On this day in History - Jan. 23

• 0393 - Roman Emperor Theodosius I proclaims his nine years old son Honorius co-emperor.
• 0638 - Start of Islamic calendar.
• 1002 - Otto III, Holy Roman Emperor dies (b. 0980).
• 1199 - Yaqub, Almohad Caliph dies (b. 1160).
• 1350 - Vincent Ferrer was born (d. 1419). Spanish missionary and saint.
• 1368 - In a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries.
• 1510 - Henry VIII of England, then 18 years-old, appears incognito in the lists at Richmond, and is applauded for his justing before he reveals himself.
• 1516 - Ferdinand II dies at 63. King of Aragon / Sicily.
• 1533 - Anne Boleyn, mistress of Henry VIII of England, discovers herself pregnant.
• 1546 - Having published nothing for 11 years, Francois Rabelais brings out his sequel to Gargantua and Pantagruel: the Tiers Livre.
• 1548 - Bernardo Pisano dies (b. 1490). Italian composer.
• 1549 - Johannes Honter dies (b. 1498). Transylvanian Saxon humanist and theologian.
• 1556 - The deadliest earthquake on record killed 830,000 in Shaanxi, China.
• 1567 - Jiajing dies (b. 1507). Emperor of China.
• 1570 - The assassination of regent James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray throws Scotland into civil war.
• 1571 - The Royal Exchange opens in London.
• 1579 - The Union of Utrecht forms a Protestant republic in the Netherlands.
• 1622 - William Baffin dies (b. 1584). English explorer.
• 1639 - Francisco Maldonado da Silva Solis, Peruvian poet, was burned at stake.
• 1648 - Francisco de Rojas Zorrilla dies at 40. Spanish Poet (Del Rey Abajo).
• 1656 - Blaise Pascal publishes the first of his Lettres provinciales.
• 1668 - England, Netherlands & Sweden signs Triple Alliance against French .
• 1688 - Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden was born (d. 1741).
• 1719 - The Principality of Liechtenstein is created within the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1719 - John Landen was born (d. 15 Jan 1790). British mathematician who made important contributions on elliptic integrals.
• 1737 - John Hancock was born (d. 1793). American Revolutionist.
• 1744 - Giambattista Vico dies (b. 1668). Italian philosopher and historian.
• 1745 - William Jessop was born (d. 1814). English Canal engineer .
• 1769 - Portugal: Decreto que cria, em Pombal, uma fábrica de chapéus finos de propriedade régia.
• 1783 - Stendhal [Marie Henri Boyle] was born (d. 23 Mar 1842). French novelist (Le Rouge et Le Noir).
• 1785 - Matthew Stewart dies (b. 1717). Scottish mathematician.
• 1786 - Auguste de Montferrand was born (d. 1858). French architect.
• 1789 - Georgetown College becomes the first Catholic college in the United Stat (Washington, DC).
• 1789 - John Cleland dies (b. 1709). English novelist.
• 1789 - Frances Brooke dies (b. 1724). English writer.
• 1793 - Russia and Prussia partition Poland.
• 1796 - Karl Karlovich Klaus was born (d. 24 Mar 1864). Russian chemist and biologist (of German origin) who discovered the ruthenium (1844).
• 1800 - Edward Rutledge dies (b. 1749). American statesman.
• 1803 - Arthur Guinness dies (b. 1727). Irish brewer.
• 1805 - Claude Chappe dies (b. 25 Dec 1763). French engineer, telecommunications pioneer (semaphores).
• 1806 - William Pitt the Younger dies (b. 1759). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom/ William Pitt, primeiro-ministro da Grã-Bretanha falece aos 46 anos. Aos 24 anos de idade, ele havia se tornado o mais jovem primeiro-ministro na história do país.
• 1808 - Chegada de Dom João VI e a Família Real Portuguesa à Bahia.
• 1810 - Los franceses avanzan fácilmente por Andalucía y en este día se apoderan de Jaén y Córdoba.
• 1812 - Robert Craufurd dies in battle (b. 1764). British general.
• 1813 - Camilla Collett was born. Norwegian novelist, essayist, and literary critic .
