On this day in History - Jan. 20

• 0225 - Gordian III was born (d. 0244). Roman emperor.
• 0250 - Emperor Decius begins a widespread persecution of Christians in Rome. Pope Fabian is martyred. Afterwards the Donatist controversy over readmitting lapsed Christians disaffects many in North Africa.
• 1045 - Giovanno di Sabina elected Pope Sylvester III
• 1156 - According to legend, freeholder Lalli slays English crusader Bishop Henry with an axe on the ice of the lake Köyliönjärvi in Finland. Because this Bishop Henry, was converted in patron saint of Finland.
• 1156 - Bishop Henry dies. Patron saint of Finland.
• 1191 - Frederick VI, Duke of Swabia dies (b. 1167).
• 1265 - In Westminster, the first English parliament conducts its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster, now also known as the Houses of Parliament.
• 1292 - Elisabeth I of Bohemia was born (d. 1330).
• 1320 - Duke Wladyslaw Lokietek becomes king of Poland.
• 1356 - Edward Balliol resigns as King of Scotland.
• 1358 - Eleanor of Aragon was born (d. 1382). Queen of John I of Castile.
• 1435 - Ashikaga Yoshimasawas born (d. 1490). Ashikaga shogun.
• 1479 - King John II of Aragon dies (b. 1397).
• 1486 - Cristóvão Colombo se apresenta em Córdoba aos Reis Católicos, oferecendo seus serviços científicos e pesquisadores, como a nova rota às Índias.
• 1502 - The present-day location of Rio de Janeiro is first explored.
• 1523 - Christian II was forced to abdicate as King of Denmark and Norway.
• 1554 - King Sebastian of Portugal was born (d. 1578)/ Nascimento de D. Sebastião, Rei de Portugal.
• 1568 - Myles Coverdale dies. English Bible translator.
• 1576 - The Mexican city of León is founded by order of the viceroy Don Martín Enríquez de Almanza.
• 1586 - Johann Schein was born (d. 1630). German composer.
• 1590 - Giovanni Battista Benedetti dies. Italian mathematicien, philosopher and physicien.
• 1612 - Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor dies (b. 1552).
• 1649 - Charles I of England goes on trial for treason and other "high crimes"
• 1664 - Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina was born (d. 1718). Italian writer and jurist.
• 1666 - Anna of Austria dies (b. 1601). Queen Consort of France and Regent for her son Louis XIV of France.
• 1667 - Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth cedes Kyiv, Smolensk, and left-bank Ukraine to Imperial Russia in the treaty of Andrusiv .
• 1707 - Humphrey Hody dies (b. 1659). English theologian.
• 1709 - François de la Chaise dies (b. 1624). French confessor of Louis XIV of France
• 1716 - King Charles III of Spain was born (d. 1788)
• 1716 - Jean-Jacques Barthélemy was born (d. 1795). French writer and numismatist
• 1732 - Richard Henry Lee was born. Political leader in the American Revolution.
• 1739 - Francesco Galli-Bibiena dies (b. 1659). Italian architect/designer
• 1745 - Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor dies (b. 1697) .
• 1751 - John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol dies (b. 1665). English politician.
• 1770 - Charles Yorke dies (b. 1722). Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.
• 1775 - Andre Marie Ampere was born (d. 1836). French physicist.
• 1778 - Hawaii “discovered” by James Cook The first European to visit Hawaii was British explorer James Cook, who landed at Waimea on Kauai island this day in 1778 and was killed the following year by Hawaiians when he returned to the islands.
• 1779 - David Garrick dies (b. 1717). English actor.
• 1781 - Joseph Hormayr Freiherr zu Hortenburg was born (d. 1848). Austrian politician.
• 1783 - Britain signs a peace treaty with France and Spain, officially ending hostilities in the Revolutionary War.
• 1783 - Justus Johann Friedrich Dotzauer was born (d. 1860). German cellist and composer
• 1788 - The third and main part of First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay. Arthur Phillip decides Botany Bay is unsuitable for location of a penal colony, and decides to move to Port Jackson.
• 1798 - Anson Jones was born (d. 1858). 5th and last President of Texas.
• 1801 - John Marshall was appointed Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.
• 1804 - Eugène Sue was born (d. 1857). French novelist.
• 1806 - Nathaniel P. Willis was born in Portland, Maryland. Writer/editor who founds the "American Monthly Magazine".
