December 30
1922:
Union of Soviet Socialist Republics established.
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, formed this day in 1922 with its capital in Moscow, eventually incorporated 15 republics and constituted (in area) the largest country in the world until its dissolution in 1991.
1918:
The Spartacus League was transformed into the Communist Party of Germany at a party congress.
1916:
Grigory Yefimovich Rasputin was poisoned by Russian conservatives in an effort to halt his influence over Empress Alexandra and the royal family.
1902:
A new southing record was set by Robert Falcon Scott, in company with Ernest Henry Shackleton and E.A. Wilson, as they reached the Ross Ice Shelf at the head of the Ross Sea in Antarctica.
1896:
Philippine nationalist José Rizal was publicly executed, enraging and uniting Filipinos.
1853:
The United States acquired nearly 30,000 square miles (78,000 square km) of additional northern Mexican territory with the signing of the Gadsden Purchase.
1847:
The reformist Illinois governor John Peter Altgeld, known principally for his pardon of German American anarchists involved in the Haymarket Riot, was born in Niederselters, Prussia.
1803:
The Maratha chief Daulat Rao Sindhia and the British signed the Treaty of Surji-Arjungaon.
December 31
1857:
Ottawa made capital of Canada.
Ottawa, located in Ontario at the confluence of the Ottawa, Gatineau, and Rideau rivers and whose area was first described by Samuel de Champlain in 1613, was named the capital of Canada by Queen Victoria this day in 1857.
1991:
The Soviet Union legally ceased to exist, Russia and other former Soviet republics having declared themselves independent and having founded the Commonwealth of Independent States on December 21, 1991.
1972:
Baseball great Roberto Clemente died in an airplane crash en route to Nicaragua with relief supplies collected for earthquake survivors.
1880:
George C. Marshall, the U.S. Army chief of staff during World War II (1939–45), U.S secretary of state (1947–49) and of defense (1950–51), architect of the Marshall Plan for European recovery, and recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1953, was born.
1775:
American troops under General Richard Montgomery and Colonel Benedict Arnold were defeated by the British in the Battle of Quebec.
1600:
The East India Company, formed for the exploitation of trade with East and Southeast Asia and India, was incorporated by English royal charter.
January 1
2002:
Euro introduced in Europe.
On this day in 2002 the euro, the monetary unit of the European Union, was introduced with the issuance of both currency and coins, and by March 2002 it was the sole legal tender of participating member states.
1994:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect, eliminating most tariffs and other trade barriers on products and services passing between the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
1953:
American country-and-western musician Hank Williams died.
1909:
Barry M. Goldwater, a U.S. senator from Arizona (1953–64, 1969–87) and the Republican presidential candidate in 1964, was born.
1863:
The Emancipation Proclamation, which freed the slaves of the Confederacy (the states in rebellion against the Union during the American Civil War), was issued by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.
1804:
Haiti declared its independence from France.
1735:
Paul Revere, the horseback-riding folk hero of the American Revolution, was born.
1449:
Florentine statesman, ruler, and patron of arts and letters Lorenzo de' Medici was born.
January 2
1492:
Granada reclaimed by Spain.
On this day in 1492, Granada, home of the Alhambra palace and the seat and final stronghold of the Moorish kingdom in Spain, was surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand II and Isabella I, ending the Reconquest.
1950:
German actor Emil Jannings died.
1935:
The widely publicized trial of Bruno Hauptmann began in New Jersey as he faced charges of kidnapping and murdering the infant son of famed American aviator Charles A. Lindbergh.
1905:
The Russians surrendered Port Arthur (now Lüshun, China) to the Japanese in the Russo-Japanese War.
1904:
American actress, fan dancer, and bubble dancer Sally Rand was born in Elkton, Missouri.
1896:
Dziga Vertov, a Soviet motion-picture director whose kino-glaz (“film-eye”) theory had international impact on the development of documentaries and cinema realism during the 1920s, was born.
1863:
The Battle of Stones River came to an end during the American Civil War.
