004 – Billy May, American      composer and musician (b. 1916)
• 2004 – Thomas Mead, Australian      politician and journalist (b. 1918)
• 2004 – Ann Miller, American      actress and dancer (b. 1923)
• 2005 – César Gutiérrez,      Venezuelan baseball player (b. 1943)
• 2005 – Carlo Orelli, Italian      veteran of World War I (b. 1894)
• 2005 – Consuelo Velázquez,      Mexican songwriter (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Rose Mary Woods, American      Watergate scandal figure (b. 1917)
• 2007 – Doug Blasdell, American      personal trainer
• 2007 – Disco D, American music      producer (b. 1980)
• 2007 – Ngô Quang Tru?ng, South      Vietnamese general (b. 1929)
• 2007 – Abbé Pierre, French priest      (b. 1912)
• 2008 – Heath Ledger, Australian      Hollywood actor (b. 1979)

January 22 – Holidays:

• Christianity – Feast day ofSt. Vincent, Anastasius of Persia.

• 1189 – Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
• 1287 – The treaty of San Agayz is signed. Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.
• 1525 – The Swiss Anabaptist Movement is born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptize each other in the home of Manz’s mother in Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
• 1643 – Abel Tasman was the first European to reach Tonga.
• 1720 – Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
• 1749 – The Verona Philharmonic Theatre was destoyed by fire. It was rebuilt in 1754.
• 1789 – The first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1793 – After being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France was executed by the guillotine.
• 1799 – Edward Jenner’s smallpox vaccination is introduced.
• 1853 – Envelope-folding machine patented by Russell Hawes, Worcester, MA.
• 1861 – American Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate.
• 1864 – The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
• 1887 – Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city.
• 1893 – The Tati Concessions Land, formerly part of Matabeleland, was formally annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate which is now Botswana.
• 1899 – Opel manufactured 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.
• 1915 – Kiwanis International was founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1919 – Meeting of the First Dáil Éireann in the Mansion House Dublin, Sinn Féin adopts Ireland’s first constitution. The first engagement of Irish War of Independence, Sologhead Beg, County Tipperary.
• 1921 – The Italian Communist Party was founded at Livorno.
• 1922 – First slalom ski race run, Murren, Switzerland.
• 1924 – Vladimir Lenin dies; a lengthy power struggle emerges between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin begins, culminating to the latter’s consolidation of power c. 1928.
• 1925 – Albania declares itself a republic.
• 1941 – World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
• 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.
• 1950 – Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
• 1954 – The first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, then the First Lady of the United States.
• 1958 – The last Fokker C.X in military service, the Finnish Air Force FK-111 target tower, crashed, killing the pilot and winch-operator.
• 1960 – Rock fall traps 437 at Coalbrook South Africa; 417 die of methane poisoning.
• 1968 – Vietnam War: Battle of Khe Sanh – One of the most publicized and controversial battles of the war begins.
• 1969 – An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
• 1971 – “Alias Smith & Jones” premiers on ABC TV.
• 1972 – Tripura becomes a full-fledged state in India.
• 1974 – Gold hits record $161.31 an ounce in London.
• 1974 – Silver hits record $3.97 an ounce in London.
• 1976 – Commercial service of Concorde begins with London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
• 1977 – President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada.
• 1978 – Bee Gees’ “Saturday Night Fever” album goes #1 for 24 weeks.
• 1979 – Steelers beat Cowboys (35-31), first team to win 3 Super Bowls (XIII).
• 1980 – Gold hits record $850 an ounce.
• 1986 – 100 participate in Nude Olympics race in 38 degrees F (3 degrees C), Indiana.
• 1987 – B.B. King donates his 7,000 record collection to University of Mississippi
• 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 kgs (9,500 pounds) of cocaine on board.
• 2002 – The Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
• 2004 – Canada: The residence of reporter Juliet O’Neill is searched by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigating leaks concerning the deportation of Maher Arar.
• 2005 – In Belmopan, Belize, the unrest over the government’s new taxes erupts into riots.
• 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 9/11, and Asian stocks drop as much as 15%.
• 2008 – The Eyak language in Alaska becomes extinct as its last native speaker dies.

January 21 – Birthdays:

• 1338 – King Charles V of France (d. 1380)
• 1721 – James Murray, British military officer, governor of Quebec (d. 1794)
• 1804 – Eliza Roxcy Snow, American poet (d. 1887)
• 1813 – John C. Frémont, American army officer, explorer and presidential candidate (d. 1890)
• 1815 – John Bingham, American politician and lawyer (d. 1900)
• 1824 – Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, American, Confederate army general (d. 1863)
• 1825 – Imre Madách, Hungarian writer (d. 1864)
• 1827 – Ivan Mikheevich Pervushin, Russian mathematician (d. 1900)
• 1829 – King Oscar II of Sweden and Norway (d. 1907)
• 1848 – Henri Duparc, French composer (d. 1933)
• 1860 – Karl Staaff, Prime Minister of Sweden (d. 1915)
• 1867 – Ludwig Thoma, German writer (d. 1921)
• 1867 – Maxime Weygand, French general (d. 1965)
• 1882 – Pavel Florensky, Russian mathematician (d. 1937)
• 1883 – Olav Aukrust, Norwegian poet (d. 1929)
• 1884 – Roger Baldwin, American social activist (d. 1981)
• 1885 – Umberto Nobile, Italian politician (d. 1978)
• 1887 – Georges Vézina, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1926)
• 1895 – Cristóbal Balenciaga, Spanish couturier (d. 1972)
• 1897 – René Iché, French sculptor (d. 1954)
• 1899 – Alexander Tcherepnin, Russian born American composer (d. 1977)
• 1901 – Ricardo Zamora, Spanish footballer (d. 1978)
• 1905 – Christian Dior, French fashion designer (d. 1957)
• 1905 – Karl Wallenda, German acrobat (d. 1978)
• 1906 – Igor Moiseyev, Russian choreographer (d. 2007)
• 1909 – Todor Skalovski, Macedonian composer (d. 2004)
• 1910 – Eua Sunthornsanan, Thai composer and bandleader (d. 1981)
• 1912 – Konrad Emil Bloch, German-born biochemist, Nobel laureate (d. 2000)
• 1918 – Richard D. Winters, American war hero
• 1921 – Howard Unruh, American mass murderer
• 1922 – Paul Scofield, English actor
• 1923 – Lola Flores, Spanish singer (d. 1995)
• 1924 – Benny Hill, English actor, comedian, and singer (d. 1992)
• 1924 – Telly Savalas, American actor (d. 1994)
• 1926 – Steve Reeves, American actor (d. 2000)
• 1927 – Clive Churchill, Australian rugby league footballer (d. 1985)
• 1932 – John Chaney, American basketball coach
• 1933 – Joseph W. Eschbach, American doctor (d. 2007)
• 1934 – Audrey Dalton, Irish actress
• 1936 – Koji Hashimoto, Japanese film director (d. 2005)
• 1937 – Prince Max, Duke in Bavaria
• 1938 – Wolfman Jack, American disk jockey and actor (d. 1995)
• 1938 – John Savident, British actor
• 1940 – Jack Nicklaus, American golfer
• 1941 – Plácido Domingo, Spanish tenor
• 1941 – Stathis Giallelis, Greek actor
• 1941 – Richie Havens, American musician
• 1941 – Mike Medavoy, American film producer
• 1941 – Ivan Putski, Polish-born American professional wrestler
• 1942 – Edwin Starr, American singer (d. 2003)
• 1942 – Mac Davis, American musician
• 1946 – Johnny Oates, American baseball player and manager (d. 2004)
• 1947 – Jill Eikenberry, American actress
• 1947 – Pye Hastings, English singer and musician (Caravan)
• 1947 – Michel Jonasz, French singer and composer
• 1950 – Billy Ocean, West Indian musician
• 1952 – Marco Camenisch, Swiss environmental activist
• 1952 – Louis Menand, American writer and critic
• 1953 – Paul Allen, American entrepreneur
• 1955 – Jeff Koons, American artist
• 1956 – Robby Benson, American actor
• 1956 – Geena Davis, American actress
• 1957 – Greg Ryan, American soccer coach
• 1958 – Michael Wincott, Canadian actor
• 1959 – Alex McLeish, Scottish footballer and manager
• 1962 – Marie Trintignant, French actress (d. 2003)
• 1962 – Tyler Cowen, American economist
• 1963 – Hakeem Olajuwon, Nigerian-born American basketball player
• 1963 – Detlef Schrempf, German basketball player
• 1965 – Jam Master Jay, American disc jockey (d. 2002)
• 1966 – Robert Del Naja, English musician
• 1966 – Candi Milo, American voice actress
• 1968 – Ulrica Messing, Swedish politician
• 1968 – Charlotte Ross, American actress
• 1969 – Karina Lombard, American actress
• 1969 – Tsubaki Nekoi, Japanese manga artist
• 1970 – Ken Leung, American actor
• 1970 – Mark Trojanowski, American musician (Sister Hazel)
• 1971 – Alan McManus, Scottish snooker player
• 1971 – Doug Weight, American ice hockey player
• 1972 – Alan Benes, American baseball player
• 1972 – Yasunori Mitsuda, Japanese composer
• 1972 – Cat Power (Chan Marshall), American musician
• 1974 – Rove McManus, Australian television host and comedian
• 1974 – Alex Sperafico, Brazilian racing driver
• 1975 – Ito, Spanish footballer
• 1975 – Nicky Butt, English footballer
• 1975 – Casey FitzRandolph, American speed skater
• 1975 – Yuji Ide, Japanese racing driver
• 1976 – Emma Bunton, English singer (Spice Girls)
• 1977 – Al Baxter, Australian rugby union footballer
• 1977 – Phil Neville, English footballer
• 1977 – Rick Ross, American rapper
• 1978 – Bryan Gilmore, National Football League player
• 1978 – Tamir “Nokio” Ruffin, American Singer
• 1978 – Faris al-Sultan, German-Iraqi triathlete
• 1978 – Phil Stacey, American Idol finalist
• 1978 – Andrei Zyuzin, Russian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Byung-Hyun Kim, Korean baseball player
• 1979 – Spider Loc, American rapper, member of G-Unit
• 1979 – Brian O’Driscoll, Irish rugby union footballer
• 1980 – Dave Kitson, English footballer
• 1980 – Nana Mizuki, Japanese voice actress and singer
• 1981 – Gillian Chung Yan-tung, Hong Kong singer (Twins)
• 1981 – Jamie Dalrymple, English cricketer
• 1981 – Ivan Ergic, Serbian footballer
• 1981 – Dany Heatley, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1981 – Andy Lee, Korean rapper (Shinhwa)
• 1981 – Izabella Miko, Polish-born actress and model
• 1981 – Alex Ubago, Spanish-Basque singer-songwriter
• 1982 – Dean Whitehead, English footballer
• 1983 – Maryse Ouellet, French-Canadian model and professional wrestler
• 1983 – Moritz Volz, German footballer
• 1983 – Peter Philipakos, Greek-American soccer player
• 1985 – Alex Pérez, Spanish footballer
• 1985 – Sasha Pivovarova, Russian Model
• 1985 – Matt Unicomb, Australian basketball player
• 1987 – Joe Ledley, Welsh footballer
• 1988 – William Johansson, Swedish composer
• 1990 – Jacob Smith, American actor
• 2004 – Princess Ingrid Alexandra of Norway

January 21 – Deaths:

• 304 – Saint Agnes (martyred) (b. 291)
• 917 – Erchanger, Duke of Swabia (c. 880)
• 1118 – Pope Paschal II
• 1519 – Vasco Núñez de Balboa, Spanish explorer (b. 1475)
• 1527 – Juan de Grijalva, Spanish conquistador (c. 1489)
• 1546 – Azai Sukemasa, Japanese samurai and warlord (b. 1491)
• 1609 – Joseph Justus Scaliger, French Protestant scholar (b. 1540)
• 1638 – Ignazio Donati, Italian composer (c. 1570)
• 1683 – Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury, British politician (b. 1621)
• 1699 – Obadiah Walker, English writer (b. 1616)
• 1706 – Adrien Baillet, French scholar and critic (b. 1649)
• 1710 – Johann Georg Gichtel, German mystic (b. 1638)
• 1722 – Charles Paulet, 2nd Duke of Bolton, English supporter of William III of England (b. 1661)
• 1731 – Thomas Woolston, English theologian (b. 1669)
• 1766 – James Quin, English actor (b. 1693)
• 1773 – Alexis Piron, French writer (b. 1689)
• 1774 – Mustafa III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1717)
• 1775 – Yemelyan Pugachev, Russian rebel (b. 1740 or 1742)
• 1793 – King Louis XVI of France (executed) (b. 1754)
• 1795 – Samuel Wallis, English navigator (b. 1728)
• 1809 – Josiah Hornblower, American statesman (b. 1729)
• 1814 – Jacques-Henri Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, French writer and botanist (b. 1737)
• 1823 – Cayetano José Rodríguez, Argentine cleric, journalist and poet (b. 1761)
• 1831 – Ludwig Achim von Arnim, German poet (b. 1781)
• 1851 – Albert Lortzing, German composer (b. 1801)
• 1870 – Alexander Herzen, Russian writer (b. 1812)
• 1872 – Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (b. 1791)
• 1881 – Wilhelm Matthias Naeff, Swiss Federal Councilor (b. 1802)
• 1891 – Calixa Lavallée, Canadian composer (b. 1842)
• 1901 – Elisha Gray, American inventor (b. 1835)
• 1914 – Theodor Kittelsen, Norwegian artist (b. 1857)
• 1919 – Gojong of Joseon, Emperor of Korea (b. 1852)
• 1924 – Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary (b. 1870)
• 1926 – Camillo Golgi, Italian physician, recipient of the Nobel laureate (b. 1843)
• 1928 – George Goethals, American army engineer (b. 1858)
• 1931 – Felix Blumenfeld, Russian composer (b. 1863)
• 1932 – Giles Lytton Strachey, British writer (b. 1880)
• 1933 – George A. Moore, Irish novelist (b. 1852)
• 1937 – Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)
• 1948 – Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari, Italian composer (b. 1876)
• 1950 – George Orwell, British writer (b. 1903)
• 1955 – Archie Hahn, American athlete (b. 1880)
• 1956 – Sam Langford, Canadian boxer (b. 1883)
• 1959 – Cecil B. DeMille, American director (b. 1881)
• 1959 – Carl Switzer, American actor (b. 1927)
• 1961 – Blaise Cendrars, Swiss writer (b. 1887)
• 1967 – Ann Sheridan, American actress (b. 1915)
• 1968 – Will Lang Jr., American magazine executive (b. 1914)
• 1977 – Sandro Penna, Italian poet (b. 1906)
• 1978 – Freda Utley, British scholar and author. (b. 1898)
• 1984 – Giannis Skaribas, Greek writer, dramatist, and poet (b. 1893)
• 1984 – Jackie Wilson, American musician (b. 1934)
• 1985 – James Beard, American chef and author (b. 1903)
• 1985 – Eddie Graham, American professional wrestler and promoter (b. 1930)
• 1987 – Charles Goodell, American politician (b. 1926)
• 1989 – Billy Tipton, American musician (b. 1914)
• 1989 – Carl Furillo, American Baseball player (b. 1922)
• 1993 – Charlie Gehringer, American baseball player (b. 1903)
• 1996 – René Marc Jalbert, sergeant-at-Arms at the National Assembly of Quebec (b. 1921)
• 1997 – Colonel Tom Parker, American manager of Elvis Presley (b. 1909)
• 1998 – Jack Lord, American actor (b. 1920)
• 1999 – Charles Brown, American blues singer and pianist (b. 1920)
• 1999 – Susan Strasberg, American actress (b. 1938)
• 2001 – Byron De La Beckwith, American white supremacist (b. 1921)
• 2002 – Peggy Lee, American singer (b. 1920)
• 2003 – Paul Haines, American-born Canadian poet (b. 1933)
• 2004 – Yordan Radichkov, Bulgarian writer (b. 1929)
• 2005 – Theun de Vries, Dutch writer (b. 1907)
• 2005 – John L. Hess, American journalist (b. 1917)
• 2005 – Parveen Babi, Indian actress (b. 1955)
• 2006 – Ibrahim Rugova, President of Kosovo (b. 1944)
• 2007 – Maria Cioncan, Romanian athlete (b. 1977)
• 2007 – U;Nee, Korean pop artist (b. 1981)
• 2008 – Pam Barrett, Canadian politician (b. 1953)
• 2008 – Marie Smith Jones, last native speaker of the Eyak language (b. 1918)

