WikiPedia:Selected anniversaries/January

• 1801 - Giuseppe Piazzi discovered the first asteroid, 1 Ceres.
• 1801 - The Kingdom of Ireland merged with the Kingdom of Great Britain, adding St. Patrick's saltire to the Union Jack.
• 1959 - President Fulgencio Batista of Cuba fled to the Dominican Republic as forces under Fidel Castro took control of Havana.
• 1983 - The ARPANET changed its core networking protocols from NCP to TCP/IP, marking the beginning of the Internet as we know it today.
• 1995 - The World Trade Organization was created to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade.

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• 366 - The Alamanni crossed the frozen Rhine in large numbers to invade the Roman Empire.
• 533 - Mercurius became Pope John II, the first pope to adopt a new name upon elevation to the papacy.
• 1492 - Reconquista: Los Reyes Católicos expelled Boabdil of Granada, the last of the Moorish rulers, from the Iberian Peninsula.
• 1946 - Unable to resume his reign after World War II, King Zog of Albania abdicated but retained his claim to the throne.
• 1949 - Luis Muñoz Marín became the first democratically elected Governor of Puerto Rico.

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• 1749 - Benning Wentworth began to issue the New Hampshire Grants on land which was also claimed by New York, and is now Vermont.
• 1888 - The 91-cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory, at the time the largest telescope in the world, was used for the first time.
• 1958 - Ten former British colonies in the Caribbean joined to form a new independent country, the West Indies Federation.
• 1973 - George Steinbrenner and a group of investors bought the New York Yankees for 10 million U.S. dollars.
• 1990 - General Manuel Noriega, the deposed "Strongman of Panama", surrendered.

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• 1493 - Christopher Columbus left the New World, ending his first journey.
• 1884 - The Fabian Society was founded in London.
• 1948 - Thakin Nu of the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League presided over the independence of Burma (now Myanmar) from the British Empire.
• 2004 - The NASA Mars Rover Spirit landed successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC.

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• 1527 - Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, was executed by drowning.
• 1895 - The Dreyfus affair: Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French military wrongly accused of treason, was stripped of his rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island.
• 1933 - Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay began.
• 1968 - Alexander Dubček came to power in Czechoslovakia, beginning a political reform known as "Socialism with a human face".
• 1970 - The first of more than nine thousand episodes of All My Children was broadcast on the ABC television network.

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• 1661 - Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchy Men unsuccessfully attempted to seize control of London from the newly restored government of Charles II.
• 1838 - Samuel Morse successfully tested the electrical telegraph for the first time.
• 1907 - Maria Montessori opened her first school and daycare center for working class children in Rome.
• 1995 - A suspicious fire in an apartment in Manila, Philippines led police commander Aida Fariscal and her colleagues to discover and terminate the terrorist plot Operation Bojinka, a precursor to the September 11, 2001 attacks.

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• 1785 - Travelling in a hot air balloon, Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries became the first humans to cross the English Channel by air.
• 1927 - The first transatlantic telephone call was made from New York City to London.
• 1975 - OPEC raised the price of crude oil by 10 percent.
• 1979 - Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were overthrown in Democratic Kampuchea by Vietnamese troops.

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• 1198 - Lotario de Conti became Pope Innocent III. His first act was the restoration of the papal power in Rome.
• 1815 - Colonel Andrew Jackson became a national hero beating the British Navy at the Battle of New Orleans.
• 1889 - Herman Hollerith received a patent for his electric tabulating machine.
• 1989 - Kegworth Air Disaster: British Midland Flight 92 crashed onto the embankment of the M1 motorway, short of the runway of East Midlands airport, Leicestershire.
• 2004 - RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, was christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

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• 1768 - Philip Astley staged the first modern circus in London.
• 1839 - The French Academy of Sciences announced the Daguerreotype photographic process, named after its inventor, Louis Daguerre.
• 1878 - Humbert the Good became King of Italy.
• 1916 - World War I: In Gallipoli, the Ottoman Empire was victorious in the Battle of Çanakkale.

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• 49 BC - Julius Caesar and his X Equestris legion crossed the Rubicon, violating Roman law and starting a civil war.
• 1810 - Napoleon divorced Empress Joséphine, his childless first wife.
• 1929 - Belgian artist Hergé created Tintin, a fictional character who went on to be published in over 200 million comic books in 40 languages.
• 1946 - The first General Assembly of the United Nations opened in London. Fifty-one member states were represented.

