- 1189 Philip II of France and Richard I of England begin to assemble troops to wage the Third Crusade.
- 1189 Philip II, Henry II & Richard Lion-Hearted initiate 3rd Crusade
- 1276 Pierre de Tarantaise elected Pope Innocent V
- 1287 The treaty of San Agayz is signed. Minorca is conquered by King Alfons III of Aragon.
- 1324 Zen Buddhist religious debate between Tendai & Shingon
- 1522 Head inquisitor Adrian Florisz Boeyens elected pope
- 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 Zrich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union.
- 1542 Parliament passes bill of attainder against Queen Katherine Howard
- 1604 Tsar Ivan IV defeats the False Dmitri, who claims to be the true tsar
- 1643 Abel Tasman discovers Tonga.
- 1643 Dutch mariner Abel Tasman discovers Tonga in the Pacific
- 1664 Count Miklós of Zrinyi sets out to battle Turkish invasion army
- 1677 The first medical publication in America (pamphlet on smallpox), Boston
- 1720 Sweden and Prussia sign the Treaty of Stockholm.
- 1749 The Verona Philharmonic Theatre burned (rebuilt 1754).
- 1757 In Ticonderoga New York Robert Rogers 1731-1795 defeated with his Rogers Rangers by French near Ticonderoga
- 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 is guillotined.
- 1793 Jan 21, King Louis the 16th of France is found guilty of treason and beheaded during the Revolution.
- 1793 Prussia & Russia sign partition treaty (Poland divided)
- 1799 Edward Jenner's smallpox vaccination is introduced
- 1818 Keats writes his poem "On a Lock of Milton's Hair"
- 1821 Paramaribo Suriname catches fire, 4 die
- 1824 Ashantees defeat British at Accra, West Africa
- 1824 Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson is born. - USA
- 1827 Freedom Journal, first Black paper, begins publishing
- 1830 Portsmouth (Ohio) blacks forcibly deported
- 1839 Acadia College opens in Wolfville Nova Scotia; now Acadia University.
- 1846 The first edition of Charles Dickens' "Daily News" hits London streets
- 1853 Envelope-folding machine patented by Russell Hawes, Worcester MA
- 1854 The Cardiff schooner Catherine o'Flanagan, stranded near Tyrella, in Dundrum Bay, Northern Ireland. Although the ship did not suffer much damage in the stranding the crew had abandoned her before she hit the shore and were drowned in the breakers.
- 1861 Jefferson Davis of Mississippi & 4 other southern senators resign
- 1861 Mississippi Sen. Jefferson Davis resigned from the U.S. Senate, 12 days before Mississippi seceded from the Union.
- 1863 City of Dublin leases part of Cattle Market for 100,000 years
- 1863 Outback explorers Robert Burke and William Wills given heroes' funeral in Melbourne.
- 1864 The Tauranga Campaign starts during the Maori Wars.
- 1865 Jan 21, Akrin, Ohio is incorporated as a city.
- 1874 Franz Grillparzer's "Libussa," premieres in Vienna
- 1879 Henrik Ibsen's "Et Dukkehjem," premieres in Copenhagen
- 1880 Jeffree & Pendray install Victoria's*(British Columbia) first business telephones; W. J. Jeffree's Clothing store, W. I. Pendray's Soap Factory
- 1880 The first US sewage disposal system separate from storm drains, Memphis TN
- 1887 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) forms
- 1887 Brisbane receives a daily rainfall of 465 millimetres (18.3 inches), a record for any Australian capital city.
- 1890 The first issue of Propria Cures, Amsterdam student-weekly newspaper
- 1891 Calixa Lavallée dies at age 48; the composer of O Canada Canada's national anthem
- 1899 Opel manufactured its first automobile .