• 1814 - Sir Alexander Cunningham was born ( d. 28 Nov 1893). British army officer and archaeologist who excavated many sites in India, including Sarnath and Sanchi.
• 1820 - Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn was born.
• 1827 - Takamori Saigo was born (d. 1877). Samurai, leader of Satsuma rebellion.
• 1831 - Belgian flag is adopted.
• 1832 - Edouard Manet was born in Paris (d. 30 Apr 1883). French artist and impressionist painter. His 'Dejeuner sur l'herbe/Picnic on the grass' 1863 and Olympia 1865 (both Musee d'Orsay, Paris) offended conservative tastes in their matter-of-fact treatment of the nude body.
• 1833 - Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth dies (b. 1757). British admiral.
• 1837 - John Field dies (b. 1782). Irish composer.
• 1840 - Ernst Abbe was born (d. 14 Jan 1905). German physicist (Carl Zeiss Optics Company) who made theoretical and technical innovations in optical theory.
• 1849 - Patent granted for an envelope-making machine .
• 1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell is awarded her MD by the Medical Institute of Geneva, New York, thus becoming the United States' first woman doctor.
• 1851 - The flip of a coin determines whether a new city in Oregon is named after Boston, Massachusetts, or Portland, Maine, with Portland winning.
• 1855 - The first bridge over the Mississippi River opens in what is now Minneapolis, Minnesota, a crossing made today by the Father Louis Hennepin Bridge.
• 1855 - John Moses Browning was born (d. 1926). American inventor.
• 1857 - Andrija Mohorovičić was born (d. 18 Dec. 1936). Croatian metereologist and geophysicist who discovered the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle, a boundary now named the Mohorovicic discontinuity.
• 1862 - David Hilbert was born (d. 14 Feb 1943). German Mathematicianwho reduced geometry to a series of axioms and contributed substantially to the establishment of the formalistic foundations of mathematics ("Foundations of Geometry").
• 1864 - Johann Lukas Schönlein dies, (b. 30 Nov 1793) German physician whose attempts to establish medicine as a natural science helped create modern methods for the teaching and practice of clinical medicine.
• 1864 - Michele Puccini dies (b. 1813). Composer.
• 1866 - Thomas Love Peacock dies (b. 1785). English satirist.
• 1870 - Marias Massacre : In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Indians, most women and children.
• 1870 - In Montana, U.S. cavalrymen kill 173 Indians, mostly women and children, in the Marias Massacre.
• 1872 - Paul Langevin was born (d. 19 Dec 1946). French physicist who was the first scientist to explain the effects of paramagnetism and diamagnetism (the weak attraction or repulsion of substances in a magnetic field), in 1905, using statistical mechanics.
• 1872 - Goce Delchev was born (d. 1903). Bulgarian revolutionary.
• 1872 - Joze Plečnik was born (d. 1957). Slovenian architect.
• 1875 - Charles Kingsley dies (b. 1819). English writer.
• 1875 - Cândido José de Araújo Viana (Marquês de Sapucaí) dies (b. 15 Sep 1793). Marquis of Sapucaí, Brazilian politician.
• 1876 - Otto Diels was born (d. 7 Mar 1954); German organic chemist who with Kurt Alder was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1950 for their joint work in developing a method of preparing cyclic organic compounds.
• 1878 - Oton Župančič was born (d. 41949). Slovenian poet.
• 1879 - Anglo-Zulu War: Battle of Rorke's Drift ends. Following an overnight battle at Rorke's Drift, 150 British and Imperial soldiers successfully defended this isolated station against a force of more than 3,000 Zulu warriors, at a cost of 15 dead and ten wounded. Hailed as heroes across the British Empire, 11 of the defenders were awarded the Victoria Cross. (It was only in 1999 that a memorial was finally constructed to the brave Zulu warriors who fought for their beleaguered nation.)
• 1883 - Gustave Doré dies (b. 6 Jan 1832). French artist, engraver and painter.
• 1884 - Ralph DePalma was born (d. 1956). Italian Race car driver.
• 1884 - Manuel Viriato Correia Baima do Lago Filho was born in Pirapemas, Maranhão (d. 10 Apr 1967). Brazilian journalista, dramatist and writer; member of The Brazilian Academy of Letters.