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• 532 - Fans of chariot racing broke into a prison and set fire to parts of Constantinople, starting the Nika riots.
• 1787 - William Herschel discovered Titania and Oberon, two moons of the planet Uranus.
• 1879 - The Anglo-Zulu War broke out.
• 1922 - Insulin was first administered to a human patient with diabetes in Toronto, Canada.
• 1964 - In a landmark report, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry issued the warning that "smoking may be hazardous for one's health".

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• 1838 - In order to avoid anti-Mormon persecution, Joseph Smith, Jr. and his followers fled Ohio for Missouri.
• 1966 - Batman the television series, starring Adam West, was first broadcast on ABC.
• 1969 - British rock band Led Zeppelin released their first record album, also called Led Zeppelin.
• 1970 - The self-proclaimed Republic of Biafra in southeastern Nigeria capitulated, ending the Nigerian Civil War.

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• 1898 - Émile Zola published "J'Accuse" to expose the Dreyfus affair, and accused the French government of anti-Semitism.
• 1957 - The Wham-O toy company produced their first flying disc, later renamed the Frisbee.
• 1967 - General Gnassingbé Eyadéma seized power in Togo after a coup d'état, ruling as head of state until his death in February 2005.
• 1986 - A month-long violent struggle began in Aden, South Yemen between supporters of Ali Nasir Muhammad and Abdul Fattah Ismail, resulting in thousands of casualties.

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Missing image
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The Five Cross Flag of Georgia

• 1301 - The Árpád dynasty in Hungary ended.
• 1639 - The Fundamental Orders, the first written constitution that created a government, was adopted in Connecticut.
• 1954 - Joe DiMaggio married Marilyn Monroe.
• 1972 - Queen Margrethe II, the current monarch of Denmark, ascended to the throne under a new act of succession.
• 2004 - The national flag of Georgia, the so-called Five Cross Flag, was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years.

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• 1759 - The British Museum opened.
• 1919 - Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, two of the most prominent socialists in Germany, were tortured and murdered by the Freikorps.
• 1943 - Construction of the world's largest office building, The Pentagon, was completed.
• 1967 - The Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs in the American football championship game now known as Super Bowl I.
• 2001 - The English Wikipedia, a Wiki free content encyclopedia, was officially launched.

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• 27 BC - Gaius Octavius was given the title Augustus by the Roman Senate.
• 1547 - Ivan the Terrible was crowned Tsar of Russia.
• 1605 - Book One of Don Quixote, El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes, was first published in Madrid, Spain.
• 1909 - The expedition led by Sir Ernest H. Shackleton located the Magnetic South Pole.
• 1917 - World War I: The Zimmermann Telegram was dispatched.

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• 1893 - The Citizen's Committee of Public Safety and the U.S. Marine Corps overthrew Queen Lili'uokalani and the Kingdom of Hawai'i.
• 1929 - Popeye the Sailor, a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appeared in newspaper comic strips.
• 1946 - The UN Security Council held its first meeting at Church House in London.
• 1991 - Gulf War: Operation Desert Storm began.
• 1995 - Great Hanshin Earthquake: An earthquake at magnitude 7.2 occurred near Kobe, Japan, killing over 6,000 people and causing over US$100 billion of property damage.

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• 1778 - Captain James Cook discovered the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii.
• 1871 - King Wilhelm I of Prussia was proclaimed the first Kaiser of the German Empire, a newly unified nation state.
• 1958 - Willie O'Ree of the Boston Bruins played his first game in the National Hockey League, breaking the color barrier in professional ice hockey.
• 1977 - The mysterious Legionnaires' disease was found to be caused by a novel bacterium now known as Legionella.
• 2003 - The Canberra Firestorm: Bushfires burning out of control began blazing through residential areas of Canberra, Australia.

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• 1839 - The Royal Marines landed at Aden to stop pirates from attacking British shipping to and from India. Aden was to remain under British control until 1967.
• 1935 - Coopers Inc. sold the world's first briefs, a new style of men's undergarment.
• 1977 - Iva Toguri, allegedly a Tokyo Rose, was granted a full pardon.
• 1983 - Apple Computer introduced the Apple Lisa, their first commercial personal computer with a graphical user interface and a computer mouse. It had 1 MB of RAM, and was priced at US $9,995.

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• 1265 - Summoned by Simon de Montfort, the first English parliament held its first meeting in the Palace of Westminster.
• 1320 - After reuniting Poland, Władyslaw the Short was crowned king in Kraków.
• 1885 - LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the roller coaster.
• 1892 - The first official basketball game was played at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts.
• 1942 - Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decided the "final solution to the Jewish question", leading eventually to the Holocaust.

