On this day in History - Jan. 14

• 83 BC - Marcus Antonius was born (d. 30 BC). Roman politician.
  
• 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes.
• 1131 - King Valdemar I of Denmark was born (d. 1182).
• 1163 - Ladislaus II of Hungary dies (b. 1131).
• 1235 - Saint Sava dies (b. 1175). Serbian saint.
  
• 1261 - D. Matilde was born. Countess of Bologna and Queen of Portugal (wife of King Afonso III).
• 1301 - Andrew III of Hungary dies, ending the Arpad dynasty in Hungary.
• 1331 - Odoric dies (b. 286). Italian explorer.
• 1451 - Franchinus Gaffurius was born (d. 1522). Italian composer.
• 1477 - Hermann of Wied was born (d. 1552). German Catholic archbishop.
• 1501 - Martin Luther, 17, enters the University of Erfurt.
• 1507 - Catherine of Habsburg was born (d. 1578). Infanta of Spain and queen of Portugal.
  
• 1514 - Pope Leo X issued a papal bull against slavery.
• 1539 - Spain annexes Cuba.
• 1551 - Alberico Gentili was born (d. 1608). Italian jurist.
• 1615 - John Biddle was born (d. 1662). English theologian.
• 1623 - Paolo Sarpi dies at 70. Italian church historian and politician.
• 1639 - The "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut.
• 1640 - Thomas Coventry, 1st Baron Coventry dies (b. 1578). English lawyer and judge.
• 1659 - Portugal: Batalha das Linhas de Elvas.
  
• 1676 - Francesco Cavalli dies (b. 1602). Italian composer.
• 1679 - Jacques de Billy dies (b. 1602). French mathematician.
• 1684 - Jean-Baptiste van Loo was born (d. 1745). French painter.
• 1684 - Johann Matthias Hase was born (d. 1742). German scientist.
• 1690 - The clarinet is invented in Nuremberg, Germany.
• 1701 - Tokugawa Mitsukuni dies (b. 1628). Japanese warlord.
• 1702 - Nakamikado Emperor of Japan was born (d. 1737).
• 1705 - Jean-Baptiste Charles Bouvet de Lozier was born (d. 1786). French governor of the Mascarene Islands.
• 1724 - King Philip V of Spain abdicates the throne.
• 1741 - Benedict Arnold was born (General in United States' Revolutionary War, turncoat) (d. 1801) .
• 1742 - Edmond Halley dies at 85. English scientist, a genius eclipsed by Newton.
• 1753 - George Berkeley dies (b. 1685). Irish theologian.
• 1761 - The Third Battle of Panipat was fought in India between the Afghans under Ahmad Shah Durrani and the Marhatas. The Afghan victory changed the course of Indian History.
• 1767 - Maria Theresia of Tuscany was born (d. 1827). Queen consort of Saxony.
  
• 1771 - Maria Francisca Doroteia de Bragança dies in Lisbon (b. 1739). Daughter of King José I of Portugal and Mariana Vitória of Spain.
• 1776 - Edward Cornwallis dies (b. 1713). English military officer.
  
• 1780 - Henry Baldwin was born (d. 1844). U.S. Supreme Court Justice.
  
• 1784 - Treaty of Paris: The United States ratified treaty with England ending the Revolutionary War.
• 1786 - Meshech Weare dies (b. 1713). Governor of New Hampshire.
• 1786 - Michael Arne dies (b. 1741). English composer.
• 1788 - François Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasetilly, comte de Grasse dies (b. 1722). French admiral.
• 1792 - Christian Julius De Meza was born (d. 1865). Danish general.
• 1793 - John C. Clark was vborn (d. 1852). American politician.
  
• 1797 - Battle of Rivoli.
  