• 1888 - Leadbelly was born (d. 1949). American blues and folk musician.
• 1888 - Eugéne-Marin Labiche dies (b. 05 May 1815). French dramatist.
• 1893 - Jose Zorilla y Moral dies in Madrid (b. in Valladolid, 21 Feb 1817). Spanish poet.
• 1893 - Lucius Quintus Cincinnatus Lamar dies (b. 1825). U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
• 1896 - Charlotte, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg was born (d. 1985).
• 1897 - Elva Zona Heaster found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband was perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction.
• 1897 - Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky was born (d. 2000). Austrian architect.
• 1897 - Sir William Samuel Stephenson was born (d. 1989). Canadian soldier, W.W.II codename, Intrepid. Inspiration for James Bond.
• 1897 - Subhas Chandra Bose was born (d. 1945). Indian independence fighter.
• 1898 - Freda Utley was born (d. 1978). British scholar and author.
• 1898 - Randolph Scott was born (d. 2 Mar 1987). Actor (Last of the Mohicans, The Nevadan, Ride the High Country, To the Shores of Tripoli, Man in the Saddle, Go West Young Man, Bombardier) .
• 1898 - Sergei Eisenstein was born in Riga (d. 11 Feb 1948). Film director.
• 1899 - Emilio Aguinaldo was sworn in as President of the First Philippine Republic.
• 1899 - Glen Kidston was born (d. 1931). British aviator and racing driver.
• 1900 - William Ifor Jones was born (d. 1988). Welsh Conductor & Organist.
• 1903 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was born (d. 1948). Colombian politician.
• 1903 - Colonel Arthur Alfred Lynch is found guilty of high treason and sentenced to death for leading the "Irish Commando" against British forces in the Anglo-Boer War.
• 1903 - Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was born. Colombian politician .
• 1904 - Ålesund Fire: Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless. German Kaiser Wilhelm helps rebuild the town in Jugendstil architecture.
• 1905 - Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro dies (b. 1846). Famous Portuguese ceramist (Zé Povinho) and journalist.
• 1907 - Charles Curtis from Kansas, becomes the first Native American US Senator.
• 1907 - Dan Duryea was born (d. 1968). Actor.
• 1907 - Hideki Yukawa was born (d. 08 Sept 1981). Japanese physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1949 for research in the theory of elementary particles.
• 1909 - Tatiana Proskouriakoff was born in Tomsk, Liberia (d. 1974). Archeologist and investigator of Maya's culture.
• 1910 - Django Reinhardt was born (d. 1953). Belgian guitarist.
• 1912 - The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague.
• 1915 - Potter Stewart was born (d. 1985). U.S. Supreme Court Justice
• 1915 - Arthur Lewis was born. British economist who was Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979.
• 1916 - Airey Neave was born (d. 1979). British Major, politician and indictment server at the Nuremberg Trials.
• 1918 - Portuguese Nuno Álvares Pereira is beatified by Pope Benedict XV.
• 1918 - Gertrude B. Elion was born (d. 21 Feb 1999). American pharmacologist who, along with George H. Hitchings and Sir James W. Black, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for their development of drugs used to treat several major diseases.
• 1919 - Hans Hass was born. Austrian zoologist and underwater scientist .
• 1919 - Ernie Kovacs was born (d. 1962). American comedian.
• 1919 - Bob Paisley was born (d. 1996). English football player and manager.
• 1920 - Ray Abrams was born. Tenor saxophonist .
• 1920 - Gottfried Böhm was born. Architect.
• 1920 - The Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies.
• 1922 - Arthur Nikisch dies (b. 1855). Hungarian conductor.
• 1923 - Cot Deal was born. Major league baseball player and coach
• 1923 - Walter M. Miller Jr. was born (d. 1996). American science fiction writer.
• 1923 - Max Nordau dies (b. 1849). Austrian author, philosopher and Zionist leader.
• 1924 - Bal Thackeray was born. Founder and president of Indian political party Shiv Sena.
• 1927 - Lars-Eric Lindblad was born (d. 1994). Swedish-American entrepreneur and explorer.
• 1928 - Chico Carrasquel was born (d. 2005). Venezuelan baseball player.