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• 304 - Thirteen-year-old Saint Agnes, the patron saint of young girls, was executed for refusing a marriage proposal.
• 1525 - The first Anabaptists in Switzerland re-baptized each other.
• 1793 - French Revolution: After being found guilty of treason by the National Convention, King Louis XVI was guillotined in front of a cheering crowd.
• 1915 - The first Kiwanis service club was founded in Detroit, Michigan.
• 1976 - The Concorde supersonic transports began commercial flights to London, Paris, Bahrain, and Rio de Janeiro.

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• 1879 - British forces in Zululand were routed at the Battle of Isandlwana.
• 1901 - After holding the title Prince of Wales for six decades, King Edward VII became the second oldest man to ascend to the throne in British history.
• 1905 - Russian Revolution: Peaceful demonstrators led by Father Gapon were massacred outside the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg on Bloody Sunday.
• 1973 - Roe v. Wade: The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a landmark legal decision on abortion.
• 1980 - Andrei Sakharov, a key architect of the Soviet hydrogen bomb and winner of the 1975 Nobel Peace Prize, was arrested in Moscow and exiled to Gorki.

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• 1579 - The Union of Utrecht was signed, unifying the provinces in northern Netherlands.
• 1719 - Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI created Liechtenstein, the only principality in the Holy Roman Empire still remaining today.
• 1960 - The bathyscaphe Trieste reached the record depth of 10,916 m (35,813 feet) in Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench.
• 1968 - USS Pueblo was seized by North Korean forces, who claimed that it had violated their territorial waters while spying.
• 1986 - Chuck Berry, James Brown, Ray Charles, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley became the first inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

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• 41 - After years of abuse, Cassius Chaerea and the disgruntled Praetorian Guards brutally murdered Roman Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus, better known as Caligula, and his young family.
• 1438 - Pope Eugenius IV was suspended by the Council of Basel.
• 1848 - James W. Marshall discovered gold at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California, leading to the California Gold Rush.
• 1924 - Petrograd, founded by Peter the Great of Russia in 1703, was renamed Leningrad three days after the death of Vladimir Lenin.
• 1984 - The first Apple Macintosh went on sale, as advertised on television two days earlier during Super Bowl XVIII.

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• 1327 - Teenaged Edward III was crowned King of England, but the country was ruled by his mother Queen Isabella and her lover Roger Mortimer.
• 1924 - The first Winter Olympic Games opened at the foot of Mont Blanc in Chamonix, France.
• 1971 - General Idi Amin seized power in Uganda from Prime Minister Milton Obote, beginning eight years of military rule.
• 2004 - Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity landed on Mars and rolled into Eagle crater, a small crater on the Meridiani Planum.

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• 1700 - The magnitude 9 Cascadia Earthquake took place off the Pacific coast of the American Northwest, as evidenced by Japanese records of tsunamis.
• 1788 - The British First Fleet, led by Captain Arthur Phillip, landed at Sydney Cove just outside present-day Sydney, establishing the first permanent European settlement in Australia.
• 1950 - President Rajendra Prasad succeeded Rajaji the last Governor General as the head of state of India and the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian armed forces.
• 1983 - Lotus 1-2-3, a hugely popular spreadsheet program, was first released.

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• 1888 - The National Geographic Society, publisher of the National Geographic magazine, was founded.
• 1945 - The Red Army liberated 7,500 prisoners left behind by Nazi personnel in the Auschwitz concentration camps in Oświęcim, Poland.
• 1951 - Nuclear testing at the Nevada Test Site began with a one-kiloton bomb dropped on Frenchman Flats.
• 1967 - The Apollo 1 spacecraft was destroyed by fire at the Kennedy Space Center, killing astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee.
• 1973 - The Paris Peace Accords were signed to put an end to the Vietnam War.

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• 1521 - The Diet of Worms was convened to discuss Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire.
• 1855 - A locomotive on the Panama Railway made the world's first transcontinental crossing.
• 1918 - Rebels seized control of Helsinki, forcing the Senate of Finland underground during the Finnish Civil War.
• 1921 - A symbolic Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was installed beneath the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
• 1986 - NASA Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds into its tenth mission.

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• 1845 - The Raven, a popular poem by Edgar Allan Poe, was first published in the New York Evening Mirror.
• 1856 - The Victoria Cross was first awarded, recognizing acts of valour during the Crimean War.
• 1886 - Carl Benz received a patent for the first successful gasoline-driven automobile.
• 1959 - The Disney animated film Sleeping Beauty was first released.
• 2002 - In his State of the Union Address, U.S. President George W. Bush described Iraq, Iran and North Korea as "regimes that sponsor terror", forming an "Axis of Evil".

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