1861:
Frederick William IV, king of Prussia from 1840, died at Sanssouci Palace on this day in 1861.
January 3
1521:
Martin Luther excommunicated by pope.
On this day in 1521, Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating Martin Luther, the German priest whose questioning of certain Roman Catholic practices initiated the Protestant Reformation.
2001:
Hillary Rodham Clinton was sworn in as a U.S. senator from New York, having become the first first lady in U.S. history to win elective office.
1939:
Canadian professional ice hockey player Bobby Hull, the “Golden Jet,” was born.
1929: Italian motion-picture director Sergio Leone, known primarily for his popularization of the “spaghetti western,” was born.
1883:
Clement Attlee, British Labour Party leader (1935–55) and prime minister (1945–51), was born.
1777:
The Battle of Princeton (New Jersey) was fought during the American Revolution.
1543:
Spanish soldier and explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, the ‘‘discoverer” of California, died.
January 4
1948:
Burma granted independence.
On this day in 1948, the Southeast Asian nation of Burma (Myanmar) formally gained independence, completing the transfer of power negotiated by Burmese leader Aung San and British Prime Minister Clement Attlee in 1947.
1965:
American-English author T.S. Eliot died in London.
1935:
American professional boxer Floyd Patterson was born in Waco, North Carolina.
1809:
French educator Louis Braille, who developed a system of printing and writing that is extensively used by the blind and that was named for him, was born near Paris.
January 5
1933:
Golden Gate Bridge construction begun.
In San Francisco on this day in 1933, construction began on the Golden Gate Bridge, a suspension bridge that once boasted the longest main span in the world and that has been celebrated for the magnificence of its setting.
1998:
Daniel arap Moi was sworn in as president of Kenya for his fifth consecutive term.
1931:
American dancer and choreographer Alvin Ailey, Jr., was born in Rogers, Texas.
1925:
Nellie Tayloe Ross assumed office in Wyoming, becoming the first female governor in the United States.
1919:
Anton Drexler founded the German Workers' Party, the forerunner of the Nazi Party, in Munich, Germany.
1914:
Following the great success of the Model T, American automobile maker Henry Ford raised his workers' pay from $2.40 to $5.00 a day and reduced the hours of the workday.
January 6
Today:
Epiphany.
Celebrated annually this day, Epiphany is a major feast that commemorates, for Western Christians, the coming of the Magi and, for Eastern Orthodox Christians, Jesus' birth, baptism by John, and first miracle.
1950:
Great Britain announced its recognition of the People's Republic of China.
1941:
U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt outlined his Four Freedoms in his State of the Union message to Congress.
1878:
American poet, historian, and folklorist Carl Sandburg, whose Abraham Lincoln: The War Years won the Pulitzer Prize for history in 1940, was born.
1838:
German composer Max Bruch was born in Cologne, Prussia.
1811:
American Civil War statesman Charles Sumner was born in Boston.
1759:
George Washington married Martha Dandridge in Virginia.
1540:
Henry VIII of England married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves.
January 7
1610:
Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's four moons.
During this month in 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo made the earthshaking discoveries that four moons revolve around Jupiter and that the telescope reveals many more stars than are visible to the naked eye.
2003:
By presidential decree, Christmas—this day on the Coptic Orthodox calendar—was celebrated for the first time as a national holiday in Egypt, an almost entirely Muslim country.
2001:
John Kufuor was inaugurated as president of Ghana in that country's first peaceful transition from one elected government to another.
1968:
Unmanned U.S. space probe Surveyor 7 was launched and, a few days later, made a soft landing on the Moon.
1955:
American contralto Marian Anderson first performed with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
1891:
Zora Neale Hurston, an American folklorist and writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance who celebrated black culture of the rural South, was born.
1844:
St. Bernadette, the French girl whose visions led to the founding of the shrine of Lourdes, was born in that town.
1800:
Millard Fillmore, the 13th U.S. president, was born.
January 8
1997:
Anniversary of Grimaldi rule in Monaco.