- 1900 Second Contingent of Canadian troops sails from Halifax for South Africa; more troop ships leave January 27 and February 21
- 1903 "Wizard of Oz," premieres in New York City NY
- 1903 Harry Houdini escapes police station Halvemaansteeg in Amsterdam
- 1907 Kenora Thistles sweep Montana Wanderers in 2 for the Stanley Cup
- 1907 The Kenora Thistles win the Stanley Cup, representing the smallest town (Kenora, Ontario) ever to win ice hockey's ultimate prize, or any major North American sports title.
- 1908 Jan 21, A New York City law is passed making it illegal for a woman to smoke in public.
- 1908 New York City NY regulation makes it illegal for a woman to smoke in public
- 1910 British-Russian military intervention in Persia
- 1911 The first Monte Carlo Rally.
- 1913 Aristide Briand forms French government
- 1915 Jan 21, The first Kiwanis Club is chartered, in Detroit, Michigan.
- 1915 Kiwanis International founded in Detroit
- 1919 Meeting of the First Dil ireann in the Mansion House Dublin, Sinn Fin adopts Ireland's first constitution. The first engagement of Irish War of Independence, Sologhead Beg, County Tipperary.
- 1919 Sinn Fein proclaims parliament of Free Ireland
- 1921 The Italian Communist Party is founded at Livorno.
- 1922 The first slalom ski race run, Mürren, Switzerland
- 1924 Jan 21, Russian revolutionary and founder of Bolshevism, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, dies at age 54.
- 1924 The great Russian leader, Lenin died 21 January 1924, suffering from a degenerative brain disorder. At the time of his death his brain was a quarter of its normal size.
- 1924 Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership.
- 1925 Albania declares itself a republic.
- 1925 Albanian parliament announces itself a republic; Ahmed Zogoe President
- 1926 Belgian parliament accepts Locarno treaties
- 1927 First live radio commentary of a football (soccer) match anywhere in the world- Arsenal vs. Sunderland at Highbury. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.
- 1927 The first national opera broadcast from a US opera house (Faust, Chicago)
- 1932 USSR & Finland stop non-attack treaty
- 1935 The Wilderness Society founded
- 1938 Dutch government starts obligatory unemployment insurance
- 1940 Foreign correspondents in Netherlands under censorship
- 1941 Anti-Jewish riots take place in Rumania. Gangs of Rumanian Legionnaires hunt for Jews, loot and beat Jews in the street, desecrate 25 synagogues, destroy hundreds of homes and shops, and butcher hundreds of Jews.
- 1941 Australia & Britain attack Tobruk Libya
- 1941 British communist newspaper "Daily Worker" banned
- 1941 The first anti-Jewish measures in Bulgaria
- 1941 World War II: Australian and British forces attack Tobruk, Libya.
- 1942 Bronx magistrate rules all pinball machines illegal
- 1942 Count Basie records "One O'Clock Jump"
- 1942 Tito's partisans occupy Foca
- 1942 Unified partisan organization is established in the Vilna ghetto. Resistance organization set upon Kovno ghetto.
- 1943 Soviet forces reconquer Gumrak airport near Stalingrad
- 1943 Vice-Admiral Cunningham appointed British Admiral of Fleet
- 1944 649 British bombers attack Magdeburg
- 1945 British troops land on Ramree, near coast of Burma
- 1945 The Brazilian Expeditionary Force leads an allied attack on Monte Castelo in Italy, the only participation of South American troops in World War II.
- 1948 West Indies vs England, Test debut Walcott, Weekes & Jim Laker
- 1949 The first inaugural parade televised (Harry Truman)
- 1950 Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury.
- 1950 George Orwell, the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, dies in London.
- 1950 New York jury finds former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury
- 1952 Nehru's Congress party wins general election in India
- 1953 John Foster Dulles appointed as Secretary of State
- 1954 The USS Nautilus, the world's first atomic submarine, is launched from the shipyards at Groton, Connecticut.