January 21 – Holidays:

• Flag Day – Quebec
• International Spicy Food Day
• Wellington Anniversary – New Zealand
• Saint Agnes
• Meinrad of Einsiedeln
• Dominican Republic – Our Lady of Altagracia

• 250 – Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian was martyred. Afterwards the Donatist controversy over readmitting lapsed Christians disaffects many in North Africa.
• 1156 – According to legend, freeholder Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland.
• 1265 – In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now also known as the “Houses of Parliament.”
• 1320 – Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
• 1356 – Edward Balliol abdicates as King of Scotland.
• 1502 – The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored.
• 1523 – Christian II is forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
• 1576 – The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almansa.
• 1649 – Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other “high crimes.”
• 1667 – The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kiev, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to Imperial Russia in the treaty of Andrusovo.
• 1783 – The Kingdom of Great Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
• 1788 – The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides Botany Bay is unsuitable for location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.
• 1801 – John Marshall is appointed the Chief Justice of the United States.
• 1839 – In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
• 1840 – Dumont D’Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
• 1840 – Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
• 1841 – Hong Kong Island is occupied by the British.
• 1885 – L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• 1887 – The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
• 1892 – At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official basketball game is played.
• 1920 – The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
• 1921 – The first Constitution of Turkey is adopted, making fundamental changes in the source and exercise of sovereignty by consecrating the principle of national sovereignty.
• 1929 – In Old Arizona, the first full-length talking film filmed outdoors, is released.
• 1936 – Edward VIII becomes King of the United Kingdom.
• 1937 – Franklin Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.
• 1942 – World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin agree on the “final solution to the Jewish problem.”
• 1944 – World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
• 1945 – Hungary ends its involvement in the Second World War, agreeing to an armistice with the Allies.
• 1954 – The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
• 1960 – Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
• 1961 – John F. Kennedy is inaugurated.
• 1968 – The Houston Cougars defeat the UCLA Bruins 71-69 to win the Game of the Century.
• 1969 – The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
• 1980 – President Jimmy Carter announces US boycott of Olympics in Moscow.
• 1980 – Super Bowl XIV-Pittsburgh Steelers-31, Los Angeles Rams-19.
• 1981 – Iran releases 52 American hostages twenty minutes after Ronald Reagan is inaugurated as U.S. President.
• 1985 – Super Bowl XIX-San Francisco 49′ers-38, Miami Dolphins-16.
• 1986 – Martin Luther King, Jr., day is celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
• 1986 – The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
• 1987 – Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in Lebanon.
• 1990 – Black January – crackdown of Azerbaijani pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.
• 1991 – Sudan’s government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country’s Muslim north and Christian south.
• 1992 – Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 82 passengers and 5 crew.
• 1999 – The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet cafés.
• 2001 – Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in the EDSA II Revolution and is succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

January 20 – Birthdays:

• 225 – Gordian III, Roman Emperor (d. 244)
• 1292 – Elisabeth I of Bohemia (d. 1330)
• 1358 – Eleanor of Aragon, wife of John I of Castile (d. 1382)
• 1435 – Ashikaga Yoshimasa, Japanese shogun (d. 1490)
• 1554 – King Sebastian of Portugal (d. 1578)
• 1586 – Johann Schein, German composer (d. 1630)
• 1664 – Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, Italian writer and jurist (d. 1718)
• 1716 – King Charles III of Spain (d. 1788)
• 1716 – Jean-Jacques Barthélemy, French writer and numismatist (d. 1795)
• 1775 – André-Marie Ampère, French physicist (d. 1836)
• 1781 – Joseph Hormayr Freiherr zu Hortenburg, Austrian politician (d. 1848)
• 1783 – Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer, German cellist and composer (d. 1860)
• 1798 – Anson Jones, 5th and last President of Texas (d. 1858)
• 1804 – Eugène Sue, French novelist (d. 1857)
• 1812 – Thomas Meik, Scottish engineer (d. 1896)
• 1834 – George D. Robinson, 34 Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1896)
• 1837 – David Josiah Brewer, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1910)
• 1855 – Ernest Chausson, French composer (d. 1899)
• 1867 – Yvette Guilbert, French singer and actress (d. 1944)
• 1873 – Johannes Vilhelm Jensen, Danish Nobel laureate (d. 1950)
• 1876 – Józef Hofmann, Polish pianist (d. 1967)
• 1878 – Finlay Currie, British actor (d. 1968)
• 1878 – Ruth St. Denis, dancer (d. 1968)
• 1880 – Walter W. Bacon, Governor of Delaware (d. 1962)
• 1889 – Allan H. Loughead, American aviation pioneer (Lockheed Corporation; d. 1969)
• 1891 – Mischa Elman, Ukrainian born violinist (d. 1967)
• 1893 – Georg Åberg, Swedish athlete (d. 1946)
• 1894 – Walter Piston, American composer (d. 1976)
• 1896 – George Burns, American actor, comedian (d. 1996)
• 1896 – Isabel Withers, American actress (d. 1968)
• 1898 – U Razak, Burmese politician (d. 1947)
• 1899 – Kenjiro Takayanagi, Japanese development of television (d. 1990)
• 1900 – Colin Clive, British actor (d. 1937)
• 1902 – Leon Ames, American actor (d. 1993)
• 1907 – Paula Wessely, Austrian actress (d. 2000)
• 1910 – Joy Adamson, Austrian naturalist and writer (d. 1980)
• 1915 – Ghulam Ishaq Khan, President of Pakistan (d. 2006)
• 1919 – Juan García Esquivel, Mexican bandleader (d. 2002)
• 1920 – Federico Fellini, Italian film director (d. 1993)
• 1920 – DeForest Kelley, American actor (d. 1999)
• 1920 – Thorleif Schjelderup, Norwegian author and ski jumper (d. 2006)
• 1921 – Telmo Zarraonaindía, Spanish footballer (d. 2006)
• 1922 – Ray Anthony, American trumpeter, bandleader, songwriter and actor
• 1923 – Nora Brockstedt, Norwegian singer
• 1924 – Slim Whitman, American singer
• 1925 – Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan theologian and author and politician
• 1926 – Jamiluddin Aali, Pakistani poet, essayist and columnist
• 1926 – Qurratulain Hyder, Indian novelist (d. 2007)
• 1926 – Patricia Neal, American actress
• 1926 – David Tudor, American pianist and composer (d. 1996)
• 1929 – Jimmy Cobb, American jazz drummer
• 1929 – Bob Denard, French mercenary
• 1929 – Arte Johnson, American actor
• 1929 – Glenn “Fireball” Roberts, American race car driver (d. 1964)
• 1930 – Edwin Eugene “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr., astronaut
• 1931 – David Lee, American physicist, Nobel Prize in Physics laureate
• 1932 – Lou Fontinato, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1933 – Ron Townson, American singer (The Fifth Dimension) (d. 2001)
• 1934 – Tom Baker, British actor
• 1937 – Dorothy Provine, American singer, dancer and actress
• 1938 – William Berger, Austrian actor (d. 1993)
• 1938 – Derek Dougan, Northern Irish footballer (d. 2007)
• 1939 – Paul Coverdell, American politician (d. 2000)
• 1940 – Carol Heiss, American figure skater
• 1940 – Krishnam Raju, Indian actor and politician
• 1941 – Pierre Lalonde, Quebec singer and television host
• 1943 – Farhad Mehrad, Iranian musician
• 1944 – José Luis Garci, Spanish filmmaker
• 1945 – Robert Olen Butler, American writer
• 1945 – Christopher Martin-Jenkins, cricket commentator and correspondent
• 1945 – Eric Stewart, English musician and songwriter (10cc)
• 1946 – David Lynch, American film director
• 1947 – Cyrille Guimard, French cyclist
• 1948 – Natan Sharansky, Russian-born physicist and politician
• 1949 – Göran Persson, Prime Minister of Sweden
• 1950 – Liza Goddard, British actress
• 1950 – Edward Hirsch. American poet
• 1950 – Chuck Lefley, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1950 – Mahamane Ousmane, President of Niger
• 1951 – Ivan Fischer, Hungarian conductor
• 1951 – Ian Hill, British musician (Judas Priest)
• 1952 – Paul Stanley, American musician (Kiss)
• 1955 – Wyatt Knight, American actor
• 1955 – Joe Doherty, Provisional Irish Republican Army member
• 1955 – Hiromi Ota, Japanese singer
• 1956 – Maria Larsson, Swedish politician
• 1956 – Bill Maher, American actor, comedian, and political analyst
• 1958 – Lorenzo Lamas, American actor
• 1960 – Scott Thunes, American musician (Frank Zappa)
• 1960 – Will Wright, American computer game designer
• 1963 – James Denton, American actor
• 1964 – Kazushige Nojima, Japanese game scenario writer
• 1965 – Colin Calderwood, Scottish footballer
• 1965 – Greg Kriesel, American bassist (The Offspring)
• 1965 – Sophie, The Countess of Wessex, the wife of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
• 1965 – John Michael Montgomery, American singer
• 1965 – Anton Weissenbacher, Romanian footballer
• 1966 – Stacey Dash, American actress
• 1966 – Tracii Guns, American guitarist
• 1968 – Melissa Rivers, American reporter and actress
• 1968 – Rainn Wilson, American actor
• 1969 – Patrick K. Kroupa, American computer hacker
• 1969 – Nicky Wire, British Musician (Manic Street Preachers)
• 1970 – Mitch Benn, UK comedian, songwriter, actor
• 1970 – Kerri Kenney-Silver, American actress
• 1970 – Skeet Ulrich, American actor
• 1971 – Derrick Green, American singer (Sepultura)
• 1971 – Gary Barlow, English singer, pianist, songwriter, band member of Take That and
• producer.
• 1971 – Brian Giles, American baseball player
• 1973 – Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant
• 1975 – David Eckstein, American baseball player
• 1975 – Norberto Fontana, Argentine racing driver
• 1976 – Gretha Smit, Dutch speed skater
• 1977 – Melody, a Belgian singer
• 1978 – Joy Giovanni, American actress and glamour model
• 1978 – Sonja Kesselschläger, German heptathlete
• 1978 – Allan Søgaard, Danish footballer
• 1979 – Rob Bourdon, American musician (Linkin Park)
• 1979 – Asaka Kubo, Japanese gravure idol of 20th Century
• 1979 – Will Young, British singer
• 1980 – Matthew Tuck, Welsh guitarist (Bullet for My Valentine)
• 1980 – Philippe Cousteau Jr. Oceanographer/Environmentalist, grandson of Jacques Cousteau
• 1981 – Freddy Guzmán, Dominican baseball player
• 1981 – Christine Bleakley, BBC Television Host
• 1981 – Owen Hargreaves, English international footballer
• 1981 – Crystal Lowe, Canadian actress
• 1983 – Paula Taylor, English-Thai actress, model and presenter
• 1984 – Olivia Hallinan, English Actress
• 1984 – Toni Gonzaga, Filipina Actress and Singer

January 20 – Deaths:

• 1156 – Bishop Henry, patron saint of Finland
• 1191 – Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia (b. 1167)
• 1479 – King John II of Aragon (b. 1397)
• 1568 – Myles Coverdale, English Bible translator
• 1612 – Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 1552)
• 1666 – Anna of Austria, wife of Louis XIII of France and regent (b. 1601)
• 1707 – Humphrey Hody, English theologian (b. 1659)
• 1709 – François de la Chaise, French confessor of Louis XIV of France (b. 1624)
• 1739 – Francesco Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect/designer (b. 1659)
• 1751 – John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, English politician (b. 1665)
• 1770 – Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain (b. 1722)
• 1779 – David Garrick, English actor (b. 1717)
• 1810 – Benjamin Chew, Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania (b. 1722)
• 1819 – King Charles IV of Spain (b. 1748)
• 1848 – Christian VIII of Denmark (b. 1786)
• 1850 – Adam Oehlenschläger, Danish poet (b. 1779)
• 1873 – The Venerable Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau, Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross (b. 1799)
• 1875 – Jean-François Millet, French painter (b. 1814)
• 1891 – David Kalakaua, King of Hawaii (b. 1836)
• 1900 – John Ruskin, art critic (b. 1819)
• 1901 – Zénobe Gramme, Belgian engineer (b. 1826)
• 1920 – Georg Lurich, Estonian wrestler (b. 1876)
• 1936 – King George V of the United Kingdom (b. 1865)
• 1940 – Omar Bundy, U.S. army general (b. 1861)
• 1944 – James McKeen Cattell, American psychologist (b. 1860)
• 1947 – Josh Gibson, African-American baseball player (b. 1911)
• 1954 – Fred Root, English cricketer (b. 1890)
• 1962 – Robinson Jeffers, American poet (b. 1887)
• 1965 – Alan Freed, American disk jockey (b. 1922)
• 1971 – Gilbert M. ‘Broncho Billy’ Anderson, American actor, director, writer, and producer (b. 1880)
• 1973 – Lorenz Böhler, Austrian physician (b. 1885)
• 1979 – Gustav Winckler, Danish singer (b. 1925)
• 1983 – Garrincha, Brazilian footballer (b. 1933)
• 1984 – Johnny Weissmuller, American swimmer and actor (b. 1904)
• 1988 – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, Pashtun Nationalist & non-violent freedom fighter (b. 1890)
• 1988 – Dora Stratou, Greek choreographer and folklorist (b. 1903)
• 1989 – Alamgir Kabir, Bangladeshi film director (b. 1938)
• 1990 – Hayedeh, Persian singer (b. 1942)
• 1990 – Barbara Stanwyck, American actress (b. 1907)
• 1993 – Audrey Hepburn, Anglo-Dutch actress (b. 1929)
• 1994 – Sir Matt Busby, Scottish football player and coach (b. 1909)
• 1996 – Gerry Mulligan, American musician (b. 1927)
• 1997 – Curt Flood, baseball player (b. 1938)
• 1998 – Bobo Brazil, American professional wrestler (b. 1924)
• 2002 – Carrie Hamilton, actress and singer (b. 1963)
• 2003 – Al Hirschfeld, American caricaturist (b. 1903)
• 2003 – Nedra Volz, American actress (b. 1908)
• 2003 – Bill Werbeniuk, Canadian snooker player (b. 1947)
• 2004 – Guinn Smith, American athlete (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Per Borten, Prime Minister of Norway (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Roland Frye, American literary critic and theologian (b. 1921)
• 2005 – Jan Nowak-Jezioranski, Polish journalist, writer, and politician (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Miriam Louisa Rothschild, British zoologist, entomologist, and author (b. 1908)