• 1928 - Armando Cortez was born (d. 11 Apr. 2002). Portuguese actor.
• 1928 - Jeanne Moreau was born. French actress (Going Places, Jules & Jim).
• 1929 - John Charles Polanyi was born. Canadian chemist and educator who, with Dudley R. Herschbach and Yuan T. Lee, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1986 for his contribution to the field of chemical-reaction dynamics.
• 1929 - Patriarch Filaret (Mykhailo Denysenko) of Ukrainian Orthodox Church - Kyiv Patriarchate
• 1930 - Derek Walcott was born. West Indian writer, Nobel Prize laureate in 1992.
• 1930 - Teresa Żylis-Gara was born. Polish singer.
• 1931 - Espanha e Portugal fazem um acordo e é abolido a necessidade de passaporte entre os dois países.
• 1931 - Anna Pavlova dies (b. 1881). Russian ballerina.
• 1932 - El Salvador army kills 4,000 protesting farmers .
• 1933 - Chita Rivera was born. Puerto Rican actress and dancer.
• 1933 - Joãosinho Trinta was born. Brazilian coreographer and Carnival animator.
• 1934 - Pierre Bourgault was born (d. 2003). Quebec politician and essayist.
• 1935 - French colonial troops are massacred by Abyssinian tribesmen in Somaliland .
• 1936 - Jerry Kramer was born. American football star .
• 1937 - In Moscow, 17 leading Communists go on trial accused of participating in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow Joseph Stalin's regime and assassinate its leaders.
• 1937 - Marie Prevost dies (b. 1898). Canadian actress.
• 1937 - Orso Mario Corbino dies (b. 1876). Italian physicist.
• 1938 - Georg Baselitz was born. German painter and sculptor.
• 1938 - Shohei Baba was born (d. 1999). Japanese professional wrestler.
• 1939 - Arlene Golonka was born. American actress.
• 1939 - Sonny Chiba was born. Japanese actor and martial artist.
• 1939 - Matthias Sindelar dies in Wien (b. 10 Feb 1903). Austrian footballer.
• 1940 - Pianist Ignaz Paderewski becomes Premier of Polish government in exile.
• 1940 - Johnny Russell was born (d. 2001). American country singer and songwriter.
• 1941 - Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler.
• 1941 - João Ubaldo Ribeiro was born in Itaparica Island, Bahia. Brazilian journalist and writer (Setembro Não faz Sentido - 1963, Sargento Getúlio - 1971)
• 1942 - Razzak was born. Bangladeshi actor and director.
• 1943 - World War II: British forces capture Tripoli from the Nazis.
• 1943 - Jewish-led Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
• 1943 - World War II: Australian and American forces finally defeat the Japanese army in Papua. This turning point in the Pacific War marks the beginning of the end of Japanese aggression.
• 1943 - Duke Ellington plays at New York City's Carnegie Hall for the first time.
• 1943 - After nine days of talks in Casablanca, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill agreed to put an invasion of Italy ahead of opening a second front in northwestern Europe.
• 1943 - Gil Gerard was born. American actor (Buck Rogers in the 25 th Century, Sidekicks, Hooch, Soldier's Fortune).
• 1943 - Millie Jackson was born. American singer.
• 1943 - Gary Burton was born. American jazz vibraphonist
• 1943 - Alexander Woollcott dies (b. 1887). American actor, author, and bon vivant.
• 1944 - Rutger Hauer was born. Dutch actor (Lady Hawke, Nighthawks, Blade Runner, Beyond Justice, Forbidden Choices).
• 1944 - Edvard Munch dies (b. 1863). Norwegian painter (The Scream)
• 1944 - Viktor Gusev dies (b. 1909). Russian poet.
• 1945 - World War II: Karl Dönitz launches Operation Hannibal.
• 1945 - Mike Harris was born. Canadian politician, Premier of Ontario
• 1946 - Arnoldo Alemán was born. Ex-president of Nicaragua
• 1946 - Don Whittington, American businessman, car & airplane racer and convicted felon
• 1947 - Megawati Sukarnoputri was born. 5th President of Indonesia
• 1947 - Thomas R. Carper was born. American politician.
• 1947 - Pierre Bonnard dies (b. 1867). French painter See here his work
• 1948 - Anita Pointer was born. American singer.