• 1798 - Johan Rudolf Thorbecke was born (d. 1872). Dutch politician.
• 1800 - Ludwig Alois Ferdinand Köchel was born (d. 1877). Austrian researcher on music.
• 1801 - Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart was born (d. 18 Feb 1876). French botanist whose classification of fossil plants, which drew surprisingly accurate relations between extinct and existing forms prior to Charles Darwin's principles of organic evolution, earned him distinction as the founder of modern paleobotany.
• 1806 - Sir Charles Hotham was born (d. 1855). Governor of Victoria.
  
• 1806 - Matthew Fontaine Maury was born (d. 1 Feb. 1873). American oceanographer.
  
• 1814 - Treaty of Kiel: Frederick VI of Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in return for Pomerania.
• 1818 - Zacharias Topelius was born (d. 1898). Finnish-Swedish writer, journalist and historian.
• 1819 - Peter Pindar dies (b. 1738). English satirist.
  
• 1822 - Greek War of Independence: Acrocorinth is captured by Theodoros Kolokotronis and Demetrius Ypsilanti.
• 1824 - Vladimir Stasov was born (d. 1906). Russian art and music critic.
  
• 1825 - George Dance the Younger dies (b. 1741). English architect.
• 1833 - Seraphim of Sarov dies (b. 1759). Russian Orthodox saint.
  
• 1836 - Henri Fantin-Latour was born (d. 1904). French painter.
• 1841 - Berthe Morisot was born (d. 1895). French Impressionist painter.
• 1845 - 5th Marquess of Lansdowne was born (d. 1927). Governor-General of Canada, Viceroy of India.
  
• 1850 - Jean de Reszke was born (d. 1925). Polish operatic tenor.
  
• 1850 - Pierre Loti was born (d. 1923). French writer [Aziyadé (1879), Madame Chrysanthème (1887)].
• 1850 - Germany: While held in the Königstein fortress, the anarchist Michael Bakunin is condemned to death by Saxon tribun. Bakunin's death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment in June.
• 1852 - Promulgación de una nueva Constitución en Francia, que otorga el poder a Carlos Luis Bonaparte.
• 1856 - J F Archibald was born (d. 10 Sep 1919). Australian jouirnalist and publisher.
• 1858 - Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt by an Italian revolutionary Felice Orsini
• 1861 - Mehmed VI was born (d. 1926). Ottoman sultan.
• 1861 - David Wesson was born (d. 22 May 1934). American chemist who created Wesson cooking oil. He experimented with purifying cotton seed oil, developed a system in 1900 to make the pure oil palatable, and formed the Southern Oil Company to market it.
• 1863 - Manuel Gomes da Costa was born (d. 1929). 96^th Prime Minister of Portugal and 10^th President of Portugal.
• 1866 - G. I. Gurdjieff was born (d. 1949). Greek-Armenian mystic and teacher of dancing. He stated that he was born at the stroke of midnight at the beginning of New Year's Day, Julian calendar.
• 1866 - O Peru, insatisfeito com os termos do tratado de paz reconhecendo sua independência em 1865, declara guerra à Espanha.
• 1867 - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres dies (b. 1780). French painter.
• 1870 - Sir George Pearce was born (d. 1952). Australian politician.
  
• 1872 - Greyfriars Bobby dies (b. 1856). Famous dog.
  
• 1875 - Albert Schweitzer was born (d.1965). Alsatian physician, Christian missionary, philosopher, and musician, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 1952 .
• 1876 - Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres dies (b. 1780). French painter.
• 1882 - Hendrik Willem van Loon was born (d. 1944). Dutch-American historian and journalist.
  