January 20 – Holidays:

• Presidential Inauguration Day in the United States, held every four years since 1937.
• Astrology: First day of sun sign Aquarius.
• Ati-Atihan Festival in the Philippines
• Sinulog Festival in the Philippines (2008)
• Religious feasts:
  • Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church:
    • Sebastian
    • Saint Fabian
    • Euthymius the Great
    • Desiderius
    • Meinrad
• The Eve of St. Agnes
• Abadios

• 1419 – Hundred Years’ War: Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy.
• 1493 – France cedes Roussillon & Cerdagne to Spain by treaty of Barcelona.
• 1511 – Mirandola surrenders to the French.
• 1520 – Sten Sture the Younger, the Regent of Sweden, was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bogesund.
• 1764 – John Wilkes is expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.
• 1788 – Second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay.
• 1795 – Batavian Republic is proclaimed in the Netherlands. End of 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.
• 1817 – An army of 5,423 soldiers, led by General José de San Martín, crosses the Andes from Argentina to liberate Chile and then Peru.
• 1825 – Ezra Daggett & nephew Thomas Kensett patent food storage in tin cans.
• 1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust Part 1 premieres.
• 1839 – The British East India Company captures Aden.
• 1840 – Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica, claiming what became known as Wilkes Land for the United States.
• 1853 – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore premieres in Rome.
• 1862 – American Civil War: Battle of Mill Springs – The Confederacy suffers its first significant defeat in the conflict.
• 1871 – Franco-Prussian War: Battle of St. Quentin is fought, resulting in a decisive Prussian victory.
• 1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey.
• 1893 – Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder premieres in Berlin.
• 1898 – Brown defeats Harvard 6-0 in first intercollegiate hockey game.
• 1899 – Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is formed.
• 1915 – Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising.
• 1915 – World War I: German zeppelins bomb the cities of Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn in the United Kingdom killing more than 20, in the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian target.
• 1917 – German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmermann sends the Zimmermann Telegram to Mexico, proposing a German-Mexican alliance against the United States.
• 1917 – Silvertown explosion: 73 are killed and 400 injured in an explosion in a munitions plant in London.
• 1918 – Finnish Civil War: The first serious battles between the Red Guards and the White Guard.
• 1920 – The United States Senate votes against joining the League of Nations.
• 1935 – Coopers Inc. sells the world’s first briefs.
• 1937 – Howard Hughes sets a new air record by flying from Los Angeles, California to New York City in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 25 seconds.
• 1937 – Cy Young, Tris Speaker & Nap Lajorie elected to Baseball Hall of Fame.
• 1939 – Ernest Hausen of Wisconsin sets chicken-plucking record 4.4 seconds.
• 1941 – World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
• 1942 – World War II: Japanese forces invade Burma.
• 1945 – World War II: Soviet forces liberate the ghetto of Lódz. Out of 230,000 inhabitants in 1940, less than 900 had survived Nazi occupation.
• 1946 – General Douglas MacArthur establishes the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Tokyo to try Japanese war criminals.
• 1949 – Cuba recognizes Israel.
• 1952 – PGA approves allowing black participants.
• 1953 – Jesse Owens named Illinois Athletic Commission secretary.
• 1953 – 68% of all television sets in the United States are tuned in to I Love Lucy to watch Lucy give birth.
• 1955 – “The Millionaire” TV program premiers on CBS.
• 1955 – First Presidential news conference filmed for TV (Eisenhower).
• 1961 – First episode for “The Dick Van Dyke Show” is filmed.
• 1966 – Indira Gandhi is elected Prime Minister of India.
• 1969 – Student Jan Palach dies after setting himself on fire 3 days earlier in Prague’s Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet Union in 1968. His funeral turned into another major protest.
• 1971 – The revival of No, No, Nanette premieres at the 46th Street Theatre, in New York City.
• 1972 – Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, & Early Wynn elected to Hall of Fame.
• 1974 – Notre Dame beats UCLA, ends NCAA-record 88-game basketball win streak.
• 1975 – Triple J begins broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.
• 1977 – President Gerald Ford pardons Iva Toguri D’Aquino (a.k.a. “Tokyo Rose”).
• 1977 – Snow falls in Miami, Florida. This is the only time in the history of the city that snowfall has occurred. It also fell in the Bahamas.
• 1978 – The last Volkswagen Beetle made in Germany leaves VW’s plant in Emden.  Beetle production in Latin America would continue until 2003.
• 1981 – Iran Hostage Crisis: United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity.
• 1983 – Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia.
• 1983 – The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced.
• 1991 – The Party of the Alliance of Youth, Workers and Farmers of Angola is founded in Luanda, Angola.
• 1992 – Decree time is restored in Russia after its previous abolition in March 1991.
• 1997 – Yasser Arafat returns to Hebron after more than 30 years and joins celebrations over the handover of the last Israeli-controlled West Bank city.
• 2006 – Terrorist blows himself up in Tel Aviv, killing only himself but injuring 20 people, one of them seriously.
• 2006 – A Slovak Air Force Antonov An-24 crashes in Hungary.
• 2006 – The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto.
• 2006 – Jet Airways announces its purchase of Air Sahara, creating the largest domestic airline in India.

January 19 – Birthdays:

• 399 – Pulcheria, Byzantine empress (d. 453)
• 1544 – King Francis II of France (d. 1560)
• 1736 – James Watt, Scottish inventor (d. 1819)
• 1739 – Joseph Bonomi the Elder, Italian architect (d. 1808)
• 1757 – Augusta Reuss-Ebersdorf, German Princess (d. 1831)
• 1807 – Robert E. Lee, American Confederate general (d. 1870)
• 1808 – Lysander Spooner, American philosopher (d. 1887)
• 1809 – Edgar Allan Poe, American writer and poet (d. 1849)
• 1813 – Sir Henry Bessemer, English inventor (d. 1898)
• 1832 – Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist (d. 1875)
• 1833 – Alfred Clebsch, German mathematician (d. 1872)
• 1839 – Paul Cézanne, French painter (d. 1906)
• 1848 – John F. Stairs, Canadian businessman (d. 1904)
• 1851 – Jacobus Kapteyn, Dutch astronomer (d. 1922)
• 1863 – Werner Sombart, German sociologist (d. 1941)
• 1878 – Herbert Chapman, English football player and manager (d. 1934)
• 1879 – Boris Savinkov, Russian writer (d. 1925)
• 1887 – Alexander Woollcott, American intellectual (d. 1943)
• 1892 – Ólafur Thors, Icelandic politician (d. 1964)
• 1905 – Stanley Hawes, British-born Australian film producer, director and administrator (d. 1991)
• 1908 – Aleksandr Gennadievich Kurosh, Russian mathematician (d. 1971)
• 1909 – Hans Hotter, German bass-baritone (d. 2003)
• 1912 – Leonid Kantorovich, Russian economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1986)
• 1913 – Rex Ingamells, Australian poet (d. 1955)
• 1913 – “Minnesota Fats”, American billiards player (d. 1996)
• 1914 – Bob Gerard, British racing driver (d. 1990)
• 1917 – John Raitt, American singer and actor (d. 2005)
• 1918 – John H. Johnson, American publisher (d. 2005)
• 1920 – Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Peruvian United Nations Secretary General
• 1921 – “Billy Batts” Devino, American gangster (d. 1970)
• 1921 – Patricia Highsmith, American author (d. 1995)
• 1922 – Guy Madison, American actor (d. 1996)
• 1923 – Markus Wolf, German spy (d. 2006)
• 1923 – Jean Stapleton, American actress
• 1924 – Nicholas Colasanto, American actor (d. 1985)
• 1924 – Jean-François Revel, French author (d. 2006)
• 1926 – Fritz Weaver, American actor
• 1930 – Tippi Hedren, American actress
• 1931 – Robert MacNeil, Canadian journalist
• 1932 – Richard Lester, British director
• 1936 – Ziaur Rahman, President of Bangladesh (d. 1981)
• 1939 – Phil Everly, American musician
• 1940 – Paolo Borsellino, Italian magistrate (d. 1992)
• 1940 – Mike Reid, English comedian (d. 2007)
• 1941 – Tony Anholt, British actor (d. 2002)
• 1941 – Colin Gunton, British theologian (d. 2003)
• 1942 – Michael Crawford, British singer and actor
• 1943 – Janis Joplin, American singer (d. 1970)
• 1943 – Petchara Chaowarat, Thai film actress
• 1943 – Larry Clark, American film director
• 1943 – Princess Margriet of the Netherlands
• 1944 – Shelley Fabares, American actress
• 1944 – Laurie London, English singer
• 1944 – Peter Lynch, American investor
• 1944 – Dan Reeves, American football coach
• 1946 – Julian Barnes, English author
• 1946 – Dolly Parton, American singer and actress
• 1947 – Ann Compton, American news reporter
• 1947 – Paula Deen, American chef and restaurateur
• 1947 – Rod Evans, British musician (Deep Purple)
• 1948 – Frank McKenna, Canadian politician
• 1949 – Robert Palmer, English singer and guitarist (d. 2003)
• 1949 – Dennis Taylor, Northern Irish snooker player
• 1950 – Sébastien Dhavernas, Quebec actor
• 1950 – Grant Nordman, Canadian politician
• 1951 – Dewey Bunnell, American singer and songwriter (America)
• 1953 – Desi Arnaz, Jr., American actor
• 1953 – Linda Hayden, English actress
• 1953 – Richard Legendre, Canadian politician
• 1954 – Ted DiBiase, American professional wrestler
• 1954 – Katey Sagal, American actress
• 1954 – Cindy Sherman, American artist
• 1954 – Katharina Thalbach, German actress and film director
• 1955 – Simon Rattle, English conductor
• 1955 – Paul Rodriguez, Mexican-born actor and comedian
• 1956 – Carman Licciardello, American Christian singer
• 1957 – Kenneth McClintock, Puerto Rican politician
• 1962 – Hans Daams, Dutch cyclist
• 1963 – Michael Adams, American basketball player
• 1963 – Martin Bashir, Pakistani-born reporter
• 1963 – Caron Wheeler, British singer (Soul II Soul)
• 1964 – Janine Antoni, Bahamian artist
• 1964 – Ricardo Arjona, Guatemalan singer
• 1966 – Floris Jan Bovelander, Dutch field hockey player
• 1966 – Sylvain Côté, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1966 – Stefan Edberg, Swedish tennis player
• 1966 – Lena Philipsson, Swedish singer
• 1967 – Javier Cámara, Spanish actor
• 1969 – Edwidge Danticat, Haitian-born American author
• 1969 – Predrag Mijatovic, Yugoslavian footballer
• 1969 – Junior Seau, American football player
• 1969 – Steve Staunton, Irish footballer
• 1969 – Luc Longley, Australian basketball player
• 1970 – Udo Suzuki, Japanese comedian
• 1971 – Shawn Wayans, American actor and producer
• 1971 – John Wozniak, American singer and songwriter (Marcy Playground)
• 1972 – Joana Benedek, Mexican actress
• 1972 – Elena Kaliská, Slovak slalom canoer
• 1972 – Ron Killings, American professional wrestler
• 1972 – Princess Kalina of Bulgaria, titular Bulgarian royal family
• 1972 – Troy Wilson, Australian racing driver and AFL player
• 1973 – Drea de Matteo, American actress
• 1973 – Antero Manninen, Finnish Cellist
• 1974 – Frank Caliendo, American comedian
• 1974 – Ian Laperrière, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1974 – Jaime Moreno, Bolivian footballer
• 1976 – Tarso Marques, Brazilian racing driver
• 1977 – Lauren Etame Mayer, Cameroonian footballer
• 1977 – Nicole, Chilean singer
• 1977 – Cocco, Ryukyuan singer
• 1979 – Svetlana Khorkina, Russian gymnast
• 1979 – Josu Sarriegi, Spanish/Basque footballer
• 1979 – Wiley, English Rapper (Grime)
• 1980 – Jenson Button, English Formula One driver
• 1981 – Asier Del Horno, Spanish footballer
• 1981 – Lucho González, Argentine footballer
• 1982 – Angela Chang, Taiwanese singer and actress
• 1982 – Mike Komisarek, American ice hockey player
• 1982 – Jodie Sweetin, American child actress
• 1983 – Utada Hikaru, American-born Japanese singer and songwriter
• 1984 – Karun Chandhok, Indian racing driver
• 1984 – Thomas Vanek, Austrian ice hockey player
• 1985 – Benny Feilhaber, American soccer player
• 1985 – Esteban Guerrieri, Argentine racing driver
• 1985 – Rika Ishikawa, Japanese singer (Morning Musume)
• 1987 – Edgar Manucharyan, Armenian footballer
• 1991 – Erin Sanders, American child actress

January 19 – Deaths:

• 639 – Dagobert I, King of the Franks (c. 603)
• 1526 – Isabella of Burgundy, wife of Christian II of Denmark (b. 1501)
• 1547 – Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, English poet (b. 1517)
• 1576 – Hans Sachs, German Meistersinger (b. 1494)
• 1661 – Thomas Venner, Fifth Monarchist (executed) (b. 1799)
• 1729 – William Congreve, English playwright (b. 1670)
• 1757 – Thomas Ruddiman, Scottish classical scholar (b. 1674)
• 1766 – Giovanni Niccolo Servandoni, Italian-born French architect and painter (b. 1695)
• 1785 – Jonathan Toup, English classical scholar and critic (b. 1713)
• 1833 – Louis Joseph Ferdinand Herold, French composer (b. 1791)
• 1847 – Charles Bent, New Mexico pioneer (assassinated)
• 1851 – Esteban Echeverría, Argentine writer (b. 1805)
• 1865 – Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French philosopher and anarchist (b. 1809)
• 1869 – Carl Reichenbach, German chemist and philosopher (b. 1788)
• 1874 – August Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben, German poet (b. 1798)
• 1878 – Henri Victor Regnault French physicist and chemist (b. 1810)
• 1905 – Debendranath Tagore, Indian philosopher (b. 1817)
• 1927 – Empress Carlotta of Mexico (b. 1840)
• 1929 – Liang Qichao, Chinese scholar (b. 1873)
• 1939 – Cliff Heathcote, American baseball player (b. 1898)
• 1948 – Tony Garnier, French architect (b. 1869)
• 1954 – Theodor Kaluza, German scientist (b. 1885)
• 1957 – József Dudás, Romanian/Hungarian resistance fighter (b. 1912)
• 1964 – Firmin Lambot, Belgian cyclist (b. 1886)
• 1968 – Ray Harroun, American race car driver (b. 1879)
• 1969 – Jan Palach, Czech student and political activist (suicide) (b. 1948)
• 1971 – Harry Shields, American musician (b. 1899)
• 1972 – Michael Rabin, American violinist (b. 1936)
• 1973 – Max Adrian, Northern Irish actor (b. 1903)
• 1975 – Thomas Hart Benton, American painter (b. 1889)
• 1980 – William O. Douglas, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1898)
• 1982 – Elis Regina, Brazilian singer (b. 1945)
• 1984 – Max Bentley, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1920)
• 1990 – Rajneesh, Indian religious leader (b. 1931)
• 1990 – Semprini, English musician (b. 1908)
• 1990 – Herbert Wehner, German politician (b. 1906)
• 1991 – John Russell, American actor (b. 1921)
• 1991 – Marcel Chaput, Quebec politician (b. 1918)
• 1995 – Gene MacLellan, Canadian composer and singer (b. 1938)
• 1996 – Don Simpson, American film producer (b. 1943)
• 1997 – James Dickey, American writer (b. 1923)
• 1997 – Adriana Caselotti, American actress (b 1916)
• 1998 – Carl Perkins, American guitarist (b. 1932)
• 1999 – Ivan Francescato, Italian rugby union footballer (b. 1967)
• 2000 – Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy (b. 1934)
• 2000 – Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born actress (b. 1913)
• 2001 – Dario Vittori, Argentinean actor (b. 1921)
• 2003 – Françoise Giroud, French writer and journalist (b. 1916)
• 2004 – Harry E. Claiborne, American judge (suicide) (b. 1917)
• 2004 – David Hookes, Australian cricketer and coach (b. 1955)
• 2005 – Bill Andersen, New Zealand communist and trade union leader (b. 1924)
• 2005 – K. Sello Duiker, South African novelist (b. 1974)
• 2006 – Anthony Franciosa, American actor (b. 1928)
• 2006 – Wilson Pickett, American singer (b. 1941)
• 2006 – Aoun Al-Sharif Qasim, Sudanese writer and Islamic scholar (b. 1933)
• 2006 – Geoff Rabone, New Zealand cricket player (b. 1921)
• 2007 – Scott “Bam Bam” Bigelow, American professional wrestler (b. 1961)
• 2007 – Hrant Dink, Turkish-Armenian newspaper editor (b. 1954)
• 2007 – Denny Doherty, Canadian singer (The Mamas and the Papas) (b. 1940)
• 2007 – Murat Nasyrov, Russian singer and composer (b. 1969)
• 2008 – Suzanne Pleshette, American actress (b. 1937)
• 2008 – John Stewart, American musician (The Kingston Trio) (b. 1939)
• 2008 – Don Wittman, Canadian sportscaster for CBC (b. 1936)

January 19 – Holidays:

• Confederate Heroes Day in Texas.
• The Poe Toaster commemorates the birthday of Edgar Allan Poe at his grave in Baltimore.
• Religious feasts:
  • Maris, Martha, Abachum and Audifax
  • Canute IV of Denmark
  • Henry of Uppsala
  • Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester
  • Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy — Julian Calendar Theophany (Epiphany).
  • St. Mark of Ephesus feast day.

