January 3
- 0936 Duke Alberik II of Spoleto appoints his son Pope Leo VII
- 1338 Jacob of Arteveld elected mayor of Ghent
- 1407 Bloody battles between Hoeksen & Kabeljauwen in Dordrecht
- 1431 Joan of Arc handed over to the bishop
- 1496 Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine.
- 1521 Martin Luther excommunicated by Roman Catholic Church
- 1521 Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem.
- 1638 Dutch Premier Van Joost speaks of "Hostage rights of Aemstel"
- 1638 Schouwburg Theatre, the first in Amsterdam, opens
- 1667 Russia & Poland sign Truce of Androsovo
- 1746 Bonnie Prince Charlies army leaves Glasgow
- 1749 Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont.
- 1750 Tax revolt in Haarlem Netherlands
- 1752 East Indies invasion "Geldermalsen" leaves at Malakka 92 killed
- 1777 American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton.
- 1780 Danish national anthem "Kong Kristian...," first sung
- 1815 Austria, Britain, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia.
- 1823 Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico.
- 1825 Rensselaer School, the first engineering college in the U.S. is opened in Troy, New York. It is now known as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
- 1825 Scottish factory owner Robert Owen buys 30,000 acres in Indiana as site for New Harmony utopian community
- 1831 First US building & loan association organized, Frankford PA
- 1833 Britain seizes control of Falkland Islands in South Atlantic
- 1834 The government of Mexico imprisons Stephen F. Austin in Mexico City.
- 1840 The first deep sea sounding is recorded
- 1847 California town of Yerba Buena renamed San Francisco
- 1848 Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia.
- 1852 The first Chinese arrive in Hawaii
- 1861 American Civil War: Delaware votes not to secede from the United States.
- 1861 Delaware legislature rejects proposal to join Confederacy
- 1861 US Fort Pulaski & Fort Jackson, Savannah, seized by Georgia
- 1862 Romney Campaign - Stonewall Jackson moves north from Winchester
- 1865 Con Orem & Hugh O'Neill box 193 rounds before darkness ends match
- 1868 Meiji Restoration in Japan: The Tokugawa shogunate is abolished; agents of Satsuma and Chsh seize power.
- 1868 The authority of the Japanese emperor is reestablished, causing a decline in the military rule of the shoguns.
- 1870 Brooklyn Bridge construction begins; completed May 24, 1883
- 1870 The construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins.
- 1871 Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine.
- 1871 Oleomargarine patented by Henry Bradley, Binghamton NY
- 1872 The first patent list issued by US Patent Office
- 1876 The first free kindergarten in US opens in Florence MA
- 1888 Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw.
- 1888 The 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time.
- 1888 The first wax drinking straw patented, by Marvin C Stone in Washington DC
- 1889 Admissions convention meets in Ellensburg WA, asks for statehood
- 1890 The first US college-level dairy school opens at University of Wisconsin
- 1892 J.R.R. Tolkien, British author of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, is born.
- 1896 Emperor Wilhelm congratulates President Kruger on the Jameson Raid
- 1899 The first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in The New York Times.
- 1900 Gerhart Hauptmanns "Schluck und Jau," premieres in Berlin
- 1902 Reg Duff 104 on Test debut, vs England at MCG
- 1904 Marines from USS Dixie arrive in Panama
- 1910 British miners strike for 8 hour working day
- 1911 US postal savings bank inaugurated
- 1912 South Pacific RR offers to bring Liberty Bell to Exposition, free
- 1918 US employment service opens as a unit of Department of Labor
- 1920 Arthur Honegger's "Chant de Nigamon," premieres
- 1920 New York Yankees purchase Babe Ruth from Red Sox for $125,000
- 1921 Turkey makes peace with Armenia
- 1922 The first living person identified on a US coin (Thomas E Kirby) on the Alabama Centennial half-dollar
- 1924 British archaeologist Howard Carter uncovers the mummified remains of Tutankhamen, boy-king of Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.
- 1925 Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy.
- 1925 Mussolini dissolves Italian parliament/becomes dictator
- 1926 Greek General Theodorus Pángulos names himself dictator
- 1929 27 year old William S Paley becomes CBS president
- 1929 Bradman scores 112 vs England at MCG - his first Test century
- 1933 Minnie D. Craig becomes the first woman to be elected Speaker of a legislative body in the USA.
- 1938 The March of Dimes campaign to stomp out polio is organized.
- 1938 Woman in White is first broadcast on the NBC Red network. The program remains on the radio for the next ten years.
- 1939 Gene Cox becomes first girl page in US House of Representatives
- 1941 Australian troops capture Bardia, Libya, from the Italians
- 1941 Canada & US acquire air bases in Newfoundland (99 year lease)
- 1941 Italian counter offensive in Albania
- 1941 Sergei Rachmaninov's "Symphonic Dances" premieres in Philadelphia
- 1942 American-British-Dutch-Australian (ABDA) Command forms
- 1943 Canadian Army troops arrive in North Africa
- 1943 The first missing persons telecast (New York City NY)
- 1944 Helicopter Mercy Mission a HNS-1 helicopter, made an emergency delivery of 40 units of blood plasma from lower Manhattan Island to Sandy Hook where the plasma was administered to survivors of an explosion on the destroyer Turner (DD 648)
- 1944 Top Marine ace MAJ Boyington captured after shooting down 28 aircraft
- 1944 World War II: Top Ace Major Greg "pappy" Boyington is shot down in his Corsair by Captain Masajiro Kawato flying a Zero.