• 1950 - The Knesset passes a resolution that states Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.
• 1950 - Luis Alberto Spinetta was born. Argentine musician and composer.
• 1950 - Richard Dean Anderson was born. American actor
• 1950 - Danny Federici was born. American musician (Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band)
• 1950 - John Greaves was born. English musician (Henry Cow, National Health).
• 1952 - Henrique da Costa Mecking, Mequinho was born. Brazilian chess player, world champion.
• 1952 - Robin Zander was born. American singer (Cheap Trick)
• 1953 - Antonio Villaragoisa was born. American 52nd Mayor of Los Angeles
• 1954 - Edward Ka-Spel was born. English musician (Legendary Pink Dots).
• 1954 - Franco De Vita was born. Veanezuelan singer and songwriter.
• 1955 - In a crash of the York-Bristol express train at Sutton Coldfield, England, 17 people were killed and 43 injured.
• 1956 - Alexander Korda dies (b. 1893). Hungarian/British film director.
• 1957 - Earl Falconer was born. Bassist UB40, 1983 UK No.1 and US 1988 US No.1 single Red Red Wine, Food for Thought, If It Happens Again, Don’t Break My Heart, Sing Our Own Song.
• 1957 - Lou Schuler was born. American fitness journalist.
• 1957 - Princess Caroline of Monaco was born. Daughter of Prince Ranier and Princess Grace of Monaco.
• 1958 - Dictator Marcos Pérez Jiménez flees Venezuela, Larrazábal takes power.
• 1958 - In Assunción, Paraguay is inaugurated the new headoffices of the South American Soccer Confederation (Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol).
• 1958 - Nikolaos Georgantas dies (b. 1880). Greek discus thrower.
• 1959 - Clive Bull was born. English radio talk show host
• 1960 - The bathyscaphe USS Trieste breaks a depth record when it descends 35,820 feet (10,750 meters) in the Pacific Ocean - deepest point known to exist on earth, in the Marianas Trench near the island of Guam.
• 1960 - Patrick de Gayardon was born (d. 1998). French skydiver and skysurfing pioneer.
• 1960 - Jean-Francois Sauve was born. Quebec ice hockey player.
• 1961 - Wilhelm Koppers dies (b. 8 Feb 1886) Roman Catholic priest and cultural anthropo logist.
• 1961 - Venezuela adopts constitution.
• 1962 - Elvira Lindo was born. Spanish writer and journalist.
• 1962 - Vasia Panayopoulou was born. Greek actress.
• 1962 - Libya, Morocco, Algeria & Tunisia plan to form United Arab Maghreb.
• 1963 - Gail O'Grady was born. American actress.
• 1964 - The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified .
• 1964 - Mariska Hargitay was born. American actress.
• 1964 - Mario Roberge was born. National Hockey League player
• 1967 - The diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and Ivory Coast were established.
• 1967 - Milton Keynes (England) founded by Order in Council. (See History of Milton Keynes)
• 1967 - Naim Suleymanoglu was born. Bulgaria-born Turkish weightlifter .
• 1968 - North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo, claiming the ship violated their territorial waters while spying.
• 1968 - Petr Korda was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Tennis star (1993 Doubles-Cincinnati OH).
• 1969 - Ariadna Gil was born. Spanish actress.
• 1969 - Brendan Shanahan was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1969 - Andrei Kanchelskis was born. Ukrainian-Russian footballer.
• 1970 - The first Jumbo jet landed at London's Heathrow airport.
• 1970 - Spiridon Vasdekis was born. Greek long jumper.
• 1971 - Kevin Mawae was born. American football player
• 1971 - Fritz Feigl dies (b. 1871). Austria-born chemist.
• 1972 - Marcel Wouda was born. Dutch swimmer.
• 1972 - Mark Curry was born. African-American rapper.
• 1973 - President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam.
• 1973 - A volcanic eruption devastates Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar chain of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
• 1973 - George Foreman took the heavyweight boxing title away from ‘Smokin’ Joe Frazier in Kingston, Jamaica .
• 1973 - Jordan Air crash at Kano, Nigeria kills 176 Moslem pilgrims.