• 350 – Generallus Magnentius deposes Roman Emperor Constans and proclaims himself Emperor.
• 474 – Leo II briefly becomes Byzantine emperor.
• 532 – Nika riots in Constantinople fail.
• 1126 – Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong.
• 1486 – King Henry VII of England marries Elizabeth of York, daughter of Edward IV.
• 1520 – King Christian II of Denmark and Norway defeats the Swedes at Lake Åsunden.
• 1535 – Spanish conquistador Francisco Pizarro founded Lima, the capital of Peru.
• 1562 – Pope Pius IV reopens the Council of Trent for its third and final session.
• 1670 – Henry Morgan captures Panama.
• 1701 – Frederick I becomes King of Prussia.
• 1777 – Representatives of the New Hampshire Grants declare the independence of the Vermont Republic from Britain.
• 1777 – San Jose, CA founded.
• 1778 – James Cook is the first known European to discover the Hawaiian Islands, which he names the “Sandwich Islands.”
• 1788 – The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay.
• 1861 – American Civil War – Georgia joins South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi, and Alabama in seceding from the United States.
• 1871 – Wilhelm I of Germany is proclaimed the first German Emperor in the ‘Hall of Mirrors’ of the Palace of Versailles towards the end of the Franco-Prussian War. The empire was known as The Second Reich to the Germans.
• 1884 – Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, Jesus Christ Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom.
• 1886 – Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England.
• 1896 – The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time.
• 1903 – President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States.
• 1911 – Eugene B. Ely lands on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania stationed in San Francisco harbor, marking the first time an aircraft landed on a ship.
• 1912 – British explorer Robert Falcon Scott arrives at the South Pole only to find that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded them by just over a month.
• 1913 – A Greek flotilla defeats the Ottoman Navy in the Naval Battle of Lemnos during the First Balkan War, securing the islands of the Northern Aegean Sea for Greece.
• 1915 – Japan issues the “Twenty-One Demands” to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia.
• 1916 – A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite stikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri.
• 1919 – World War I: The Paris Peace Conference opens in Versailles, France.
• 1919 – Ignacy Jan Paderewski becomes Prime Minister of the newly independent Poland.
• 1919 – Bentley Motors Limited is founded.
• 1943 – Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: The first uprising of Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.
• 1944 – The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden.
• 1944 – Soviet forces liberate Leningrad, effectively ending a three year Nazi siege, known as the Siege of Leningrad.
• 1945 – Liberation of the Budapest ghetto by the Red Army.
• 1955 – Battle of Yijiangshan occurred.
• 1958 – Willie O’Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut.
• 1967 – Albert DeSalvo, the “Boston Strangler,” is convicted of numerous crimes and is sentenced to life in prison.
• 1967 – Yellowknife replaces Ottawa as capital of NW Territories, Canada.
• 1969 – United Airlines Flight 266 crashes into Santa Monica Bay resulting in the loss of all 32 passengers and six crew members.
• 1974 – A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War.
• 1974 – “The $6 Million Man” starring Lee Majors premiers on ABC TV.
• 1975 – “The Jeffersons,” spin-off from “All in the Family,” premiers on CBS.
• 1976 – Pittsburgh Steelers defeat Dallas Cowboys 21-17 in Super Bowl X.
• 1977 – Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires’ disease.
• 1977 – Australia’s worst rail disaster occurs at Granville, Sydney killing 83.
• 1978 – The European Court of Human Rights finds the United Kingdom government guilty of mistreating prisoners in Northern Ireland, but not guilty of torture.
• 1979 – Peter Jenkins finishes “A Walk Across America”, Florence, OR.
• 1980 – Gold reaches $1,000 an ounce.
• 1980 – Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” hits #1.
• 1981 – Iran accepts US offer of $7.9 billion in frozen assets.
• 1983 – The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe’s Olympic medals to his family.
• 1986 – An Aerovias aircraft crashes into San Benito Peten jungle in Guatemala (close to the Mayan Ruins of Tikal) resulting in the loss of all 110 passengers, mainly tourists from all over the world, including the Venezuelan politician Aristides Calvani and members of his family.
• 1989 – Otis Redding, Dion, Rolling Stones, Temptations & Stevie Wonder inducted into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
• 1990 – Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession in an FBI sting.
• 1991 – Eastern Air Lines goes out of business after 62 years, citing financial problems.
• 1993 – For the first time, Martin Luther King Day is officially observed in all 50 states.
• 1994 – The Cando event, a possible bolide impact in Cando, Spain. Witnesses claim to have seen a fireball in the sky lasting for almost one minute.
• 1995 – Cave paintings and engravings over 17,000 years old are discovered in southern France near Vallon-Pont-d’Arc.
• 1997 – In north west Rwanda, Hutu militia members kill 3 Spanish aid workers, 3 soldiers and seriously wound one other.
• 1997 – Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided.
• 1998 – Lewinsky scandal: Matt Drudge breaks the Bill Clinton-Monica Lewinsky affair story on his website The Drudge Report.
• 2000 – The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth.
• 2002 – Sierra Leone Civil War was finally declared over.
• 2003 – A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
• 2005 – A United Nations World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan begins.
• 2007 – The strongest storm in the United Kingdom in 17 years kills 14 people, Germany sees the worst storm since 1999 with 13 deaths. Hurricane Kyrill, causes at least 44 deaths across 20  countries in Western Europe. Other losses include the Container Ship MSC Napoli destroyed by the storm off the coast of Devon, England.

January 18 – Birthdays:

• 885 – Daigo, Emperor of Japan (d. 930)
• 1519 – Isabella Jagiello, queen of Hungary (d. 1559)
• 1543 – (baptised) Alfonso Ferrabosco (I), Italian composer (d. 1588)
• 1641 – François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois, French war minister (d. 1691)
• 1672 – Antoine Houdar de la Motte, French writer (d. 1731)
• 1688 – Lionel Sackville, 1st Duke of Dorset, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (d. 1765)
• 1689 – Montesquieu, French writer (d. 1755)
• 1779 – Peter Roget, British lexicographer (d. 1869)
• 1782 – Daniel Webster, American statesman (d. 1852)
• 1795 – Anna Pavlovna of Russia, queen of The Netherlands (d. 1865)
• 1813 – Joseph Glidden, American farmer who patented barbed wire (d. 1906)
• 1815 – Constantin von Tischendorf, German biblical scholar (d. 1874)
• 1840 – Henry Austin Dobson, English poet (d. 1921)
• 1841 – Emmanuel Chabrier, French composer (d. 1894)
• 1842 – Albert Alonzo Ames, Mayor of Minneapolis (d. 1911)
• 1848 – Ioan Slavici, Transylvanian writer (d. 1925)
• 1849 – Edmund Barton, 1st Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1920)
• 1850 – Seth Low, American politician (d. 1916)
• 1854 – Thomas Watson, American telephone pioneer (d. 1934)
• 1856 – Daniel Hale Williams, African-American surgeon (d. 1931)
• 1867 – Rubén Darío, Nicaraguan Journalist, Diplomat, Poet (d. 1916)
• 1877 – Samuel Zemurray, U.S. businessman (d.1961)
• 1879 – Henri Giraud, French general (d. 1949)
• 1881 – Gaston Gallimard, French publisher (d. 1975)
• 1882 – A. A. Milne, English author (d. 1956)
• 1886 – Clara Nordström, German writer and translator (d. 1962)
• 1888 – Thomas Sopwith, British aviation pioneer (d. 1989)
• 1892 – Oliver Hardy, American comedian and actor (d. 1957)
• 1892 – Paul Rostock, German surgeon (d. 1956)
• 1901 – Ivan Petrovsky, Russian mathematician (d. 1973)
• 1904 – Cary Grant, English actor (d. 1986)
• 1904 – Anthony Galla-Rini, American accordionist (d. 2006)
• 1905 – Joseph Bonanno, Italian-born gangster (d. 2002)
• 1908 – Jacob Bronowski, Polish-born mathematician, poet, and physicist (d. 1974)
• 1908 – Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (d. 1972)
• 1910 – Kenneth E. Boulding, English economist (d. 1983)
• 1913 – Danny Kaye, American actor (d. 1987)
• 1914 – Arno Schmidt, German author (d. 1979)
• 1915 – Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and songwriter (d. 1984)
• 1917 – Wang Yung-ching, Taiwanese businessman
• 1918 – Gustave Gingras, French Canadian physician (d. 1996)
• 1922 – Bob Bell, American clown (d. 1997)
• 1925 – Gilles Deleuze, French philosopher (d. 1995)
• 1927 – Sundaram Balachander, Indian veena player (d. 1990)
• 1931 – Chun Doo-hwan, President of South Korea
• 1932 – Robert Anton Wilson, American author (d. 2007)
• 1933 – John Boorman, Irish film director
• 1933 – Ray Dolby, American inventor (Dolby noise reduction system)
• 1934 – Raymond Briggs, English writer and illustrator
• 1935 – Albert Millaire, Quebec actor and theatre director
• 1935 – Jon Stallworthy, English poet
• 1935 – Gad Yaacobi, Israeli minister (d. 2007)
• 1937 – John Hume, Northern Irish politician, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1998
• 1938 – Curt Flood, American baseball player (d. 1997)
• 1940 – Pedro Rodriguez, Mexican racing driver (d. 1971)
• 1941 – Denise Bombardier, Quebec journalist, television host and novelist
• 1941 – Bobby Goldsboro, American country/pop singer
• 1941 – David Ruffin, American singer (The Temptations) (d. 1991)
• 1943 – Kay Granger, American politician
• 1944 – Paul Keating, twenty-fourth Prime Minister of Australia
• 1944 – Carl Morton, American baseball player (d. 1983)
• 1945 – José Luis Perales, Spanish singer
• 1946 – Joseph Deiss, Swiss Federal Councilor
• 1947 – Takeshi Kitano, Japanese actor and director
• 1949 – Philippe Starck, French designer
• 1949 – Bill Keller, American newspaper editor
• 1950 – Gilles Villeneuve, Canadian race car driver (d. 1982)
• 1951 – Bob Latchford, English footballer
• 1951 – Bram Behr, Surinamese journalist (d. 1982)
• 1952 – R. Stevie Moore, American singer, songwriter, and home recording pioneer
• 1953 – Brett Hudson, American actor
• 1955 – Kevin Costner, American actor
• 1955 – Fergus Martin, Irish artist
• 1956 – Sharon Mitchell, American porn actress
• 1956 – Tom Bailey, English singer (Thompson Twins)
• 1961 – Mark Messier, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1961 – Jeff Yagher, American actor
• 1962 – Alison Arngrim, American actress
• 1963 – Maxime Bernier, French Canadian politician
• 1963 – Martin O’Malley, Governor of Maryland
• 1963 – Yury Zakharevich, Soviet Olympic Weightlifter
• 1964 – Jane Horrocks, British actress
• 1964 – Enrico Lo Verso, Italian actor
• 1965 – Dave Attell, American writer and comedian
• 1966 – Alexander Khalifman, Russian chess player
• 1966 – André Ribeiro, Brazilian racing driver
• 1967 – Kim Perrot, American basketball player (d. 1999)
• 1967 – Iván Zamorano, Chilean footballer
• 1968 – Frank Quitely, Scottish comic book artist
• 1969 – Jesse L. Martin, American actor and singer
• 1969 – Batista, American professional wrestler
• 1969 – Jim O’Rourke, American musician and producer (Loose Fur and Wilco)
• 1970 – DJ Quik, American rapper
• 1970 – Peter van Petegem, Belgian cyclist
• 1971 – Jonathan Davis, American singer (Ko?n)
• 1971 – Christian Fittipaldi, Brazilian race car driver
• 1971 – Josep Guardiola, Spanish footballer
• 1971 – Seamus O’Regan, Canadian broadcast journalist
• 1972 – Mike Lieberthal, American baseball player
• 1973 – Anthony Koutoufides, Australian rules footballer
• 1973 – Crispian Mills, British musician (The Jeevas and Kula Shaker)
• 1974 – Michael Tunn, Australian television and radio
• 1974 – Christian Burns, English musician (BBMak)
• 1974 – Devon Odessa, American actress
• 1974 – Maulik Pancholy, American actor
• 1974 – Princess Claire of Belgium
• 1976 – Damien Leith, Australian Idol 2006
• 1977 – Curtis Cregan, American actor
• 1977 – Alina Jidkova, Russian tennis player
• 1978 – Brian Falkenborg, American baseball player
• 1979 – Jay Chou, Taiwanese singer and producer
• 1979 – Paulo Ferreira, Portuguese footballer
• 1979 – Brian Gionta, American ice hockey player
• 1979 – Kenyatta Jones, former National Football League player
• 1980 – Robert Green, English footballer
• 1980 – Julius Peppers, National Football League defensive end
• 1981 – Kang Dong-won, South Korean model and actor
• 1981 – Khari Stephenson, Jamaican footballer
• 1982 – Joanna Newsom, American harpist/singer-songwriter
• 1983 – Samantha Mumba, Irish singer and actress
• 1984 – Benji Schwimmer, American dancer
• 1984 – Michael Kearney, American child prodigy
• 1984 – Maarja Kivi, Estonian singer
• 1985 – Dale Begg-Smith, Australian freestyle skier
• 1985 – Riccardo Montolivo, Italian soccer player
• 1988 – Ronald Guglielmone Jr., American singer-songwriter
• 1993 – Morgan York, American Actress