• 1807 - Combate del Cardal, en el que la guarnición de Montevideo sucumbió, tras brava resistencia, ante los invasores ingleses.
• 1810 - Benjamin Chew dies (b. 1722). Chief Justice of colonial Pennsylvania.
• 1812 - Thomas Meik was born (d. 1896). Scottish engineer.
• 1817 - Tropas portuguesas, al mando del general Carlos Federico Lecor, ocupan Montevideo.
• 1819 - King Charles IV of Spain dies (b. 1748)
• 1837 - David Josiah Brewer was born (d. 1910). U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
• 1839 - In the Battle of Yungay, Chile defeats a Peruvian and Bolivian alliance.
• 1840 - Dumont D'Urville discovers Adélie Land, Antarctica.
• 1840 - Willem II becomes King of the Netherlands.
• 1841 - Hong Kong Island occupied by the British Empire / A ilha de Hong Kong é cedida pela China à Grã-Bretanha. Mas o acordo entre os dois países estabelece que Hong Kong voltará ao controle chinês em julho de 1997.
• 1848 - Christian VIII of Denmark dies (b. 1786).
• 1850 - Adam Oehlenschläger dies (b. 1779). Danish poet.
• 1855 - Ernest Chausson was born (d. 1899). French composer. His Poème for Violin & Orchestra is one of the most popular in the violin repertory.
• 1856 - Harriot Eaton Stanton Blatch was born (d. 1940). Women's rights activist.
• 1857 -Vladimir Bekhterev was born (d. 24 Dec 1927). Russian neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who studied the formations of the brain and investigated conditioned reflexes.
• 1866 - Euclides da Cunha was born (d. 1909). Brazilian writer.
• 1867 - Yvette Guilbert was born (d. 1944). French singer and actress.
• 1868 - Wilhelm Schaeffer was born. German writer.
• 1868 - Francisco Javier Espinosa becomes President of Ecuador.
• 1868 - O Papa Pío IX concede a Rosa de Ouro à Rainha da Espanha, Isabel II.
• 1873 - Johannes Vilhelm Jensen was born (d. 1950). Danish author, Nobel prize winner.
• 1873 - The Venerable Father Basil Anthony Marie Moreau dies (b. 1799). Founder of the Congregation of Holy Cross
• 1875 - Jean-François Millet dies (b. 1814). French painter.
• 1876 - Jozef Hofmann was born (d. 1967). Polish pianist.
• 1877 - Raymond Roussel was born on Paris († 1933). French writer.
• 1878 - Ruth St. Denis was born in Englewood, New Jersey (d. 1968). Great American modernist dancer.
• 1878 - Finlay Currie was born (d. 1968). British actor
• 1880 - Walter W. Bacon was born (d. 1962). Governor of Delaware.
• 1882 - Comienzan las obras de excavación del Canal de Panamá.
• 1883 - Alfred Francis Russell becomes President of Liberia (20 Jan 1883 to 7 Jan 1884).
• 1885 - Leadbelly (Huddie Ledbetter) was born (d. 1949). American Blues Singer.
• 1885 - L.A. Thompson patents the roller coaster.
• 1887 - The United States Senate allows the Navy to lease Pearl Harbor as a naval base.
• 1889 - Gerta-Luise von Einem was born († 3 Mar 1964). As the wife of major general William von Einem, Gerta-Luise was the grand dame of high society.
• 1890 - O Hino Nacional do Brasil, composto por Francisco Manuel da Silva, é oficializado.
• 1891 - James Hogg becomes the first native Texan to be governor of that state.
• 1891 - Mischa Elman was born (d. 1967). Ukrainian born violinist.
• 1891 - David Kalakaua dies (b. 1836). King of Hawaii.
• 1892 - At the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts, the first official basketball game is played.
• 1893 - Georg Åberg was born (d. 1946). Swedish athlete.
• 1894 - Walter Piston was born (d. 1976). American composer.
• 1896 - George Burns was born (d. 1996). American actor, comedian.
• 1896 - Isabel Withers was born (d. 1968). American actress.
• 1898 - U Razak was born (d. 1947). Burmese politician.
• 1899 - Kenjiro Takayanagi was born (d. 1990). Japanese development of television.
• 1900 - Colin Clive was born (d. 1937). British actor.
• 1900 - John Ruskin dies (b. 1819). English art critic.
