1384 -
John Wycliffe dies. English philosopher, theologian and religious reformator.
1492 - Jews are expelled from Sicily.
1514 -
Andreas Vesalius was born (d. 1564). Flemish
anatomist who, as a university teacher insisted on conducting detailed dissections on human cadavers personally ( "De humani corporis fabrica") .
1553 - Pedro de Valdivia funda en Chile los fuertes de Arauco, Puren, Tucapel y la ciudad de Los Confines o Angol.
1588 - Fray Luis de Granad dies in Lisbon. Spanish ascetic writer.
1650 -
Dorgon dies (b. 1612). Chinese emperor.
1679 -
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli dies (b. 1608). Italian
physiologist who was the first to explain muscular movement and other body functions according to the laws of statics and dynamics. ["De motu animalium (Rome, 1680)].
1695 - A
window tax is imposed in
England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the
tax.
1719 -
John Flamsteed (b. 1646). English
astronomer who
established the Greenwich Observatory, as one of a group of scientists who convinced King Charles II to build a national observatory.
1744 - James Bradley announced the discovery of Earth's motion of nutation, or wobbling.
1753 -
Alexandre de Gusmão dies in Lisbon (b. in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil in 1695). Diplomat and politician.
1784 - Para reforzar la lucha contra los piratas, Carlos III establece la pena de galeras en España.
1805 - Marie de Flavigny best known for Daniel Stern was born. French writer.
1816 - Sir William Withey Gull was born (d. 1890); A leading English physician of his time, lecturer and physician at Guy's Hospital, London, and an outstanding clinical teacher.
1830 - José Elias Garcia was born (d. 1891). Portuguese politician. President of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon.
1838 - D. Luís I was born in Lisbon (d. 19 Oct 1889). King of Portugal
1846 - Portugal: Os miguelistas são completamente derrotados em Braga, tendo o seu comandante, Macdonell sido preso e morto em 30 de Janeiro de 1847 (O liberalismo em Portugal).
1864 - Robert Grant Aitken was born (d.1951). American
astronomer who specialized in the study of double stars, of which he discovered more than 3,000.
1868 - É ocupada Assunção, a capital do Paraguai, por uma coluna brasileira sob o comando do Coronel Hermes Ernesto da Fonseca.
1869 -
Henri Matisse was born (d. 1954). French painter and graphic artist. Along with Picasso, Matisse is considered one of the two foremost artists of the modern period. His contribution to 20th-century art is inestimable.
1878 -
Elizabeth Arden was born in Woodbridge, Ontario, Canada (d. 1966). Beautician, business executive.
1879 -
Thomas Edison gave the first public demonstration of an electric incandescent lamp.
1880 -
Fred Beebe was born (d. 1957). Baseball player.
1881 -
Max Pechstein was born (d. 1955). Painter and graphic artist .
1884 -
Bobby Byrne was born (d. 1964). American baseball player.
1890 - Francisca Carrasco Jiménez (Pancha) dies (b. 1816). "Defensora de lasLibertades Patrias" de Costa Rica.
1894 -
Pola Negri was born (d. 1987). Polish actress.
1898 - Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson was born (d. 1975). He was a leading English ethnographer of the
Mayan people.
1902 - Candido López dies in Baradero, Buenos Aires. Argentine painter.
1905 -
Alexander Popov dies (b. 1859). Russian physicist and electrical
engineer acclaimed in Russia as the inventor of radio.
1905 -
Jule Styne was born (d. 1994). English-born composer.
1905 - Waldemar Seyssel was born in Jaguariaiva, Paraná (d. 23 May 2005). Brazilian comedian and actor.
1909 -
Jonah Jones was born (d. 2000). American jazz trumpeter.
1910 -
Carl Dudley was born (d. 1973). American film director.
1911 - Marie Curie receives her 2nd Nobel Prize .
1913 - Seth Carlo Chandler dies (b. 1846). American
astronomer best known for his discovery (1884-85) of the Chandler Wobble, a complex movement in the Earth's axis of rotation (now refered to as polar motion) that causes latitude to vary with a period of 14 months.
1916 - The Hampton Terrace Hotel in
North Augusta, South Carolina, one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in the USA at the time, burns to the ground.
1920 -
Rex Allen was born (d. 1999). American actor and singer.
1921 -
Boies Penrose dies (b. 1860). American Senator from Pennsylvania.
1923 - The Sahara is traversed by an automobile for the first time.
1923 - The chimes of
Big Ben are broadcast on radio for the first time by the
BBC.
1923 - Se inauguran los servicios aéreos entre Buenos Aires y Montevideo.
1928 -
Siné was born. French cartoonist
1929 - Jeremy Bernstein was born; American physicist, educator, and writer widely known for the clarity of his writing for the lay reader on the major issues of modern physics.
1930 -
Odetta was born. American singer
1931 -
Bob Shaw was born (d. 1996). Irish writer.
1933 -
Edward Bunker was born (d. 2005). American author, screenwriter and actor.
1934 - Cornelia Maria Clapp dies [b. 1849]; American zoologist and educator whose influence as a teacher was great and enduring in a period when the world of science was just opening to women.
1935 - Monopoly was patented, game assigned to Parker Brothers, Inc., by Charles Darrow of Pennsylvania.