• 1883 - Nina Ricci was born in Turin († 1970). Italian-born French stylist.
• 1886 - Hugh Lofting was born (d. 1947). English author, creator of the children's Dr. Doolittle series.
• 1888 - Émile Bachelet was born (d. 1967). Anarchiste and writer (Trimards (roman) 1951)
• 1888 - Maurice Dommanget was born in Paris. Pedagogue and activ syndicalis, his best known work is L’Histoire du Premier Mai.
• 1888 - Jean-Baptiste André Godin dies (b. 1817). French industrialist and social reformer.
• 1888 - Stephen Heller dies (b. 1813). Hungarian composer.
• 1889 - Ema Puksec, aka Ilma de Murska, dies (b. 1834). Croatian opera singer.
• 1890 - Arthur Holmes was born (d. 20 Sep 1965). English geologist and petrologist was one of the foremost geologists of the twentieth century, who made major contributions to the geochronology of Africa, the genesis of igneous rocks, and physical geology .
• 1890 - Rolla Neil Harger was born [died 8 Aug 1983]; American toxicologist and biochemist who was at Indiana University when he invented the first successful machine for testing human blood alcohol content, called the Drunkometer (1931).
• 1892 - Hal Roach was born (d. 19892). American film producer.
• 1892 - Martin Niemöller was born (d. 1984). German theologian.
  
• 1892 - Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence dies (b. 1864). British prince.
  
• 1893 - England: Independent Labour Party founded, Bradford, headed by Keir Hardie.
• 1896 - John Dos Passos was born (d. 1970). American author.
  
• 1896 - Martin Niemöller was born (d. 1984). German theologian and pacifist.
• 1896 - John Dos Passos was born (d. 1970). American author.
• 1897 - Primera ascensión al Aconcagua (Argentina).
• 1897 - Hasso von Manteuffel was born (d. 1978). German general and politician.
  
• 1898 - Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dogson) dies (b. 1832). English writer and mathematician.
• 1898 - Juarez Távora was born (d. 1975). Brazilian militar and politician.
• 1899 - Carlos Romulo was born (d. 1985). Filipino diplomat and author.
  
• 1900 - Giacomo Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome.
• 1901 - Bebe Daniels was born (d. 1971). American actress.
  
• 1901 - Víctor Balaguer dies. Spanish writer and politician.
• 1901 - Bishop Mandell Creighton dies (b. 1843). English historian and ecclesiastic.
  
• 1901 - Charles Hermite dies (b. 1822). French mathematician.
• 1902 - Alfred Tarski was born (d. 26 Oct 1983). Polish-born American mathematician and logician who made important studies of general algebra, measure theory, mathematical logic, set theory, and metamathematics.
• 1904 - Babe Siebert was born (d. 1939). National Hockey League player.
• 1904 - Sir Cecil Beaton was born (d. 1980). English photographer.
• 1904 - Emily Hahn was born (d. 1997). American writer.
• 1905 - Sterling Holloway was born (d. 1992). American character actor.
• 1905 - Takeo Fukuda was born (d. 1995). 67th Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1905 - Ernst Abbe dies (b. 1840). German physicist.
  
• 1906 - William Bendix was born (d. 1964). American actor.
• 1907 - An earthquake in Kingston, Jamaica kills more than 1,000.
• 1907 - Georges-Émile Lapalme was born (d. 1985). Quebec politician.
• 1907 - Sir James Fergusson dies (b. 1832). British politician.
  
• 1908 - Rus Columbo was born (d. 1934). American singer, bandleader, composer .
• 1908 - Holger Drachmann dies (b. 1846). Danish poet and dramatist.
  
• 1909 - Elpídio dos Santos was born in São Luís do Paraitinga. Brazilian sculptor and poet.
• 1909 - Joseph Losey was born (d. 1984). American theatre and film director.
• 1911 - Anatoly Rybakov was born (d. 1998). Russian writer.
  
• 1912 - Rudolf Hagelstange was born (d. 1984). German lyricist, narrator and essayist.
• 1912 - Tillie Olsen was born (d. 2007). American writer.
  