• 1901 - Zénobe Gramme dies (b. 1826). Belgian engineer.
• 1902 - Leon Ames was born (d. 1993). American actor
• 1906 - Aristotle Sócrates Onassis was born. Greek industrialist.
• 1907 - Paula Wessely was born (d. 2000). Austrian actress.
• 1907 - Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev dies (b.1834). Russian chemist and inventor of the Periodic table .
• 1910 - Joy Adamson was born (d. 1980). Austrian Naturalist, conservationalist and author of the best-selling book "Born Free," was killed in Northern Kenya by a servant in a wage dispute.
• 1915 - Ghulam Ishaq Khan was born. President of Pakistan.
• 1916 - Chacrinha (José Abelardo Barbosa de Medeiros) was born in Surubim, PE (d. 30 Jul 1988). Brazilian TV presenter and radialist.
• 1917 - Fernando Rey was born. Spanish actor.
• 1918 - Juan Garcia Esquivel was born (d. 2002). Mexican musician.
• 1920 - Paris Peace Conference is over (began on Jan 18, 1920)
• 1920 - The American Civil Liberties Union is founded.
• 1920 - Federico Fellini was born (d. 1993). Italian film director.
• 1920 - DeForest Kelley was born (d. 1999). American actor.
• 1920 - John O'Connor was born (d. 2000). American Catholic cardinal.
• 1920 - Thorleif Schjelderup was born (d. 2006). Norwegian author and ski jumper
• 1920 - Georg Lurich dies (b. 1876). Estonian wrestler.
• 1921 - The first constitution of Turkey was adopted, which made fundamental change in the source and exercise of sovereignty.
• 1921 - Francisco José de Vasques Tenreiro was born (d. 1963). San Tomean poet.
• 1921 - Telmo Zarraonaindía was born (d. 2006). Spanish footballer.
• 1922 - Ray Anthony was born. American trumpeter, bandleader, songwriter and actor
• 1922 - Camille Jordan dies (b. 5 Jan 1838). French mathematician and engineer who prepared a foundation for group theory and built on the prior work of Évariste Galois (died 1832).
• 1923 - Nora Brockstedt was born. Norwegian singer.
• 1924 - Slim Whitman was born. American singer.
• 1925 - Ernesto Cardenal was born. Nicaraguan theologian and author and politician.
• 1926 - Patricia Neal was born. American actress. Her role as Halma in Hud back in 1962 was unforgettable and gave her the Academy Award.
• 1926 - David Tudor was born (d. 1996). American pianist and composer.
• 1926 - Jamiluddin Aali was born. Pakistani poet, essayist and columnist.
• 1926 - Qurratulain Hyder was born (d. 2007). Indian novelist.
• 1929 - The movie In Old Arizona was released. The film was the first full-length talking film to be filmed outdoors.
• 1929 - Trotski é expulso da URSS e deportado à Turquia.
• 1929 - Jimmy Cobb was born. American jazz drummer
• 1929 - Bob Denard was born. French mercenary.
• 1929 - Arte Johnson was born. American actor.
• 1929 - Glenn "Fireball" Roberts was born (d. 1964). American race car driver.
• 1930 - Edwin Eugene "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr. was born. American astronaut
• 1931 - David Lee was born. American physicist who, with Robert C. Richardson and Douglas D. Osheroff, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1996 for their joint discovery of superfluidity in the isotope helium-3.
• 1933 - Inauguración de la plaza de toros de Maracay (Venezuela), ahora denominada maestranza "César Girón".
• 1932 - Lou Fontinato was born. National Hockey League defenceman
• 1934 - Tom Baker was born. British actor.
• 1936 - King George V of the United Kingdom dies (b. 1865) and Edward VIII becomes King.
• 1937 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States. This is the first inauguration scheduled on January 20, following adoption of the 20th Amendment. Previous inaugurations were scheduled on March 4.
• 1937 - The coldest temperature in California is recorded by Boca station at -45° Fahrenheit.
• 1937 - Dorothy Provine was born. American singer, dancer and actress
• 1938 - William Berger was born (d. 1993). Austrian actor.
• 1938 - Derek Dougan was born. Northern Irish footballer
• 1939 - Paul Coverdell was born (d. 2000). American politician.
• 1939 - King Farouk is declared the spiritual leader, or Caliph of Islam.