- 1945 Allies land on west coast of Burma, conquer Akyab
- 1945 British Premier Winston Churchill visits France
- 1945 Cato-Meridian School, NY, installs germicidal lamps in every room
- 1945 Greek General Plastiras forms government
- 1945 John Patrick's "Hasty Heart," premieres in New York City NY
- 1947 Congressional proceedings are televised for the first time as viewers in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. witness opening ceremonies of the 80th Congress.
- 1947 Proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time.
- 1947 William Dawson becomes first black to head congressional committee
- 1948 Bradman completes dual Test tons (132 & 127*) vs India MCG
- 1949 "Colgate Theatre" dramatic anthology series premieres on NBC TV
- 1951 9 Jewish Kremlin physicians "exposed" as British/US agents
- 1951 Dragnet is first broadcast on NBC-TV.
- 1952 "Dragnet" with Jack Webb premieres on NBC TV
- 1952 Australia beat W Indies by one wicket at the MCG, last stand 38
- 1953 Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress.
- 1955 José Ramon Guizado becomes President of Panama
- 1956 Visitor posting - Catherine Houston Brooks was born in Clarkshill, SC. - USA
- 1957 Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
- 1957 The first electric watch introduced, Lancaster PA
- 1958 Edmund Hillary reaches South Pole overland
- 1958 Lindsay Kline takes a hat-trick vs South Africa at Cape Town
- 1958 The West Indies Federation is formed.
- 1959 Alaska admitted as 49th US state
- 1961 Adam Clayton Powell elected Chairman of House Education & Labor
- 1961 The SL-1, a government-run reactor near Idaho Falls, Idaho, leaks radiation, killing three workers.
- 1962 Pope John XXIII excommunicates Fidel Castro
- 1963 Number one hit on UK music charts - Cliff Richard - The Next Time / Bachelor Boy
- 1963 WOUB TV channel 20 in Athens, OH (PBS) begins broadcasting
- 1964 Jack Paar Show, shows a clip of the Beatles singing "She Loves You"
- 1966 Floyd B McKissick, named national director of CORE
- 1967 "Tonight Show" is shortened from 105 to 90 minutes
- 1967 Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys is indicted for draft evasion
- 1967 Jack Ruby, the man who shot suspected JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, dies in a Dallas hospital.
- 1967 WJAN TV channel 17 in Canton, OH (IND) begins broadcasting
- 1969 John Lennon's "2 Virgins" album declared pornographic in New Jersey
- 1969 Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr seated by Congress
- 1970 "Jimmy" closes at Winter Garden Theater New York City NY after 84 performances
- 1970 Marxist government takes over in Congo
- 1971 UK hist Open University starts
- 1973 George Steinbrenner III buys Yankees from CBS for $12 million
- 1974 Arias Navarro succeeds Carrero Blanco as premier of Spain
- 1974 Burma accepts its constitution
- 1974 Gold hits record $121.25 an ounce in London
- 1977 Apple Computer incorporated
- 1977 Lindy McDaniel retires with 2nd most pitching appearances (987 games)
- 1978 Chandrasekar takes 6-52 & 6-52 at MCG in Indian innings win
- 1980 Gold hits record $634 an ounce
- 1980 Joy Adamson, author of "Born Free," is killed by a servant in northern Kenya.
- 1983 CiTV launches on ITV in the UK.
- 1984 Syria frees captured US pilot after appeal from Jesse Jackson
- 1985 Israel government confirms resettlement of 10,000 Ethiopian Jews
- 1986 The Skytrain commences operation between Vancouver and New Westminster, BC.
- 1987 Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
- 1987 Former Miss America Vanessa Williams marries Ramon T Hervey in New York City NY
- 1987 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inducts first female artist Aretha Franklin
- 1988 Israel orders 9 Palestinian "instigators" deported from W Beirut
- 1988 Margaret Thatcher becomes longest-serving British PM this century
- 1989 Jim & Tammy Bakker return to TV (Oy Vey!)
- 1990 Former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces.
- 1990 Panama's leader General Manuel Noriega surrenders to US authorities
- 1990 Visitor posting - Melanie Cole Born. Pet - dog named mol-lee - Canada
- 1991 Israel reopens consulate in USSR after 23 years
- 1991 Los Angeles King Wayne Gretzky scores his 700th goal against New York Islanders
- 1992 32 Cubans defect to the US via helicopter
- 1992 Boon completes 11 Test Cricket century, 129* vs India at Sydney
- 1993 In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
- 1993 Junk bond king Michael Milkin is released from jail after 22 months
- 1994 100s killed in Venezuela in prison revolt
- 1994 35-foot-tall Chief Wahoo, trademark of Indians on top of Stadium since 1962, is taken down, to be moved to Jacob's Field
- 1994 A Russian Tupolev-154M crashes at Irkutsk, Siberia 122 killed
- 1994 An Aeroflot Tupolev TU-154 crashes and explodes after takeoff from Irkutsk, Russia, killing 125 people including one on the ground.
- 1995 The U.S. Postal Service raises the price for a 1st-class stamp to 32 cents.
- 1996 Visitor posting - Soon to be famous model Amber Dillon was born. - USA
- 1997 Bryant Gumbel co-hosted his final "Today" show on NBC-TV
- 1997 Eddo Brandes takes ODI hat-trick vs England at Harare
- 1997 Zimbabwe clean-sweep ODI series vs England 3-0
- 1999 Israel detains, later to expel, 14 members of Concerned Christians.
- 1999 The Mars Polar Lander launches.
- 2004 Flight 604, a Boeing 737 owned by Flash Airlines, an Egyptian airliner, plunges into the Red Sea, killing all 148 people aboard.
- 2007 National Express has its worst ever coach crash just outside Heathrow Airport when it was travelling to Glasgow
- 2009 Visitor posting - Nora and Chiva Get Married
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