• 1913 - First Balkan War: The Greek army defeats the Turks at Bizani.
• 1914 - Harold Russell was born (d. 2002). Canadian-born actor.
• 1914 - An erupcion of Vulcano Strato in Sakura Island (Japan) kils 7.000 and dstroys 13.000 houses.
• 1915 - Mark Goodson was born (d. 1992). American game show producer.
• 1915 - Richard Meux Benson dies (b. 1824). Founder of Anglican religious order.
• 1917 - Billy Butterfield was born (d. 1988). American jazz trumpeter.
• 1919 - Andy Rooney was born. American television journalist .
• 1919 - Giulio Andreotti was born. Italian politician.
• 1920 - Chava Flores was born. Mexican actor and composer.
• 1920 - John Francis Dodge dies (b. 1864). American automobile pioneer.
• 1921 - Murray Bookchin was born (d. 2006). American anarchist. Prolific author, philosopher, ecologist (under the pseudonym Lewis Herber during the 50s Red Scare & blacklist), historian, advocate of 'Libertarian Municipalism', head of the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont.
• 1923 - Zübeyde Hanım dies (b. 1857). Mother of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
  
• 1924 - Guy Williams was born. American actor ("Zorro").
• 1925 - Louis Quilico was born (d. 2000). Canadian opera singer.
• 1925 - Yukio Mishima was born (d. 1970). Japanese writer.
• 1926 - Frank Aletter was born. American actor.
• 1926 - Tom Tryon was born (d. 1991). American actor and novelist.
• 1926 - Warren Mitchell was born. English actor.
• 1927 - Zuzana Ruzickova was born. Czech harpsichordist.
• 1928 - Garry Winogrand was born (d. 1984). American photographer.
  
• 1928 - Gerald Arpino was born. American dancer and choreographer.
• 1928 - Lars Forssell was born (d. 2007). Swedish writer.
• 1931 - Ahmed Faraz was born in-01-14) Kohat, North West Frontier Province (d. 25 Aug. 2008). Pakistanese poet.
• 1931 - Caterina Valente was born. French singer, actress.
• 1931 - Frank Costigan ws born. Australian lawyer.
• 1932 - Don Garlits was born. American race car driver.
• 1933 - Stan Brakhage was born (d. 2003). American filmmaker.
• 1934 - Alberto Rodriguez Larreta was born (d. 1977). Argentine racing driver.
  
• 1934 - Richard Briers was born. English actor.
• 1935 - Lucille Wheeler was born. Canadian alpine skier.
• 1937 - Erland Kops was born. Danish badminton player.
• 1937 - Ken Higgs was born. English cricketer.
• 1937 - Shoban Babu was born. Indian actor.
• 1937 - Jaishankar Prasad dies (b. 1889). Hindi poet, dramatist and novelist.
• 1938 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
• 1938 - Allen Toussaint was born. American singer.
• 1938 - Jack Jones was born. American singer.
• 1938 - Morihiro Hosokawa was born. 79th Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1939 - Norway claims Queen Maud Land in Antarctica.
• 1940 - Julian Bond was born. American civil rigts activist (cofounder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, chairman of NAACP board of directors) .
• 1940 - Ron Kostelnik was born (d. 1993). American football player.
  
