Events
393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine years old son Honorius co-emperor.
1510 - Henry VIII of England, then 18 years old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his jousting before he reveals his identity.
1533 - Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
1546 - Having published nothing for eleven years, Francois Rabelais brings out his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel: the Tiers Livre.
1556 - The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000.
1570 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.
1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
1789 - Georgetown College becomes the first Roman Catholic college in the United States (Washington, DC).
1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her M.D. by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, becoming the United States' first woman 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 - In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Indians, most women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift ends.
1897 - Elva Zona Heaster found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband was perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
1899 - Emilio Aguinaldo was sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
1904 - Ålesund Fire: 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 architecture.
1907 - Charles Curtis of Kansas becomes the first Native American US Senator.
1912 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli in Libya from 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 in New York City for the first time.
1945 - World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.
1950 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record by descending to the deepest point in the Pacific Ocean. The depth was measured to be 35,813 feet (10,916 m) but later measurements show it to be 35,798 feet (10,911 m).
1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified.
1967 - Milton Keynes (England) founded by Order in Council. (See History of Milton Keynes)
1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.
1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
1973 - A volcanic eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
1977 - The first segment of the Roots mini-series airs on ABC.
1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation in the world to ban aerosol sprays, believed to be damaging to earth's protective ozone layer.
1983 - The Television Show The A-Team Starts its first season on the NBC network.
1984 - "Hulkamania" is born when Hulk Hogan defeats The Iron Sheik to win the WWF Championship
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, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
1996 - The first version of the Java programming language is released.
1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
1999 - Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India.
2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States under FBI custody.
2002 - Reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped -- and subsequently murdered -- in Karachi, Pakistan.
2005 - Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as the third President of Ukraine in Kiev, Ukraine.
2006 - Stephen Harper's Conservative Party wins the most seats in the Canadian federal election. Harper becomes the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada with a minority government.


Births
1350 - Vincent Ferrer, Spanish missionary and saint (d. 1419)
1719 - John Landen, English mathematician (d. 1790)
1737 - John Hancock, American Revolutionist (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)
1857 - Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist (d. 1936)
1862 - David Hilbert, German mathematician (d. 1943)
1872 - Gotse Delchev, Macedonian revolutionary (d. 1903)
1872 - Paul Langevin, French physicist (d. 1946)
1872 - Joze Plečnik, Slovenian architect (d. 1957)
1876 - Otto Diels, German chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1954)
1884 - Ralph DePalma, Italian-born race car driver (d. 1956)
1888 - Leadbelly, American blues and folk musician (d. 1949)
1896 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg (d. 1985)
1897 - Subhas Chandra Bose, Indian independence fighter (d. 1897)
1897 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky, Austrian architect (d. 2000)
1898 - Sergei Eisenstein, Russian film director (d. 1948)
1898 - Randolph Scott, American actor (d. 1987)
1900 - William Ifor Jones, Welsh Conductor & Organist (d. 1988)
1903 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, Colombian politician (d. 1948)
1907 - Dan Duryea, American actor (d. 1968)
1907 - Hideki Yukawa, Japanese physicist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1981)
1910 - Django Reinhardt, Belgian guitarist (d. 1953)
1915 - Arthur Lewis, British economist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1991)
1915 - Potter Stewart, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1985)
1918 - Gertrude B. Elion, American scientist, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1999)
1919 - Hans Hass, Austrian zoologist and underwater scientist
1919 - Ernie Kovacs, American comedian (d. 1962)
1923 - Walter M. Miller, Jr., American writer (d. 1996)
1928 - Chico Carrasquel, Venezuelan Major League Baseball player (d. 2005)
1928 - Jeanne Moreau, French actress
1929 - John Charles Polanyi, Canadian chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1929 - Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate
1930 - Derek Walcott, West Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate
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 - Sonny Chiba, Japanese actor and martial artist
1940 - Johnny Russell, American country singer and songwriter (d. 2001)
1943 - Gil Gerard, American actor
1943 - Millie Jackson, American singer
1943 - Gary Burton, American jazz vibraphonist
1944 - Rutger Hauer, Dutch actor
1945 - Mike Harris, Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario
1947 - Thomas R. Carper, U.S. Senator from Delaware.
1947 - Megawati Sukarnoputri, 5th President of Indonesia
1948 - Anita Pointer, American singer
1950 - Richard Dean Anderson, American actor
1950 - Danny Federici, American musician (Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band)
1952 - Robin Zander, American singer (Cheap Trick)
1953 - Antonio Villaragoisa, American 52nd Mayor of Los Angeles
1954 - Franco De Vita, Venezuelan singer and songwriter
1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco
1959 - Clive Bull, radio talk show host
1963 - Gail O'Grady, American actress
1964 - Mariska Hargitay, American actress
1964 - Mario Roberge, National Hockey League player
1967 - Naim Suleymanoglu, Bulgarian-born, Turkish weightlifter
1968 - Petr Korda, Czech tennis player
1969 - Andrei Kanchelskis, Ukrainian-Russian footballer
1969 - Brendan Shanahan, Canadian ice hockey player
1972 - Marcel Wouda, Dutch swimmer
1972 - Mark Curry, African American rapper
1973 - Lanei Chapman, American actress
1974 - Tiffani Thiessen, American actress
1974 - Richard T. Slone, British artist
1975 - Tito Ortiz, American UFC fighter
1979 - Larry Hughes, American basketball player
1979 - Sampsa Astala, Finnish musician (Lordi)
1981 - Sarah Rehman, An artist, sculpturer and visionary for 'Sarah's Children'
1983 - David Firth, British animator/musician
1983 - George Foreman III, American reality series star; son of George Foreman
1984 - Arjen Robben, Dutch footballer
1985 - Doutzen Kroes, Dutch supermodel
1986 - Felicia Brandström, Swedish singer