• 1940 - Jorge Peixinho was born in Montijo (d. 30 Jun 1995). Portuguese composer.
• 1940 - Carol Heiss was born. American figure skater.
• 1940 - Krishnam Raju was born. Indian actor and politician.
• 1940 - Omar Bundy dies (b. 1861). U.S. army general.
• 1941 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for a third term as President of the United States, becoming the only President to be elected to three terms.
• 1941 - Pierre Lalonde was born. Quebec singer and television host.
• 1941 - Ron Townson was born (d. 2001). American singer (The Fifth Dimension).
• 1942 - World War II: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide the "final solution to the Jewish problem".
• 1943 - Farhad Mehrad was born. Iranian musician.
• 1944 - World War II: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin.
• 1944 - José Luis Garci was born. Spanish filmmaker.
• 1944 - James McKeen Cattell dies (b. 1860). American psychologist.
• 1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt is inaugurated for a fourth term as President of the United States, becoming the only President to be elected to four terms.
• 1945 - Hungary drops out of the Second World War, agreeing an armistice with the Allies.
• 1945 - Christopher Martin-Jenkins was born. Cricket commentator and chief cricket correspondent of The Times
• 1945 - Eric Stewart was born. English musician and songwriter (10cc)
• 1945 - Robert Olen Butler was born. American writer.
• 1946 - David Lynch was born. American film director.
• 1947 - Cyrille Guimard was born. French cyclist and directeur sportif
• 1947 - Josh Gibson dies (b. 1911). African-American baseball player.
• 1948 - Natan Sharansky was born. Russian-born physicist and politician.
• 1949 - Göran Persson was born. Prime Minister of Sweden.
• 1949 - Harry S. Truman is re-inaugurated as the 33rd President of the United States.
• 1950 - Edward Hirsch was born. American poet.
• 1950 - Chuck Lefley was born Canadian ice hockey player
• 1950 - Mahamane Ousmane was born. President of Niger.
• 1950 - Liza Goddard was born. English actress
• 1951 - Ian Hill was born. British musician (Judas Priest)
• 1951 - Ivan Fischer was born. Hungarian conductor
• 1952 - Paul Stanley was born. American musician (KISS)
• 1952 - Edgar Faure becomes Prime Minister of France.
• 1953 - Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated as the 34th President of the United States.
• 1954 - The National Negro Network is established with 40 charter member radio stations.
• 1954 - Fred Root dies (b. 1890). English cricketer.
• 1955 - Joe Doherty was born. Provisional Irish Republican Army member
• 1955 - Wyatt Knight was born. American actor.
• 1956 - Bill Maher was born. American actor, comedian, and political analyst.
• 1956 - Maria Larsson was born. Swedish politician
• 1957 - Dwight D. Eisenhower is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United
• States.
• 1957 - Gomulka wins Poland's parliamentary election
• 1958 - Elvis Presley receives his draft notice.
• 1958 - Lorenzo Lamas was born. American actor.
• 1960 - Hendrik Verwoerd announces a plebiscite on whether South Africa should become a Republic.
• 1960 - Will Wright was born. American computer game designer
• 1960 - Scott Thunes was born. American musician (Frank Zappa)
• 1960 - Michael Hutchence was born (d. 1997). Australian Singer (INXS).
• 1961 - John F. Kennedy is inaugurated as the 35th President of the United States.
• 1961 - Monica Torres was born. Brazilian actress.
• 1962 - Robinson Jeffers dies (b. 1887). American poet, one of the most controversial American poets of the 20th century.
• 1963 - James Denton was born. American actor.
• 1964 - The Beatles released their first album in the United States, Meet the Beatles.
• 1964 - Aníbal Machado dies (b. 1894). Brazilian writer.
• 1965 - Lyndon B. Johnson is re-inaugurated as the 36th President of the United States.
• 1965 - Greg Kriesel was born. American bassist (The Offspring)
• 1965 - John Michael Montgomery was born. American singer.
• 1965 - Sophie, The Countess of Wessex was born. The wife of Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex
• 1965 - Colin Calderwood was born. Scottish footballer
• 1965 - Anton Weissenbacher was born. Romanian footballer.
• 1965 - Alan Freed dies in Palm Springs (b. 1922). American disk jockey.
• 1966 - Tia Carrere was born in Honolulu HI, actress (Wayne's World, General Hospital) .
• 1966 - Tracii Guns was born. American guitarist.