• 1940 - Sir Trevor Nunn was born. English theatre director and film director.
• 1941 - Faye Dunaway was born. American actress.
• 1941 - Milan Kučan was born. Slovenian politician, statesman.
• 1942 - Operation Ke, the successful Japanese operation to evacuate their forces from Guadalcanal during the Guadalcanal campaign, begins.
• 1942 - Stig Engström was born. Sweden actor.
• 1942 - Dave Campbell was born. American baseball player.
• 1942 - Ian Brayshaw was born. Australian cricketer and footballer.
• 1942 - Dave Campbell, American baseball player
• 1942 - Porfirio Barba-Jacob dies (b. 1883). Colombian poet and writer.
• 1943 - World War II: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill begin the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war.
• 1943 - Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office He traveled from Miami, Florida to Morocco to meet with Winston Churchill to discuss World War II.
• 1943 - José Luis Rodríguez (El Puma) was born in Caracas. Venezuelan singer.
• 1943 - Shannon Lucid was born. American biochemist and astronaut who stayed aboard the Russian space station Mir in 1996 for a record-breaking 188 days .
• 1943 - Mariss Jansons was born. Latvian conductor.
• 1944 - Graham Marsh was born. Australian golfer.
• 1944 - Marjoe Gortner was born. American evangelist and actor.
• 1944 - Nina Totenberg was born. American journalist.
• 1945 - Marina Gielgud was born. English-born dancer and Artistic director of Australian Ballet
• 1946 - India: Two jetties collapse in Ganges — 160 Hindu pilgrims are crushed.
• 1946 - Harold Shipman was born (d. 2004). British serial killer.
• 1947 - Beverly Perdue was born. American politician.
• 1947 - Bill Werbeniuk was born (d. 2003). Canadian snooker player.
• 1947 - Paulo Ubiratan was born. Brazilian diretor and actor.
• 1947 - Taylor Branch was born. American author and historian.
• 1948 - Carl Weathers was born. American actor.
• 1948 - T-Bone Burnett was born. American producer and musician .
• 1948 - Valery Kharlamov was born (d. 1981). Soviet Union ice hockey player.
• 1949 - Lawrence Kasdan was born. American director, screenwriter .
• 1949 - Mary Robison was born. American writer.
• 1949 - Paul Chubb was born (d. 2002). Australian actor.
  
• 1949 - Joaquín Turina dies (b. 1882). Spanish composer.
• 1950 - The first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight.
• 1950 - Nelson Bornier was born. Brazilian politician.
• 1950 - Marco Antonio da Silva Ramos was born. Brazilian composer
• 1951 - The National Football League has its first Pro Bowl Game (Los Angeles, California).
• 1951 - Jan Timman was born. Dutch chess player.
• 1952 - The Today show premieres on NBC.
• 1952 - Winter Olympic Games begin in Oslo.
• 1952 - Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu was born. Prime Minister of Romania.
• 1952 - Maureen Dowd was born. American writer.
• 1952 - Sydney Biddle Barrows was born. American author.
• 1952 - Artur Kapp dies (b. 1878). Estonian composer.
• 1953 - Tito formally became the first president of the Republic of Yugoslavia.
• 1953 - Importantes descubrimientos arqueológicos de las culturas incaica y preincaica cerca de Cuzco (Perú).
• 1954 - The Hudson Motor Car Company merges with Nash-Kelvinator forming the American Motors Corporation.
• 1954 - Marilyn Monroe weds baseball legend Joe DiMaggio.
• 1954 - Jim Duggan was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1954 - Masanobu Fuchi was born. Japanese professional wrestler.
• 1954 - Vernee Watson-Johnson was born. American actress.
• 1956 - Ben Heppner was born. Canadian tenor.
• 1956 - Étienne Daho was born. French singer and songwriter.
• 1957 - Anchee Min was born. Chinese writer.
• 1957 - Suzanne Danielle was born. English actress.
• 1957 - Humphrey Bogart dies (b. 1899). American actor (Casablanca).
• 1958 - Marcos Pérez Jiménez, President of Venezuela, is deposed.
• 1959 - Michael McCaul was born. American politician.
• 1959 - Geoff Tate was born. American musician (Queensrÿche).
• 1961 - Barry Fitzgerald dies (b. 1888). Irish actor.
• 1962 - Michael McCaul was born. American politician.
• 1962 - Justin Olive dies (b. 1886). French militant anarchist and revolutionary syndicalist.
• 1963 - George Wallace sworn in as Alabama's governor, promising "segregation forever".
• 1963 - Steven Soderbergh was born. American film director.
• 1964 - Ernest Miller was born. American wrestler.
• 1964 - Mark Addy was born. British actor.
• 1964 - Shepard Smith was born. American news anchor.
• 1965 - Bob Essensa was born. Canadian ice hockey player.
• 1965 - Ellis Paul was born. American singer-songwriter and folk musician.
• 1965 - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall was born. British chef.
• 1965 - Marc Delissen was born. Dutch field hockey player.
• 1965 - Shamil Basayev was born (d. 2006). Chechen rebel.
  