Deaths
1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor (b. 980)
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 of China (b. 1507)
1570 - James Stewart, Earl of Moray, regent of Scotland (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 the United Kingdom (b. 1759)
1812 - Robert Craufurd, British general (mortally wounded in battle) (b. 1764)
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 - Marie Prevost, Canadian actress (b. 1898)
1937 - Orso Mario Corbino, Italian physicist (b. 1876)
1943 - Alexander Woollcott, American actor, author, and bon vivant (b. 1887)
1944 - Edvard Munch, Norwegian painter (b. 1863)
1956 - Alexander Korda, Hungarian/British film director (b. 1893)
1971 - Fritz Feigl, Austria-born chemist (b. 1871)
1973 - Kid Ory, American jazz trombonist (b. 1886)
1976 - Paul Robeson, American actor, singer, and social activist (b. 1898)
1976 - Paul Dupuis, French Canadian film and television actor (b. 1913)
1977 - Toots Shor, New York restaurateur (b. 1903)
1978 - Terry Kath, American musician (Chicago) (b. 1946)
1978 - Jack Oakie, American actor (b. 1903)
1978 - Vic Ames, American signer (Ames Brothers) (b. 1925)
1981 - Samuel Barber, American composer (b. 1910)
1983 - Fred Bakewell, English cricketer (b. 1908)
1989 - Salvador Dalí, Catalan artist (b. 1904)
1992 - Freddie Bartholomew, Irish actor (b. 1924)
1993 - Thomas A. Dorsey, American singer (b. 1899)
1994 - Nikolai Vasilievich 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 - 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 legend (b. 1925)
2005 - Douglas Knight, American university president (b. 1921)
2006 - Ernie Baron, Philippine newscaster (b. 1940)
2006 - Chris McKinstry, Canadian scientist (b. 1967)

January 23rd
 

1789 ~ Georgetown College, founded by Archbishop John Carroll, became the first Catholic, Jesuit college in the U.S.