January 18 – Deaths:

• 52 BC – Publius Clodius Pulcher (murdered)
• 474 – Leo I, Byzantine Emperor (b. 401)
• 1367 – King Peter I of Portugal (b. 1320)
• 1425 – Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March, English politician (b. 1391)
• 1471 – Emperor Go-Hanazono of Japan (b. 1419)
• 1586 – Margaret of Austria, regent of The Netherlands (b. 1522)
• 1664 – Moses Amyraut, French theologian (b. 1596)
• 1677 – Jan van Riebeeck, Dutch merchant (b. 1619)
• 1803 – Ippolit Bogdanovich, Russian poet (b. 1743)
• 1862 – John Tyler, 10th President of the United States (b. 1790)
• 1873 – Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, English author (b. 1803)
• 1878 – Antoine César Becquerel, French physicist (b. 1788)
• 1892 – Anton Anderledy, Swiss Superior General of the Society of Jesus (b. 1819)
• 1896 – Charles Floquet, French statesman (b. 1828)
• 1923 – Wallace Reid, Actor (b. 1891)
• 1936 – Rudyard Kipling, British writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1865)
• 1940 – Kazimierz Tetmajer, Polish writer (b. 1865)
• 1952 – Curly Howard, American actor and comedian (b. 1903)
• 1954 – Sydney Greenstreet, English actor (b. 1879)
• 1963 – Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the British Labour Party (b. 1906)
• 1966 – Kathleen Norris, American writer (b. 1880)
• 1967 – Goose Tatum, American basketball player (b. 1921)
• 1969 – Hans Freyer, German sociologist (b. 1887)
• 1970 – David O. McKay, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1873)
• 1978 – Hasan Askari, Pakistani philosopher, critic and writer (b. 1919)
• 1978 – Carl Betz, American film and television actor (b. 1921)
• 1980 – Sir Cecil Beaton, English fashion designer (b. 1904)
• 1984 – Vassilis Tsitsanis, Greek singer and songwriter (b. 1915)
• 1985 – Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor (b. 1912)
• 1989 – Bruce Chatwin, English novelist (b. 1940)
• 1990 – Rusty Hamer, American actor (b. 1947)
• 1993 – Eleanor Hibbert, British author (b. 1906)
• 1995 – Adolf Butenandt, German chemist, Nobel laureate (b. 1903)
• 1995 – Ron Luciano, American baseball umpire (b. 1937)
• 1996 – Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao, Indian actor (b. 1923)
• 1997 – Paul Tsongas, U.S. Senator from Massachusetts (b. 1941)
• 2000 – Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (b. 1897)
• 2001 – Al Waxman, Canadian actor (b. 1935)
• 2003 – Edward “The Sheik” Farhat, American professional wrestler (b. 1924)
• 2005 – Lamont Bentley, American actor (b. 1973)
• 2006 – Jan Twardowski, Polish poet (b. 1915)
• 2007 – Brent Liles, American musician (Agent Orange/Social Distortion) (b. 1963)
• 2008 – Georgia Frontiere, American football team owner (b. 1927)
• 2008 – Frank Lewin, American composer and music theorist (b. 1925)
• 2008 – John Stroger, first African-American Cook County Board President (b. 1929)

January 18 – Holidays:

• Paryaya festival at Udupi held every alternate year — 2006, 2008, 2010 etc.
• Religious observances:
  • Saint Margaret of Hungary
  • The Feast of the Confession of Peter observed in Eastern Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran churches.
  • Feast day of Saint Athanasius (Eastern Orthodox)
  • Feast day of Saint Cyril of Alexandria
  • Feast day of Saint Volusianus

• 38 BC – Octavian marries Livia Drusilla.
• 1287 – King Alfonso III of Aragon invades Minorca.
• 1377 – Pope Gregory XI moves the Papacy back to Rome from Avignon.
• 1524 – Beginning of Giovanni da Verrazzano’s voyage to find a passage to China.
• 1562 – France recognizes the Huguenots under the Edict of Saint-Germain.
• 1595 – Henry IV of France declares war on Spain.
• 1605 – First publication of Don Quixote.
• 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.
• 1799 – Maltese patriot Dun Mikiel Xerri, along with a number of other patriots were executed.
• 1852 – The United Kingdom recognizes the independence of the Boer colonies of the Transvaal.
• 1861 – Flush toilet patented by Thomas Crapper.
• 1873 – First Battle of the Stronghold in the United States Modoc War.
• 1885 – A British force defeats a large Dervish army at the Battle of Abu Klea in the Sudan.
• 1893 – The Citizen’s Committee of Public Safety, led by Lorrin A. Thurston overthrows the government of Queen Liliuokalani of the Kingdom of Hawaii.
• 1899 – The United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean.
• 1904 – Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard receives its premiere performance at the Moscow Art Theatre.
• 1912 – Sir Robert Falcon Scott (Scott of the Antarctic) reaches the South Pole, one month after Roald Amundsen.
• 1913 – Raymond Poincaré is elected President of France.
• 1916 – Professional Golfer Association (PGA) formed in New York.
• 1917 – The United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands.
• 1929 – Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
• 1941 – Kuomintang forces under orders from Chiang Kai-Shek open fire at communist forces, resuming the Chinese Civil War after World War II.
• 1945 – 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.
• 1945 – Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody.
• 1946 – The UN Security Council holds its first session.
• 1949 – The Goldbergs, the first sitcom on American television, first airs.
• 1950 – The Great Brinks Robbery – 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car Company’s offices in Boston, Massachusetts.
• 1954 – Jacques Cousteau’s first network telecast airs on “Omnibus” (CBS).
• 1955 – Submarine Nautilus begins first nuclear-powered test voyage
• 1961 – 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.”
• 1971 – Super Bowl V: Baltimore Colts-16, Dallas Cowboys-13.
• 1973 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes “President for Life” of the Philippines.
• 1977 – Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States.
• 1982 – “Cold Sunday” in the United States would see temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities.
• 1984 – Supreme Court rules (5-4) private use of home VCRs to tape TV programs for later viewing does not violate federal copyright laws.
• 1985 – British Telecom announces the retirement of the United Kingdom’s red telephone boxes.
• 1987 – BBC Breakfast Time launched at 6:30am on BBC One. BBC Radio Devon and BBC Radio Cornwall launched on the same day.
• 1989 – Stockton massacre: Patrick Purdy opens fire with an assault rifle at the Cleveland Elementary School playground, killing five children and wounding 29 others and one teacher before taking his own life.
• 1991 – Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation.
• 1991 – Harald V becomes King of Norway on the death of his father, Olav V.
• 1994 – 1994 Northridge Earthquake: A magnitude 6.7 earthquake hits Northridge, California.
• 1995 – The Great Hanshin earthquake: A magnitude 7.3 earthquake hits near Kobe, Japan, causing extensive property damage and killing 6,434 people.
• 1996 – The Czech Republic applies for membership of the European Union.
• 1997 – A Delta 2 carrying a GPS2R satellite explodes 13 seconds after launch, dropping 250 tons of burning rocket remains around the launch pad.
• 1998 – Paula Jones accuses President Bill Clinton of sexual harassment.
• 2001 – President Bill Clinton posthumously raises Captain Meriwether Lewis’ rank from Lieutenant to Captain.
• 2002 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, displacing an estimated 400,000 people.
• 2007 – The Doomsday Clock is set to five minutes to midnight in response to North Korea nuclear testing.

January 17 – Birthdays:

• 1463 – Friedrich III, Elector of Saxony (d. 1525)
• 1484 – George Spalatin, German reformer (d. 1545)
• 1501 – Leonhart Fuchs, German physician and botanist (d. 1566)
• 1504 – Pope Pius V (d. 1572)
• 1560 – Gaspard Bauhin, Swiss botanist (d. 1624)
• 1600 – Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Spanish playwright (d. 1681)
• 1612 – Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Lord Fairfax of Cameron, English Civil War general (d. 1671)
• 1666 – Antonio Maria Valsalva, Italian anatomist (d. 1723)
• 1686 – Archibald Bower, Scottish historian (d. 1766)
• 1706 – Benjamin Franklin American statesman (d. 1790)
• 1712 – John Stanley, English composer (d. 1786)
• 1719 – William Vernon, American merchant (d. 1806)
• 1732 – Stanislaw II August Poniatowski, King and Grand Duke of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (d. 1798)
• 1734 – François-Joseph Gossec, Belgian composer (d. 1829)
• 1761 – James Hall, Scottish geologist (d. 1832)
• 1789 – August Neander, German theologian (d. 1850)
• 1814 – ‘Mrs Henry Wood’, English novelist (d. 1887)
• 1820 – Anne Brontë, British author (d. 1849)
• 1828 – Eduard Remenyi, Hungarian violinist (d. 1898)
• 1828 – Lewis A. Grant, American Civil War general (d. 1918)
• 1831 – Archduchess Elisabeth Franziska of Austria (d. 1903)
• 1832 – Henry Martyn Baird, American educationalist (d. 1906)
• 1834 – August Weismann, German biologist (d. 1914)
• 1850 – Aleksandr Taneyev, Russian composer (d. 1918)
• 1851 – A. B. Frost, American illustrator (d. 1928)
• 1853 – Alva Belmont, American socialite (d. 1933)
• 1857 – Eugene Augustin Lauste, French inventor (d. 1935)
• 1857 – Wilhelm Kienzl, Austrian composer (d. 1941)
• 1858 – Tomás Carrasquilla, Colombian writer (d. 1940)
• 1860 – Douglas Hyde, President of Ireland (d. 1949)
• 1863 – David Lloyd George, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (d. 1945)
• 1863 – Constantin Stanislavski, Russian theatre practitioner (d. 1938)
• 1865 – Gen Sir Charles Fergusson, Governor-General of New Zealand (d. 1951)
• 1867 – Carl Laemmle, German-born film executive (d. 1939)
• 1871 – David Earl Beatty British admiral (d. 1936)
• 1871 – Nicolae Iorga, Romanian writer (d. 1940)
• 1875 – Florencio Sánchez, Uruguayan dramatist (d. 1910)
• 1877 – May Gibbs, Australian children’s author (d. 1969)
• 1880 – Mack Sennett, Canadian film director (d. 1960)
• 1881 – Antoni Lomnicki, Polish mathematician (d. 1941)
• 1882 – Noah Beery, Sr., American actor (d. 1946)
• 1883 – Sir Compton Mackenzie, Scottish novelist (d. 1972)
• 1886 – Ronald Firbank, British novelist (d. 1926)
• 1886 – Glenn L. Martin, American aviation pioneer (d. 1955)
• 1897 – Marcel Petiot, French mass murderer (d. 1946)
• 1899 – Al Capone, American gangster (d. 1947)
• 1899 – Nevil Shute, English author (d. 1960)
• 1901 – Aron Gurwitsch, Lithuanian-born philosopher (d. 1973)
• 1903 – Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, Assamese poet, playwright, film maker (d. 1953)
• 1905 – Guillermo Stábile, Argentine footballer (d. 1966)
• 1905 – Peggy Gilbert, American jazz saxophonist and bandleader (d. 2007)
• 1905 – Ray Cunningham, American baseball player (d. 2005)
• 1907 – Henk Badings, Dutch composer (d. 1987)
• 1908 – Cus D’Amato, American boxing manager (d. 1985)
• 1911 – George Joseph Stigler, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
• 1914 – William Stafford, American poet and essayist (d. 1993)
• 1914 – Anacleto Angelini, Chilean businessman (d. 2007)
• 1914 – Irving Brecher, American Screenwriter
• 1917 – M. G. Ramachandran, Indian politician, actor (d. 1987)
• 1917 – Ramón Cardemil, Chilean huaso (d. 2007)
• 1918 – Keith Joseph, British politician (d. 1994)
• 1921 – Antonio Prohias, Cuban cartoonist (d. 1998)
• 1922 – Luis Echeverría Álvarez, President of Mexico
• 1922 – Nicholas Katzenbach, American politician
• 1922 – Betty White, American actress
• 1923 – Carol Raye, Australian actress
• 1925 – Robert Cormier, American author (d. 2000)
• 1925 – Abdul Kardar, Pakistani cricketer
• 1926 – Newton N. Minow, American lawyer and statesman
• 1926 – Moira Shearer, Scottish actress (d. 2006)
• 1927 – Dr Tom Dooley, American humanitarian (d. 1961)
• 1927 – Norman Kaye, Australian actor and musician (d. 2007)
• 1927 – Eartha Kitt, American actress and singer
• 1928 – Jean Barraqué, French composer (d. 1973)
• 1928 – Vidal Sassoon, English cosmetologist
• 1929 – Jacques Plante, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
• 1930 – Eddie LeBaron, American football player
• 1931 – James Earl Jones, American actor
• 1931 – L. Douglas Wilder, 66th Governor of Virginia
• 1931 – Don Zimmer, American baseball coach
• 1932 – Sheree North, American actress (d. 2005)
• 1933 – Dalida, French singer (d. 1987)
• 1933 – Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, French UN High Commissioner for Refugees (d. 2003)
• 1933 – Shari Lewis, American ventriloquist (d. 1998)
• 1935 – Ruth Ann Minner, Governor of Delaware
• 1939 – Maury Povich, American talk show host
• 1940 – Kipchoge Keino, Kenyan runner
• 1941 – Dame Gillian Weir, New Zealand organist
• 1942 – Muhammad Ali, American boxer
• 1942 – Ita Buttrose, Australian journalist and businesswoman
• 1942 – Ulf Hoelscher, German violinist
• 1942 – Nancy Parsons, American actress (d. 2001)
• 1943 – René Préval, President of Haiti
• 1943 – Geoffrey Deuel, American actor
• 1943 – Chris Montez, American singer
• 1944 – Françoise Hardy, French singer
• 1945 – Javed Akhtar, Indian lyricist, poet and scriptwriter
• 1946 – Michèle Deslauriers, Quebec actress
• 1948 – Davíð Oddsson, former Prime Minister of Iceland
• 1948 – Jim Ladd, American freeform (radio format) Disc Jockey
• 1948 – Anne Queffélec, French pianist
• 1949 – Mick Taylor, British musician (The Rolling Stones)
• 1949 – Andy Kaufman, American comedian (d. 1984)
• 1952 – Darrell Porter, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1952 – Larry Fortensky, seventh husband of Elizabeth Taylor
• 1952 – Ryuichi Sakamoto, Japanese musician
• 1954 – Susan Kiefel, Australian lawyer and judge
• 1954 – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., American lawyer and environmental activist
• 1955 – Steve Earle, American musician
• 1956 – Paul Young, English musician
• 1957 – Keith Chegwin, English television presenter
• 1957 – Steve Harvey, American actor, comedian and radio personality
• 1959 – Susanna Hoffs, American musician
• 1959 – Momoe Yamaguchi, Japanese singer and actress
• 1960 – John Crawford, American musician
• 1960 – Chili Davis, Jamaican-born American baseball player
• 1960 – Chatchai Plengpanich, Thai actor
• 1961 – Brian Helgeland, American writer and film director
• 1962 – Jim Carrey, Canadian actor and comedian
• 1962 – Sebastian Junger, American journalist and author
• 1963 – Kai Hansen, German singer and guitarist (Gamma Ray)
• 1964 – Andy Rourke, English bass guitarist (The Smiths)
• 1964 – Michelle Obama, wife of Barack Obama
• 1965 – Sylvain Turgeon, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1965 – Nikos Nioplias, Greek footballer
• 1966 – Stephin Merritt, American singer and songwriter (The Magnetic Fields, The 6ths, The Gothic Archies)
• 1966 – Joshua Malina, American actor
• 1966 – Shabba Ranks, Jamaican singer
• 1967 – Richard Hawley, English singer, guitarist and songwriter (Pulp, The Longpigs)
• 1967 – Filippo Raciti, Italian police officer (d. 2007)
• 1967 – Song Kang-ho, South Korean actor
• 1968 – Craig Strong, American actor & voice actor
• 1968 – Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, Dutch writer
• 1968 – Svetlana Masterkova, Russian athlete
• 1969 – Lukas Moodysson, Swedish film writer and director
• 1969 – Naveen Andrews, British actor
• 1969 – Tijs Verwest, (DJ Tiësto) Dutch DJ
• 1970 – Jeremy Roenick, American ice hockey player
• 1970 – Genndy Tartakovsky, Russian-born animator
• 1970 – James Wattana, Thai snooker player
• 1971 – Kid Rock, American singer
• 1971 – Richard Burns, English rally driver (d. 2005)
• 1971 – Leonardo Ciampa, Italian-American musician
• 1971 – Youki Kudoh, Japanese actress
• 1971 – Sylvie Testud, French actress
• 1971 – Ann Wolfe, female boxer
• 1972 – Ken Hirai, Japanese singer and songwriter
• 1972 – Benno Fürmann, German actor
• 1972 – Lil Jon, American rapper/producer
• 1973 – Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Mexican footballer
• 1973 – Liz Ellis, Australian netball captain
• 1973 – Aaron Ward, Canadian ice hockey player 1974 – Yang Chen, Chinese footballer
• 1974 – Derrick Mason, American football player
• 1974 – Vesko Kountchev, Bulgarian musician
• 1975 – Tom Jenkinson, English musician (Squarepusher)
• 1975 – Freddy Rodriguez, Puerto Rican-American actor
• 1975 – Rami Yacoub, Swedish songwriter/producer
• 1977 – Kevin Fertig, American professional wrestler
• 1977 – Leigh Whannell, Australian screenwriter/actor
• 1980 – Zooey Deschanel, American actress
• 1980 – Maksim Chmerkovskiy, Ukrainian ballroom dancer
• 1980 – Kimberly Spicer, American model
• 1980 – Gareth McLearnon, Northern Irish flautist
• 1981 – Warren Feeney, Northern Irish footballer
• 1981 – Scott Mechlowicz, American actor
• 1981 – Ray J, American R&B singer
• 1982 – Dwyane Wade, American basketball player
• 1982 – Amanda Wilkinson, Canadian singer
• 1982 – Alex Varkatzas, American Singer (Atreyu)
• 1983 – Alvaro Arbeloa, Spanish Footballer
• 1983 – Johannes Herber, German basketball player
• 1983 – Andrea Lowell, American Model
• 1983 – Rick Kelly, Australian racing driver
• 1985 – Simone Simons, Dutch singer (Epica)
• 1985 – Riyu Kosaka, Japanese singer BeForU
• 1985 – Kang-In, South Korean singer/dancer/actor/MC/DJ(Super Junior)
• 1994 – Ryan O’Grady, Eating Machine