• 1965 - Os primeiros-ministros da Irlanda e da Irlanda do Norte se reúnem pela primeira vez em 43 anos.
• 1965 - Jeanette MacDonald dies (b. 1903). American actress and singer.
• 1965 - Adonias Filho is elected as member of Brazilian Letters Academy (Academia Brasileira de Letras).
• 1966 - Barry Fitzgerald dies (b. 1888). Actor.
• 1966 - Bill Carr dies (b. 1909). American athlete who was a double Olympic champion in 1932.
• 1966 - Sergei Korolev dies (b. 1906). Russian rocket scientist.
• 1967 - Counterculture of the 1960s: The Human Be-In, takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love. Between 20,000 to 30,000 people attend.
• 1967 - Emily Watson was born. English actress.
• 1967 - Kerri Green was born. American actress.
• 1967 - Leonardo "Leo" Ortolani was born. Italian comic book author.
• 1967 - Saskia Wickham was born. British actress.
• 1967 - Zakk Wylde was born. Rock musician (Ozzy Osbourne , Black Label Society).
• 1968 - Soyuz 4 is launched.
• 1968 - LL Cool J was born. American rapper and actor.
• 1968 - Ruel Fox was born. English footballer.
• 1968 - Dorothea Mackellar dies (b. 1885). Australian poet (My Country).
  
• 1969 - An explosion aboard the USS Enterprise near Hawaii kills 27 people.
• 1969 - David Grohl was born. American drummer and composer (Nirvana, Foo Fighters).
• 1969 - Jason Bateman was born. American actor.
• 1970 - Diana Ross e seu grupo musical “the Supremes” fazem a sua última apresentação em conjunto, no hotel Frontier, em Las Vegas.
• 1970 - Sato Eisaku is elected to his third term as Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1970 - Gene Snitsky was born. American professional wrestler.
• 1970 - William Feller dies (b. 1906). Croatian mathematician.
• 1970 - Ammon Hennacy dies. American anarchist and pacifist.
• 1971 - Antonios Nikopolidis was born. Greek footballer.
• 1971 - Lasse Kjus was born. Norwegian skier.
• 1972 - Queen Margrethe II of Denmark ascends the throne, the first Queen of Denmark since 1412 and the first Danish monarch not named Frederick or Christian since 1513.
• 1972 - Dion Forster was born. South African theologian.
• 1972 - Kyle Brady was born. National Football League tight end.
• 1972 - Predrag Gosta was born. Yugoslav-born conductor.
• 1972 - Raimondas Rumšas was born. Lithuanian cyclist.
• 1972 - King Frederick IX of Denmark dies (b. 1899).
• 1972 - Sanford & Son premieres on NBC.
• 1973 - Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins. The Dolphins become the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season.
• 1973 - Giancarlo Fisichella was born. Italian race car driver.
• 1974 - Kevin Durand was born. Canadian actor.
• 1974 - Cassiano Ricardo dies (b. 1895). Brazilian journalist, poet and essayist.
• 1975 - Teenage heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped by Donald Neilson, aka the Black Panther.
• 1976 - Tun Abdul Razak dies (b. 1922). 2nd Prime Minister of Malaysia.
  
• 1977 - Darren Purse was born. English football player.
• 1977 - Narain Karthikeyan was born. Indian F1 race car driver.
• 1977 - Peter Finch dies (b. 1916). English-born actor.
• 1977 - Anaïs Nin dies (b. 1903). French author.
• 1977 - Anthony Eden dies (b. 1897). Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• 1977 - Peter Finch dies (b. 1916). English-born actor (b. 1916)
• 1978 - Just Blaze was born. American hip hop producer.
• 1978 - Shawn Crawford was born. American sprinter.
• 1978 - Blossom Rock dies (b. 1895). American actress.
  