• 1973 - Lanei Chapman was born. American actress.
• 1973 - Alexander Onassis dies (b. 1948). Greek heir of the Onassis family.
• 1973 - Kid Ory dies (b. 1886). American jazz trombonist.
• 1974 - Tiffani Thiessen was born in Long Beach, California. American actress (Saved by Bell, Beverly Hills90210, Son in Law).
• 1974 - Richard T. Slone was born. British artist.
• 1974 - Joel Bouchard was born. Quebec ice hockey player
• 1974 - Rebekah Elmaloglou was born. Australian actress
• 1974 - Yosvani Pérez was born. Cuban baseball star
• 1975 - Barney Miller debuts on ABC.
• 1975 - Tito Ortiz was born. American UFC fighter.
• 1976 - Brandon Duckworth was born. American baseball player.
• 1976 - Angelica Lee was born. Taiwanese actress and singer.
• 1976 - Nigel McGuinness was born. English professional wrestler.
• 1976 - Paul Robeson dies (b. 1898). American actor, singer, and social activist.
• 1976 - Paul Dupuis dies (b. 1913). French Canadian film and television actor.
• 1977 - The first segment of the Roots mini-series airs on ABC.
• 1977 - Toots Shor dies (b. 1903). New York restaurateur.
• 1978 - Sweden becomes the first nation to ban aerosol sprays that are thought to damage earth's protective ozone layer.
• 1978 - Terry Kath dies in Los Angeles, while trying to prove a gun was not loaded. He pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger, killing himself instantly. Member of the rock group Chicago.
• 1978 - Jack Oakie dies (b. 1903). American actor.
• 1978 - Vic Ames dies (b. 1925). American singer (Ames Brothers).
• 1979 - Larry Hughes was born. American basketball player.
• 1979 - Sampsa Astala was born. Finnish musician (Lordi)
• 1981 - Greg Smith was born. American UFC fighter.
• 1981 - Samuel Barber dies (b. 1910). American composer.
• 1982 - Wily Mo Pena was born. Dominican baseball player.
• 1982 - Maria Emília Archer dies (b. 1905). Portuguese writer.
• 1983 - The A-Team debuts.
• 1983 - The Television Show The A-Team Starts its first season on the NBC network.
• 1983 - George Cukor dies (b. 1899). Film director.
• 1983 - Soviet satellite Cosmos 1402 entered Earth's atmosphere and crashed into the Indian Ocean.
• 1983 - David Firth was born. British animator/musician.
• 1983 - George Foreman III was born. American reality series star; son of George Foreman
• 1983 - Fred Bakewell dies (b. 1908). English cricketer.
• 1984 - "Hulkamania" is born when Hulk Hogan defeats The Iron Sheik to win the WWF Championship
• 1984 - Arjen Robben was born. Dutch footballer.
• 1984 - Mu'in Bseiso dies (b. 1926). Palestinian poet.
• 1985 - O. J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame.
• 1985 - Doutzen Kroes was born. Dutch supermodel
• 1985 - Abhinav Sharan was born. Caretaker of Soham mookerjee
• 1985 - Dong Fangzhuo was born. Chinese footballer.
• 1986 - The first induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley)
• 1986 - A fire in an hotel of luxe in New Deli, India, kils 38 people.
• 1986 - José Enrique Sánchez was born. Spanish footballer.
• 1986 - Steven Taylor was born. English footballer.
• 1986 - Joseph Beuys dies (b. 1921). German artist.
• 1986 - Yvonne Lefébure dies (b. 1898). French virtuoso pianist.
• 1987 - Felicia Brandström was born. Swedish singer.
• 1988 - the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first nonstop, around the world flight without refueling. They landed it safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California.
• 1988 - 45th Golden Globes: Last Emperor, Sally Kirkland, Michael Douglas .
• 1988 - Charles Glen King dies (b. 1896). American biochemist.
• 1989 - Salvador Dalí dies (b. 11 May 1904). Spanish Surrealist painter.
• 1990 - Mariano Rumor dies. Italy's PM (1968-70, 73-1974).
• 1990 - Allen Collins dies (b. 1952). American guitarist (Lynyrd Skynyrd).