January 17 – Deaths:

• 395 – Theodosius I, Roman Emperor
• 1229 – Albert of Buxhoeveden, German soldier
• 1369 – King Peter I of Cyprus (murdered) (b. 1328)
• 1468 – Skanderbeg, Albanian leader (b. 1405)
• 1598 – Fyodor I Tsar of Russia (b. 1557)
• 1617 – Faust Vrancic, Croatian inventor (b. 1551)
• 1654 – Paulus Potter, Dutch painter (b. 1625)
• 1705 – John Ray, English naturalist (b. 1627)
• 1718 – Captain Benjamin Church, Plymouth Colony settler and military leader
• 1737 – Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, German architect (b. 1662)
• 1738 – Jean-François Dandrieu, French composer (b. 1682)
• 1751 – Tomaso Albinoni, Italian composer (b. 1671)
• 1826 – Juan Crisóstomo Arriaga, Spanish composer (b. 1806)
• 1834 – Giovanni Aldini, Italian physicist (b. 1762)
• 1861 – Lola Montez, Irish-born adventurer (b. 1821)
• 1863 – Horace Vernet, French painter (b. 1789)
• 1869 – Aleksandr Dargomyzhsky, Russian composer (b. 1813)
• 1874 – Chang and Eng Bunker, Siamese twins (b. 1811)
• 1884 – Hermann Schlegel, German ornithologist (b. 1804)
• 1887 – William Giblin, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1840)
• 1891 – George Bancroft, U.S. historian (b. 1800)
• 1893 – Rutherford B. Hayes, 19th President of the United States (b. 1822)
• 1903 – Ignaz Wechselmann, Hungarian architect and philanthropist (b. 1828)
• 1908 – Ferdinand IV Grand Duke of Tuscany (b. 1835)
• 1909 – Sir Francis Smith, Premier of Tasmania (b. 1819
• 1911 – Sir Francis Galton, English polymath, anthropologist, eugenicist (b. 1822)
• 1927 – Juliette Gordon Low, American founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA (b. 1860)
• 1931 – Grand Duke Peter Nikolaevich of Russia, son of Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich (b. 1864)
• 1932 – Albert Jacka, VC, Australian soldier (b. 1893)
• 1933 – Louis Comfort Tiffany, American artist and designer (b. 1848)
• 1942 – Walther von Reichenau, German field marshal (b. 1884)
• 1947 – Pyotr Krasnov, Russian counter-revolutionary (b. 1869)
• 1947 – Jean-Marie-Rodrigue Villeneuve, French Archbishop of Quebec (b. 1883)
• 1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1925)
• 1964 – T.H. White, English author (b. 1906)
• 1967 – Evelyn Nesbit, American actress (b. 1884)
• 1970 – Simon Kovar, Russian-American bassoonist (b. 1890)
• 1970 – Billy Stewart, American singer (b. 1937)
• 1972 – Betty Smith, American writer and singer (b. 1896)
• 1977 – Gary Gilmore, American murderer (b. 1940)
• 1981 – Loukas Panourgias, Greek footballer (b. 1899)
• 1983 – Doodles Weaver, American actor (b. 1911)
• 1987 – Hugo Fregonese, Argentine film director (b. 1908)
• 1991 – King Olav V of Norway (b. 1903)
• 1993 – Albert Hourani, English historian (b. 1915)
• 1994 – Helen Stephens, American runner (b. 1918)
• 1994 – Yevgeny Ivanov, Soviet spy involved in the Profumo affair (b. 1926)
• 1996 – Amber Hagerman, American namesake of the Amber Alert system (b. 1986)
• 1996 – Barbara Jordan, American politician (b. 1936)
• 1996 – Mostafa Sid Ahmed, Sudanese singer (b. 1953)
• 1997 – Clyde Tombaugh, American astronomer (b. 1906)
• 1997 – Bert Kelly, Australian politician (b. 1912)
• 1998 – Junior Kimbrough, American bluesman (b. 1930)
• 2000 – Philip Jones, British trumpeter (b. 1928)
• 2001 – Gregory Corso, American poet (b. 1930)
• 2002 – Bishop Karas, First Coptic Bishop of St. Antony Monastery (b. 1955)
• 2002 – Camilo Jose Cela, Spanish writer, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1916)
• 2003 – Richard Crenna, American actor (b. 1926)
• 2003 – Balint Vazsonyi, Hingarian pianist (b. 1936)
• 2004 – Harry Brecheen, American baseball player (b. 1914)
• 2004 – Czeslaw Niemen, Polish musician (b. 1939)
• 2004 – Ray Stark, American stage and film producer (b. 1915)
• 2004 – Noble Willingham, American actor (b. 1931)
• 2005 – Charlie Bell, Australian fast food executive (b. 1960)
• 2005 – Virginia Mayo, American actress (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Albert Schatz, American microbiologist (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Zhao Ziyang, Premier of the People’s Republic of China (b. 1919)
• 2006 – Clarence Ray Allen, American murderer, death by lethal injection administered at San Quentin prison (b. 1930)
• 2006 – Pierre Grondin, French Canadian cardiac surgeon (b. 1925)
• 2007 – Art Buchwald, American humorist (b. 1925)
• 2007 – Yevhen Kushnaryov, Ukrainian politician (b. 1951)
• 2008 – Bobby Fischer, American chess player (b. 1943)
• 2008 – Ernie Holmes, American football player (b. 1948)
• 2008 – Allan Melvin, American actor (b. 1923)

January 17 – Holidays:

• Ancient Latvia – Zirgu Diena observed
• Religious observances:
  • Catholicism – Feast day of the following saints:
    • St. Anthony
    • Amelbert
    • Sulpitius the Pious
    • Eastern (Byzantine) Catholic Church: Venerable Anthony the Great

• 27 BC – The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian by the Roman Senate.
• 550 – Gothic War (535–552): The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison.
• 1120 – The Council of Nablus is held, establishing the earliest surviving written laws of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.
• 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, in the Spanish language, is presented to Queen Isabella.
• 1547 – Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia.
• 1556 – Philip II becomes King of Spain.
• 1572 – Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk is tried for treason for his part in the Ridolfi plot to restore Catholicism in England.
• 1581 – The English Parliament outlaws Roman Catholicism.
• 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.
• 1707 – The Scottish Parliament ratifies the Act of Union, paving the way for the creation of Great Britain.
• 1761 – The British capture Pondicherry, India from the French.
• 1777 – Vermont declares its independence from New York.
• 1780 – American Revolution: Battle of Cape St. Vincent.
• 1795 – France occupies Utrecht, Netherlands.
• 1809 – Peninsular War: The British defeat the French at the Battle of La Coruña.
• 1847 – John C. Fremont is appointed Governor of the new California Territory.
• 1864 – Second Schleswig War: King Christian IX of Denmark declares war on the German Confederation in order to occupy Schleswig.
• 1878 – Captain Burago with a squadron of Russian Imperial army dragoons liberates Plovdiv from Ottoman rule.
• 1883 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States Civil Service, is passed.
• 1896 – Defeat of Cymru Fydd at South Wales Liberal Federation AGM, Newport, Monmouthshire.
• 1900 – The United States Senate accepts the Anglo-German treaty of 1899 in which the United Kingdom renounces its claims to the Samoan islands.
• 1909 – Ernest Shackleton’s expedition finds the magnetic South Pole.
• 1919 – Temperance movement: The United States ratifies the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, authorizing Prohibition in the United States one year after ratification.
• 1920 – Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. is founded on the campus of Howard University.
• 1920 – 18th Amendment, prohibition, goes into effect; repealed in 1933.
• 1941 – War Department forms first Army Air Corps squadron for black cadets.
• 1942 – William Knudsen becomes first civilian appointed a general in US army.
• 1944 – General Eisenhower took command of Allied Invasion Force in London
• 1945 – Adolf Hitler moves into his underground bunker, the so-called Führerbunker.
• 1956 – President Gamal Abdal Nasser of Egypt vows to reconquer Palestine.
• 1957 – 3 B-52s leave California for first non-stop round the world flights.
• 1963 – Khrushchev claims to have a 100-megaton nuclear bomb.
• 1964 – “Hello, Dolly!” starring Carol Channing, opens on Broadway.
• 1966 – Harold R. Perry becomes 2nd black Roman Catholic bishop in US.
• 1968 – The Youth International Party is founded.
• 1969 – Czech student Jan Palach commits suicide by self-immolation in Prague, in protest against the Soviets’ crushing of the Prague Spring the year before.
• 1969 – The Metroliner train enters into service.
• 1970 – NFL realigns into 3 divisions (down from 4).
• 1972 – Super Bowl VI-Dallas Cowboys-24, Miami-3.
• 1976 – “Donny & Marie” musical variety show premiers on ABC TV.
• 1979 – The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt.
• 1980 – Paul McCartney jailed in Tokyo for 10 days on marijuana possession.
• 1981 – Leon Spinks is mugged, his assailants even take his gold teeth.
• 1984 – Paul & Linda McCartney arrested in Barbados-possession of marijuana.
• 1988 – Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder fired from CBS for racial remarks.
• 1988 – NFL St Louis Cardinals announce move to Phoenix.
• 1991 – The United States goes to war with Iraq, beginning the Gulf War (U.S. Time).
• 1992 – El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending a 12-year civil war that claimed at least 75,000.
• 1996 – Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou resigns from office for health reasons.
• 2001 – Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila is assassinated by one of his own bodyguards.
• 2001 – US President Bill Clinton awards former President Theodore Roosevelt a posthumous Medal of Honor for his service in the Spanish-American War.
• 2002 – The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban.
• 2003 – The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107 which would be its final one.  Columbia disintegrated 16 days later on re-entry.
• 2005 – Adriana Iliescu becomes the oldest woman in the world to give birth, at age 66.
• 2006 – Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia’s new president. She becomes Africa’s first female elected head of state.

January 16 – Birthdays:

• 1245 – Edmund Crouchback, son of Henry III of England (d. 1296)
• 1409 – René I of Naples (d. 1480)
• 1477 – Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (d. 1547)
• 1501 – Anthony Denny, confidant of King Henry VIII of England (d. 1559)
• 1616 – François de Vendôme, duc de Beaufort, French soldier (d. 1669)
• 1626 – Lucas Achtschellinck, Flemish painter (d. 1699)
• 1634 – Dorthe Engelbrechtsdatter, Norwegian poet (d. 1716)
• 1675 – Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, French writer (d. 1755)
• 1728 – Niccolò Piccinni, Italian composer (d. 1800)
• 1807 – Charles Henry Davis, American Civil War Admiral (d 1877)
• 1815 – Henry W. Halleck, American Civil War general (d. 1872)
• 1821 – John C. Breckinridge, U.S. Vice-President and Confederate general (d. 1875)
• 1834 – Robert R. Hitt, American politician (d. 1906)
• 1836 – King Francis II of the Two Sicilies (d. 1894)
• 1838 – Franz Brentano, German philosopher and psychologist (d. 1917)
• 1844 – Ismail Qemali, Albanian nationalist (d. 1919)
• 1853 – Andre Michelin, French industrialist (d. 1931)
• 1853 – Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson, English actor and theatre manager (d. 1937)
• 1853 – Gen Sir Ian Hamilton, British military commander (d. 1947)
• 1872 – Edward Gordon Craig, English actor, producer, director and scenic designer (d. 1966)
• 1872 – Henri Busser, French composer (d. 1973)
• 1874 – Robert W. Service, Canadian poet (d. 1958)
• 1875 – Leonor Michaelis, German enzyme kinetic theorist (d. 1947)
• 1878 – Harry Carey, American silent film actor (d. 1947)
• 1885 – Zhou Zuoren, Chinese writer (d. 1967)
• 1886 – John Hamilton, American actor (d. 1958)
• 1888 – Osip Brik, Russian writer (d. 1945)
• 1893 – Daisy Kennedy, Australian violinist (d. 1981)
• 1894 – Irving Mills, American jazz music publisher (d. 1985)
• 1895 – Nat Schachner, American author (d. 1955)
• 1897 – Carlos Pellicer, Mexican poet (d. 1977)
• 1898 – Irving Rapper, UK-US film director (d. 1999)
• 1898 – Margaret Booth, American film editor (d. 2002)
• 1901 – Fulgencio Batista, Cuban leader (d. 1973)
• 1901 – Frank Zamboni, American inventor (d. 1988)
• 1902 – Eric Liddell, Scottish runner (d. 1945)
• 1903 – William Grover-Williams, English-French racing driver and WWII resistance fighter (d. 1945, by execution)
• 1905 – Ernesto Halffter, Spanish composer and conductor (d. 1989)
• 1906 – Diana Wynyard, British actress (d. 1964)
• 1907 – Alexander Knox, Canadian actor (d. 1995)
• 1907 – Paul Nitze, American government official (d. 2004)
• 1908 – Ethel Merman, American actress and singer (d. 1984)
• 1908 – Günther Prien, German World War II submarine captain (d. 1941)
• 1910 – Dizzy Dean, American baseball player (d. 1974)
• 1911 – Roger Lapébie, French cyclist (d. 1996)
• 1911 – Eduardo Frei Montalva, Chilean politician (d.1982)
• 1914 – Roger Wagner, American choral musician (d. 1992)
• 1916 – Philip Lucock, Australian politician and Presbyterian minister (d. 1996)
• 1917 – Carl Karcher, founded the Carl’s Jr. hamburger chain (d. 2008)
• 1918 – Nel Benschop, Dutch poet (d. 2005)
• 1918 – Clem Jones, Lord Mayor of Brisbane, Australia (d. 2007)
• 1918 – Stirling Silliphant, American writer (d. 1996)
• 1920 – Alberto Crespo, Argentine racing driver (d. 1991)
• 1921 – Francesco Scavullo, American photographer (d. 2004)
• 1922 – Ernesto Bonino, Italian singer
• 1923 – Anthony Hecht, American poet (d. 2004)
• 1924 – Katy Jurado, Mexican actress (d. 2002)
• 1928 – Pilar Lorengar, Spanish soprano (d. 1996)
• 1928 – William Kennedy, American author
• 1930 – Clarence Ray Allen, American murderer (d. 2006)
• 1930 – Norman Podhoretz, US writer, foreign policy adviser
• 1931 – Johannes Rau, German politician (d. 2006)
• 1932 – Dian Fossey, American zoologist (d. 1985)
• 1933 – Susan Sontag, American writer (d. 2004)
• 1934 – Marilyn Horne, American opera singer
• 1935 – A.J. Foyt, American race car driver and team owner
• 1937 – Lorraine Bayly, Australian actress
• 1937 – Luiz Bueno, Brazilian racing driver
• 1938 – Jô Soares, Brazilian author, musician and TV personality
• 1942 – René Angélil, Canadian music executive
• 1942 – Barbara Lynn, American singer
• 1943 – Gavin Bryars, English composer and double bassist
• 1943 – Brian Ferneyhough, British composer
• 1944 – Jim Stafford, American singer and songwriter
• 1946 – Kabir Bedi, Indian actor
• 1946 – Ronnie Milsap, American singer and songwriter
• 1946 – Katia Ricciarelli, Italian soprano
• 1947 – Laura Schlessinger, American radio talk show host
• 1947 – Magdalen Nabb, British author (d. 2007)
• 1947 – Harvey Proctor, British politician
• 1948 – John Carpenter, American film director
• 1948 – Dalvanius Prime, New Zealand entertainer (d. 2002)
• 1948 – Cliff Thorburn, Canadian snooker player
• 1948 – Ruth Reichl, American magazine editor
• 1949 – Andrew Refshauge, Australian politician, Deputy Premier of New South Wales
• 1950 – Debbie Allen, American dancer and choreographer
• 1950 – Damo Suzuki, Japanese singer (Can)
• 1951 – Glenn Ordway, American radio talk show host
• 1952 – King Fuad II of Egypt
• 1953 – Robert Jay Mathews, American neo-Nazi (d. 1984)
• 1956 – Jennifer Dale, Canadian actress
• 1956 – Martin Jol, Dutch football manager
• 1956 – Ivan Safronov, Russian journalist (d. 2007)
• 1958 – Anatoli Boukreev, Russian climber (d. 1997)
• 1958 – Lena Ek, Swedish politician
• 1959 – Juanita Bynum, American televangelist
• 1959 – Sade, Nigerian-born singer
• 1961 – Paul Raven, English musician (Killing Joke) (d. 2007)
• 1961 – Jill Sobule, American singer-songwriter
• 1962 – Paul Webb, British musician (Talk Talk, .O.rang)
• 1962 – Joel Fitzgibbon, Australian Labor Party politician
• 1963 – James May, English television presenter
• 1965 – Maxine Jones, American singer (En Vogue)
• 1968 – David Chokachi, American actor
• 1969 – Roy Jones Jr., American boxer
• 1969 – Dead, Swedish black metal vocalist (Mayhem) (d. 1991)
• 1970 – Garth Ennis, Irish comic book author
• 1970 – Brendan O’Hare, Scottish drummer (Teenage Fanclub, Telstar Ponies)
• 1970 – Ron Villone, American baseball player
• 1971 – Sergi Bruguera, Spanish tennis player
• 1972 – Richard T. Jones, American actor
• 1972 – Greg Page, Australian actor
• 1973 – Josie Davis, American actress
• 1974 – Marlon Anderson, American baseball player
• 1974 – Kate Moss, English model
• 1975 – Greg Strause, American visual effects creator
• 1975 – Gillian Iliana Waters, American actress
• 1976 – Viktor Maslov, Russian racing driver
• 1976 – Martina Moravcová, Slovak female swimmer
• 1977 – Jeff Foster, American basketball player
• 1979 – Aaliyah, American singer (d. 2001)
• 1979 – Brenden Morrow, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1979 – Jason Ward, Canadian ice hockey player
• 1980 – Albert Pujols, Dominican-born baseball player
• 1980 – Michelle Wild, Hungarian model
• 1980 – Seydou Keita, Malian footballer
• 1981 – Bobby Zamora, English footballer
• 1981 – Nick Valensi, American guitarist (The Strokes)
• 1982 – Samuel Preston, British singer (The Ordinary Boys)
• 1982 – Tuncay Sanli, Turkish footballer
• 1983 – Emanuel Pogatetz, Austrian footballer
• 1984 – Jared Slingerland, Canadian musician
• 1987 – Lauren McAvoy, British fashion model
• 1988 – Nicklas Bendtner, Danish footballer

January 16 – Deaths:

• 960 – Polyeuctus, Patriarch of Constantinople
• 1400 – John Holland, 1st Duke of Exeter, English politician (executed) (b. 1352)
• 1545 – George Spalatin, German reformer (b. 1484)
• 1547 – Johannes Schöner, German astronomer and cartographer (b. 1477)
• 1554 – Christiern Pedersen, Danish humanist (b. 1480)
• 1585 – Edward Clinton, 1st Earl of Lincoln, English admiral (b. 1512)
• 1659 – Charles Annibal Fabrot, French lawyer (b. 1580)
• 1710 – Emperor Higashiyama of Japan (b. 1675)
• 1711 – Joseph Vaz, Apostle of Ceylon (b. 1651)
• 1747 – Barthold Heinrich Brockes, German poet (b. 1680)
• 1748 – Arnold Drakenborch, Dutch classical scholar (b. 1684)
• 1750 – Ivan Trubetskoy, Russian field marshall (b. 1667)
• 1752 – Francis Blomefield, English topographer (b. 1705)
• 1794 – Edward Gibbon, English historian (b. 1737)
• 1809 – John Moore, British general (b. 1761)
• 1817 – Alexander J. Dallas, American statesman (b. 1759)
• 1834 – Jean Nicolas Pierre Hachette, French mathematician (b. 1769)
• 1856 – Thaddeus William Harris, American naturalist (b. 1795)
• 1864 – Anton Schindler, Austrian biographer of Beethoven (b. 1795)
• 1865 – Edmond François Valentin About, French writer (b. 1828)
• 1879 – Octave Crémazie, French Canadian poet (b. 1827)
• 1886 – Amilcare Ponchielli, Italian opera composer (b. 1834)
• 1891 – Léo Delibes, French composer (b. 1836)
• 1898 – Charles Pelham Villiers, longest-serving MP in the British House of Commons (b. 1802)
• 1901 – Hiram Revels, U.S. Senator, first African-American to serve in the United States Congress (b. 1822)
• 1901 – Jules Barbier, French opera librettist (b. 1825)
• 1901 – Arnold Böcklin, Swiss painter (b. 1827)
• 1906 – Marshall Field, founder of Marshall Field and Company (b. 1834)
• 1917 – George Dewey, U.S. admiral (b. 1837)
• 1919 – Francisco de Paula Rodrigues Alves, President of Brazil (b. 1848)
• 1920 – Reginald De Koven, American music critic and composer of operettas (b. 1859)
• 1924 – Winifred Cochrane, Countess of Dundonald, philanthropist (b. 1859)
• 1935 – Ma Barker, American criminal (b. 1871)
• 1936 – Albert Fish, American serial killer (b. 1870)
• 1942 – Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, son of Queen Victoria, Governor General of Canada (b. 1850)
• 1942 – Carole Lombard, American actress (b. 1908)
• 1957 – Arturo Toscanini, Italian conductor (b. 1867)
• 1957 – 1st Earl of Athlone, British royal, Governor-General of South Africa and Canada (b. 1874)
• 1962 – Ivan Meštrovic, Croatian sculptor (b. 1883)
• 1962 – Frank Hurley, Australian photographer (b. 1885)
• 1963 – Ike Quebec, American tenor-saxophone player (b. 1918)
• 1967 – Robert J. Van de Graaff, American nuclear physicist (b. 1901)
• 1969 – Vernon Duke, American composer and songwriter (b. 1903)
• 1969 – Jan Palach, Czech protester against the Soviet led invasion.(b. 1948)
• 1971 – Philippe Thys, Belgian cyclist (b. 1890)
• 1972 – Ross Bagdasarian, American actor and creator of The Chipmunks (b. 1919)
• 1979 – Ted Cassidy, American actor (b. 1932)
• 1979 – August Heissmeyer, German SS officer (b. 1897)
• 1981 – Bernard Lee, English actor (b. 1908)
• 1982 – Red Smith, American sports columnist (b. 1905)
• 1985 – Robert Fitzgerald, U.S. poet and translator (b. 1910)
• 1986 – Herbert W. Armstrong, American evangelist, author, and publisher (b. 1892)
• 1987 – Bertram Wainer, Australian pro-abortion campaigner (b. 1928)
• 1988 – Andrija Artukovic, Croatian war criminal (b. 1899)
• 1988 – Ballard Berkeley, English actor (b. 1904)
• 1993 – Jón Páll Sigmarsson, Icelandic strength athlete (b. 1960)
• 1995 – Eric Mottram, English poet, teacher, critic, and editor (b. 1924)
• 1996 – Marcia Davenport, American author and music critic (b. 1903)
• 1997 – Ennis Cosby, son of entertainer Bill Cosby (murdered) (b. 1969)
• 1998 – Dimitris Horn, Greek actor (b. 1921)
• 1999 – Jim McClelland, Australian solicitor, politician, Minister, Royal Commissioner, judge (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Will “Dub” Jones, American singer (The Coasters) (b. 1928)
• 2000 – John Rankin, musical entertainer (b. 1959)
• 2001 – Laurent-Désiré Kabila, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (b. 1939)
• 2001 – Auberon Waugh, British author and journalist (b. 1939)
• 2002 – Robert Hanbury Brown, British-Australian astronomer and physicist (b. 1916)
• 2002 – Michael Bilandic, Mayor of Chicago (b. 1923)
• 2002 – Bobo Olson, American boxer (b. 1928)
• 2002 – Eddie Meduza, Swedish composer (b. 1948)
• 2002 – Ron Taylor, American actor (b. 1952)
• 2003 – Richard Wainwright, English politician (b. 1918)
• 2004 – Kalevi Sorsa, Prime Minister of Finland (b. 1930)
• 2005 – Marjorie Williams, American journalist (b. 1958)
• 2006 – Stanley Biber, American physician, pioneer of transgender surgery, (b. 1923)
• 2007 – Ron Carey, American actor (b. 1935)
• 2007 – Benny Parsons, American racecar driver and commentator (b. 1941)

January 16 – Holidays:

• Teacher’s Day in Thailand
• Thai Pongal in Tamil nadu, India
• National Religious Freedom Day in the United States, to commemorate the adoption of Thomas Jefferson’s landmark Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom in 1786
• Religious holidays:
  • Berard of Carbio
  • Saint Fursey
  • Honoratus of Arles

• 588 BC – Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem under Zedekiah’s reign.  The siege lasts until July 23, 586 BC.
• 69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but only rules for three months before committing suicide.
• 1535 – Henry VIII declares himself head of English Church
• 1582 – Russia cedes Livonia and Estonia to Poland.
• 1759 – The British Museum opens.
• 1777 – American Revolutionary War: New Connecticut (present day Vermont) declares its independence.
• 1782 – Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris goes before the U.S. Congress to recommend establishment of a national mint and decimal coinage.
• 1822 – Greek War of Independence: Demetrius Ypsilanti is elected president of the legislative assembly.
• 1844 – University of Notre Dame receives its charter from the state of Indiana.
• 1865 – American Civil War – Fort Fisher North Carolina falls to the Union, thus cutting off the last major seaport of the Confederacy.
• 1870 – A political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey (“A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion” by Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly).
• 1892 – James Naismith publishes the rules for basketball.
• 1907 – 3-element vacuum tube patented by Dr. Lee de Forest.
• 1907 – Gold dental inlays first described by Williamm Taggart (inventor).
• 1908 – The Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority becomes the first Greek-letter organization founded and established by African-American college women.
• 1919 – 2 million gallons of molasses “Tidal Wave” Boston MA, drowning 21.
• 1919 – Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, are tortured and murdered by the Freikorps.
• 1936 – The first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio (the building was for the Owens-Illinois Glass Company).
• 1943 – World War II: The Japanese are driven off Guadalcanal.
• 1943 – World War II: The Soviet counter-offensive at Voronezh begins.
• 1943 – The world’s largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.
• 1947 – The brutalized corpse of Elizabeth Short (“The Black Dahlia”) is found in Leimert Park, Los Angeles, California.
• 1951 – “Cloud of Death” rolls down Mount Lamington, New Guinea kills 5,000
• 1951 – Ilse Koch, The “Bitch of Buchenwald,” wife of the commandant of the Buchenwald concentration camp, is sentenced to life imprisonment by a court in West Germany.
• 1965 – Rock group Who releases first album “I Can’t Explain”
• 1967 – Green Bay Packers beat Kansas City Chiefs 35-10 in Super Bowl I.
• 1969 – The Soviet Union launches Soyuz 5.
• 1970 – After a 32-month fight for independence from Nigeria, Biafra surrenders.
• 1970 – Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya.
• 1973 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam.
• 1974 – “Happy Days” premiers on ABC.
• 1974 – Expert panel reports 18 minute gap in Watergate tape, 5 separate erasures.
• 1976 – Gerald Ford’s would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison.
• 1977 – The Kälvesta air disaster kills 22 people, the worst air crash in Sweden’s history.
• 1978 – Ted Bundy kills Florida State University coeds Lisa Levy & Margaret Bowman.
• 1981 – “Hill Street Blues” premiers on NBC-TV.
• 1984 – Hana Mandlikova ends Martina Navratilova’s 54-match winning streak.
• 1985 – Tancredo Neves becomes first elected president of Brazil in 21 years
• 1986 – The Living Seas opens at EPCOT Center in Walt Disney World, Florida.
• 1990 – AT&T’s long distance telephone network suffers a cascade switching failure.
• 1990 – 42 year old George Foreman KO’s George Cooney in 2 rounds
• 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.
• 1992 – The international community recognizes the independence of Slovenia and Croatia from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
• 1993 – Salvatore Riina, the Mafia boss known as ‘The Beast,’ is arrested in Sicily after three decades as a fugitive.
• 1999 – The Racak incident: 45 Albanians in the Kosovo village of Racak are killed by Yugoslav security forces.
• 2001 – Wikipedia, a free Wiki content encyclopedia, goes online.
• 2005 – An intense solar flare blasts X-rays across the solar system.
• 2005 – ESA’s SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon.
• 2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq.