- 1954 The first gas turbine automobile exhibited (New York City NY)
- 1956 "Comedy in Music (Victor Borge)" closes at Golden New York City NY after 849 performances
- 1956 William Shawn succeeds Harold Ross as editor of the New Yorker
- 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 Little Joe 4 suborbital Mercury test reaches 16 km
- 1960 Rock falls traps 437 at Coalbrook South Africa, 417 die of methane poisoning
- 1961 "Conquering Hero" closes at ANTA Theater New York City NY after 8 performances
- 1961 Portuguese rebels seize cruise ship Santa Maria
- 1962 JFK arrives in Uruguay
- 1963 Visitor posting - 21 January, 1963 Diane Margaret VanHollebeke is born to Marcel and Margaret in Cottage Hospital in Grosse Pointe, MI!
- 1964 Carl T Rowan named director of US Information Agency
- 1966 Beatle George Harrison marries model Patti Boyd
- 1968 US B-52 bombers with nuclear bomb crashes in Greenland
- 1968 Visitor posting - 1968 RV princess,Paris Lynn Cabrices, is born in St. Augustine, Florida. - USA
- 1969 An experimental underground nuclear reactor at Lucens Vad, Switzerland, released radiation into a cavern, which was then sealed.
- 1969 Visitor posting - jennifer catherine barbee gooden is born in raleigh n.c. - USA
- 1971 "Alias Smith & Jones" premieres on ABC TV
- 1972 Assam's North East Frontier Agency becomes Arunachal Pradesh territory
- 1972 Manipur, Meghalaya & Tripura become separate states of Indian union
- 1972 Mizoram, formerly part of Assam, creates an Indian union territory
- 1972 Tripura becomes a full- fledged state in India.
- 1973 Canadian actor Leslie Nielson appears in the Ringbanger episode of the TV sitcom M*A*S*H
- 1973 Visitor posting - Scott Nick is born and the world rejoices! - USA
- 1976 Commercial service of Concorde begins with London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes.
- 1976 England and France place the supersonic jetliner Concorde into regular service.
- 1976 The supersonic Concorde airplane was put into service by Britain and France.
- 1976 UK hist Concorde enters supersonic passenger service [see 2000]
- 1977 Italy legalizes abortion
- 1977 President Carter pardoned American Vietnam War-era draft evaders and ordered a case-by-case study of deserters.
- 1977 U.S. Presient Jimmy Carter provides a presidential pardon to most Vietnam War draft dodgers.
- 1978 Bee Gees' "Saturday Night Fever" album goes #1 for 24 weeks
- 1979 Neptune becomes outermost planet (Pluto moves closer)
- 1979 Price of gold increases to record $875 troy ounce
- 1980 Canada expels three diplomats from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa for spying; caught buying secret information from an American citizen in Ottawa.
- 1980 Gold hits record $850 an ounce
- 1980 Gold reaches intra-day historic high price of $870 in New York.
- 1980 Visitor posting - Jan 21 1980 - Heloise Rautenbach (now Vercuiel) the love of my life was born - Wessell
- 1981 Bernhard Goetz is assaulted for first time on a New York subway train
- 1981 Visitor posting - the beautiful lulu moore was born in indonesia [email protected]
- 1983 In Regina Saskatchewan Joanne Wilson found murdered in her garage; ex-wife of politician Colin Thatcher, son of ex-Premier Ross Thatcher, who will be found guilty of first-degree murder
- 1983 Reagan certifies El Salvador human-rights abuses have decreased making country eligible for US military aid
- 1985 -19ºF (-28ºC), Caesar's Head SC (state record)
- 1985 -34ºF (-37ºC), Mt Mitchell NC (state record)
- 1985 Because January 20 had fallen on a Sunday, Ronald Reagan's public inaugural ceremony (for his second term as President) was moved to Monday, January 21. Due to bad weather, the ceremony was held indoors in the United States Capital Rotunda.[1]
- 1985 Bomb attack on Borobudur temple in Java
- 1985 Dennis Potvin ties Bobby Orr's career record of 270 NHL goals
- 1986 100 participate in Nude Olympics race in 38ºF (3ºC), Indiana
- 1986 Allison J Brown, 17, of Oklahoma, crowned 4th Miss Teen USA
- 1986 Bomb attack in East-Beirut, 27 killed
- 1987 Archbishop's envoy Terry Waite disappears in Lebanon
- 1987 BB King donates his 7,000 record collection to University of Mississippi
- 1988 US accept immigration of 30,000 US-Vietnamese children
- 1989 A woman is assaulted & raped in the room of an Oklahoma football player
- 1989 In St John's Newfoundland Tory Brian Peckford resigns after 10 years as Newfoundland Premier; replaced by Clyde Wells after election
- 1989 Visitor posting - The day Tawanna was born
- 1990 Bob Goodenow succeeds Alan Eagleson as NHL players association executive director
- 1990 Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry said he would seek help but did not publicly concede he had used illegal drugs. He left the next day for a treatment program in Florida.