• 1991 - Northrop Frye dies (b. 1912). Canadian writer and critic.
• 1992 - Freddie Bartholomew dies (b. 1924). Irish actor.
• 1993 - 50th Golden Globes: Scent of a Woman, wins.
• 1993 - The first African-American to sit on the Supreme Court, Thurgood Marshall, died.
• 1993 - Indian Airlines B737 crashes art Aurangabad, 61 die.
• 1993 - Thomas A. Dorsey dies (b. 1899). American singer.
• 1994 - Worldwide Day for peace in Bosnia-Hercegovina .
• 1994 - Nikolai Vasilievich Ogarkov dies (b. 1917). Soviet field marshal.
• 1994 - Brian Redhead dies (b. 1929). English journalist and broadcaster.
• 1995 - Jacques Delors formally stepped down as European Commission president, handing over to Jacques Santer after 10 years of steering Europe towards closer union.
• 1995 - Gregorio Ordóñez dies assassinated into a restaurant by ETA (b. in Caracas 21 Jul 1958). Spanish politician (Partido Popular).
• 1996 - The first version of the Java programming language is released.
• 1997 - Mir Aimal Kasi receives the death sentence for a 1993 assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters that killed two and wounded three others.
• 1997 - Madeleine Albright becomes the first woman to serve as United States Secretary of State.
• 1997 - Richard Berry dies (b. 1935). American composer and musician.
• 1998 - Pope John Paul II condemns US embargo against Cuba .
• 1998 - Hilla Limann dies. President of Ghana (1979-81).
• 1998 - La Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol inaugura su nueva sede en Asunción.
• 1999 - "La Niña de tus ojos", de Fernando Trueba, é o filme ganhador da XIII edição dos Prêmios da Academia de Cinema.
• 1999 - Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in eastern India.
• 1999 - Jay Pritzker dies (b. 1922). American businessman.
• 1999 - Prince Lincoln Thompson dies (b. 1949). Jamaican musician.
• 2000 - Derrick Thomas dies (1967). American football player.
• 2001 - The Chinese Communist Party stages a self-immolation in Tiananmen Square to frame Falun Gong and escalate the persecution.
• 2002 - "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh returns to the United States under FBI custody.
• 2002 - Reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and subsequently murdered in Karachi, Pakistan.
• 2002 - Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped by the National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty and subsequently murdered..
• 2002 - Pierre Bourdieu dies (b. 1930). French sociologist.
• 2002 - Robert Nozick dies (b. 1938). American philosopher.
• 2002 - Paul Aars dies (b. 1934). American racecar driver.
• 2003 - R Kelly was arrested on new child pornography charges.
• 2003 - Nell Carter dies (b. 1948). American singer and actress.
• 2004 - The European Space Agency claimed to have discovered evidence of water on the surface of the planet Mars.
• 2004 - Bob Keeshan dies (b. 1927). American actor.
• 2004 - Helmut Newton dies (b. 1920). German-born photographer.
• 2005 - Viktor Yushchenko is sworn in as the third President of Ukraine.
• 2005 - Johnny Carson dies (b. 1925). American television personality.
• 2005 - Douglas Knight dies (b. 1921). American university president.
• 2005 - Morys George Lyndhurst Bruce, 4th Baron Aberdare dies (b. 1921). British politician.
• 2006 - After over 12 years of Liberal Party rule, Stephen Harper's Conservative Party wins the most seats in the Canadian federal election. Harper becomes the 22nd Prime Minister of Canada with a minority government, assuming office February 6.
• 2006 - Ernie Baron dies (b. 1940). Philippine newscaster.
• 2006 - Chris McKinstry dies (b. 1967). Canadian scientist.
• 2007 - E. Howard Hunt dies (b. 1918). American Watergate figure.
• 2007 - Ryszard Kapuściński dies (b. 1932). Polish journalist and writer.
• 2007 - A. H. de Oliveira Marques dies (b. 1933). Portuguese historian.
• Roman Catholic Church: Feast of Blessed Marianne of Molokai
• Abakuh, an Egyptian Christian martyr
• Bounty Day, celebrating the burning of HMAV Bounty in 1790, Pitcairn Island
• National Handwriting Day (USA)
• National Pie Day (USA)