1832 ~ Birthday of Edouard Manet, Impressionist artist.

1849 ~ Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman in America to receive a medical degree, from the Medical Institution of Geneva, N.Y.

1857 ~ Birthday of Andrija Mohorovičić, Croatian seismologist.

1862 ~ Birthday of David Hilbert, Mathematician.

1968 ~ North Korea seized the USS Pueblo, charging it had intruded into the communist nation's territorial waters on a spying mission. The crew was held for 11 months.

1973 ~ President Nixon appeared on national television to announce "peace with honor" in Vietnam.

1989 ~ Death of Salvador Dalí, Artist.

2002 ~ Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Karachi, Pakistan.

2004 ~ Death of Bob Keeshan, TV's “Captain Kangaroo”.

Just a footnote to Jseal's above post.

The USS Pueblo is still held in Korean captivity, to this day. After the crew was released the Korean's, the ship was examined and remained in Korean hands. The Pueblo is still listed by the United States Navy as an active serving ship.

Events
41 - Roman Emperor Gaius Caesar (Caligula), known for his eccentricity and cruel despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. Claudius succeeds his nephew.
1438 - The Council of Basel suspends Pope Eugene IV.
1458 - Matthias I Corvinus becomes king of Hungary.
1624 - Alfonso Mendez, appointed by Pope Gregory XV as Prelate of Ethiopia, arrives at Massawa from Goa.
1679 - King Charles II of England disbands Parliament.
1742 - Charles VII Albert becomes Holy Roman Emperor.
1776 – Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga.
1826 - Mississippi College is founded in Clinton, becoming the first college in the state of Mississippi.
1848 - California Gold Rush: James W. Marshall finds gold at Sutter's Mill near Sacramento.
1857 - The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia.
1878 - The revolutionary Vera Zasulich shoots at Fyodor Trepov, the Governor of Saint Petersburg.
1908 - Robert Baden-Powell begins the Boy Scout movement.
1916 - In Brushaber v. Union Pacific Railroad, the Supreme Court of the United States declares the federal income tax constitutional.
1918 - A decree of the Council of People's Commissars, introducing the Gregorian calendar in Russia since February 1, issued.
1924 - St. Petersburg, Russia is renamed Leningrad.
1927 - Director Alfred Hitchcock releases his first film, The Pleasure Garden, in England.
1936 - Albert Sarraut becomes Prime Minister of France
1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill conclude a conference in Casablanca.
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 between France and Italy, killing 117.
1972 - Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been in hiding since 1944, when U.S. forces liberated the island during World War II.
1977 - Massacre of Atocha in Madrid, during the Spanish transition to democracy.
1984 - The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale.
1986 - Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus.
1986 - Wapping dispute. Newspaper workers in London launch ultimately unsuccessful strike against Rupert Murdoch's News International.
1993 - Turkish journalist and writer Uğur Mumcu assassinated by a car bomb in Ankara
1996 - Polish Premier Jozef Oleksy resigns amid charges he spied for Moscow.
2003 - The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.
2006 - Disney agrees to purchase Pixar in an all-cash deal, making Steve Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney.