• 1968 - Game of the Century, which allowed the NCAA to gradually have influence over college sports broadcasting and introduce NCAA higher education opportunities; also a game that influenced the enactment of Title IX.
• 1968 - Melissa Rivers was born. American reporter and actress
• 1968 - Rainn Wilson was born. American actor
• 1969 - The first pulsar is discovered, in the Crab Nebula.
• 1969 - Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated as the 37th President of the United States.
• 1969 - Nicky Wire was born. British Musician (Manic Street Preachers)
• 1969 - Patrick K. Kroupa was born. American writer, hacker.
• 1969 - Skeet Ulrich was born. American actor.
• 1970 - Mitch Benn was born. UK comedian, songwriter, actor
• 1970 - Kerri Kenney-Silver as born. American actress
• 1971 - Derrick Green was born. American singer (Sepultura)
• 1971 - Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson was born. American drummer (The Roots)
• 1971 - Brian Giles was born. American baseball player
• 1971 - Gilbert M. "Broncho Bill" Anderson dies (b. 1880). American actor, director, writer, and producer
• 1972 - Dimite el Gobierno de Chile en pleno para facilitar a Salvador Allende su reorganización.
• 1973 - Richard M. Nixon is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
• 1973 - Princess Mathilde, Duchess of Brabant was born.
• 1973 - Amílcar Cabral dies assassinated in Conakry (b. 12 Sep 1924, in Bafatá, Guinea). Activist of liberation struggles in Guinea-Bissau.
• 1973 - Lorenz Böhler dies (b. 1885). Austrian physician.
• 1975 - Michael Ovitz founds Creative Artists Agency.
• 1975 - David Eckstein was born. American baseball player
• 1975 - Norberto Fontana was born. Argentine racing driver
• 1976 - Gretha Smit was born. Dutch speed skater.
• 1977 - Jimmy Carter is inaugurated as the 39th President of the United States.
• 1978 - Joy Giovanni was born. American actress and glamour model.
• 1978 - Sonja Kesselschläger was born. German heptathlete.
• 1978 - Allan Søgaard was born. Danish footballer.
• 1979 - Rob Bourdon was born. American musician (Linkin Park)
• 1979 - Asaka Kubo was born. Japanese gravure idol of 20th Century
• 1979 - Will Young was born. British singer.
• 1979 - Gustav Winckler dies (b. 1925). Danish singer.
• 1980 - Super Bowl XIV sees the coronation of the Pittsburgh Steelers as the team of the 1970s as they defeat the Los Angeles Rams, 31-19.
• 1980 - Os Estados Unidos anunciam o boicote às Olimpíadas de Moscovo em virtude de conflitos políticos entre os dois países.
• 1980 - Matthew Tuck was born. Welsh guitarist (Bullet for My Valentine)
• 1980 - Philippe Cousteau Jr. was born. Oceanographer/Environmentalist, grandson of Jacques Cousteau
• 1981 - President Reagan became the oldest president to take office (69 years and 349 days).
• 1981 - 52 American hostages seized from the American Embassy in Tehran were released after 444 days in captivity.
• 1981 - Owen Hargreaves was born. English international footballer
• 1981 - Crystal Lowe was born. Canadian actress
• 1981 - Freddy Guzmán was born. Dominican baseball player
• 1981 - Jason Richardson was born. American basketball player (Golden State Warriors)
• 1982 - Honduras constitution goes into effect.
• 1982 - Piet Dankert elected chairman of European Parliament
• 1982 - Erin Wasson was born in Irving, Texas. American supermodel.
• 1983 - Mané Garrincha dies (b. 1933). Brazilian footballer, two times World Champion (1958/1962).
• 1984 - Johnny Weissmuller dies (b. 1904). American Olympic swimming gold medalist and actor (Tarzan).
• 1985 - Super Bowl XIX becomes the most watched game in history. Television commercials ran for a million dollars a minute ( San Francisco 49ers 38 - Miami Dolphins 16).
• 1985 - Ronald W. Reagan is inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
• 1986 - Martin Luther King, Jr., day was celebrated as a federal holiday for the first time.
• 1986 - The United Kingdom and France announce plans to construct the Channel Tunnel.
• 1987 - Church of England envoy Terry Waite is kidnapped in the Lebanon.
• 1998 - American researchers announced they have cloned calves that may produce medicinal milk.
