January 4
- 0046 BC - Titus Labienus defeats Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina.
- 0274 St Eutychian begins his reign as Catholic Pope
- 0871 Ethelred of Wessex is defeated by Danish forces at Reading, gains a brilliant victory 4 days later at Ashdown, is defeated January 22 at Basing, triumphs again March 2 at Marton in Wiltshire, but dies in April
- 1357 Flemish Earl Louis & Luxembourg Duke Wenceslaus sign peace treaty
- 1490 Anna of Brittany announces that all those who would ally with the king of France will be considered as guilty of the crime of lese-majesty.
- 1493 Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey.
- 1493 Columbus left new world on return from first voyage
- 1519 First Altenburger sermon (Luther & Karl von Miltitz)
- 1570 Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew"
- 1618 In France, Samuel de Champlain receives the dowry of his wife Helene Boulle.
- 1642 King Charles I of England sends soldiers to arrest members of Parliament, commencing England's slide into civil war.
- 1698 Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, is destroyed by fire.
- 1717 Netherlands, England & France sign Triple Alliance
- 1717 The Netherlands, England, and France sign the Triple Alliance.
- 1725 Benjamin Franklin arrives in London
- 1754 Columbia University founded, as Kings College (New York City NY)
- 1780 Snowstorm hit Washington's army at Morristown New Jersey
- 1781 André Méchain discovers M80 (globular cluster in Scorpio)
- 1821 Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first native-born American saint, dies in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
- 1832 Insurrection of Trinidad negroes
- 1843 Royal Academy (Technical Hague court) Delft opens
- 1847 Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
- 1854 The McDonald Islands are discovered by Captain William McDonald aboard the Samarang.
- 1861 President Buchanan appoints a fast on account of threatened succession
- 1861 US Fort Morgan, Mobile, seized by Alabama
- 1862 Battle of Fort Hindman, AR (Arkansas Post)
- 1862 Romney Campaign-Stonewall Jackson occupies Bath
- 1863 4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY
- 1877 Cornerlius Vanderbilt, millionaire entrepreneur and the richest man in the world at the time of his death, dies.
- 1884 Last sighting of an eastern cougar (Ontario)
- 1884 The Fabian Society is founded in London.
- 1885 Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs first appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22)
- 1885 The first appendectomy is performed by Dr. William W. Grant of Davenport, Iowa.
- 1887 Thomas Stevens is first man to bicycle around the world (San Francisco-San Francisco); 21,700km
- 1893 US President Cleveland grants amnesty to Mormon polygamy
- 1894 France ratifies Duple Alliance with Russia
- 1896 Following Mormon abandonment of polygamy, Utah admitted as 45th state
- 1896 Seven members of Prime Minister Mackenzie Bowell's cabinet resign over the Manitoba Schools Question.
- 1896 Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state.
- 1902 France's Panama Canal Co. offers to sell its interests to the United States and reduces its asking price from $109 million to $40 million
- 1902 Hugh Trumble takes a hat-trick vs England at the MCG
- 1904 Supreme Court rules Puerto Ricans cannot be denied admission to US
- 1906 South Africa beat England by one wicket, their first Test win
- 1910 Commissioning of USS Michigan (BB-27), the first U.S. dreadnought battleship.
- 1912 Smallest earth-moon distance this century, 356,375 km center-to-center
- 1912 The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter.
- 1915 Trans-Caucausus Russian defeat Turkish troops
- 1920 Amsterdam actors decide to strike for retirement benefits
- 1923 Lenin's "Political Testament" calls for removal of Stalin
- 1926 Theodorus Pangalos resigns as Greek dictator
- 1932 Bradman scores 167 for Australia vs South Africa at the MCG
- 1932 British East Indies Viceroy Willingdon arrests Gandhi & Nehru
- 1935 Bob Hope first heard on network radio as part of "The Intimate Revue"
- 1935 Fort Jefferson National Monument, Florida established
- 1936 Billboard magazine publishes its first music hit parade
- 1936 Grimmett becomes world record wicket taker with no 190 vs South Africa
- 1936 Mickey's Polo Team, a short animated film featuring Charlie Chaplin, Oliver Hardy, Stan Laurel, and Harpo Marx in a polo match against various Disney characters, is first released.
- 1939 Frieda Wunderlich elected first woman dean of a US graduate school
- 1939 Hermann Goering appoints Reinhard Heydrich head of Jewish Emigration
- 1941 The animated short Elmer's Pet Rabbit is released: it marks the second appearance of Bugs Bunny and the first to have his name on a title card.
- 1942 Premier Churchill & General Marshall fly to Florida
- 1943 Head SS office writes to all concentration camp commanders, requesting them to forward human hair for processing at the firm of Alex Zink, Filzfabrik A.G. near Nuremberg. A half-mark would be received by the Commandant for each kilo of human hair.
- 1943 Tom Wilkinson football player; CFL QB, Edmonton Eskimos, was born
- 1944 Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins.
- 1944 Ralph Bunche appointed first Negro official in US State Department
- 1945 Germans execute resistance fighters in Amsterdam
- 1945 US jeep-aircraft carrier Ommaney Bay sinks after kamikaze attack
- 1948 Burma gains its independence from Britain.
- 1949 Visitor posting - James Paul Geiger born in Melbourne Florida
- 1951 North Korean and Communist Chinese troops capture the city of Seoul, during the Korean War.
- 1954 Soap Opera "The Brighter Day" premieres
- 1957 "Blondie" situation comedy premieres on NBC TV (later on CBS)
- 1957 After 69 years the last issue of Collier's Weekly magazine is published.