Births
76 - Hadrian, Roman Emperor (d. 138)
1287 - Richard Aungerville, English bishop (d. 1345)
1444 - Galeazzo Maria Sforza, Duke of Milan (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 of Prussia (d. 1786)
1724 - Frances Brooke, English writer (d. 1789)
1732 - Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, French playwright (d. 1799)
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)
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)
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, baseball player (d. 1939)
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
1922 - Charles Socarides, American psychiatrist (d. 2005)
1925 - Maria Tallchief, American ballerina
1928 - Desmond Morris, British anthropologist
1928 - Michel Serrault, French actor
1934 - Stanisław 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 - Sharon Tate, American actress and Manson murder victim (d. 1969)
1944 - Klaus Nomi, German singer (d. 1983)
1946 - Michael Ontkean, Canadian actor
1947 - Warren Zevon, American musician (d. 2003)
1949 - John Belushi, American actor (d. 1982)
1950 - Gerald Brisco, American wrestler
1950 - Benjamin Urrutia, American scholar
1950 - Daniel Auteuil, French actor
1951 - Yakov Smirnoff, Russian comedian
1956 - Hanne Krogh, Norwegian singer (Bobbysocks)
1957 - Adrian Edmondson, British comedian
1958 - Neil Allen, American baseball player
1958 - Jools Holland, British musician
1959 - Nastassja Kinski, German-born actress
1959 - Vic Reeves, English comedian
1961 - Vince Russo, American writer
1963 - Martyn Grimley, British hockey player
1963 - Arnold Vanderlyde, Dutch boxer
1965 - Mike Awesome, American wrestler
1966 - Jimeoin, Northern Irish comedian
1967 - John Myung, American musician (Dream Theater)
1967 - Phil LaMarr, American voice actor
1968 - Mary Lou Retton, American gymnast
1970 - Matthew Lillard, American actor
1971 - Cory Bailey, American baseball player
1974 - Shii Ann Huang, American game show contestant
1975 - Rónald Gómez, Costa Rican footballer
1976 - Shae-Lynn Bourne, Canadian ice dancer with Victor Kraatz
1979 - Tatyana Ali, American actress
1980 - Nicole Marie Lenz, American actress
1981 - Travis Hanson, American baseball player
1982 - Jan Fila, Czech composer
1983 - Scott Speed, American racecar driver
1984 - Scott Kazmir, American baseball player
1986 - Mischa Barton, English-born American actress
1986 - Ricky Ullman, American actor
1989 - Calvin Goldspink, English singer (S Club 8)


[edit] Deaths
41 - Caligula, Emperor of Rome (b. 12)
772 - Pope Stephen III (b. 720)
1125 - David IV of Georgia (b. 1073)
1366 - Alfonso IV of Aragon (b. 1299)
1376 - Richard FitzAlan, 10th Earl of Arundel, English military leader
1473 - Conrad Paumann, German composer
1595 - Ferdinand II of Austria (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 of Chicago (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 of Luxembourg (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)
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)
1965 - Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (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, Nazi doctor (b. 1911)
1983 - George Cukor, American film director (b. 1899)
1986 - L. Ron Hubbard, American writer and founder of Scientology (b. 1911)
1986 - Flo Hyman, American volleyball player (b. 1954)
1986 - Gordon MacRae, American actor and singer (b. 1921)
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 - Ricky Ray Rector, American murderer (b. 1950)
1993 - Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (b. 1908)
1998 - Walter D. Edmonds, American author (b. 1903)
2000 - Bobby Duncum, Jr., wrestler (b. 1965)
2002 - Peter Gzowski, Canadian broadcaster, writer and reporter (b. 1934)
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 coach (b. 1929)
2006 - Chris Penn, American actor (b. 1965)

January 24th
 

1776 ~ Birthday of E.T.A. Hoffmann, Poet & Composer.

1888 ~ Birthday of Ernst Heinkel, aircraft designer.

1908 ~ The first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell.

1927 ~ Alfred Hitchcock released his first film, “The Pleasure Garden”.

1945 ~ Soviet troops liberated Auschwitz.

1961 ~ Marilyn Monroe divorced Arthur Miller.

1962 ~ Brian Epstein signed to manage The Beatles.

1965 ~ Death of Winston Churchill, Englishman.

1993 ~ Death of Thurgood Marshall, U.S. Supreme Court justice.

2003 ~ The U.S. Department of Homeland Security officially began operation.

January 25th
 

1533 ~ England's King Henry VIII secretly married Anne Boleyn, his second wife.

1627 ~ Birthday of Robert Boyle, Chemist.

1759 ~ Birthday of Robert Burns, Poet.

1882 ~ Birthday of Virginia Woolf, Writer.