• 1978 - Harold Abrahams dies (b. 1899). British athlete.
• 1978 - Kurt Gödel dies (b. 1906). Austrian mathematician.
• 1978 - Robert Heger dies (b. 1886). German conductor and composer.
  
• 1978 - Johnny Rotten quits the Sex Pistols after the final show of their American tour, at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.
• 1979 - Angela Lindvall was born. American supermodel.
• 1979 - John Reuben was born. American hip hop artist.
• 1979 - Karen Elson was born. British supermodel.
• 1979 - Thomas DeSimone dies (b. 1950). Gangster associate of the Lucchese crime family.
  
• 1980 - Cory Gibbs was born. American soccer player.
• 1980 - Byron Leftwich was born. American football player.
• 1980 - Clive Clarke was born. Irish footballer.
• 1980 - Hiroshi Tamaki was born. Japanese actor and model.
• 1980 - Ossama Haidar was born. Lebanese soccer player.
• 1980 - Sosuke Sumitani was born. Japanese announcer.
• 1980 - Robert Ardrey dies (b. 1908). American author.
• 1981 - Abdelmalek Cherrad was born. Algerian football.
• 1981 - Pitbull was born. American rapper.
• 1981 - Rosa López was born. Spanish singer.
• 1981 - John O'Grady dies (b. 1907). Australian writer (Nino Culotta).
• 1982 - Caleb Followill was born. American musician (Kings Of Leon).
• 1982 - Léo Lima was born. Brazilian footballer.
• 1982 - Víctor Valdés was born. Spanish goalkeeper.
• 1983 - Maxime Monfort was born. Belgian cyclist.
• 1984 - Mike Pelfrey was born. American baseball player.
• 1984 - Ray Mancini defeats Bobby Chacon by a knockout in three to retain his WBA boxing world Lightweight title in Reno.
• 1984 - Ray Kroc dies (b. 1902). American fast food entrepreneur.
  
• 1985 - Martina Navratilova wins her 100th tennis tournament.
• 1986 - Britain and US are asked for help by Lesotho in breaking South Africa's border blockade.
• 1986 - 50 Pence was born. British rapper
• 1986 - Cristina Aicardi was born. Peruvian badminton player.
• 1986 - Gary Brolsma was born. American internet celebrity.
• 1986 - Daniel Balavoine dies (b. 1952). French singer.
• 1986 - Donna Reed dies (b. 1921). American actress.
• 1986 - Thierry Sabine dies (b. 1949). French wrangler, motorcycle racer and main organizer of Paris Dakar.
• 1987 - Douglas Sirk dies (b. 1900). German-U.S. film director.
• 1987 - Kristin Cavallari was born. American actress
• 1988 - Jack P. Shepherd wads born. English actor.
• 1988 - Mikalah Gordon was born. American singer.
• 1988 - Georgi Malenkov dies (b. 1902). First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party.
• 1989 - England: 1,000 enlightened Muslims burn Salmon Rushdies' Satanic Verses in Bradford.
• 1990 - The Simpsons debuts on FOX as a regular series with the episode "Bart the Genius". Matt Groening's satire of the American family offers visually clever parodies of the media itself.
• 1990 - Mani Madhava Chakyar dies (b. 1899). Legendary Koodiyattam artist and Sanskrit scholar.
• 1991 - Guatemala: Jorge Serrano Elias installed as president.
• 1991 - The deputy leader of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad) is assassinated in Tunis by a bodyguard (possibly on the instructions of Abu Nidal).
• 1991 - Gordon Bryant dies (b. 1914). Australian politician.
  
• 1993 - Five women are stoned to death in Somalia for adultery.
• 1993 - David Letterman announces he was moving his television talk show from NBC to CBS.
• 1994 - President of the United States Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords which stop the preprogrammed aiming of nuclear missiles to targets and also provide for the dismantling of the nuclear arsenal in Ukraine.
• 1994 - Samir Patel was born. American spelling bee winner.
• 1994 - Federica Montseny dies in Toulouse, France (b. 1905). Spanish feminist and educator.
• 1995 - Sir Alexander Gibson dies (b. 1926). Scottish conductor.
  