- 1957 Dodgers buy 44 passenger twin-engine airplane for $775,000
- 1958 Sputnik 1 falls to Earth from its orbit (launched on October 4, 1957).
- 1959 Luna 1 (Mechta) becomes first craft to leave Earth's gravity
- 1960 European Free Trade Association forms in Stockholm
- 1961 Longest recorded strike ends-33 years-Danish barbers' assistants
- 1962 New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board.
- 1962 The first automated (unmanned) subway train (New York City NY)
- 1963 Soviet Luna (4) reaches Earth orbit but fails to reach Moon
- 1965 Author T.S. Eliot dies in London at age 76.
- 1965 Fender, a favorite guitar and musical instrument manufacturer of the surf rock crowd, is sold to CBS for $13 million.
- 1965 LBJ's "Great Society" State of the Union Address
- 1966 Doug Walters scores second Test century in his second Test
- 1967 UK hist Donald Campbell dies attempting to break his world water speed record on Conniston Water – his body and Bluebird recovered in 2002
- 1968 Duck hunter accidentally shoots endangered whooping crane in Texas
- 1968 Leo Fender sells Fender Guitars for $13 million
- 1969 France begins arms embargo against Israel
- 1970 Beatles last recording session at EMI studios
- 1970 Walter Cronkite ends hosting weekly documentary
- 1971 Dr Melvin H Evans inaugurated as first elected Governor of Virgin Islands
- 1971 Ohio agrees to pay $675,000 to relatives of Kent State victims
- 1971 Philadelphia's Veteran Stadium dedicated
- 1971 The Canadian goverment in Ottawa withdraws troops from Montreal and other areas in Quebec in wake of FLQ crisis.
- 1972 Rose Heilbron becomes the first woman judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London.
- 1973 The world's longest running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine was first transmitted on BBC's Comedy Playhouse and is still running to date.
- 1974 Nixon refuses to hand over tapes subpoenaed by Watergate Committee
- 1974 President Nixon refuses to hand over documents and tape recordings subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee.
- 1975 Elizabeth Ann Seton becomes the first American-born saint.
- 1975 Ford Executive Order on CIA Activities within the US (No 11828)
- 1975 Ice thickness measured at 4776 m, Wilkes Land, Antarctica
- 1975 Montreal Canadiens shut out Washington Capitals 10-0.
- 1979 An out-of-court settlement awards $675,000 to the victims of the Kent State massacre of 1970 (made famous by the CSNY song Ohio).
- 1981 "Frankenstein" opens & closes on Broadway
- 1981 British police arrest Peter Sutcliffe, the "Yorkshire Ripper"
- 1981 Visitor posting - Tasha Miller Kistler born - USA
- 1982 Bryant Gumbel became co-host of NBC's "Today Show"
- 1982 Chris Wallace becomes co-anchor of the Today Show
- 1983 Criminal Code changes replace rape with 3 categories of sexual assault; equal protection to men and women; women allowed to charge their husbands with sexual assault.
- 1984 "Night Court" starring Harry Anderson premieres on NBC TV
- 1986 David Boon's second Test century, 131 vs India at Adelaide
- 1987 16 die in a train crash in Chase MD
- 1987 An Amtrak train en route to Boston from Washington, DC, collides with Conrail engines, killing 16 people (Chase, Maryland rail wreck).
- 1987 Sixteen people die when a Washington-bound Amtrak train collides with Conrail locomotives in Chase, Maryland.
- 1987 Thomas Stevens became first man to bicycle around the world
- 1989 Aircraft (VF-32) from USS John F. Kennedy shoot down 2 hostile Libyan Migs.
- 1989 Comet Tempel 1 at perihelion
- 1989 Second Gulf of Sidra incident: a pair of Libyan MiG-23 "Floggers" are shot down by a pair of US Navy F-14 Tomcats during an air-to-air confrontation.
- 1989 US F-14s shoot down 2 Libyan jet fighters over Mediterranean
- 1989 Vice President Bush is first since Vice President Van Buren to declare himself President
- 1989 Visitor posting - James S. Guest II, leader of the zombie resistance, is born. - USA
- 1990 A crowded passenger train collides with a standing freight train in Pakistan's Sindh province, killing 300 people.
- 1990 Canada defeats Czechoslovakia 2-1 to win World Junior Hockey title.
- 1991 AT"T workers in Newark accidentally snap a cable everyone wonders what happened
- 1991 Iraq agrees to send Aziz to Geneva to meet Baker on Jan 9th
- 1991 Jan Krzystof Bielecki becomes premier of Poland
- 1995 Denis Lortie released on parole after serving 10 years in prison for 1984 shooting in the Quebec National Assembly, where he killed three people.
- 1995 Newt Gingrich (R) becomes speaker of the House
- 1995 Visitor posting - Victoria Head was born january 4th 1995 - Canada
- 1996 Visitor posting - Charles Bynum was born
- 1997 Canada wins the World Junior Hockey title in Switzerland.
- 1998 Wilaya of Relizane massacres in Algeria; over 170 are killed in three remote villages.
- 1999 Former pro wrestler Jesse Ventura is sworn in as Governor of Minnesota.
- 1999 Gunmen open fire on Shiite Muslims worshipping in an Islamabad mosque, killing 16 people and injuring 25.
- 1999 Visitor posting - Spencer White was born - USA
- 2004 Dr. Mikhail Saakashvili is elected the President of Georgia.
- 2004 Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.
- 2006 Many American media outlets erroneously report that 12 miners have been found alive in the Sago Mine Disaster.
- 2006 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second, apparently more serious stroke. His authority is transferred to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
- 2007 The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history.
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