1890 ~ Nellie Bly completed her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

1919 ~ The League of Nations was founded.

1947 ~ Death of Al Capone, Gangster.

1971 ~ General Idi Amin becomes Ugandan President Idi Amin after a coup.

1977 ~ Rene Levesque told a Wall Street audience at the Economic Club of New York that “separation is inevitable”.

2004 ~ Opportunity landed on Mars.

January 26th
 

1785 ~ Benjamin Franklin wrote a letter to his daughter expressing disappointment over the selection of the eagle as the symbol of the United States; he wanted the turkey.

1885 ~ Troops loyal to the Mahdi conquered Khartoum.

1905 ~ Birthday of Maria von Trapp, Singer.

1925 ~ Birthday of Paul Newman, Actor.

1961 ~ Birthday of Wayne Gretzky, Canadian hockey Player, Coach, Owner.

1972 ~ Death of Mahalia Jackson, Gospel Music singer.

1988 ~ The musical "Phantom of the Opera", by Andrew Lloyd Webber opened at Broadway's Majestic Theater.

1996 ~ First lady Hillary Clinton testified before a grand jury connected to the Whitewater probe.

1998 ~ U.S. President Clinton denied on television he had "sexual relations" with Monica Lewinsky.

2005 ~ Following her confirmation by the Senate, Condoleezza Rice was sworn in as U.S. Secretary of State, the first African American woman to hold the post.

Feastdays & Holidays

Australia~ Australia Day

January 27th
 

1606 ~ The trial of Guy Fawkes and other Gunpowder Plot conspirators began.

1756 ~ Birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer.

1832 ~ Birthday of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” under the pen name Lewis Carroll.

1901 ~ Death of Giuseppe Verdi, Composer.

1967 ~ More than 60 nations signed a treaty banning the orbiting of nuclear weapons.

1967 ~ Astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee were killed in a fire during a test of the Apollo 1 spacecraft.

1977 ~ The Vatican reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's ban on female priests.

1992 ~ Mike Tyson went on trial charged with raping a Miss Black America contestant.

1997 ~ It was revealed that French museums had retained nearly 2,000 pieces of art stolen by Nazis.

1998 ~ U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton called the attacks against her husband part of a "vast right-wing conspiracy" on the “Today Show”.

January 28th
 

1521 ~ The Diet of Worms began.

1574 ~ Death of Henry VIII, King of England.

1596 ~ Death of Sir Francis Drake, Explorer & Soldier.

1788 ~ The first penal colony was established at Botany Bay, Australia.

1822 ~ Birthday of Alexander Mackenzie, Prime Minister of Canada.

1887 ~ Birthday of Artur Rubinstein, Polish Pianist.

1935 ~ Iceland became the first country to legalize abortion.

1939 ~ Death of William Butler Yeats, Writer.

1986 ~ Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just after takeoff killing all seven astronauts onboard.

2004 ~ Lord Hutton published his report into the death of Dr. David Kelly.

Feastdays & Holidays

Catholicism ~ Feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas.

January 29th
 

1845 ~ Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York Evening Mirror.

1856 ~ Queen Victoria instituted the Victoria Cross.

1880 ~ Birthday of W.C. Fields, Actor.

1933 ~ Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg.

1936 ~ The first members of baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, N.Y.

1944 ~ The USS Missouri, a 45,000 ton Iowa class battleship was launched.

1956 ~ Death of H. L. Mencken, Journalist.

1962 ~ Death of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

1963 ~ Death of Robert Frost, Poet.

2002 ~ In his State of the Union Address, President Bush coined the term "Axis of Evil".

January 30th
 

1649 ~ King Charles I of England was beheaded.

1862 ~ The first Union ironclad warship, the USS Monitor was launched.

1933 ~ The first episode of the ''Lone Ranger'' radio program was broadcast on station WXYZ in Detroit.

1937 ~ Birthday of Boris Spassky, World Chess Champion.

1948 ~ Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated.