On this day in 1997, the principality of Monaco began a yearlong celebration in honour of the 700th anniversary of the rule of the Grimaldi family, who seized power in 1297 and gained firm possession of Monaco in 1419.
1959:
Charles de Gaulle was inaugurated as president of France's Fifth Republic.
1942:
English theoretical physicist Stephen W. Hawking was born.
1918:
U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announced his Fourteen Points, an outline for peace following World War I.
1862:
American publisher Frank Nelson Doubleday was born.
1815:
U.S. General Andrew Jackson defeated Great Britain in the Battle of New Orleans, the final engagement in the War of 1812.
January 9
2005:
Election of Mahmoud Abbas.
Mahmoud Abbas, who was a founder of Fatah in the 1950s and had served briefly as prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in 2003 under Yāsir ʿArafāt, was elected president of the PA on this day in 2005.
2001:
Australian scientists said that analysis of DNA taken from 60,000-year-old local human remains showed no links with human ancestors from Africa, suggesting that Africa was not the only site of the genesis of the human species.
1908:
Simone de Beauvoir, French writer and feminist who gave a literary transcription to the themes of existentialism, was born in Paris.
1861:
Mississippi became the second U.S. state (after South Carolina) to secede from the Union, in the run-up to the American Civil War.
1839:
Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre of France proclaimed his invention of the daguerreotype, the first commercially successful form of photography.
January 10
1776:
Common Sense published.
On this day in 1776, Thomas Paine published Common Sense, a 50-page pamphlet that sold more than 500,000 copies within a few months and called for a war of independence that would become the American Revolution.
1984:
The United States and the Vatican established diplomatic relations after a 117-year break.
1949:
American boxer George Foreman was born in Marshall, Texas.
1946:
Radar signals bouncing off the Moon were detected for the first time.
1946:
The first United Nations General Assembly met in London.
1925:
American jazz drummer and percussionist Max Roach was born.
1920:
The League of Nations was established in Geneva.
1901:
The first major oil field in Texas was discovered, near Beaumont.
1861:
Florida seceded from the Union and in February 1861 joined the Confederacy.
January 11
1935:
Amelia Earhart's Hawaii-to-California flight.
On this day in 1935, Amelia Earhart, one of the world's most celebrated aviators, made the first successful solo flight from Hawaii to California, a distance longer than that from the United States to Europe.
2001:
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved the merger of America Online and Time Warner, and AOL Time Warner (since shortened to Time Warner) stock began trading the next morning.
1964:
U.S. Surgeon General Luther L. Terry announced that cigarette smoking is linked to lung cancer.
1878:
Milk was delivered for the first time in glass bottles in New York City.
1861:
Alabama seceded from the Union, the fourth state to do so in the run-up to the American Civil War.
1755/57:
Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the U.S. Treasury, was born in the British West Indies.
January 12
1879:
Beginning of Zulu War.
The Zulu War began this week in 1879 as the British sought control over Zululand in eastern South Africa, and, despite initial setbacks, British forces were victorious over the Zulu army after six months of fighting.
1969:
American gridiron football quarterback Joe Namath, having “guaranteed” victory, led the New York Jets to a 16–7 win over the favoured Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
1932:
Hattie Ophelia Caraway became the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate.
1916:
P.W. Botha, prime minister (1978–84) and president (1984–89) of South Africa, was born.
1876:
American novelist Jack London, author of Call of the Wild (1903) and White Fang (1906), was born in San Francisco.
1773:
The oldest public museum in the United States was established in colonial Charleston, South Carolina.
January 13
1898:
蒻ile Zola's “J'accuse” published.
On this day in 1898, French author 蒻ile Zola published an open letter in the newspaper L'Aurore denouncing the French general staff for its role in the 1894 treason conviction of Jewish French army officer Alfred Dreyfus.
1997:
President Abdala Bucaram of Ecuador visited President Alberto Fujimori of Peru, the first official visit to Peru by an Ecuadoran president in 150 years.