- 1991 CBS News correspondent Bob Simon captured by Iraqis in Persian Gulf
- 1991 Iraq announced that it would use hostages as human shields against allied warplanes.
- 1992 Visitor posting - January 21, 1992: Lisa Masutani starts work at HECO!
- 1993 It was announced that Hillary Clinton would work out of a White House office near the Oval Office, an unprecedented move in first lady history.
- 1993 Nigerian singer Fela Kuti arrested on suspicion of murder
- 1993 Visitor posting - Maribel (Merryballz) Perez was born! Woo!!! - United States
- 1994 Dow Jones passes 3900 (record 3,914.20)
- 1994 Lorena Bobbitt found temporarily insane for chopping off spouse's penis
- 1994 Visitor posting - Michael Geoffrey Hall born in Belfast Ireland
- 1995 52th Golden Globes Forrest Gump, Tom Hanks, Jessica Lange, Brad Pitt
- 1995 Calgary Police charge Dorothy Joudrie with attempted murder after the shooting of her estranged husband, oil executive Earl Joudrie, at her home in Calgary
- 1995 Visitor posting - Leonard Fizzard born - Canada
- 1996 53th Golden Globes Mel Gibson, Nicole Kidman, John Travolta
- 1996 Karrie Webb wins LPGA HealthSouth Inaugural Golf Tournament
- 1997 At least a dozen people are reported dead after a pair of earthquakes in China's westernmost province. The quakes in the Xinjiang region heavily damaged or destroyed hundreds of homes. The first quake had a magnitude of 6.4, the second a magnitude of 6.3.
- 1997 In the face of continuing reports of legally dubious fund-raising practices, the Democratic National Committee announced it would no longer take donations from foreign nationals or from U.S. subsidiaries of foreign companies.
- 1997 Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct.
- 1997 The full House voted 395-28 to reprimand Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., for violating House rules and misleading congressional investigators looking into his possible misuse of tax-exempt donations for political purposes.
- 1998 Pope John Paul II arrived in Havana for his first-ever visit to Cuba.
- 1999 Raul Salinas de Gortari, brother of a former Mexican president, is convicted of arranging the murder of a political rival and sentenced to 50 years in prison.
- 1999 The brother of former Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari was convicted of masterminding the 1994 shooting death of a ruling party official.
- 1999 War on Drugs: In one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of cocaine on board.
- 2002 Canadian Dollar sets all-time low against the US Dollar (US$0.6179).
- 2003 Lee Boyd Malvo, 17, was indicted by a grand jury on murder charges stemming from the Washington area sniper attacks.
- 2003 The U.S. Census Bureau says Hispanics have moved past African-Americans as the largest minority group in the United States.
- 2004 A U.S. scientist who had toured North Korea nuclear facilities told Congress there was evidence they could produce enriched plutonium.
- 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.
- 2004 China ushered in the year of the monkey, a positive sign in Chinese astrology for business and growth.
- 2004 NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6.
- 2005 In Belize's capital city, the unrest over the government's new taxes erupts into riots.
- 2007 Awashima Marine Park in Japan catches a video tape of the rare frilled shark
- More historical events added daily - keep checking back