1968 ~ Viet Cong guerillas and North Vietnamese soldiers launched the Tet offensive.

1969 ~ Last public performance by The Beatles.

1972 ~ Thirteen Roman Catholic civil rights marchers were shot to death by British soldiers in Northern Ireland on what became known as "Bloody Sunday”.

1991 ~ The first major ground battle of the Gulf War was fought at the frontier port of Al Khafji in Saudi Arabia.

2003 ~ Richard Reid, the "Shoe bomber" jailed for life.

January 31st
 

1606 ~ Guy Fawkes was executed for his part in the Gunpowder Plot.

1797 ~ Birthday of Franz Schubert, Composer.

1917 ~ Germany announced that its U-boats will engage in unrestricted submarine warfare.

1929 ~ The Soviet Union exiled Leon Trotsky.

1950 ~ President Harry S. Truman announced a program to develop the hydrogen bomb.

1956 ~ Death of A. A. Milne, Author (Winnie the Pooh).

1958 ~ James Van Allen discovered the Van Allen radiation belt.

1990 ~ A Canadian, George Cohon, opened McDonald's Corp. first Moscow restaurant in Pushkin Square.

1996 ~ An explosives-filled truck rammed into the gates of the Central Bank in Colombo, Sri Lanka killing 91 and injuring 1,400.

2001 ~ A Scottish court sitting in the Netherlands convicted one Libyan and acquitted a second in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

February 1st
 

1851 ~ Death of Mary Shelley, English Author (Frankenstein).

1896 ~ Puccini’s opera La Bohème premiered in Turin.

1920 ~ The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was established.

1929 ~ Frenchman Charles Rigoulet became the first weightlifter to lift over 400 pounds (181 kg) in the "clean and jerk" method.

1931 ~ Birthday of Boris Yeltsin, Russian President.

1960 ~ Four black college students began a sit-in protest against racial segregation at a lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., where they'd been refused service.

1979 ~ Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran.

1979 ~ Patty Hearst, whose prison sentence for bank robbery had been commuted by President Jimmy Carter, left a federal prison near San Francisco.

2003 ~ Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas upon reentry killing all seven astronauts.

2004 ~ Super Bowl XXXVIII: One team defeated the other team, 32-29. During the half-time show Janet Jackson's right breast was bared.

February 2nd
 

1709 ~ Alexander Selkirk was rescued from a desert island, inspiring the book “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe.

1870 ~ The Cardiff Giant - supposedly the petrified remains of a human discovered in Cardiff, N.Y. - was revealed to be nothing more than carved gypsum.

1875 ~ Birthday of Fritz Kreisler, Austrian violinist.

1887 ~ In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania the first Groundhog Day was observed.

1897 ~ Birthday of Howard Johnson, American Hotelier.

1905 ~ Birthday of Ayn Rand, Writer, Philosopher.

1943 ~ The German 6th Army surrendered at Stalingrad.

1970 ~ Death of Bertrand Russell, Mathematician & Philosopher.

1990 ~ At the opening of Parliament in Cape Town, President FW de Klerk announced the dismantling of apartheid in South Africa..

Feastdays & Holidays

U.S. & Canada – Groundhog Day

February 3rd
 

1468 ~ Death of Johannes Gutenberg, German Publisher.

1809 ~ Birthday of Felix Mendelssohn, Composer.

1870 ~ The 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified.

1874 ~ Birthday of Gertrude Stein, Writer.

1894 ~ Birthday of Norman Rockwell, Illustrator.

1917 ~ The U.S. broke off diplomatic relations with Germany after Germany announced a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

1947 ~ Snag, Yukon recorded a temperature of -62.8°C, the lowest official temperature ever measured in Canada.

1947 ~ Birthday of Melanie Safka, Singer.

1959 ~ A plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, claimed the lives of rock 'n' roll stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. ''The Big Bopper'' Richardson.

1966 ~ The Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft made the first controlled landing on the Moon.