January 15 – Birthdays:

• 1342 – Philip II, Duke of Burgundy (d. 1404)
• 1432 – King Afonso V of Portugal (d. 1481)
• 1481 – Ashikaga Yoshizumi, Japanese shogun (b. 1511)
• 1538 – Maeda Toshiie, Japanese general (d. 1599)
• 1622 – Molière, French playwright (d. 1673)
• 1671 – Abraham de la Pryme, English antiquarian (d. 1704)
• 1674 – Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French writer (d. 1762)
• 1716 – Philip Livingston, American founding father (d. 1778)
• 1747 – John Aikin, English doctor and writer (d. 1822)
• 1754 – Richard Martin, Irish founder of the SPCA (d. 1834)
• 1791 – Franz Grillparzer, Austrian writer (d. 1872)
• 1795 – Alexandr Griboyedov, Russian playwright (d. 1829)
• 1803 – Marjory Fleming, Scottish child writer and poet, who died aged 8 (d. 1811)
• 1809 – Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, French anarchist (d. 1865)
• 1812 – Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, Norwegian writer (d. 1885)
• 1816 – Marie LaFarge, French murderer (d. 1852)
• 1824 – Marie Duplessis, French courtesan, inspiration for La Dame aux Camelias (d. 1847)
• 1841 – Frederick Stanley, 16th Earl of Derby, Governor General of Canada (d. 1908)
• 1842 – Blessed Mary McKillop, Australian candidate for sainthood (d. 1909)
• 1842 – Josef Breuer, Austrian psychologist (d. 1925)
• 1850 – Mihai Eminescu, Romanian poet (d. 1889)
• 1850 – Sofia Kovalevskaya, Russian mathematician (d. 1891)
• 1855 – Jacques Damala, Greek military officer and actor (d. 1889)
• 1859 – Archibald Peake, Premier of South Australia (d. 1920)
• 1863 – Wilhelm Marx, Chancellor of Germany (d. 1946)
• 1866 – Nathan Söderblom, Swedish archbishop, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1931)
• 1869 – Stanislaw Wyspianski, Polish dramatist (d. 1907)
• 1870 – Pierre S. du Pont, President of the DuPont company (d. 1954)
• 1872 – Arsen Kotsoyev, Russian writer (d. 1944)
• 1875 – Tom Burke, American runner (d. 1929)
• 1877 – Lewis Terman, U.S psychologist, inventor of the Stanford-Binet IQ test (d. 1956)
• 1879 – Mazo de la Roche, Canadian author (d. 1961)
• 1882 – Princess Margaret of Connaught, Crown Princess of Sweden (d. 1920)
• 1885 – Lorenz Böhler, Austrian physician (d. 1973)
• 1885 – Huang Yuanyong, Chinese writer (d. 1915)
• 1885 – Grover Lowdermilk, American baseball player (d. 1968)
• 1890 – Tommy Fleming, American soccer player (d. 1965)
• 1891 – Ray Chapman, American baseball player (d. 1920)
• 1891 – Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet (d. 1938)
• 1892 – Rex Ingram, Irish director (d. 1950)
• 1893 – Ivor Novello, Welsh composer and actor (d. 1951)
• 1895 – Artturi Ilmari Virtanen, Finnish chemist, Nobel laureate (d. 1973)
• 1897 – Xu Zhimo, Chinese poet (d. 1931)
• 1899 – Goodman Ace, American actor (d. 1982)
• 1902 – King Saud of Saudi Arabia (d. 1969)
• 1903 – Paul A. Dever, 58 Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1958)
• 1905 – Torin Thatcher, English actor (d. 1981)
• 1906 – Aristotle Onassis, Greek shipping magnate (d. 1975)
• 1908 – Edward Teller, Hungarian-born physicist (d. 2003)
• 1909 – Jean Bugatti, German-born automobile designer (d. 1939)
• 1909 – Gene Krupa, American drummer (d. 1973)
• 1912 – Michel Debré, French politician (d. 1996)
• 1912 – Harry Hay, Founder of American Gay Rights Movement (d. 2002)
• 1913 – Lloyd Bridges, American actor (d. 1998)
• 1913 – Miriam Hyde, Australian composer (d. 2005)
• 1914 – Hugh Trevor-Roper, Baron Dacre of Glanton, English historian (d. 2003)
• 1918 – João Figueiredo, President of Brazil (d. 1999)
• 1918 – Édouard Gagnon, Canadian Roman Catholic cardinal (d. 2007)
• 1918 – Gamal Abdal Nasser, President of Egypt (d. 1970)
• 1920 – John Cardinal O’Connor, American Catholic cardinal (d. 2000)
• 1920 – Steve Gromek, American baseball player (d. 2002)
• 1921 – Frank Thornton, English actor (Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served?)
• 1922 – Sir Eric Willis, Australian politician, Premier of New South Wales (d. 1999)
• 1923 – Ivor Cutler, Scottish poet (d. 2006)
• 1923 – Lee Teng-hui, Taiwanese politician
• 1925 – Ruth Slenczynska, U.S. pianist
• 1926 – Florence Buchsbaum, theater director (d. 1996)
• 1926 – Maria Schell, Swiss actress (d. 2005)
• 1927 – Phyllis Coates, American actress
• 1929 – Martin Luther King, Jr., American civil rights leader, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (d. 1968)
• 1930 – Eddie Graham, American professional wrestler (d. 1985)
• 1933 – Ernest J. Gaines, American author
• 1937 – Margaret O’Brien, American actress
• 1938 – Chuni Goswami, Indian footballer and cricketer
• 1939 – Tony Bullimore, English sailor, adventurer
• 1941 – Captain Beefheart, American musician and visual artist
• 1941 – Charo, Spanish-born singer
• 1943 – Mike Marshall, American baseball player
• 1945 – Vince Foster, American lawyer (d. 1993)
• 1945 – William R. Higgins, USMC colonel (d. 1990)
• 1945 – Princess Michael of Kent, British royal
• 1947 – Andrea Martin, Canadian actress
• 1948 – Ronnie Van Zant, American singer (Lynyrd Skynyrd) (d. 1977)
• 1949 – Luis Alvarado, Puerto Rican baseball player (d. 1987)
• 1949 – Panos Mihalopoulos, Greek actor
• 1950 – Marius Trésor, French footballer
• 1953 – Kent Hovind, American evangelist and Young Earth creationist
• 1953 – Ta-Tanisha, American actress
• 1953 – Randy White, American football player
• 1954 – Nikos Sarganis, Greek footballer
• 1955 – Nigel Benson, English author
• 1956 – Mayawati, Indian politician
• 1957 – Patrick Dixon, English entrepreneur
• 1957 – Marty Lyons, American football player
• 1957 – Mario Van Peebles, American actor
• 1958 – Boris Tadic, President of Serbia
• 1959 – Pete Trewavas, English bass guitarist (Marillion)
• 1960 – Kelly Asbury, American director and actor
• 1960 – Aaron Jay Kernis, American composer
• 1961 – Yves P. Pelletier, Canadian comedian (Rock et Belles Oreilles), actor and film director
• 1962 – Creflo Dollar, American televangelist
• 1962 – Conrad Lant (aka Cronos), English musician
• 1964 – Osmo Tapio Räihälä, Finnish composer
• 1965 – Maurizio Fondriest, Italian cyclist
• 1965 – Bernard Hopkins, American boxer
• 1965 – Adam Jones, American musician (Tool)
• 1965 – James Nesbitt, Northern Irish actor
• 1968 – Chad Lowe, American actor
• 1968 – Iñaki Urdangarín, Spanish royalty
• 1969 – Delino DeShields, American baseball player
• 1970 – Shane McMahon, American professional wrestler
• 1971 – Max Beesley, English musician and actor
• 1971 – Teanna Kai, American porn star
• 1971 – Regina King, American actress
• 1972 – Kobe Tai, American porn star
• 1972 – Claudia Winkleman, English television presenter
• 1973 – Essam El-Hadary, Egyptian footballer
• 1974 – Ray King, American baseball player
• 1975 – Edith Bowman, Scottish television and radio presenter
• 1975 – Mary Pierce, French tennis player
• 1976 – Corey Chavous, American football player
• 1976 – Dorian Missick, American actor
• 1978 – Eddie Cahill, American actor
• 1978 – Franco Pellizotti, Italian cyclist
• 1979 – Drew Brees, American football player
• 1979 – Young Dro, American rapper
• 1979 – Ken Chu, Taiwanese singer-actor and taichi champ
• 1979 – Martin Petrov, Bulgarian footballer
• 1980 – Matt Holliday, American baseball player
• 1981 – Howie Day, American singer
• 1981 – El Hadji Diouf, Senegalese footballer
• 1981 – Sean Lamont, Scottish rugby union footballer
• 1982 – Benjamin Agosto, American skater
• 1982 – Armando Galarraga, Major League Baseball player
• 1982 – Philip and Alexander, American-born princes of the Yugoslav Royal Family
• 1983 – Jermaine Pennant, English footballer
• 1983 – Hugo Viana, Portuguese footballer
• 1984 – Megan Jendrick, American swimmer
• 1984 – Megan Quann, American swimmer
• 1984 – Victor Rasuk, American actor
• 1985 – Kenneth Emil Petersen, Danish footballer
• 1986 – Fred Davis, American football player
• 1987 – Kelly Kelly, American WWE Diva
• 1987 – David Knight, English footballer
• 1987 – Michael Seater, Canadian actor
• 1990 – Chris Warren Jr., American actor

January 15 – Deaths:

• 69 – Galba, Roman Emperor (b. 3 BC)
• 570 – Saint Ita, Irish nun (b. 475)
• 936 – King Rudolph of France
• 1345 – Martin Zaccaria, Italo-Greek ruler
• 1595 – Murat III, Ottoman Sultan (b. 1546)
• 1623 – Fra Paolo Sarpi, Italian patriot, scholar, scientist and church reformer (b. 1552)
• 1672 – John Cosin, English clergyman (b. 1594)
• 1683 – Philip Warwick, English writer and politician (b. 1609)
• 1775 – Giovanni Battista Sammartini, Italian composer (b. 1700 or 1701)
• 1781 – Marianne Victoria of Borbón, queen regent of Portugal (b. 1718)
• 1790 – John Landen, English mathematician (b. 1719)
• 1804 – Dru Drury, English entomologist (b. 1725)
• 1815 – Emma, Lady Hamilton, English mistress of Lord Nelson (b. 1761
• 1864 – Isaac Nathan, UK-Australian composer (b. 1792)
• 1876 – Eliza Johnson, U.S. First Lady (b. 1810)
• 1885 – Leopold Damrosch, German-American orchestral conductor (b. 1832)
• 1893 – Fanny Kemble, British actress and author (b. 1809)
• 1896 – Mathew Brady, U.S. photographer (b. 1822)
• 1909 – Arnold Janssen missionary (b. 1837)
• 1916 – Modest Tchaikovsky, Russian writer (b. 1850)
• 1919 – Rosa Luxemburg, German politician (b. 1870)
• 1919 – Karl Liebknecht, German politician (b. 1871)
• 1926 – Enrico Toselli, Italian composer (b. 1883)
• 1936 – Henry Forster, 1st Baron Forster, Governor-General of Australia (b. 1866)
• 1945 – Wilhelm Wirtinger, Austrian mathematician (b. 1865)
• 1947 – Elizabeth Short, the Black Dahlia (b. 1924)
• 1950 – Gen Henry “Hap” Arnold, U.S. General of the Air Force (b. 1886)
• 1952 – Ned Hanlon, Premier of Queensland (b. 1887)
• 1955 – Yves Tanguy, French painter (b. 1900)
• 1964 – Jack Teagarden, American musician (b. 1905)
• 1967 – David Burliuk, Ukrainian artist (b. 1882)
• 1968 – Bill Masterton, Canadian ice hockey player (b. 1938)
• 1970 – William T. Piper, American aircraft designer (b. 1881)
• 1972 – Daisy Ashford, English child writer (The Young Visiters) (b. 1881)
• 1973 – Ivan Petrovsky, Russian mathematician (b. 1901)
• 1973 – Coleman Francis, American film director (b. 1919)
• 1983 – Meyer Lansky, Russian-born gangster (b. 1902)
• 1983 – Shepperd Strudwick, American actor (b. 1907)
• 1987 – Ray Bolger, American actor, singer, and dancer (b. 1904)
• 1988 – Seán MacBride, Irish statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (b. 1904)
• 1990 – Dame Peggy van Praagh, British ballet dancer, choreographer, director (b. 1910)
• 1990 – Gordon Jackson, Scottish actor (b. 1923)
• 1992 – Dee Murray, English bassist (b. 1946)
• 1993 – Sammy Cahn, American songwriter (b. 1913)
• 1994 – Georges Cziffra, Hungarian-French pianist (b. 1921
• 1994 – Harry Nilsson, American musician (b. 1941)
• 1995 – Vera Maxwell, American fashion designer (b. 1901)
• 1996 – Minnesota Fats, American billiards player (b. 1913)
• 1996 – Les Baxter, American musician and composer (b. 1922)
• 1996 – Paramount Chief Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho (b. 1938)
• 1998 – Junior Wells, American musician (b. 1934)
• 1999 – Betty Box, British film producer (b. 1915)
• 2000 – Georges-Henri Lévesque, Canadian Dominican priest and sociologist (b. 1903)
• 2000 – Fran Ryan, American actress (b. 1916)
• 2000 – Željko Ražnatovic, aka Arkan, Serbian paramilitary leader (b. 1952)
• 2001 – Ted Mann, American screenwriter (b. 1916)
• 2002 – Steve Gromek, American baseball player (b. 1920)
• 2003 – Doris Fisher, American singer and songwriter (b. 1915)
• 2005 – Elizabeth Janeway, American author (b. 1913)
• 2005 – Ruth Warrick, American actress (b. 1915)
• 2005 – Walter Ernsting, German author (b. 1920)
• 2005 – Victoria de los Angeles, Catalan soprano (b. 1923)
• 2005 – Deem Bristow, American video game voice actor (b. 1947)
• 2005 – Dan Lee, Canadian animator (b. 1969)
• 2006 – Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Emir of Kuwait (b. 1926)
• 2007 – Bo Yibo, Chinese politician (b. 1908)
• 2007 – James Hillier, Canadian inventor of electron microscope (b. 1915)
• 2007 – Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Iraqi Revolutionary Court (b. 1945) (executed)
• 2007 – Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein (b. 1951) (executed)
• 2007 – David Vanole, American soccer player (b. 1963)
• 2008 – Mark Haigh-Hutchinson, Game Designer (b. 1964)
• 2008 – Brad Renfro, American actor (b. 1982)

January 15 – Holidays:

• Roman Empire – Second day of the Carmentalia in honor of Carmenta.
• Malawi – John Chilembwe Day.
• North Korea – Korean Alphabet Day.
• Kerala in India – Makaravilakku or Makara Sankranthy at Sabarimala.
• Jallikattu in South India.
• St. Abeluzius in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church