1942:
American industrialist Henry Ford patented plastic automobile construction.
1884:
Russian-born American singer Sophie Tucker, the “Last of the Red-Hot Mamas,” was born.
1832:
Horatio Alger, one of the most popular American authors in the last 30 years of the 19th century and perhaps the most socially influential American writer of his generation, was born.
1808:
Salmon P. Chase, secretary of the Treasury (1861–64) in Abraham Lincoln's wartime cabinet and sixth chief justice of the United States (1864–73), was born.
January 14
1900:
Premiere of Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca .
The opera Tosca—a psychological drama of deceit and doubt composed by Giacomo Puccini, one of the greatest exponents of operatic realism—made its world premiere in Rome's Costanzi Theatre on this day in 1900.
1997:
Greek archaeologists announced that they had discovered an ancient site in Athens that may have been Aristotle's Lyceum.
1954:
Baseball player Joe DiMaggio and actress Marilyn Monroe married at City Hall in San Francisco.
1784:
The Continental Congress ratified the Peace of Paris (1783) with Great Britain, granting independence to the American colonies.
1526:
The Treaty of Madrid was signed by the Habsburg emperor Charles V (Charles I of Spain) and his prisoner Francis I, king of France, who had been captured during the Battle of Pavia in February 1525 and held prisoner until the conclusion of the treaty, when he was allowed to return to France.
January 15
1759:
British Museum opened to the public.
Established by an act of Parliament in 1753, the British Museum—which counts among its world-renowned antiquities and archaeological holdings the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone—opened to the public this day in 1759.
1967:
In the first Super Bowl game, the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) defeated the Kansas City Chiefs of the American Football League (AFL) by a score of 35 to 10.
1909:
American jazz drummer Gene Krupa was born in Chicago.
1896:
American photographer Mathew B. Brady, known for his portraits of politicians and images of the American Civil War, died alone and virtually forgotten in a hospital charity ward in New York City.
1870:
The donkey appeared as a symbol of the U.S. Democratic Party in a Thomas Nast cartoon.
1844:
The University of Notre Dame, founded in Indiana by the Congregation of the Holy Cross, was officially chartered.
January 16
1991:
Beginning of Persian Gulf War .
The Persian Gulf War, triggered by Iraq's occupation of Kuwait in August 1990, began on this day in 1991 with a U.S.-led air offensive against Iraq that continued until a cease-fire was declared on February 28.
1934:
Marilyn Horne, an American mezzo-soprano noted for the seamless quality and the exceptional range and flexibility of her voice, was born.
1883:
The Pendleton Civil Service Act established the Civil Service Commission in the United States.
1556:
Charles V, Holy Roman emperor and king of Spain, renounced his claim to Spain.
January 17
1893:
Hawaiian monarchy overthrown.
Acting for Hawaiian sugar interests and their American allies, a committee led by Sanford Ballard Dole deposed Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani this day in 1893 and installed a provisional government with Dole as president.
1943:
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt met at Casablanca, Morocco.
1942:
American professional boxer Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Kentucky.
1917:
The United States purchased three of the Virgin Islands—St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix—from Denmark for $25 million.
1899:
American gangster Al Capone was born in Brooklyn, New York.
1820:
English poet and novelist Anne Bront
January 18
1871:
German Empire established.
The German Empire, forged as a result of diplomacy rather than an outpouring of popular nationalist feeling, was founded this day in 1871 in the aftermath of three successful wars by the North German state of Prussia.
1943:
To save on the costs of labour and equipment, the United States banned the sale of presliced bread during World War II.
1911:
The first aircraft landing on a ship's flight deck was performed by American pilot Eugene Ely on the battleship Pennsylvania in San Francisco Bay.
1904:
British American film actor Cary Grant was born in Bristol in Gloucestershire, England.
1782:
American orator and politician Daniel Webster was born in New Hampshire.
1779:
English physician, philologist, and thesaurus compiler Peter Roget was born in London.
1733:
A polar bear was first exhibited in Boston.