• 1996 - O empresário Álvaro Arzu, um político de direita, assume poder como o novo presidente da Guatemala.
• 1996 - Jorge Sampaio is elected president of Portugal.
• 1997 - The Spanish José María Gil-Robles is elected President of European Parlament
• 1997 - Dollard Ménard dies (b. 1913). French Canadian general.
• 1998 - Researchers in Dallas, Texas present findings about an enzyme that slows aging and cell death (apoptosis).
• 1998 - An Afghan cargo plane crashes into a mountain in southwest Pakistan killing more than 50 people.
• 1999 - Toronto, Ontario Mayor Mel Lastman to be the first mayor in Canada to call in the Army for shovelling perhaps the highest recorded amount of snow in Toronto History.
• 1999 - Bryn Jones (a.k.a. Muslimgauze) dies (b. 1961). British musician.
• 1999 - Jerzy Grotowski dies (b. 1933). Polish theatre director.
  
• 2000 - A United Nations tribunal sentences five Bosnian Croats to up to 25 years for the 1993 killing of over 100 Muslims in a Bosnian village.
• 2000 - Sport Club Corinthians Paulista beat Vasco da Gama, on the final match for the FIFA Club World Championship.
• 2000 - The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record high of 11,722.98.
• 2000 - David Letterman undergoes quintuple heart bypass surgery.
• 2001 - Socialist Jorge Sampaio is reelected President of Portugal.
• 2001 - Burkhard Heim dies (b. 1925). German physicist.
• 2003 - Human Rights Watch annual report criticizes Burma, China, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, Russia, the USA and Vietnam.
• 2003 - Koloman Sokol dies (b. 1902). Slovak painter.
  
• 2004 - Amartya Sen steps down as Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
• 2004 - The national flag of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.
• 2004 - Goatse.cx is suspended by the Christmas Island Technology Corporation following a massive grassroots movement to close the site forever.
• 2004 - Ron O'Neal dies (b. 1937). American actor.
  
• 2004 - Uta Hagen dies (b. 1919). American actress.
• 2004 - Valfar dies. Norwegian musician (Windir).
• 2005 - Landing of the Huygens probe on Saturn's moon Titan.
• 2005 - Charlotte MacLeod dies (b. 1922). American writer.
• 2005 - Conroy Maddox dies (b. 1912). English painter.
• 2005 - Jesús-Rafael Soto dies (b. 1923). Venezuelan kinetic artist.
  
• 2005 - Rudolph Moshammer dies (b. 1940). German fashion designer.
• 2006 - Henri Colpi dies (b. 1921). French film editor and director.
• 2006 - Jim Gary dies (b. 1939). American sculptor.
• 2006 - Mark Philo dies (b. 1984). English footballer.
• 2006 - Shelley Winters dies (b. 1920). American actress.
• 2007 - Barbara Kelly dies (b. 1924). Canadian-born actress.
  
• 2007 - Darlene Conley dies (b. 1934). American actress.
  
• 2008 - Judah Folkman dies (b. 1933). American medical scientist.
• New Year's Day in Eastern Orthodoxy, see Julian Calendar.
• Municipal holyday in Elvas (Portugal).
• Feast of St. Felix.
• Pongal in South India. Harvest Festival for Tamil people. Also celebrated as Makar Sankranti by Kannada and Telugu People.
• Makar Sankranti in India. The event is marked by flying kites.
• Feast of Divina Pastora, in Barquisimeto, Venezuela.
• Day of St. Basil the Great in Eastern Orthodoxy, January 1 on the Julian Calendar.
• Festum Asinorum, medieval burlesque festival celebrating the Flight into Egypt.