1935 - Manuel Portela Valladares preside un nuevo Gobierno en España.
- 1937 - Anthony Hopkins was born. Welsh actor.
1938 - The first breath test for drivers, "
drunkometer," was introduced in Indianapolis.
1940 - Arsène d'Arsonval dies (b. 1851). French physician and physicist who was a pioneer in therapeutic use of electricity, heat, and light.
1941 -
Alex Ferguson was born. Football (soccer) player and well known manager (Manchester United).
- 1943 - John Denver was born (d. 1997). Country/pop musician.
1943 -
Ben Kingsley was born in Scarborough England; actor
(Gandhi, Betrayal, Maurice...).
1947 - Rita Lee Jones was born in São Paulo. Brazilian singer and composer.
- 1948 - Donna Summer was born in Boston. American singer.
- 1948 - René Robert was born. National Hockey League player
- 1948 - Malcolm Campbell dies (b. 1885). English race car driver.
1949 - 18 countries recognize Republic Indonesia.
1952 - Vaughan Frederick Randal Jones was born; New Zealand mathematician who was awarded the Fields
Medal in 1990 for his
study of functional analysis and knot theory.
1955 -
General Motors becomes the first American corporation to make over USD $1 billion in a year.
1956 - On December, 31st. in Romania was launched the first TV program.
1958 - Ernesto "Che" Guevara encabeza la ocupación de Santa Clara. Horas más tarde Fulgencio Batista huye de Cuba.
1959 -
Val Kilmer was born. American actor
( The Saint, Top Gun, The Doors) .
1961 - The
Marshall Plan expired after distributing more than $12 billion in foreign aid to rebuild Europe .
1971 - US President Richard Nixon signs the National Air Quality Control Act, which calls for a 90% reduction in automobile emissions by 1975. The act also tightened air-pollution controls and fines in other industries.
1971 -
Brent Barry was born. American basketball player.
1971 -
Pete Duel dies (b. 1940). American actor.
1971 -
Marin Sais dies (b. 1890). American actress.
1975 - Pela primeira vez em 51 anos, a corrida de São Silvestre, maratona internacional realizada todos os anos em São Paulo, aceitou a participação de mulheres.
1978 -
Papoose was born. African-American rapper.
1979 - La Reina Isabel II de Inglaterra nombra caballero de la Orden del Imperio Británico al director de cine Alfred Hitchcock.
1980 - Léopold Sédar Senghor resigns after 20 years as Senegalese president .
1980 -
Matt Cross was born. American professional wrestler
1980 -
Raoul Walsh dies (b. 1887). American film director.
1981 - Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings becomes Africa's first post-independent head of state after overthrowing Frederick Akuffo's government in Ghana.
1983 - Nigeria's National Assembly dissolves after military coup .
1984 - Luciano Jaramillo Trujillo dies. Colombian painter.
1985 -
João de Araújo Correia dies (b. 1 Jan 1899). Portuguese writer
[Contos Bárbaros (1939), Montes Pintados, Contos Durienses, Folhas de Xisto ]1988 - No Rio de Janeiro o Bateau Mouche IV afunda na Baía de Guanabara matando 55 pessoas.
1988 -
Mario Lemieux became the first player in
National Hockey League history to score one each of the five types of
goals in a single game: an even-strength goal, a power-play goal, a short-handed goal, a penalty shot and an empty-net goal.
1988 - Yara Amaral dies (b. 16 Sep 1939). Brazilian actress.
1993 - the last research samples of the
smallpox virus (variola) were scheduled to be destroyed.
Smallpox was the world's most dreaded plagues until 1977, when it was declared eradicated. However, some scientists who wanted to continue research on the virus stopped the destruction plan. The remaining frozen samples are in Moscow.
1995 - Renuncia del primer ministro italiano Lamberto Dini.
1995 - O presidente da Argélia Liamine Zeroual indica Ahmed Ouyahia como seu novo primeiro-ministro.
1997 -
Quaker Oats settles a lawsuit involving the immoral use of child subjects in radioactivity experiments circa 1945-56.
1997 - Microsoft buys Hotmail E-mail service.
1999 - Five
hijackers, who had been holding 155 hostages on an
Indian Airlines plane, leave the plane with two Islamic clerics that they had demanded be freed.
1999 -
Sarah Knauss dies at the age of 119 years - at death, the world's oldest person alive.
1999 - Control of Panamá Canal reverts to Panamá.
2000 -
José Greco dies (b. 1918). Italian-born American flamenco dancer and choreographer.
2000 - Kenneth L. Pike dies (b. 1912). He was a U.S.
linguist and anthropologist known for his studies of the aboriginal languages of Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, New Guinea, Java, Ghana, Nigeria, Australia, Nepal, and the Philippines.
2000 - Bill Clinton suscribe el tratado para crear el Tribunal Penal Internacional (TPI) con capacidad para investigar y juzgar a individuos acusados de haber cometido graves delitos contra el Derecho Internacional Comunitario. Su sucesor en la presidencia de los EE.UU., George W. Bush, retirará la participación de los EE.UU. en el tribunal.
2000 - Manuel de Rivacoba y Rivacoba dies. Spanish penalist and politician.
2005 - Lisbon-Dakar all terrain veihucules rallye starts, naturally from Lisbon.