• 1988 - Maria Elisa Domingues, Portuguese journalist receive in Brussels the Annual Prize from The Association of European Journalists (AEJ)
• 1988 - Dora Stratou dies (b. 1903). Greek choreographer and folklorist.
• 1988 - Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan dies (b. 1890). Pashtun Nationalist & non-violent freedom fighter
• 1989 - George H. W. Bush is inaugurated as the 41st President of the United States and Quayle becomes 44th vice president.
• 1989 - Nadia Di Cello was born. Argentine actress.
• 1989 - Alamgir Kabir dies (b. 1938). Bangladeshi film director.
• 1990 - Black January - bloody crackdown of Azerbaijani peaceful pro-independence demonstrations by Soviet army in Baku.
• 1990 - Hayedeh dies (b. 1942). Persian singer.
• 1990 - Barbara Stanwyck dies (b. 1907). American actress.
• 1991 - Sudan's government imposes Islamic law nationwide, worsening the civil war between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
• 1992 - Air Inter Flight 148 crashes near Strasbourg, France, killing 82 passengers and 5 crew.
• 1993 - Bill Clinton is inaugurated as the 42nd President of the United States.
• 1993 - Audrey Hepburn dies in Switzerland (b. 1929). Belgian actress .
• 1994 - Death of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenyan independence leader and key opposition figure to President Daniel Moi's regime.
• 1994 - In South Carolina, Shannon Faulkner becomes the first female cadet to attend The Citadel but soon drops out.
• 1994 - Matt Busby dies (b. 1909). Scottish football manager.
• 1996 - Yasser Arafat is elected president of the Palestinian Authority with 88% of the votes in the first Palestinian elections.
• 1996 - Gerry Mulligan dies (b. 1927). American musician.
• 1996 - Madonna llega Buenos Aires para protagonizar la película Evita, de Alan Parker.
• 1997 - Bill Clinton starts his second term as President of the United States.
• 1997 - O Governo de Zaire declara guerra aos rebeldes tutsis, que controlam militarmente o leste do país apoiados por Ruanda y Burundi. 200 mil refugiados seguem perdidos, sem alimento algum.
• 1997 - Curt Flood dies (b. 1938). American baseball player.
• 1998 - Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducts Mama and Papas and Eagles
• 1998 - Bobo Brazil dies (b. 1924). American professional wrestler.
• 1999 - The China News Service announces new government restrictions on Internet use aimed especially at Internet bars.
• 2001 - George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States.
• 2001 - Philippine president Joseph Estrada is ousted in the EDSA II Revolution, succeeded by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
• 2002 - Michael Jordan, now of the Washington Wizards, plays his first game in Chicago since rejoining the NBA.
• 2002 - Inauguration of Churches Uniting in Christ.
• 2002 - Prince Tassilo of Bulgaria was born.
• 2003 - North Korea announced that it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
• 2003 - Nedra Volz dies of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease at age 94. Ms. Volz made a career out of playing "Old Ladies." Ms. Volz was a regular on several TV series including "Different Strokes," "The Dukes of Hazzard," "The Fall Guy," "Filthy Rich" and "Babes."
• 2003 - Al Hirschfeld dies (b. 1903). American caricaturist.
• 2003 - Bill Werbeniuk dies (b. 1947). Canadian snooker player.
• 2004 - Guinn Smith dies (b. 1920). American athlete.
• 2005 - George W. Bush will be inaugurated for a second term as President of the United States.
• 2005 - Ireland completes metrication.
• 2005 - Per Borten dies (b. 1913). Prime Minister of Norway
• 2005 - Roland Frye dies. American literary critic and theologian
• 2005 - Jan Nowak-Jeziorański dies (b. 1913). Polish journalist, writer, and politician
• 2005 - Miriam Louisa Rothschild dies (b. 1908). British zoologist, entomologist, and author
• Feast day of the following saints in the Roman Catholic Church: Sebastian, Saint Fabian, Euthymus, Desiderius, Meinrad, Epiphanius of Pavia, The Eve of St. Agnes.
• Presidential Inauguration Day in the United States.
• Astrology: First day of sun sign Aquarius.
• Ati-Atihan Festival in the Philippines
• Islamic New Year
• Dia do Farmacêutico - Brasil
• Dia Nacional do Fusca (Carocha) - Brasil
• Municipal Holiday in Santa Maria da Feira (Portugal)